Subscribe
Follow Us
We're now officially 34 games into the Utah Hockey Club experiment in Salt Lake City, and the results have been solid if unspectacular for the National Hockey League's newest franchise. After a strong month of December heading into the three day holiday break, Utah sits 16-12-6 and just two points back of the final wildcard berth in the Western Conference.
It's been a pretty significant improvement from last season, when the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes finished seventh place in the Central Division for the second consecutive campaign. This time around, Utah is fifth, but just four points back of the third place Colorado Avalanche.
Utah lost its last game before the holiday pause — a tough 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Dallas Stars on Monday night — but the club had picked up at least a point in eight straight contests before that. Six of those were victories, and it's certainly safe to say that this team is on the upswing as the New Year approaches.
At this point, there's undoubtedly more hope for the Utah Hockey Club than concern the rest of the way. That's especially true as the squad has been playing shorthanded for much of the year, with key defensemen Sean Durzi and John Marino both on the shelf long-term. With Connor Ingram also sidelined — and not close to a return himself — Karel Vejmelka has been handling most of the starts. And he's one of the main reasons for hope heading into 2025.
Karel Vejmelka has been stellar between the pipes for Utah
Vejmelka stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced in Monday's 3-2 loss to the Stars. That snapped a four-game winning streak for the Czech netminder, who has given up three or more goals in just three of his eight appearances in December. Overall, the 28-year-old is up to 8-8-2 with a 2.33 goals-against average and .917 save percentage over 20 outings (18 starts).
It's been an encouraging stretch for Vejmelka, and that's huge for the team in front of him. Even when healthy, Ingram was struggling mightily to match the fine form he showed for stretches in 2023-24. Vejmelka also had his woes early on in the season, but it looks like the former fifth-round pick by the Nashville Predators in the 2015 NHL Draft has put those firmly in the rearview.
If Vejmelka keeps this up, Ingram will likely be relegated to backup duties even when healthy. Vejmelka continues to put in good efforts as Utah's top goalie, and he's been giving them a chance to win every time he is in the crease. If this play keeps up, the club should be hanging around the playoff picture in the Western Conference all campaign long.
Along with improved goaltending, the standout scoring the offense is providing lately is another reason for hope as the 2024-25 season progresses — and that's lately been going through Dylan Guenther.
Dylan Guenther, top-6 has been on fire as of late
Although Utah has been in the middle of the pack in terms of goal scoring overall with 3.00 goals per game, it's been a different story as of late. The roster has managed 39 tallies over 11 games — seven of those wins. And Guenther has been electric, with 11 points in his last nine games. He's up to 16 goals and 16 assists in 34 tilts, good for second in team scoring.
Along with Guenther, Clayton Keller has been consistently excellent, as per usual. He's leading the team with 36 points in 34 games. He's looking to return to a point-per-game pace over a full season after settling for 76 points in 78 games last year. Attached to his hip is Nick Schmaltz, who himself is having a fantastic campaign. The 28-year-old is up to 27 points in 34 games, while Logan Cooley has been great with 30 points in 34 games of his own.
Having Keller and Schmaltz on one line and Guenther and Cooley on another is a great one-two punch for Utah, and all four players converge on the top powerplay unit along with Mikhail Sergachev. The Russian has also been terrific offensively, with 26 points in 34 games from the blue line.
The offense is not looking like a problem in Utah, and along with the above-average goaltending, the roster has begun to string together some positive results. Considering two important defensemen are on the shelf, that's extremely encouraging. And the club will be hoping to get Durzi and Marino back for the stretch run in 2025.
The reinforcements will eventually be on the way for Utah Hockey Club
Both Durzi and Marino underwent surgeries near the end of October, with the timetable being estimated at four to six months for the former and three to four months for the latter.
Durzi sustained a shoulder injury when he was hit by New Jersey Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler while carrying the puck during the a game on October 14. Marino still hasn't made his Utah debut after being acquired from the Devils at the 2024 NHL Draft in June. Although it's possible but not confirmed that Durzi could miss the rest of the regular-season, Marino should be back in the lineup at some point before the end of February.
Utah will have to play at least a couple more months without the two, but the fact that the pair are waiting in the wings certainly provides hope as the season goes on. The team has played well in the absence of the two key blue liners, and should only get better once they are eventually ready to return.
As it stands, it's been a very strong first three months in Salt Lake City. The Delta Center has been rocking for each and every home game, and the roster looks inspired to advance to the dance for the first time since the Coyotes did it in 2019-20. There are a lot of strong teams in both the Central Division and Western Conference, but heading into the NHL break, there is hope in Salt Lake City that the Utah Hockey Club can compete for a berth right until the end.
