Preseason predictions for Utah Hockey Club varied widely. Some media outlets had the team making the Stanley Cup Playoffs in its first season of existence; others had the UHC deep in the pool of NHL Draft Lottery teams.
Internally, GM Bill Armstrong and coach André Tourigny set a goal of playing meaningful games and being in the playoff hunt in March and April. A 14-game losing streak scuttled those plans in January and February of 2024, so the players and coaches vowed to learn from that slide and not replicate it.
Despite a litany of injuries to key players, Utah (24-23-9) entered the 4 Nations Face-Off break having won three of its past four games. That kept the team within six points of the Vancouver Canucks for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.
We caught up with Armstrong and Tourigny for their assessment of the team at the break. We also looked down the road at the team's trade-deadline plans, and the goal for the remaining 26 games of the regular season.
How do your preseason expectations of the team’s performance sync with the current reality?
Bill Armstrong: "I saw a couple things online the other day where people were comparing us to last year (seven points better this year through the same number of games). The big difference is that we're banged up this year. I think that's an important point to remember for us is we kind of overcame it, we kept in the fight despite all our injuries, and now we're finally getting our team back and we have a chance to go battle with everybody playing.
"Any time you have top guys out with injuries, it's a battle, but I love what our team did. They didn't roll over. They continued to fight, they found ways to hang in there, and we're right in the race. I like where we're at. If you come watch us play, and if you look at our analytics, you can see it starting to come. When you're playing games in the rebuild and you're not close to coming out of it, you're beating teams because you play back-up goaltenders, and you steal games once in a while when nobody's looking. Everybody sees us coming now but we're still in games. That's a good sign."
André Tourigny: "We're in the fight and that's where we wanted to be. If you would have told me that this is where we would stand at this point with the injuries we have had, I would have taken that any day And now we're getting healthy.
"The first portion of the schedule was demanding for us so we're going into the second half with a lot of hope. We just beat the best team in the east (Washington) on a back-to-back where they were sitting home waiting for us. I'm really happy about the way the boys fought in that last week before the break to get us some big points."
What is your assessment of the development of the 25-and-under player group that includes Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Barrett Hayton, Jack McBain, Josh Doan, Matias Maccelli and Michael Kesselring?
Bill Armstrong: "One really good thing you can say about our club is that the guys that needed to take a step as young players have. They're driving forces for us every single night. People forget that we were in the draft, getting a lot of those guys just a couple years ago. Now they're having an impact on the ice for us in a special way. There's more work to be done. They're still improving and they still have to get better every time they get on the ice, but what I like about our group is that it's powered by our young guys.
"Logan's really come along with this two-way game. He always played dynamic offensively, but I think he works on both sides of the puck now. It's not easy playing center in the National Hockey League. He's playing against the big boys, sitting on the No. 1 line every night, but I love what he's done with his game. He's added some more finish to his game, too, and he has continued to get stronger and faster. He's unique. He's got a chance to be a No. 1 center if he continues to make progress.
"And with Dylan, from the get-go, he's been good. When he's out of our lineup, we miss his goals. It's the difference between winning or losing when that guy is in our lineup. He's somebody that's always attacked it and always tried to get better. He's obviously got a natural shot. The way it comes off his stick, I think it's hard for goaltenders to pick up. When he's on, he's a difference maker for us, and I think he's worked to be more consistent this year with his game, and you can see it almost every night that he has an impact for us."
André Tourigny: "We're happy about the progression of those young guys. I think they have hit their stride. You never know if they will have a sophomore slump or something like that, but to be honest, right now, that's a strong point of our season; the young guys. The performance of Cools, the performance of Gunner, all the guys you mentioned. I think Doaner had a strong training camp, a strong start, and then faded a little bit, but he's back with us and playing really well.
"With Dylan, I think he's even better than before he got hurt — seriously. It's a challenge sometimes for young guys to not get carried away with trying to produce and going away from the little details in their game. But since he's back, he is really detailed, playing really good on his 200-foot game.
"It depends where we draw the line on young players, but the progression of Michael Kesselring has been good, too, and he's a young NHL player. We talked about Hayts before and how valuable he has been. Jack McBain has had a great progression. That young core had a really good first half."
What has been the impact of the offseason or in-season additions including Mikhail Sergachev, John Marino, Ian Cole, Olli Määttä and Kevin Stenlund?
Bill Armstrong: "Well, first off, it's been great to see Sergachev in there. He's been a huge piece of our team; what we envisioned when we went and got him. With Marino coming back, he's added a lot already and we got Olli Määttä and Nick DeSimone on the back end, too, so we've had some good additions for our team that have had some impact. We haven't had all the pieces in place to see exactly how good we are. "That'll be the interesting part down the stretch. There's a good chance now, with everyone coming back fully healthy, that we can see how good we can be."
André Tourigny: "Sergey is obviously the key piece with the minutes and situations he plays. John Marino just arrived in the lineup but he has had a significant impact right away.
"But we need to talk about Olli Määttä because it's tough to imagine where we'd be without that addition. He bridged the gap. He was a rock for us in tough times where the schedule was tough, opponents were tough, injuries were there, and he came up big. He has been tremendous for us in terms of playing the right way and settling our team down and sending the right message.
"Our PK since mid-December is tops in the league. Stenny (Stenlund) and Kerfie (Alex Kerfoot) are two forwards who are near the top of the league in terms of minutes played on the PK (third and fourth). I know Kerfie's not new to the team, but those guys have been exactly what the doctor prescribed."
What is your assessment of the over-25 middle core that includes Clayton Keller, Lawson Crouse and Nick Schmaltz?
Bill Armstrong: "Kells has been steady, but some of those guys have had struggles getting going. I think those guys have found different ways to help out the team, but I don't think it's perfect. We'd like to see more points from them, but I do like the way that they've played and embraced our team, whether it's blocking shots or playing good defense or just helping out when they can. I'm a firm believer that if you play the right way, good things will eventually happen so I think that it will click at some point in time — hopefully down the stretch here because we need those guys to be big for us. We haven't had as much secondary scoring as we had in the past, but that's also because our young guys have taken a little bit more ice time, too."
André Tourigny: "There's a group there that has not produced as much as last year. Having that said, guys like Matias and Crouser are in a different situation than last year and I could have told you that would be the case out of the training camp. Look at all the minutes those guys played last year versus the minutes they've played this year. Don't tell me if I play 20 or 25 percent less, and in different situations, that will not affect my production. Crouser is playing three minutes per game less. It's different. It's an adjustment and you see that in a lot of teams where you bring young players in and now you play a different role.
"Adding more depth to our team and having the growth of the young guys means more competition for ice time, competition for the minutes you want to be on the ice. Lawson Crouse used to play a lot in the PK and it helped him keep his legs moving. Now Stenny is there and took his ice time a little bit. Same thing for Hayts playing a little bit on the PK now. It's a period of adjustment for those guys who lost a little bit of something."
How has Clayton Keller handled the responsibility of being a captain?
André Tourigny: "I think he's done a really good job. I don't want to brag, but I think the organization did a really good job of doing it at the right time. I know we had a lot of questions in the past like, 'Why not now?' But we gave everybody the opportunity to grow, to get more mature, to get more experience, to be prepared to talk about different situations. I think Kells has handled it really well, from taking responsibility and taking ownership to stepping up at the right time. He's way more mature as a person than three years ago. He was ready for this."
What is your view of the goaltending tandem now that Connor Ingram has rejoined the lineup?
Bill Armstrong: "I love going at it with two goaltenders. I love the fact that both of them have had their time where they've done good things. It's going to be key for us to have both those guys really clicking on all cylinders coming down the stretch. With Ingy injured, sometimes Veggie has had to hang in there and keep us going and he's done that. He stole a game for us the other night. He was unbelievable. They've both had their moments. Now we've kind of got to fine-tune that coming down the stretch and see if they can be two really solid goaltenders for us."
André Tourigny: "We have a good NHL goalie in the net every night. There will be periods where Veggie will be on the better streak. There will be periods where Ingy will be on the better streak. Remember at the start of the season when Ingy was winning every game and people wondered if Veggie would play? I was laughing and I was saying, 'Settle down. It's a long season. It's a marathon.' There will be bumps in the road, and now you see Veggie has played a majority of the games. But there's a lot of play ahead of us."
You have six games remaining before the March 7 (1 p.m. MT) trade deadline: What's the plan?
Bill Armstrong: "Well, we're still in the fight. We made a lot of our trades, more or less in the summer or in the fall, so our team is built to some degree. We've got to see what they can do, but I'll probably have more to comment on as we come up to the deadline and see where we're at. It's a grind right now, but it's a good grind. This is exactly where we want to be."
André Tourigny: "I'm not concerned about that. What I'm concerned with is winning games. Everybody in the organization wants to win so we decide — the coaches and players — what happens at the deadline. If we're in it, I know what will happen, and if we're not in it, well, they will have to make decisions.
"But if we come out of the break and we win our games and we're in by the trade deadline, or we're two points out, what do you think will happen? I know. The fans know. The reporters know. The GM knows. The owner knows. And it's like that on every team in the league. We just need to put our foot in the door, and then we know what will happen."
What do you hope to see over the remaining 26 games?
Bill Armstrong: "Like I said before, I want to see us get healthy so we know what we've got before we do anything. With Cooley coming back, you're getting McBain into the third [center] hole and Hayton has played well in the No. 2 slot. I think our guys are super excited about getting on that ice and playing together for the first time. Here we are in February and we're finally gonna get that chance.
"It's hard to evaluate the team. Our whole team hasn't been in there so you don't know what you have in some circumstances. We want to do a little bit of evaluation where everybody's playing together and you get guys in the right holes. We've got a chance to get everybody into the right minutes, the right holes, and see where we build from there."
If this team stays in the hunt and still doesn't make the playoffs, is that progress?André Tourigny: "If we stay in the hunt, yes, absolutely, it is progress. Last year at this date, we were out. But there's way more to it. If you looked at all the underlying numbers last year, everything was in the red all the time, even when we were winning games. Now it's different. Now we're fighting to be top-10, top-15 in underlying numbers; sometimes top of the league. Look at almost every game. With 10 minutes to go it was either tied or up or down a goal. We're there every night. For sure, that's progress, but it doesn't mean anything if we don't play well in the second half."
Do you have a sense of when Cooley and Durzi will be back?
Bill Armstrong: "I think we've got a chance coming out of the break to have everybody back."
What do you make of all the rumors noting your ample cap space and the ability to spend big money this offseason in free agency?
Bill Armstrong: "I just want to make sure that everybody knows that if we spend all the money this year, that means we're tied into it for the next how many years and then we don't have any options to finish off the team when it's time. It's about spending money properly.
"Our ownership will spend money. If it's Sergachev, they're gonna go spend the money, but they're not just gonna spend it to spend it and then all of a sudden we don't have any room on the cap and we're screwed. We're gonna spend it, but we're gonna spend it properly."
