SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Defenseman Sean Durzi got a taste of the NHL in Salt Lake City when he and the Kings played the Golden Knights in a 2022 preseason game.
Durzi had a goal and two assists in Los Angeles' 6-4 loss to Vegas, but more than his play on the ice, what stuck with him was the fans' passion that night even though they didn't have a home team to cheer on.
That will soon change. Delta Center now is the home to the Utah Hockey Club, which opens its first training camp Thursday after 28 seasons in the Phoenix area as the Coyotes.
“You come here on the road in the ‘Frozen Fury,' you get a great atmosphere," Durzi said. "But to know this is our home now, this is where we're going to be playing in front of such passionate fans, it's special.”
The club had its first media day Wednesday, another step in the process of completing the move from Arizona. Because there could be another form of the Coyotes in the future, Utah is calling itself as much of an expansion team as a relocated franchise, so all the club records and statistics begin anew.
In practical terms, though, this is mostly Arizona's old club that even general manager Bill Armstrong refers to as “the fourth year of the rebuild.”
In addition to the players, the front office also made the move from the triple-digit-degree days in the Valley of the Sun to the snowcapped mountains overlooking Salt Lake City thanks to Wednesday's fresh powder dump. The Jazz staff is handling the business side, such as marketing and ticket sales, with about 90 people being brought onboard to assist in those efforts.
There is renewed hope that maybe the franchise is — at long last — trending in the right direction. The Coyotes made the playoffs just once in their final 12 seasons. Perhaps more egregious, they spent their final two years playing in Arizona State University's rink as management tried in vain to get a deal done for a new arena to keep the team in the state.
Then Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith bought the club, moved it to Salt Lake and poured resources into making sure what the team lacked in Arizona it had in Utah. That included putting money into a top-level temporary practice facility rather than piecing one together until a permanent structure is completed in about a year.
Renovations were made to Delta Center with more planned later to improve all the sight lines and create a better overall fan experience. Capacity this season will be 11,131 with obstructed-view seats added for select games, and that baseline seating number will increase in future years.
“There's very clearly a buzz around our team, as there should be, and we're looking forward to jumping on that opportunity” forward Lawson Crouse said. “In the past in Arizona, a lot of things were up in the air with the arena situation. It's clear we now have a home, so we can move on from all those distractions and just go play hockey, and we're really looking forward to doing that.”
Forward Clayton Keller, who led the club in goals (33) assists (43) and points (78) last season, is the top returning player and at 26 is part of the young core that the club is building around. To supplement the players that have been homegrown through the draft, Utah also upgraded its defense by acquiring Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino within 10 minutes of each other at the NHL draft and later signing veteran Robert Bortuzzo.
Goalie Connor Ingram, who won the Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy for perseverance and sportsmanship last season, comes off a campaign in which he had a .907 save percentage with a 2.91 goals-against average.
Players and management speak in cautiously optimistic tones about what to expect this season, and Armstrong didn't shoot down the question whether Utah could be buyers at the trade deadline. After pointing out there's a lot of work to do between now and then, Armstrong added, "If that moment presents itself, we do have the assets to make things happen.”
Being in playoff contention would be quite an initial season for a franchise just entering the honeymoon phase with its new fan base.
Even before the club put season tickets up for sale, 34,000 deposits were placed. The team has sold just short of 4,500 season tickets that covers all 41 home games and another 8,000 half-season packages.
On a more anecdotal and personal level, there's the in-person feedback those on the team have received as they've started to become more involved in the community.
“The way we've been received by people, by people inside the organization of the Jazz, they show their excitement to all of us,” coach André Tourigny said. “From everybody, it's been really, really welcoming.”
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL
Mark Anderson, The Associated Press