The cliché may be lucky number 7, but this year it’s lucky number 4 for Utah Hockey Club. The organization will pick fourth-overall in the 2025 NHL Draft after moving up 10 spots in this year’s anticipated order.
“We were just 10 back, so it still hasn’t sunk in,” Utah General Manager Bill Armstrong shared minutes after the Draft Lottery. “What a great opportunity for us to be able to move up that far in the draft, and now we’re right up at the top of the draft. This is an exciting moment for us. It’s a game changer for us.”
In a new format this year, the NHL held a live drawing for the first-overall and second-overall draft picks. 14 balls were placed in a lottery machine and for each of these drawings, a four number series was picked. Ahead of the lottery, the NHL assigned every eligible team a variety of combinations that could win. If any team projected 12th or higher won either pick, they could move up a maximum of ten spots.
After the New York Islanders won the first-overall pick, attention shifted to the second-overall pick. The first three numbers of the series, 1-5-12, were drawn and six teams were eligible to win. Thirty seconds later, a three flashed across the screen and Utah had won the second-overall pick. Originally projected at 14th overall, it was unlikely for Utah to move up at all. However, luck was on the newest NHL franchise side and Utah became the sixth team in NHL history to move up nine or more spots in the lottery.
Moving up this much unlocks a whole different group of available players for Utah. With their first-round pick secured, it’s straight to work for the organization. Utah will spend the next seven and a half weeks preparing for the NHL Draft on June 27 and 28.
“I can’t wait to huddle with the scouts tomorrow and go over it and see,” Armstrong said. “Obviously we’ve been studying the players that were available to us, where we thought they’d fall. Now we’re going (to) leap up a little bit. It’s going to be exciting times, just great stuff for the franchise. I can’t express in words the excitement when that happened and the opportunity in front of us.”
Although high draft picks don’t always make an NHL roster right away, this is an opportunity for the organization to secure a player well on their way to the league. In this year’s draft class, the talent have made themselves known with strong play.
“There’s some good talent there that definitely has shown itself,” Armstrong said. “We’re really excited about getting to work and attacking that and see what might come our way. There’s really good players, from one to all the way through, you can find players anywhere, so you need to have a good strategy and good staff.”
When it comes to strategy, different teams and management groups have different opinions on drafting. Some will look at their depth chart and draft specific positions. Others will grab the best available player when they’re on the clock. Armstrong shared he typically goes for the best available player. He also discussed how his team has been able to focus in on what they’re looking for as an organization to pick the right player for Utah.
“You’re still going to be a savvy staff that gets down to business and ignores all the critics, all the hype, and who’s supposed to go, this and that, and really get down to it,” Armstrong explained. “I think our staff’s done an amazing job over the years just ignoring all the noise and getting down to hockey players. You probably saw the year that (Logan) Cooley was picked. There was a lot of hype about a lot of different players, and we just stuck to our guns, and we drafted what we thought was the best player in the draft.”
There’s more than one decision involved with a top draft pick. One decision is what player to draft. The other decision? Whether to trade the pick or not. Armstrong is expecting to hear from his counterparts around the league and Utah will see if the offers are worth taking.
“They’ll look at our team and say, ‘listen, this team’s had more picks in the last four years than any other NHL team, can we go in there and give them a good player and exchange for the pick?’” Armstrong shared. “I think that’s something that obviously we’ll always talk about, we’ll never shut that door. That’s always been an avenue for us to get players and we’re at the position right now as a team where we’re trying to make that next step, so we’ll always look at that.
“That’s part of the process, but the amateur (scouts) will be looking at the guy to pick and they don’t want to hear anything about trade,” Armstrong smiled. “That’ll be an exciting moment for us, but yes the phone will be ringing.”
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