The Utah Hockey Club has recalled veteran defenseman Kevin Connauton from its AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. The move comes as a result of a lower-body injury on Tuesday to Robert Bortuzzo.
Connauton, 34, is a veteran of 360 regular-season NHL games, split between six teams. He has also played 402 games in the AHL.
His most recent NHL contest came with the Philadelphia Flyers on April 19, 2022. Since signing a two-year, two-way deal with Utah HC this offseason, he has scored three goals and six points and has tallied 27 penalty minutes.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound defenseman plays a physical game and is not afraid to drop the gloves.
It remains to be seen whether Connauton will play Thursday against his former Colorado Avalanche. Utah head coach André Tourigny said Tuesday that he’d only kept fellow left-shot defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok out of the lineup because his defensemen had been playing well.
Connauton, a product of Edmonton, Alberta, was selected in the third round of the 2009 draft by the Vancouver Canucks. His father, William Connauton, was Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz’ attorney for a time, per the Edmonton Journal.