From the ashes of Phoenix rises the Utah Hockey Club, full of hope and all that comes with it

SALT LAKE CITY – When the Chicago Blackhawks met with new management for the first time after Rocky Wirtz took over as owner in 2007, it felt like being called into the manager’s office. They were restless, nervous and prepared for the worst.

There was always bad news for the Blackhawks back then. Bill Wirtz’s ownership had left the team in a miserable state on and off the ice. The Blackhawks were an embarrassment, arguably the worst team in all of North American professional sports.

When the new bosses asked the players what they needed to succeed, it felt like some kind of trick, a trap, a cruel joke from management. The players feigned satisfaction, mostly out of self-preservation. You spend years under a stingy owner and learn to keep your wants and needs to yourself. But at some point it became clear that it wasn’t a joke and it all came out. After the games they needed food. They needed better travel accommodations. They needed better training facilities and recovery equipment. They had to be treated like professional athletes in a multi-billion dollar league. They couldn’t be a laughing stock. They weren’t allowed to fight the rest of the NHL with one hand tied behind their back.

They needed an owner to take care of them. Who spent. WHO tried.

They got everything. Everything they asked for. But with that came a revelation.

“Suddenly we as players are thinking the same thing,” Adam Burish once told me. “Holy shit. We have to play well now.”

That brings us to the Utah Hockey Club.

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Inside the Utah Hockey Club’s hectic five-month battle

Of course, it’s completely unfair to expect the league’s newest franchise to enter a golden era of success and win three Stanley Cups in the next eight years, like the Blackhawks did. But the former Arizona Coyotes now have the same feeling as the Blackhawks. They had the same meeting with Ryan Smith on his first day as owner in April, after a get-to-know-you round of golf. And everything they asked for, they got.

Now? You feel freer. Lighter. After decades of mismanagement, after a parade of cartoonishly incompetent owners, after one embarrassing episode after another, after years of the C-suite refusing to behave—to care, to spend, to do anything attempt – like a real NHL team, they are, well, a real NHL team.

They may not have a name yet. But for the first time in ages, they have a chance to fight.

“That’s definitely a feeling we have,” freshman Utah captain Clayton Keller said hours before the franchise’s first game Tuesday night against the Blackhawks. “There are no distractions. You can say whatever you want, but friends, family, people are always asking what’s going on and you don’t really know. It’s nice to be free and focus on our work and what we’re here to do, which is win.”

Tuesday’s 5-2 opening night victory ushered in a new era for a beleaguered group, a splash of excitement and hope. The Utah Hockey Club jerseys aren’t even available for purchase yet, but some fans have made their own. The blue-on-blue color scheme was omnipresent as fans filled the plaza outside the arena for a pregame concert. Fans embraced every aspect of NHL fandom: They booed the referees, booed the Blackhawks and even briefly booed NHL commissioner Gary Bettman — the man who essentially handed the Coyotes to Smith — as he spoke in a montage before the game occurred.

Insistent chants of “Let’s go, DU-tah!” echoed throughout the small, almost claustrophobic arena. They chanted “Spicy Tuna!” in honor of Liam O’Brien. In the first fight between Sean Durzi and Connor Murphy they went full throttle. They drank countless beers on the scoreboard. And when Dylan Guenther, one of Utah’s future (and perhaps current) superstars, flawlessly beat Petr Mrázek and scored the first goal in Utah history, the building shook to its foundations.

The Delta Center rocked as Dylan Guenther scored the franchise’s first goal. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Of course there were nerves and mishaps on the first night. The scoreboard used the Blackhawks’ 2021-22 roster, so Jujhar Khaira, Dominik Kubalik, Dylan Strome and Mike Hardman, among others, were repeatedly listed as being on the ice. And yes, about 5,000 of the fans in attendance were unable to see one of the goals, something we will address but could take a year or three to fix. Minor little things, really. Nothing would ruin this party.

It was an exciting debut for an enthusiastic fan base and an enthusiastic group of hockey players who got a glimpse of how the other half – well, the other 31/32 – lived. It was a chaotic day full of pomp and circumstance and out-of-control emotions. Not exactly the kind of circus routine that hockey players usually crave. But for those who came from Arizona and endured so much bad chaos over the years, experiencing some good chaos was incredibly invigorating.

“This is exciting,” Durzi said. “It’s the kind of drama you want.”

In time, normalcy will return to Salt Lake City and the Utah Whatevers will be just another team in the NHL. But right now, the prevailing feeling in the hockey world is ex-Coyotes luck. People are happy that the chaos is behind them, and they are happy that they have an ownership group that appears both competent and competitive. Even disappointed Coyotes fans seem happy for the players, even if they understandably harbor resentment toward the team and the league.

Connor Murphy gets it. The Blackhawks defenseman was a first-round draft pick of the old Phoenix Coyotes and spent his first four NHL seasons in the desert. Back then, the Coyotes didn’t even have an owner; They were under the direction of the NHL. Murphy said that while all uncertainties can be put aside when they step on the ice, players’ lives are profoundly affected by the ownership issues. The Coyotes didn’t know whether to buy houses or sign long-term contracts. It was a constant, nagging problem. Sometimes it was in the back of my mind, sometimes in the foreground.

But it was always there.

“Especially for the leadership group like Shane Doan,” Murphy said. “A lot of his time was put into this stuff. It’s tiring having to go to political meetings and things like that. When you grow up hoping to be a hockey player, these are things you don’t expect to have to do. For people like him who have a lot of significance to a franchise, it’s definitely a distraction.”

Murphy said he noticed the difference in ownership immediately when he was traded to Chicago – the way the players were cared for, the way the players lived, the way the players traveled , the way the players knew the team would still be there tomorrow. Ownership is perhaps the most important element to long-term success, more than market size, more than coaching and front office, even more than roster. Without stable and wealthy owners, the others don’t play a big role or have little chance. Like it or not, success in professional sports depends not only on finding a billionaire; Right Billionaire.

Ryan and Ashley Smith pose with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman before Utah’s first NHL game on Tuesday. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The Utah Hockey Club now has that. Ryan and Ashley Smith bring not only money, but also experience and expertise. They’re putting money into the Delta Center to make it a hockey arena, not a basketball arena with a hockey team. They’re putting money into a brand new practice facility. And they are investing money in the squad, immediately signing players like Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino over the summer.

For years, Arizona has seemingly taken on every bad, declining contract in the league – deals with low actual salaries but high cap hits – to bypass the system and get to the cap floor without having to actually spend more money. The list of “Coyotes legends” who never wore their uniform is long and ridiculous – including Chris Pronger, Pavel Datsyuk, Dave Bolland and Marián Hossa. The cruel twist for their fans was that the Coyotes’ own cheapness allowed real NHL teams to spend money again and again.

Now Utah is in the game, in the fight. But as Burish discovered 17 years ago in Chicago, this changes the dynamics of this group. Too often for the Coyotes, it felt like success would simply last another season. Success is measured very differently in Utah. Stability creates expectations. Expectations create pressure. The pressure to build a new fan base and retain them. The pressure to make hockey work in an American market that only has 400,000 more people than Winnipeg. To gain pressure, and soon, because then everything else would be taken care of.

After years – nay, decades – of lowering the bar and still managing to stumble over it, the franchise formerly known as the Coyotes has it all and everything that comes with it. Embarrassment gives way to expectation, laziness to pressure. At the end of the day, they are just another NHL team facing normal NHL problems.

From the ashes of Phoenix rises Utah, a team full of potential, full of hope and full of money.

Or as Crouse put it: “No more excuses.”

(Top photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)