The Utah Hockey Club opens a new chapter Tuesday in Salt Lake City against the Chicago Blackhawks with a fresh start, new ownership and a passionate fan base. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY – As the NHL drops the puck on the 2024-25 regular season Tuesday, Arizona hockey fans are facing off with the reality that their hockey club is gone.
The Arizona Coyotes are now the Utah Hockey Club, which opens the season against the Chicago Blackhawks at the Delta Center. In April, the NHL’s board of governors approved the sale of the team to tech billionaire Ryan Smith, who owns the NBA Utah Jazz, and signed off on the club’s relocation to Salt Lake City.
It ended years of ownership turmoil, arena haggling and relocation rumors that seemed to go on almost from the time the Winnipeg Jets relocated to Phoenix in 1996 and became the Coyotes.
For the players, the whirlwind transition from Brick Red and Desert Sand sweaters of the Arizona version of the franchise to the Utah Hockey Club’s Rock Black and Mountain Blue is still swirling. The team doesn’t even have a name yet, and fans won’t be able to buy team sweaters until November.
Lawson Crouse played with the Coyotes for eight seasons making him one of the longest-tenured players in the organization. Suddenly over the summer, for the first time in his career, he experienced a change in scenery.
“The transition happened quickly,” Crouse said. “I’ve been blown out of the water by the amount of support and love from everyone in the state (of Utah). The Smiths have done an incredible job in welcoming us here.
“I’ve only been here for around 2 1/2 months, which is a lot longer than most of the other players, but I love my neighborhood. My neighbors are great. Everyone that I talk to seems to be so excited for hockey to be here. I’m extremely happy and honored to be a part of that.”
Crouse is looking forward to playing hockey without distractions, something that was rare during the club’s tenure in the desert. He said arena issues in Arizona were a significant off-ice challenge. Now with a permanent home at the Delta Center, the forward says the team can fully focus on making the playoffs.
Forward Clayton Keller, the club’s leading goal scorer last season, is impressed with the commitment from ownership to win – something that received mostly lip service from owners during the Coyotes era.
Keller was active in trying to help the Coyotes obtain an arena, which would have likely kept the team in Arizona. He attended numerous city council meetings to vouch for his team. Now, he has moved on and is ready to help Utah win in its inaugural season.
Like Crouse, he’s hoping to finally focus on hockey, but he is still a believer in Arizona hockey, telling The Athletic that it would be hard for the NHL not to put a team back in the Valley. He also admitted he will keep his house in Arizona.
“There was a lot of long days and discussions about the team there (in Arizona),” Keller said. “When this happened, we were super excited to move to Utah and have a new franchise, new ownership – ownership that wants to win and has done everything we’ve asked. They asked what we needed to be successful and they came through on everything, so I think that’s a big thing.
“We’re super excited to be here, grow this franchise, be a hockey team that’s fun to watch, and win a lot of games.”
The sale of the Coyotes in April gave Smith limited time to plan for this season amid moving the team and staff to Utah.
“We’re dropping a puck in less than 100 days,” Smith said during the NHL Draft June 28-29. “It’s insane. Like no rational human beings, whatever, sign up for this. I just don’t think we’re very rational. I’ve also known that no matter how much time you have, it’s hard to be ready, but you always say it’s about the people.
“I remember sitting in that ballroom in Arizona when the announcement came out and looking out at 70 people and saying, ‘I don’t think we got much more than the players and the staff. So let’s go because that’s what we’re buying. We’ve really acquired the people.’”
The team made an early trip to Salt Lake City in April to be introduced to the Utah fans. After that, most of the players scattered across the world for the offseason.
Since the meet and greet, the team made notable offseason moves including drafting forwards Tij Iginla and Cole Beaudoin. They also traded for defenseman Mikhail Sergahev and defenseman John Marino and signed defenseman Ian Cole, seismic moves Arizona fans rarely witnessed during the franchise’s years in the Valley.
Marino, part of Utah’s top four defensemen, watched the Coyotes saga play out as a member of the New Jersey Devils. Since joining the team in late June, and witnessing how Smith treats the Jazz and the MLS Real Salt Lake franchise he also owns, Marino is pumped to be a part of the Utah community.
“I think most hockey guys in the NHL were following that pretty closely,” Marino said. “It’s a tough situation in Arizona, and you go to Utah, where the management has been unbelievable with the basketball team there and the MLS team too. Watching the video of all the other guys coming out on stage and the fan presence in the atmosphere, it seems pretty cool. It’s going to be even more special being a part of it.”
Cole, who said he also paid close attention to the Coyotes’ situation last season, believes in Utah’s core and that they can learn from previous mistakes.
“When I look at the roster, I look at the potential that I think it has, and it’s a team that lost 14 games in a row last year down in Arizona,” Cole said. “Even though, let’s say you go .500 in those 14 games, you’re not going to get a playoff spot but you’re at least within the region of one of them … I’m very excited to join a team I think can take that step from last year to this year.”
Despite the Arizona Coyotes’ relocation to Utah, many fans remain hopeful that the NHL will return to the Valley in the future. (File photo by Joseph Eigo/Cronkite News)
Cole provides the needed experience to a relatively young group. The veteran defenseman has won two Stanley Cups in his career, adding to the winners in the locker room that include Sergachev and fellow free-agent signings Kevin Stenlund and Robert Bortuzzo. In total, Utah has added six Stanley Cup wins and 349 playoff games worth of experience to the team.
It’s not just the veterans excited to play in the Beehive State; even the rookies look forward to their inaugural season in Salt Lake City. The idea of playing for a new team is exciting, especially having an NBA team in the same building, which Smith has now said he hopes to renovate for both teams.
“I think it’d be cool with the Jazz being in the same facility,” Iginla said. “I think it’d be cool to share that with an NBA team and maybe go to some games and things like that. I’m looking forward to that.”
Even before remodeling, it is an upgrade from what is now Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, which the Coyotes were booted out of after the 2021-22 season, and Mullett Arena, a 5,000-seat college facility on the Arizona State University campus, where the team played the last two seasons.
The 17 returning players from last season are learning their way around a new city. They’ve attended University of Utah football games and explored the state’s vast nature scene.
And a lot of the players have created camaraderie while also smoothing out the fast transition by rooming together.
Forward Barrett Hayton, who was re-signed to a two-year contract this offseason, and Keller are living together in an apartment for the first season in the Beehive State. Forward Jack McBain and forward Dylan Guenther are also roommates again, and have hopefully learned to manage sharing a home since their time in Arizona, when they forgot to pay their water bill and their service was shut off.
Hayton said the organization’s new leadership has helped smooth the transition.
“Honestly, they’ve rolled out the red carpet for us,” he said. “The whole staff has done a tremendous job with making us comfortable with everything from the moving and that logistical side of things, which for myself is pretty straightforward, but when guys have families and kids and whatnot…
“They’ve done a great job with all that and making it easy. Even just the trip we took there at the end of the season, it was great to get a feel for things. They had all the resources there for us, and we got a great feel, and a lot of excitement off that. So the transition has been easy so far.”
While Utah will be competitive this season with players like Keller, Guenther and Sergachev leading the charge, the squad has top-tier prospects in the pipeline like Iginla and defenseman Maveric Lamoreux, who Arizona hockey fans will still get to see with the AHL Tucson Roadrunners.
Smith has called the scenario a dream of receiving one of the healthiest hockey operations in the league. In every single category, Utah is set for success..
“I’m a little biased, but I would say that, out of all 32 teams, we might be in the best shape as an organization,” said general manager Bill Armstrong. “We don’t really have any bad contracts, we’ve got a cap room, we’ve got a boatload of picks and prospects.”
And a new home, ready or not.