2 weeks Ago
Nick Bjugstad’s doorstep was filled with cookies, bread and candy when he and his family moved to Utah last summer. “My girls were loving it,” the Utah Hockey Club forward and father of three said. Bjugstad’s neighbors, who were the suppliers of the treats, soon put together a welcome party for the NHL veteran’s arrival.
He did not think more than 20 people would be in attendance. After all, the Bjugstads had been in town just a short while. “There were like 70 or 80 people,” Bjugstad said.
“It just showed how tight-knit the neighborhood was and the community is here. I was really impressed.” It was an early taste of what being a Utahn would be like for Bjugstad and his teammates in the franchise’s inaugural season.
Bjugstad has skated for five NHL teams before the Club. Something stood out about Utah amongst the rest. “I’ve gotten to see different markets, different owners and this is the best I’ve been treated as a player, as a team, as a whole, families,” said Bjugstad, who is now an unrestricted free agent.
It is a market that Bjugstad — a year removed from the uncertainty and chaos in Arizona — wants to remain in. He joked that he stopped praising Utah and its ownership to avoid another forward from taking his spot next season. “Well, I’m a free agent so it sucks here,” Bjugstad quipped.
“I’m not going to give too much of a pitch here.” The assurance, confidence and sense of home that Bjugstad and the rest of the Club feel after a full season in their new state has worked to fill the tremendous void of uncertainty that they sat with a year ago to the date. Early days No one really knew what to think then.
When Bill Armstrong walked into the Arizona Coyotes’ locker room with three games left in the 2023-24 season, the players had heard the rumors. When the general manager walked out, though, it was confirmed. The franchise would be acquired by Smith Entertainment Group and moved to Salt Lake City.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) SEG owner Ryan Smith, center, laughs as he looks at NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman during a press conference announcing a new National Hockey League team owned by Smith Entertainment Group at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 19, 2024. The league announced the transaction six days later. And with that, the Coyotes’ era in Arizona ended.
“I think everyone just didn’t believe it. We never really heard of that happening — just move a team like that,” said winger Nick Schmaltz, who had spent six seasons in Arizona. “It’s pretty wild to think about it.
I don’t even know what we were thinking at the time last year when it all went down.” Beyond the business side of it all — Ryan and Ashley Smith bought the NHL assets from former owner Alex Meruelo for $1.2 billion — the players were tasked with saying goodbye to a place that had become home, no matter the front-office flaws.
Schmaltz had just had a career season as he cemented himself as a top scorer on the team. Clayton Keller wrapped up his eighth year as the face of the organization after he was selected seventh overall by the Coyotes in 2016. Lawson Crouse was a few months out from becoming a first-time dad, and the Arizona house that he and his wife built to raise their daughter in had just finished.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club center Nick Schmaltz (8) reacts to an Anaheim goal as Utah Hockey Club hosts the Anaheim Ducks, NHL hockey in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. “Obviously it was a lot happening quickly,” Crouse said. “There were just a lot of different pieces in the making.
” While there was early trust in Ryan Smith and his group at SEG to provide the tools for the transition, ambiguity also plagued the room. “We didn’t know what we were getting into,” Schmaltz said. Now, 365 days later, Utah Hockey Club has closed out its inaugural season and a lot of those initial questions have been answered.
From finishing 12 points higher in the standings than last year, connecting with a new fanbase, flying chartered Delta, seeing the start of a customized practice facility and building a strong relationship with its committed owner, those in the organization have finally reaped the rewards of the continued turmoil in Arizona. Making a home That feeling of “home,” though, took more than a money wire to feel. “I spent a lot of time in Arizona.
That’s the longest — other than growing up in my childhood hometown — the longest I’ve lived anywhere,” said Crouse who was there from 2016 to 2024. “I obviously had a lot of connections there.” (Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club left wing Lawson Crouse handles the puck versus the Seattle Kraken at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
Josh Doan, while he had only played 11 games with the Coyotes before they relocated, understood Crouse’s sentiment. The forward’s dad, Shane Doan, played for Arizona for 20 years and was captain for 14 of them. Accordingly, Josh grew up in Scottsdale and later played collegiately for Arizona State University.
All he knew was hockey in the desert. “Losing your hometown team is never easy but at the end of the day, you had to be professional about it and move on with what was going on with the group,” Doan said. “The excitement behind Utah kind of took care of the disappointment of having to leave Arizona in terms of losing your hometown team.
” Once the players arrived in Salt Lake City for training camp, things started to feel real. The team — with the additions of experienced winners like Mikhail Sergachev, Kevin Stenlund and Ian Cole — was forming its on-ice identity. Away from the rink, the players got to know their new state.
Crouse found the French restaurant La Caille that he and his wife like to go to on a sunny day off. Doan has explored Park City with friends Logan Cooley and Michael Kesselring. Sergachev started somewhat of a backyard farm with his 16 chickens, two rabbits and a cat.
Dylan Guenther and Jack McBain spared no detail in decorating their shared house with all Costco has to offer, including a hot tub that has since broken. “It is still there collecting dust and mold,” McBain said. With Guenther’s eight-year, $57.
14 million extension kicking in next season, McBain is hoping his roommate can upgrade their situation. “I used to joke with him in Arizona that I wanted a nice pool house on whatever he bought,” the forward said. “We’ll see how that goes in Utah.
” Because the hot tub is out of commission, Guenther and McBain have found other activities to keep them busy on off days — specifically rounds at Topgolf (where they brought their own clubs) and friendly competition at the bowling alley. “Don’t go to lane 17 at Draper’s [bowling alley] — the pins don’t fall there,” Guenther said with a smirk. For Schmaltz, it was the community reception that helped him feel settled after the abrupt relocation.
“I think just the way we were treated helped a lot. You want to play for people that take care of you. You want to take care of them, as well,” Schmaltz said.
“They’ve put everything into us and they believe in us. You want to pay them back as much as you can — play hard and represent the team well.” That is what has fueled a lot of the guys this season.
Sergachev was not in the room when the move was announced — he was, instead, a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. But when dealt to the Club in a trade last June, he joined the team on the journey to find out what Utah would mean to them. Sergachev was quickly greeted with the Utah kindness everyone has gotten to know this year.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club defenseman Mikhail Sergachev handles the puck versus the Seattle Kraken at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. “All my neighbors have been really nice. They came over when we were moving in and were like, ‘We’ll help you unbox the boxes and do all this stuff,’” the defenseman said.
“Everybody is super nice. Whenever we are gone my neighbor helps me out with the chickens.” Crouse got to Utah early to secure a house before his daughter Isabel was born in August.
The forward snatched one with a good view. “The mountains for me — I love the mountains waking up every day. It’s picture-perfect every morning,” Crouse said.
“The new chapter in Utah, it’s just another chapter in a book. I think it keeps life — outside of hockey — those experiences mean so much more. Getting outside of your everyday life, I think it was great.
We approached it like you’re excited for a new chapter.” The next chapter That new chapter has had a lot of the same characters, too. Despite some trades and the change in ownership, the faces that made up the Coyotes remain in Utah.
Armstrong is still at the helm, André Tourigny is behind the bench and most of the hockey operations staff stayed intact. “It’s nice that it’s not just a brand new team,” Schmaltz said. “I think having the same group and staff around made a huge difference for me and a lot of the guys.
You see the same people every day even though it’s a different city,” Doan added. (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club right wing Josh Doan (91) in NHL action between the Utah Hockey Club and the San Jose Sharks, at the Delta Center, on Friday, Jan 10, 2025. And it’s true.
Pass by the Utah locker room home or away and Dave Griffiths (director of team operations) and Jim O’Neal (team security) are making their rounds chirping the players they know so well. Sometimes, veteran defenseman Robert Bortuzzo will join in at his stall next to Sean Durzi. The 36-year-old has been somewhat of a father figure to the young guys on the team.
Bortuzzo signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Club in August and while he has only played 17 games — due to roster management and injury — he’s had both an impact and a unique viewpoint on the team’s first season in Utah. “It’s just a team that’s in good hands and they’re in a good spot. To me it’s a team that’s fully bought in,” said Bortuzzo who was part of the Stanley Cup-winning St.
Louis Blues in 2018-19. “There is definitely a brotherhood in this locker room that I felt early on. It’s been fun to be part of.
” The fun part for the fans? The team is here to stay. It will be a longer summer with the Club missing the playoffs, but it will all start over again come October. That means more game-winning goals at Delta Center, high-fives with strangers and a few too many J Dawgs are soon.
Not to mention, an official team name, new traditions and time to further prove that Utah is a legitimate NHL market. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Fans celebrate a goal as Utah Hockey Club hosts the Tampa Bay Lightning, NHL hockey at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 22, 2025. A year ago to the date, Utah Hockey Club was born.
The anniversary has some thinking about what the next year might bring. “It’s been a whirlwind since the end of last season,” said Keller, the team’s first-ever captain. “From day one, you could tell how excited people were to have a hockey team.
People that I see in the community — just around town — they’re all so excited for hockey, for all of us players. It’s a special feeling.” Sometimes, it seems, one has to leave home to find home.
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