When the Utah Hockey Club selected Tij Iginla with the sixth pick and took 10 other players in the first draft since the team moved to Salt Lake City, fans were excited, thinking they would be in the NHL right away.
General manager Bill Armstrong tried to temper expectations, telling them, “No, it takes some time.” After an unexpected victory off the ice Monday night in the draft lottery, the expectations for the club’s future are Rocky Mountain high once again.
Utah won the second random draw of lottery balls to move up from the 14th pick to No. 4, adding to an already momentous summer that could feature a free agent spending spree with tons of salary cap space and an owner not afraid to spend money, the first phase of massive arena renovations taking place and the full-time name getting unveiled before next season.
“It’s a game-changer for us,” Armstrong said on a post-lottery video call with reporters. “These are exciting times for Utah. … Just great stuff for the franchise. I can’t express in words on the excitement of when that happened and the opportunity in front of us.”
Armstrong has over $22 million in room, and with Ryan Smith’s ownership group in charge, there’s every indication Utah can spend to the annually increasing cap. That was never the case under a procession of penny-pinching owners over the past decade as the Arizona Coyotes.
Utah committed $80 million-plus in player salaries this past season, and Smith Entertainment Group along with the city are investing plenty to upgrade downtown Delta Center and increase the capacity of full-ice views to over 16,000 for hockey in an arena initially designed and built primarily for basketball for the NBA’s Jazz.
“We are excited for the challenge as we kick off this never-before-done renovation project,” Ryan and wife Ashley Smith said last week. “This transformation will create the most compelling, welcoming and exciting experience for hockey fans, while also allowing us to maintain the steep vertical seating for basketball that has made Delta Center such a dynamic venue.”
And, possibly soon, a venue for playoff hockey. Utah was in the race until the final few weeks of the season before finishing seven points out of the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
“We were a pretty good team that chased it down the stretch playing meaningful games and chasing a playoff spot,” Armstrong said. “We’re getting to that point where we’re becoming a really good team that’s going to have a chance to get into the playoffs.”
Not counting the expanded pandemic playoffs in 2020, this organization has not qualified since 2012. The building blocks to end that decade-plus drought are there, from captain Clayton Keller and 2022 No. 3 pick and budding star Logan Cooley to two-time Stanley Cup-winning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev — acquired at the draft last year — and top goaltender Karel Vejmelka.
And after drafting a league-high 42 players over the past four years, there might be a temptation to use the fourth pick for immediate help, like someone who is established but still young and entering or in his prime.
“That’s something that obviously we’ll always talk about,” Armstrong said. “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.”
The final step in the naming process is happening, too. The finalists have been narrowed down to Mammoth, Outlaws and Utah Hockey Club, complete with a permanent logo and new jerseys.
If the branding process goes as swimmingly as the first year with Smith’s group in charge, the results on the business side could even exceed the hockey progress.
“They made a lot of promises, and they exceeded them with what they accomplished in a short period of time,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said last week at a meeting of Associated Press Sports Editors in New York. “What they accomplished is a testament to Ryan and everybody out there. They dreamed big and they accomplished everything they needed to do, and we’re thrilled to have them in the league. It’s been an incredibly positive experience, and the players love it, too.”
More high-quality players are coming next year and into the future, though Armstrong cautioned that the lottery doesn’t speed up the building process and, “One pick’s not going to change our franchise.” But that doesn’t dull the internal excitement.
“You’ve got a chance to get a real game-changer,” Armstrong said. “We’re going to have the opportunity to pick a real good player high in the draft and take a big swing here.”
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AP Sports Writer Jake Seiner in New York contributed to this report.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL
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