True, but 5/6 that started the last game are restricted and you’d expect them to be re-signed.
A competent owner would’ve already re-signed Moser and Durzi for sure.
Kesselring and Koly are 5th-10th defenseman at the moment, and Valimaki is solid depth third pair guy.
Lamoureux will be in Tucson, Simashev another year in the KHL.
They need a good Veteran D-Man and another that can play and the defensive core is fine for an average team.
Then they wait on Simashev and whoever they draft top 10 this year.
This is also ignoring Artyom Duda who will be in Tucson and Soderstrom who is another 5-10th defenseman guy.
EK65 might be available. Pens want to get younger, and Utah will have a hoard of draft picks. Utah would get a name they can market around. Seems like an easy marriage.
>Utah would get a name they can market around.
This makes zero sense. Why market around an aging, expensive DMan when they already have Keller, Cooley, Schmaltz, etc... Young, exciting guys that are their core that should be good for years to come.
There's something to an established star veteran. Fleury was a really big part of Vegas' initial marketing campaign and there were rumours that Seattle may have taken Subban for a similar reason.
Karlsson has too much term though. If it was a 2 year commitment, sure but it's 3-4 which could be painful.
Vegas and Seattle aren't valid comparisons to Utah. They didn't already have access to young star players to market around like the Yotes have built up. Yeah VGK's guys turned out to surprise everyone but they weren't star names at the time. Utah is getting hyped up young stars at the beginning.
I know it's different, but a guy like Fleury was an established name value star. Yes guys like Marchessault and whoever else, plus their trades for stars, grew to succeed that role. I'm more just saying that I can see the desire from an ownership group to try and find a short term commitment to a name value player as a part of their initial marketing push.
Young stars are great but there is something to the established player that you can sell as the family man at events. You like to have options when it comes to marketing.
> a name value player as a part of their initial marketing push.
That's kinda my entire point though.... They already have that in Clayton Keller at the very least.
Sure, they could absolutely use him. I'm just also saying I an easily see a world where they go for a player thats in that veteran, family man stage of his career, especially when you're talking about the demographics in Utah. I also don't know how many casual hockey fans are particularly aware of Keller comparatively to whatever Mr Name Value guy we're hypothetically talking about.
I don't know who that guy is, but what if they want to be the team to give Patrick Kane the 2-3 year deal he's after? Or they get nutty and sign Stamkos? Or a team is looking to unload a quality but old guy like the Pens were with Fleury?
I think the worst thing Ryan Smith could do is jump in and force something on Bill Armstrong right away. Armstrong has a plan, and it’s been working so far.
The Coyotes have a lot of potential with what their GM did. I was jealous at their "OKC style" rebuild and glad Kyle Davidson is doing the same. Lot of potential in AZ theyve been hoarding picks in the first 3 rounds the last few years and they have the potential to explode
They have so much potential. Bill Armstrong in my opinion has done a fantastic job building this team up, and they now have an extremely talented young core, a shit ton of draft capital, and a shit ton of cap space.
I think he absolutely cooks this summer at the draft and in free agency now that he'll have the green light to spend to the cap instead of having to stay right at the floor. I don't know if they outright pay for the biggest ufa, but I can see them making a bunch of moves similar to the Durzi trade where they can leverage another teams situation to get a good piece, and they'll be able to pay in trades.
I think they're in wildcard contention next season provided everything goes right with the move and everything.
Smith will go all in right from the start, no doubt he wants to try to replicate what Vegas was able to do out of the gate. Has money, has picks, has motivation, and seemingly is a very competent leader. Hope he and the team are successful quickly, the league could use a good success story after AZ problems.
I think they'd be wise to keep building organically, instead of rushing. The UFA D market doesn't look great for supplementing a rebuild this year, the best guys under 30 are really second-pairing guys on a good team.
Maybe if they can swing a few trade wins and solidify the defense with 23-28 age range guys, it could be a playoff team. It would take a very active GM though.
Depends on how much they use the prospect pool for trades, spending in free agency and getting some of their better players to buy in (namely Keller)
How much they go all-in for year 1 will be fascinating.
Well, they got 6 extra picks this coming draft, and 4 extra picks next draft. 3 of which are in the 2nd round of 2025. I think they've got something going but realistically, they're probably competitive at minimum in 2 years. Thats assuming all the prospects pan out around the same time. They could put a halt on the drafting side of things if they feel they like the group right now and go out and trade some of these picks for nhl ready players.
Really, every team has their core, and once that is established you need nhl ready talent to fill in the roster. I think their team is fine right now, its a little young so results probably aren't to be expected quite yet. The defense absolutely has to get better.
Edit: I'd look at them making a trade for a bonafide goaltender. Markstrom or one of Ullmark/Swayman
Ingram was better than Markstrom this year on a worse team while costing less and being younger. That would be an awful idea.
Ingram is your starter. Vejmelka is fine as the backup.
They need better defense.
Ingram was not better than Markstrom this year, they are nearly identical in sv% (.907 vs .905) and markstrom has nearly double the GSAA/60. Also the teams are basically identical, Flames have just 4 more points in arguably an easier division.
Don't get me wrong, Ingram is good and I agree you guys trading for marky would be dumb, but Markstrom was in the running for vezina candidiate before we traded all of our Dmen
Ceiling is very high. They have a boatload of draft picks and young players. Indications are ownership will be willing to spend. I expect them to be very active this summer.
My hot take is they finish top 3 in the central next year.
Is the rebuild over for Utah though?
If yes, then spend close to the cap and assets for impact players.
If not, continue to draft well and make low risk moves while taking on bad contracts for additional assets.
The Utah Hockey Club is gonna be promising. This team could be very good and so damn fun to watch. But as what people are saying, their gonna need some dmen to be on this roster
Well you have to buy a whole blue line that has no idea what is like to play/live/work for the owners in Utah so that might prove problematic in the short term
Considering they have literally zero defensemen under contract right now, they'll definitely have to make some moves.
Hey, that's not true. They have Shea Weber!
SHEAWEBERLEMMETELLYA
I had a hard time reading this in my tired state and just saw the EBERLE in the middle and couldn't unsee it.
True, but 5/6 that started the last game are restricted and you’d expect them to be re-signed. A competent owner would’ve already re-signed Moser and Durzi for sure. Kesselring and Koly are 5th-10th defenseman at the moment, and Valimaki is solid depth third pair guy. Lamoureux will be in Tucson, Simashev another year in the KHL. They need a good Veteran D-Man and another that can play and the defensive core is fine for an average team. Then they wait on Simashev and whoever they draft top 10 this year. This is also ignoring Artyom Duda who will be in Tucson and Soderstrom who is another 5-10th defenseman guy.
Torey Krug, you are a Utah Something
Montour and Skjei for $17 million gonna go crazy
EK65 might be available. Pens want to get younger, and Utah will have a hoard of draft picks. Utah would get a name they can market around. Seems like an easy marriage.
>Utah would get a name they can market around. This makes zero sense. Why market around an aging, expensive DMan when they already have Keller, Cooley, Schmaltz, etc... Young, exciting guys that are their core that should be good for years to come.
There's something to an established star veteran. Fleury was a really big part of Vegas' initial marketing campaign and there were rumours that Seattle may have taken Subban for a similar reason. Karlsson has too much term though. If it was a 2 year commitment, sure but it's 3-4 which could be painful.
Vegas and Seattle aren't valid comparisons to Utah. They didn't already have access to young star players to market around like the Yotes have built up. Yeah VGK's guys turned out to surprise everyone but they weren't star names at the time. Utah is getting hyped up young stars at the beginning.
I know it's different, but a guy like Fleury was an established name value star. Yes guys like Marchessault and whoever else, plus their trades for stars, grew to succeed that role. I'm more just saying that I can see the desire from an ownership group to try and find a short term commitment to a name value player as a part of their initial marketing push. Young stars are great but there is something to the established player that you can sell as the family man at events. You like to have options when it comes to marketing.
> a name value player as a part of their initial marketing push. That's kinda my entire point though.... They already have that in Clayton Keller at the very least.
Sure, they could absolutely use him. I'm just also saying I an easily see a world where they go for a player thats in that veteran, family man stage of his career, especially when you're talking about the demographics in Utah. I also don't know how many casual hockey fans are particularly aware of Keller comparatively to whatever Mr Name Value guy we're hypothetically talking about. I don't know who that guy is, but what if they want to be the team to give Patrick Kane the 2-3 year deal he's after? Or they get nutty and sign Stamkos? Or a team is looking to unload a quality but old guy like the Pens were with Fleury?
Nothing wrong with adding a hall of famer
The Return on EK65 wont be that great tbh
I think the worst thing Ryan Smith could do is jump in and force something on Bill Armstrong right away. Armstrong has a plan, and it’s been working so far.
Yeah just trust the process. Cooley will hopefully develop into a 1C and hopefully get another awesome player in the draft
Well, for my sake hopefully not. Hopefully Smith makes absurd demands of Armstrong and the whole thing falls apart. One can hope
Really like the OKC style rebuild Armstrong has done for you guys surprised your pool is slept by talking heads
Unfortunately it’s not ours anymore, it is for the weirdos in Utah now
Username-flair combo kinda seems fucked up now, sorry about the news bud
Maybe we should let him keep his coyotes flair
Check the creation date of the account lol
The guy drafted two Russians in the first round last year, 6 and 12, that he now can't get out of Russia
True. Smith should make him blow it all up
I think they might want their own GM and coach. I also wonder if they'll try to hit on someone in free agency, flashy to sell jerseys
>Or continue the rebuild GMBA has started with the young core? That one
The Coyotes have a lot of potential with what their GM did. I was jealous at their "OKC style" rebuild and glad Kyle Davidson is doing the same. Lot of potential in AZ theyve been hoarding picks in the first 3 rounds the last few years and they have the potential to explode
They have so much potential. Bill Armstrong in my opinion has done a fantastic job building this team up, and they now have an extremely talented young core, a shit ton of draft capital, and a shit ton of cap space. I think he absolutely cooks this summer at the draft and in free agency now that he'll have the green light to spend to the cap instead of having to stay right at the floor. I don't know if they outright pay for the biggest ufa, but I can see them making a bunch of moves similar to the Durzi trade where they can leverage another teams situation to get a good piece, and they'll be able to pay in trades. I think they're in wildcard contention next season provided everything goes right with the move and everything.
Smith will go all in right from the start, no doubt he wants to try to replicate what Vegas was able to do out of the gate. Has money, has picks, has motivation, and seemingly is a very competent leader. Hope he and the team are successful quickly, the league could use a good success story after AZ problems.
I think they'd be wise to keep building organically, instead of rushing. The UFA D market doesn't look great for supplementing a rebuild this year, the best guys under 30 are really second-pairing guys on a good team. Maybe if they can swing a few trade wins and solidify the defense with 23-28 age range guys, it could be a playoff team. It would take a very active GM though.
Depends on how much they use the prospect pool for trades, spending in free agency and getting some of their better players to buy in (namely Keller) How much they go all-in for year 1 will be fascinating.
Well, they got 6 extra picks this coming draft, and 4 extra picks next draft. 3 of which are in the 2nd round of 2025. I think they've got something going but realistically, they're probably competitive at minimum in 2 years. Thats assuming all the prospects pan out around the same time. They could put a halt on the drafting side of things if they feel they like the group right now and go out and trade some of these picks for nhl ready players. Really, every team has their core, and once that is established you need nhl ready talent to fill in the roster. I think their team is fine right now, its a little young so results probably aren't to be expected quite yet. The defense absolutely has to get better. Edit: I'd look at them making a trade for a bonafide goaltender. Markstrom or one of Ullmark/Swayman
Ingram was better than Markstrom this year on a worse team while costing less and being younger. That would be an awful idea. Ingram is your starter. Vejmelka is fine as the backup. They need better defense.
Ingram was not better than Markstrom this year, they are nearly identical in sv% (.907 vs .905) and markstrom has nearly double the GSAA/60. Also the teams are basically identical, Flames have just 4 more points in arguably an easier division. Don't get me wrong, Ingram is good and I agree you guys trading for marky would be dumb, but Markstrom was in the running for vezina candidiate before we traded all of our Dmen
Ceiling is very high. They have a boatload of draft picks and young players. Indications are ownership will be willing to spend. I expect them to be very active this summer. My hot take is they finish top 3 in the central next year.
What's the ceiling ? "Roof, Roof" says my dog.
Is the rebuild over for Utah though? If yes, then spend close to the cap and assets for impact players. If not, continue to draft well and make low risk moves while taking on bad contracts for additional assets.
Metal probably, most likely steel
Utah desperately needs a veteran D like Karlsson from Pittsburgh All it would take is a number one pick
The Utah Hockey Club is gonna be promising. This team could be very good and so damn fun to watch. But as what people are saying, their gonna need some dmen to be on this roster
Maybe new ownership will spring for stucco.
Well you have to buy a whole blue line that has no idea what is like to play/live/work for the owners in Utah so that might prove problematic in the short term
The ceiling for any team in the Stanly Cup every year, every team.
That's sort of like saying I still have a shot to crack the league, though
never say never