NHL is New to Utah, But the Panthers Know This ‘Hockey Club’

The Florida Panthers will play their first game in Utah tonight when they visit the NHL’s newest team.

A team, one may notice, is not all that new.

Unlike previous expansion teams, the Utah Hockey Club was not slapped together one offseason before making its debut in a matter of weeks.

No, the team simply picked up and moved.

You are not alone if you recognize a couple familiar names tonight when the Panthers play Utah (10 p.m., TNT).

These are the former Arizona Coyotes, after all, and numerous links exist to the Panthers.

Kevin Stenlund, for one, did not move with the Coyotes to Salt Lake City.

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He spent last season with the Panthers, and his impact as a fourth-line center and penalty killer was influential in Florida’s drive to the Stanley Cup.  

Stenlund will get his championship ring on this trip if he did not get it Tuesday night.

Nick Bjugstad is a name almost every Florida fan knows.

A first-round Panthers pick in 2010 draft, Bjugstad remains a fan favorite in South Florida despite being traded to the Penguins in 2019.

Bjugstad spent almost seven seasons in Sunrise, and led the team in scoring during the 2013-14 season.

Kevin Connauton played briefly for Florida after signing as a free agent for the COVID-19-shortened 2021 season and was primarily on the taxi squad.

Dave Zenobi spent 10 seasons with the Panthers, nine as head athletic trainer. He is in his ninth season with the Arizona/Utah team.

John Madden is an assistant coach in Utah, and he closed out his distinguished NHL career with the Panthers in 2011-12. 

He was acquired mid-year to lend experience to the playoff-bound team. 

Madden later spent almost three seasons as an assistant coach in Florida under Peter Horachek and Gerard Gallant.

Lawson Crouse was 11th overall in 2015 draft held in Sunrise, but he never played a game for the Panthers after being traded in 2016 to Arizona in a salary dump.

Florida rid itself of the Dave Bolland contract, and Crouse was part of the cost of doing business.

Speaking of doing business, the Coyotes were not doing much of it in Arizona.

The team has been welcomed with open arms in Utah.

Salt Lake City was a market ripe for an NHL team, much like Seattle and Las Vegas before.

In addition to their financial issues, the Coyotes struggled on the ice last making the playoffs during a full season in 2012.

In 2020, the Coyotes beat Nashville in a qualifier to make the first round, losing to Colorado.

In the past two seasons, Arizona finished seventh in the Pacific Division.

Luck in the draft lottery has not been good, either, with the franchise missing out on Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini.

Yet even before leaving Arizona, things were looking up.

Utah got a pretty nice team — even if it doesn’t have a nickname just yet.

The ‘Hockey Club’ is playing above .500 and is close to wild-card territory.

While Utah’s stats are not overly impressive, they are also not glaringly weak.

The team is mid-pack in special teams and around 20 in both goals-for, and goals-against.

Utah has a talented group of forwards led by Clayton Keller, who has 70 goals over the past two seasons.

Dylan Guenther, a first-round pick in 2021, is in his first full season with the team and is on pace for more than 30 goals. 

The off-season acquisition of Mikhail Sergachev adds respectability to the defense.

Karel Vejmelka has emerged as the No. 1 goalie, with a 2.43/.915. 

These are the best numbers of his career.

Improvement has been slow but steady under fourth-year head coach André Tourigny. Last season, their 36 wins was the highest total in five years.

Utah has an abundance of cap space available so look for them to be active in the offseason and at the trade deadline.

ON DECK: GAME No. 42

FLORIDA PANTHERS at UTAH HOCKEY CLUB

• When: Wednesday, 10 p.m.
• Where: Delta Center, Salt Lake City
• National TV: TNT, TruTV
• Streaming: Max
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL app
• Season Series — At Utah: Wednesday. At Florida: March 28.
• Last Season vs. Arizona Coyotes: Florida Won 2-0
• All-time Regular Season Series vs. Coyotes: Florida leads 21-20-0, 3 ties
• Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday vs. Boston Bruins, 1 p.m. (ABC)