It hasn’t been a pretty good first season in Salt Lake City for the Utah Hockey Club.
The Arizona Coyotes packed up at the end of last season and left the desert, leaving behind all of their previous history and starting fresh in Utah.
It’s a solid, young team with an exciting future. The newest Hockey Club in the league might be in a Wild Card spot had their blueline not been decimated by injuries. Still, they have a 26-24-9 record with 61 points, just three back of the Calgary Flames for the final playoff seed in the Western Conference, albeit with two additional games played.
If things go awry for the Hockey Club before the March 7 trade deadline, who could they have to trade?
Alexander Kerfoot
It feels as if Alex Kerfoot has been in the league forever. The 30-year-old was selected in the fifth round all the way back in 2012 and has played for four teams in his career – the Colorado Avalanche, Toronto Maple Leafs, Coyotes, and Hockey Club.
Kerfoot is a penalty-killing middle-six player who has chips in with points. Last season, he scored 13 goals and a career-high 45 points in 82 games with the Coyotes. He’s well off that pace this season, potting just seven goals and 16 points in 59 games. Kerfoot can play both centre and wing, rocking a 50% faceoff percentage while his 149:28 minutes on the penalty kill is the second most on the Hockey Club.
Kerfoot is on an expiring contract with a cap hit of $3.5 million, set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. It’s worth noting that the Hockey Club has all three retention spots remaining.
Kevin Stenlund
Kevin Stenlund is a right-shot centre who kills penalties, is exceptional on faceoffs, has won a Stanley Cup, and can chip in with double-digit points. What’s not to love? After scoring 11 goals and 15 points in 81 games with the Florida Panthers, Stenlund has seven goals and 13 points in 59 games this season. He’s on pace for nine goals and 18 points.
Moreover, he has taken 704 faceoffs this season, winning 415 of them for a 58.9% success rate. He’s also killed 153:37 minutes of penalties, not just the most for forwards on the Hockey Club, but the second most for all forwards in the league. Stenlund is only behind Montréal Canadiens right-shot centre Jake Evans, who is my top target at this season’s trade deadline.
To make matters better, Stenlund is on an affordable contract with term, as he has a $2 million cap hit until the end of the 2025-26 season with no trade protection.
Nick Bjugstad
The Nick Bjugstad experiment for the Oilers in 2022-23 wasn’t that bad. The large right-handed centre finished the regular season with four goals and six points in 19 games, followed by three goals in 12 post-season games.
Unfortunately, Bjugstad didn’t re-sign with the Oilers and proceeded to have one of the best seasons of his career, scoring 22 goals and 45 points in 51 games with the Coyotes. He’s nowhere near that pace this season, scoring five goals and 15 points in 51 games.
Bjugstad still plays centre, taking 430 faceoffs with a 47.7% success rate. However, he doesn’t kill penalties anymore as he did in 2022-23 and 2023-24, earning just three minutes and 43 seconds of time on the PK.
The 32-year-old has a cap hit of $2.1 million with no trade protection and is set to become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.
Michael Kesselring
The Oilers traded right-shot defenceman Michael Kesselring to the Coyotes for Bjugstad before the 2023 deadline, and there’s some buyer’s remorse there.
Kesselring, a sixth-round pick in the 2018 draft, has developed into a nice NHL defenceman, scoring a career-high six goals and 23 points in 59 games this season. That’s up from the five goals and 21 points he had in 65 games last season.
Kesselring also stands 6’5”, 215 lbs with a cannon of a slapshot. The right-shot defenceman played 34:34 minutes on the penalty kill this season, but he isn’t a regular on it anymore. As for his contract situation, the 25-year-old has a cap hit of $1.4 million until the end of the 2025-26 season, when he’ll become a restricted free agent. Why did the Oilers trade him again?
Ian Cole
If the Oilers wish to pursue a left-shot defenceman, Ian Cole could be their guy. The 36-year-old has been in the league since 2010-11 (my first year in middle school) and has bounced around teams quite a bit. Never much of a scorer, his career-high came in 2016-17, scoring five goals and 21 points as he and the Pittsburgh Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cups. This season, the left-shot defenceman has a goal and 13 points.
However, he’s more of a stay-at-home bottom-pair defenceman. Cole also happens to have the most minutes on the Hockey Club’s penalty kill with 170:21. He has a cap hit of $3.1 million until the end of the season.
Olli Maatta
The Hockey Club acquired Olli Määttä in a pinch early in the season as Sean Durzi and John Marino both went down with an injury. Määttä was held pointless in the seven games he played with the Detroit Red Wings but has since scored two goals and 13 points in 49 games with the Hockey Club. Like Cole, he was on the back-to-back Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins.
Määttä also kills penalties, with his 92:19 minutes on the kill being the fifth-highest on the team, albeit in just 49 games played. Moreover, the Hockey Club have scored two shorthanded goals with him on the ice while giving up just seven. Määttä is on an expiring contract with a cap hit of $3 million, he has no trade protection.
Karel Vejmelka
If the Oilers end up trading for a netminder before the March 7 trade deadline, it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a 1B like Karel Vejmelka. The Czechian was selected back in the fifth round of the 2015 draft but made his NHL and North America debut in 2021-22. Up until the 2024-25 season, he had “meh” numbers, usually hovering around the .899 mark.
However, Vejmelka has a .910 save percentage and 2.48 goals against average in 36 games this season with the Hockey Club. The 28-year-old also catches right-handed and if it works for the Washington Capitals, it could work for the Oilers!
Vejmelka has a cap hit of $2.725 million and is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. He’d certainly help alleviate Stuart Skinner’s workload while not costing the Oilers as much as a John Gibson-like netminder, for example.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
