Eleven months and three days ago, then-Utah Hockey Club forward Michael Carcone addressed the media in the press conference room in the basement of the Delta Center.
His message? That he wouldn’t be back in Utah the following season.
But after eventually re-upping on a one-year, league-minimum deal, his impact has been enough to land a two-year contract worth $1.75 million annually, which the team announced Friday.
At a press conference at the Utah Mammoth Ice Center Friday morning, GM Bill Armstrong shed some light on what changed.
Shortly after free agency opened, Armstrong traveled to Toronto to meet with the newly signed Brandon Tanev, as well as Sean Durzi, who trains at the same gym as Tanev in the summers. The group met for breakfast, and to Armstrong’s surprise, Carcone tagged along.
“I felt like he had grown up,” Armstrong said. “He had taken some steps and I felt like there was something good about that breakfast that we had. I felt like there was some goodness that was going to come out (of it).”
Carcone agreed.
“I had some growing to do,” he said. “When you go through those situations, you come out the other side in a better situation, so I’ll take responsibility for that. (I’m) just happy that it all worked out and I got a second chance.”
After the breakfast, Armstrong called head coach André Tourigny on the way home, and before they knew it Carcone was back on the team.
“I’m so glad we ran into each other and were able to get that done,” Armstrong said. “He’s a big component of our team.”
Started from the bottom
Carcone’s career arc has been anything but linear.
He went undrafted in the OHL, so he split his junior hockey between the OJHL and the QMJHL. After two seasons in the Q, including one with nearly a point and a half per game, the Vancouver Canucks signed him to play for their farm team, the Utica Comets.
He spent the half decade bouncing around the AHL, as minor-leaguers tend to do. When the pandemic hit, the Milwaukee Admirals, whom he was set to play for, took a hiatus. To give him somewhere to play during that time, they loaned him to the Tucson Roadrunners — a move that would eventually land him his first NHL shot.
Before even playing a full NHL season, he accompanied Tourigny and fellow Arizona Coyotes Lawson Crouse and Jack McBain to win gold with Team Canada at the 2023 World Championship. It was the following year where he’d put up 21 goals in the NHL — and he hasn’t played a game in the minors since.
“It was kind of a no-brainer,” Carcone said of his contract extension. “... We have a great group in here and great people, so that was a pretty easy one for me.”
The team likes Carcone’s work ethic. At 5-foot-9, he’s among the smaller guys in the league. He has had to earn every opportunity he’s ever gotten.
“I always like guys that got a little extra fight,” Armstrong said. “Somebody that’s had to work his way up. He’s fought for everything he’s got.
“... There’s also a speed factor for us. He changes the way our team looks because of his speed.”
Even before signing the contract, Friday was a big day for Carcone. As one of four NHL players spearheading the league’s initiatives for World Down Syndrome Day, he will be accompanied to the game by his friend, Welles.
The duo, along with a few other kids, will sport the socks that Carcone and Welles co-designed in support of World Down Syndrome Day.
“He’s just somebody (who), when you leave the rink — let’s say you had a hard day — he’s always smiling and he’s always having a good day, and somebody that brightens your day, honestly," Carcone said of Welles. “I’m just happy that I get to share even a little bit of time with him at the rink.”
For full details on the NHL’s World Down Syndrome Day initiatives, see this recent Deseret News article.
