For the first time since 2011, a team in the National Hockey League relocated.
Welcome to Oilersnation’s summer series called Off-Season Review, in which we’ll take a dive into what’s going on with the other 15 teams in the Western Conference. So far, we’ve looked at all seven Pacific Division teams, as well as all but two teams in the Central Division. In this article, we’ll look at the Utah Hockey Club, the penultimate team in the series.

The Arizona Coyotes/Utah HC 2023-24 Season in a Nutshell

After decades of turmoil in the Arizona desert, the Arizona Coyotes relocated to Salt Lake City, Utah. It doesn’t look like an expansion team will arise in Phoenix anytime soon, but for simplicity’s sake, I will refer to the Utah Hockey Club in the first two sections of this article as “the Arizona Coyotes”.
So how did the Coyotes do in their final season in Arizona? Not great, once again. They finished with a 36-41-5 record for 77 points, 21 points out of the final Wild Card spot. While they weren’t as bad as the bottom-feeding teams, like the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks, they were by no means good.
Playing in Mullet Arena, a college stadium with an NHL capacity of just 4,600 fans, the Coyotes missed the postseason for the fourth consecutive season. If you don’t count the weird 2019-20 season where they made it past the qualifying round, the last time they made the postseason was all the way back in the 2012 playoffs, where Mike Smith carried them to a Western Conference Finals appearance. This was the only time they ever made it out of the first round.
Although Arizona was well out of it by the time the Mar. 8 deadline rolled around, they only made three minor moves at the deadline. A day prior to Friday’s deadline, they traded Troy Stecher to the Edmonton Oilers, along with a 2024 seventh-round pick, for a 2027 fourth-round pick.
Prior to the deadline, they also traded soon-to-be unrestricted free agents Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba. The former was moved to the Nashville Predators for a 2024 sixth-round pick, while the latter (and a 2025 seventh-round pick) netted them the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 2027 fifth-round pick.
All in all, it was a bad way to end their final season in the Phoenix area, but at least they went out on with a win, defeating the Oilers 5-2 on the penultimate day of the regular season.

Some Notable Statistics

The Arizona Coyotes were bad, but when they head to Salt Lake City, they’ll have a solid young core with a good farm system.
Forward Clayton Keller led the team in goals and points, potting 33 goals and 76 points in 78 games with the Coyotes. Nick Schmaltz scored a career-high in points with 61, while scoring 22 goals, the third time he’s had a 20-goal season.
The team’s fourth-round pick in the 2019 draft, Matis Maccelli scored a career-high 17 goals and 57 points, and is looking like an absolute steal for the Coyotes. Arizona also signed Nick Bjugstad to a two-year deal during the 2023 off-season after trading him to the Oilers at the 2023 trade deadline, and he scored 22 goals and 45 points for the Coyotes.
Their third-overall selection in the 2022 draft, Logan Cooley, made his NHL debut in 2023-24 and scored 20 goals and 44 points in 82 games. He finished fifth in Calder Trophy voting and made the All-Rookie team. Sticking with high-overall picks, their first-round pick in 2021, Dylan Guenther, scored 18 goals and 35 points in 45 games and will be an important player for the team moving forward.
If you had to point to one icon in Arizona’s history, it would have to be Shane Doan. Well, his son Josh made his NHL debut at the end of last season and scored five goals and nine points in 11 games.
The ever-reliable Lawson Crouse scored 23 goals and 42 points. While he didn’t match a career-high he set last season (24 goals, 45 points), the 27-year-old is now a three-time 20-goal scorer, doing so the past three seasons. Alex Kerfoot scored 13 goals and 45 points in 82 games as well, while Michael Carcone scored 21 goals and 29 points in 74 games.
Sean Durzi led the defence core in goals with nine while also picking up 41 assists. J.J. Moser also provided offence on the backend, scoring five goals and 26 points. Acquired in the Bjugstad deal at the 2023 trade deadline, Michael Kesselring scored five goals and 21 points in 65 games, while Juuso Välimäki scored two goals and 17 points.
Liam O’Brien scored five goals and 14 points, but also led the National Hockey League with 153 penalty minutes.

Off-Season Transaction

With the team heading to Utah, you’d think that their new owner Ryan Smith (not to be confused with Oilers’ legend Ryan Smyth) would look to build a competitive team as quickly as possible. The building blocks were already there, but the Coyotes were very active in acquiring players to contend in the 2024-25 season.
On the first day of the 2024 draft, Utah traded their 38th-overall pick, their 71st-overall pick, and a 2025 second-round pick to the Colorado Avalanche for the 24th-overall pick. With that pick, they selected Cole Beaudoin. Utah also selected the son of Calgary Flames legend, Tij Iginla, with the sixth-overall pick.
In the ensuing rounds, the Hockey Club picked Will Skahan, Thomas Lavoie, Veeti Väisänen, Gregor Bieber (no relation to Justin, Gregor was born in Austria), Gabe Smith, Owen Allard, Aleš Čech, Vojtěch Hradec, and Ludvig Lafton. This draft strengthens an already deep prospect pool further.
However, on day two of the draft, Utah significantly upgraded their defence core with two trades. They acquired Mikhail Sergachev, along with his $8.5 million cap hit, from the Tampa Bay Lightning for JJ Moser, Conor Geek, a 2025 second-round pick, and the 199th-overall pick in the 2024 draft. Geekie was the most significant loss, as he ranked as The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler’s 74th-best prospect in hockey.
Utah wasn’t finished though, as they acquired John Marino and the 153rd overall pick from the Devils for the 49th-overall pick and a 2025 second-round pick. Marino was originally selected by the Oilers in the sixth-round of the 2015 draft before being traded to the Devils due to him not wanting to sign with Edmonton.
Other than that, Utah’s only other trade saw them move Jan Jeník to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Egor Sokolov. The latter was a second-round pick in the 2020 draft (he’s 24), while Jeník has played 22 games with the Coyotes in the NHL, scoring four goals and six points.
Utah also brought in some free agents from other teams. The two most notable were Kevin Stenlund and Ian Cole, with the former agreeing to a two-year, $4 million deal, while Cole agreed to a one-year, $3.1 million deal. They also signed Kevin Connauton and Andrew Agozzino to a two-year deal worth the league minimum.
Travis Barron, Miloš Kelemen, and Curtis Douglas were already with the organization but agreed to terms on a new deal. Netminder Jaxson Stauber signed a one-year deal after playing the past two seasons with the Blackhawks organization.
Speaking of re-signings, Utah was able to agree to extensions with Liam O’Brien (three-year, $1 million annual cap hit), Michael Kesselring (two-year, $1.4 million annual cap hit), Juuso Välimäki (two-year, $2 million annual cap hit), Sean Durzi (four-year, $6 million annual cap hit), and Barrett Hayton (two-year, $2.65 million annual cap hit).
Utah signed a whole bunch of players to their entry-level deals, with the most notable being Tij Iginla and Cole Beaudoin. Overall, it looks like the rehaul of their backend could make Utah a fairly competitive team in their first season in Salt Lake City.
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