Now that the midway point of the Utah Hockey Club’s inaugural season has come and gone, let’s take a look at how everyone is doing, relative to their expectations going into the season.
Note that while these grades take statistics into account, they’re still the opinions of the writer. Feel free to voice your own opinions in the comment section of the article.
This is the second of three articles grading each player’s performance thus far. Next up: the defensemen.
An overview of Utah’s defense
Growing up following the Vancouver Canucks, I learned that there’s always one or more defensemen on whom you can blame nearly every loss. That’s what we always did, and I assumed it was the same for every team.
But that’s not the case in Utah.
Sure, guys have off games every now and then, but as a whole, there isn’t a defenseman who has failed to carry his weight. Everyone has lived up to expectations, and most have exceeded them.
Even when nearly the entire right side of the defense corps was sporting hospital bracelets, the guys stepped up, played their off sides and didn’t complain. Nobody looked too out of place.
Mikhail Sergachev
Grade: A+
There’s no job too big or too small for Mikhail Sergachev. That’s why he has played the second-most minutes per game of anyone in the NHL this season.
He’s on the ice for power plays, penalty kills, in situations Utah needs to tie the game or defend a lead. Whether it’s the first minute of the game or the final minute of overtime, he plays with intensity.
Whether he plays too much is up for debate. Seeing how the team managed to beat some of the best teams in the league without him in the lineup this week, it might be worth reducing his ice time, which would improve the quality of each of his shifts and preserve his health.
Olli Määttä
Grade: A
After he struggled to maintain his spot in the Detroit Red Wings' lineup early in the season, Utah HC acquired Olli Määttä for a third-round pick. Since his very first game, he has been exactly what Utah needed.
Although he doesn’t register a lot of points, Määttä gets the puck up the ice. That was something Utah had struggled to do before the trade. He has spent most of his time on a pairing with Sergachev and has averaged 21:27 of ice time per game.
Määttä plays a major role on Utah’s penalty kill, which is the 10th-best in the NHL. He also brings veteran leadership to a young team. He scored his first goal of the season on Monday and has had a number of good offensive looks since.
Michael Kesselring
Grade: A
Michael Kesselring has emerged as a true top-four defenseman this year. When every other right-shot defenseman went out with injuries earlier in the season, Kesselring stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park.
But it doesn’t end with the injuries to the right-shot defensemen.
With Sergachev’s recent injury, Kesselring has filled in on the first power play unit, where he scored 51 seconds into his first attempt. Sergachev will surely retake his role on PP1 when he returns, but it’s good for the coaching staff to know that they can use Kesselring to carry some of Sergachev’s load on occasion.
John Marino
Grade: A (so far)
Similar to Kesselring on the power play, John Marino has filled the gap left by Sergachev on the penalty kill. Again, Sergachev will still be the top penalty-killing defenseman when he returns, but it’s good that the coaches can rely on Marino when needed.
It has only been six games since Marino returned from a back injury that required surgery so it’s probably too early to really tell what his impact will be, But he has played well in all three zones since he got back.
Ian Cole
Grade: A
Anyone who watched Ian Cole with the Vancouver Canucks last season probably thought Utah had signed him as a veteran leader rather than a top-four defenseman. It’s not that he was bad last year, but it did seem like he was no longer the player he once was.
He seems to have found the fountain of youth, though. Cole has been much more effective at pretty much everything.
He’s also the best talker on the team from a reporter’s standpoint. He answers not only the question you ask, but the next one you were going to ask, too.
Juuso Välimäki
Grade: C+
Juuso Välimäki has been good but not great in pretty much every facet of the game. He’s a reliable bottom-pairing guy who can fill in on special teams when needed.
He has chipped in a few points this year, but it has often come at the sacrifice of defensive positioning. He likes to stand in the high slot, looking for tips and rebounds, but when the puck leaves the zone, he’s sometimes too far away to contribute defensively.
That being said, he always seems to have a positive attitude. He’s a good guy to have in the locker room.
Vladislav Kolyachonok
Grade: B
Vladislav Kolyachonok just might be the hardest worker in the NHL. The 23-year-old Belarusian is the very first player on the ice at virtually every practice, sometimes beating his next-closest teammate by 15 minutes.
“He’s continuing to find out what he’s going to be,” said Cole of Kolyachonok in a late-December interview with the Deseret News. “He has all the tools. He’s a heck of an athlete. He can skate really well, he can make plays, he can shoot the puck, he can pass, he can take the puck down, he can rush it. He’s a really, really great hockey player.”
Head coach André Tourigny said he wants to see more quality, rather than quantity, from Kolyachonok. For that reason, he has been a healthy scratch for a large chunk of games this season.
Robert Bortuzzo
Grade: B
Utah HC brought Robert Bortuzzo in for his leadership — something he has done an excellent job at. He’s level-headed, his work ethic is top-tier and he has been around long enough to know what to do in any given situation.
His leadership even extends to the point where he offered to let rookie defenseman Maveric Lamoureux stay with him during his nearly three-month NHL stint.
Lamoureux had previously been staying in a hotel, so he seemed glad to be able to move in with a teammate.
Nick DeSimone
Grade: B+
Since being claimed off waivers on Jan. 5, Nick DeSimone has tallied three assists in six games. He has averaged 14:44 of ice time and, in the best way possible, has not been all too noticeable (that’s usually a good thing for bottom pairing defensemen).
“Every game, I feel more comfortable — especially with Väli, playing with him," DeSimone said on Friday. “Every game (increases my) comfort level.”