Utah Hockey Club takes ice for 1st time in 2024 Rookie Faceoff

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The Utah Hockey Club is no longer a concept.

The franchise took the ice for the first time Friday at the 2024 Rookie Faceoff at the Toyota Sports Performance Center, playing against the San Jose Sharks and Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 pick of the 2024 NHL Draft.

The dream of Utah as a hockey team, which took flight five months ago in the most unusual and audacious manner, became reality across 60 minutes of nip-and-tuck hockey.

Utah lost 3-2 to the Sharks on Friday, but that wasn’t the story.

The fact that the Utah Hockey Club was playing hockey was the headline.

Business plans, budget meetings and flow charts were replaced by goals, saves and bodychecks.

“It’s been a lot of work, but it’s all worth it,” Bill Armstrong, their general manager, told NHL.com during the first intermission.

Armstrong has been the GM of the team for the past four seasons. He oversaw the starts and stops of trying to keep it in Arizona and, once that was no longer feasible, the Coyotes franchise became inactive and the NHL established the new team in Utah, which acquired Arizona's hockey assets.

“The colors looked really good out there,” Armstrong said. “It looks seamless and smooth."

The Utah players took the ice in their black sweaters with blue and white trim and there was a large exhale from those involved in one of the most demanding offseasons in the history of the National Hockey League.

“Finally wearing that jersey is a good feeling,” said defenseman Maveric Lamoureux, who became the first player to captain Utah in a game.

The road to this historic game was anything but the seamless and smooth of which Armstrong spoke.

On April 18, Utah became an NHL team. Six days later, the players were greeted enthusiastically by a capacity crowd at the Delta Center in their first appearance in the city.

It’s been 19 long weeks since.

Utah has taken part in the 2024 NHL Draft, made a huge trade to obtain defenseman Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning, prepared a temporary practice facility, hired a broadcast crew and addressed countless other details, with many more still to be tackled.

It plays its regular-season opener on Oct. 8, a nationally televised home game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told NHL.com this week that it was the most impressive offseason ever undertaken by an NHL team.

But, they had yet to play a game.

Scratch that off the to-do list.

“This is what all the work has been about,” said Armstrong.

In the end, it didn’t matter that Utah lost the game on a third-period power-play goal.

“You know, you’re standing on the bench and you’re seeing the guys collectively go at it, wearing our colors, that was an interesting part of it,” said Steve Potvin, who ran the bench Friday and coaches Tucson, Utah’s affiliate in the American Hockey League. “That was nice to get started, and good effort by our guys.”

Armstrong and other members of the front office were on hand for the game, as was one of the Salt Lake City television stations, which flew in for the day to document history in the making.

The players understood the stakes and the sense of history as they waited for the puck to drop.

“It’s a new franchise, everyone was happy to wear the new jersey,” Lamoureux said. “We had a lot of energy during the game. It was pretty physical. We were intense. We were skating pretty fast. I just feel like everyone was just happy to put a new change in the first game.”

Owen Allard, a fifth-round pick in the historic first draft by Utah in June, scored to give Utah a 2-1 lead 4:39 into the third period.

Peter Repcik had scored the first goal in Utah history at 4:50 of the second period to make it 1-1.

Allard knew it was going to be a special game even before his big moment.

“It’s kind of a surreal feeling,” he said. “I mean, being lucky enough to put those colors on and represent a new team and a new franchise, it’s really cool.

“To be able to do it with other teammates and guys that you haven’t played with before and kind of build a bond with lots of great people, so, yeah, it was a really cool feeling and something I’ll remember for a while.”

So will everyone else involved in Utah’s first game.