Fans of the Arizona Coyotes were devastated last spring when they found out their 28 year-old team would be moving out of Arizona. The team would be moving to Utah, becoming the first NHL franchise to be in the state.
This move would transfer all players and assets to Utah, and the team would also feature new uniforms, branding, logos, and team name. It was later announced that for the first season, they would go by the name Utah Hockey Club until the 2025-26 season when they would announce their new long-term name.
This summer, Utah’s roster generally stayed the same. Their biggest move, however, was drafting Tij Iginla–son of former Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla. Tij is currently Utah’s top prospect, and the 18-year-old looks to improve before making an appearance in the NHL.
Given the lack of talent Utah currently has, Tij Iginla could get called up this season and make a big difference for his team. The team’s face is now 9-year veteran Clayton Keller, who was named the team’s captain last season.
Currently, the NHL is in its preseason and the Utah Hockey Club has performed well. The team won their first two preseason games and is already projected to possibly reach the playoffs. The Utah Hockey Club could be a top team in the NHL Central Division due to the lack of competition apart from the Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche.
The Utah Hockey club have proved in the preseason that they can win games with their current roster, and can hopefully have a great start to their inaugural regular season campaign.
After seeing teams with relatively young cores like the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks succeed, I think the Utah Hockey Club will have a strong chance against the many other NHL teams. The state of Utah will now have 2 major sports teams (the Utah Hockey Club and the Utah Jazz), with the hope of getting more sports teams in years to come.
The last three teams to join the NHL were the Vegas Golden Knights in 2016, Seattle Kraken in 2021, and now the Utah Hockey Club. This shows that the NHL is trying hard to expand the game of hockey across the United States. With 7 international teams based in Canada and 25 teams based now in almost every region of the United States, the NHL has already done a great job of achieving this goal.
