What tips does the Utah Hockey Club have? – Deseret News

The 2024 NHL Draft begins on Friday at 5:00 p.m. MDT at the Sphere in Las Vegas, and for the first time ever, a team from Utah will participate.

Utah Hockey Club – as Utah’s new NHL franchise will be called in the 2024-25 season – is not just meant to be a simple participant, however. UHC has the largest selection of picks of any team in the draft, a total of 13 in seven rounds, including pick No. 6 in the first round. Seven of Utah’s 13 picks are in the first three rounds.

If no transfers happen, the Utah Hockey Club should be the talk of the draft due to its sheer numbers, not to mention that Utah is new to the league in name at least after moving from Arizona, so it seems new fans should tune in.

In fact, there are also arguments for not watching the 2024 NHL Draft.

Tips, tips and more tips

As mentioned above, the biggest attraction regarding Utah and the upcoming NHL Draft is the sheer amount of selections UHC could make.

With 13 picks, the Utah Hockey Club has the most picks in the 2024 NHL Draft, just ahead of the Montreal Canadiens with 12 picks and the Philadelphia Flyers with 10.

The large number of picks is a continuation of a trend for the franchise, as Arizona has accumulated many draft picks over the past few years as part of a long and significant rebuild. That rebuild is also not complete yet, as UHC will also have seven picks in the first three rounds of the 2025 draft.

Having such a wide selection will help new fans better understand how Utah’s management approaches team building.

Utah is currently known for its high goal-scoring potential and already has three players under 26 in the squad who have scored 20 goals: striker and co-captain Lawson Crouse (26), 23-year-old Matias Maccelli and 19-year-old Logan Cooley.

What UHC lacks is defensemen, and NHL draft predictions early in the draft suggest Utah will go in that direction.

It’s also notable that many of the younger, more promising players already on the team and in the farm system could quickly price themselves out of Utah in the coming seasons. (The NHL operates under a hard cap, meaning teams aren’t allowed to go over the salary limit and if they try to, they can face losing draft picks, players and other penalties.) That means young, cheap talent is especially coveted by the franchise.

Making 13 selections in a single draft is an opportunity to make some changes and prepare for the future, whatever that may look like.

Most of the drafted players will not make it to the NHL

Thirteen draft picks sounds exciting, but there is a reality to drafts that cannot be ignored.

Most of the players UHC selects this week will never make it to the NHL. Instead, they will spend their professional careers in the minor leagues like the AHL and ECHL.

And even among the players who make it to the NHL, most don’t even play in 50 games during their career.

That’s just how this sport works.

According to data compiled by Sound of Hockey, 82% of first-round picks (from 2000 to 2012, a time period chosen so that even the slowest-growing prospects had time to make it to the NHL) played at least 50 NHL games in their careers. That sounds good, and it is, all things considered. But it goes downhill from there, with only 42% of second-round picks doing the same.

Of third-round players, only 32% played in 50 or more NHL games. Of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-round players, only about 20% — 24% for fourth-round players, 23% for fifth-round players and 20% for sixth-round players — played in 50 or more NHL games in their careers. And for seventh-round players, the percentage dropped to 14%.

UHC has only one first-round selection and three second-round picks this season.

Chances are that maybe two of these selections will go on to play important minutes/games for the Utah Hockey Club during their careers.

UHC has an enviable farm system

However, there is reason to hope that at least a significant portion of the players selected by Utah will end up having some impact on the franchise.

This is because Utah is currently ranked as the team with the seventh-best farm system in the league by The Hockey Writers and the team with the ninth-best farm system overall by The Athletic.

According to Logan Horn, Utah’s most promising players include players like Conor Geekie, Victor Söderstrom, Dmitri Simashev, Daniil But and Michael Hrabal. Overall, Utah’s talent pool is “a really solid group of young talent that they hope will help (UHC) emerge from the ashes as a competitive playoff team.”

Last year, Arizona selected two promising players from Russia who are unlikely to play in the NHL anytime soon, but Horn believes it was the right approach, not only for the young players, but also for the long-term benefit of the team.

“Selecting Dmitri Simashev and Daniil But sixth and 12th, respectively, in the 2023 draft was a controversial decision, but I think it makes sense for Arizona,” Horn wrote for The Hockey Writers. “Not only did they get two young players who add size and tons of potential to their roster, but they also got players who are still under contract in Russia for several seasons. That means they’ll be ready to join the team around the time they hopefully establish themselves as a competitive group.”

The Athletic is a little less optimistic about Utah’s farm system, but still sees the current crop of prospects as promising. That means the front office has done well in previous drafts, which raises expectations that even more talent can be found this year.

UHC General Manager Bill Armstrong noted that Utah’s surplus picks give it an even better chance of building a championship team.

“This is obviously a great time for us to draft because we have so many choices, because it gives us options,” he said. “Adding more talent to this organization is a great thing and gives us a chance to be a championship team in the future.”

It will take years for draft picks to make it to Utah

Perhaps the most obvious reason not to follow the draft is that most of the players called up will not be playing for UHC in the near future.

Sometimes it takes more than half a decade for a pick to make his NHL debut.

According to Sound of Hockey (considering players drafted between 2000 and 2017), first-round picks are almost the only players to make their NHL debut in the year they are drafted. More specifically, however, top-five picks are the only players to appear in 30 or more games in the year they are drafted.

Selections in the sixth through 10th range play about 10 to 20 games in that first year, and all first-round selections after 10th place have a hard time making the NHL roster in their first season, the article said.

Anyone not drafted in the first round is much more likely to not make their NHL debut until years after the draft. Even for first-rounders who are not in the top five of their draft, it takes an average of three to four years to make their NHL debut.

According to Sound of Hockey, it took first-round draftees between 2000 and 2017 about six years from the time they were selected to the time they played 50 or more NHL games.

For second-round draft picks from the same period, it took six years before they appeared in just over 20 NHL games.

When draftees make it to the NHL, most do so in their sixth or seventh year of professional careers, but that means it will be six or seven years before most of the players whose names are called this year have a chance of making an impact on Utah’s win (or loss).

To watch or not to watch

Since this draft is the first in which Utah participates as the Utah Hockey Club, it will no doubt be of interest to fans.

And for good reason. Thirteen picks in a single draft is remarkable, and the Utah Hockey Club will stand out early and often.

However, there are also clear reasons not to tune in and instead wait until the NHL preseason begins in September, as most of the players selected for UHC will not have an impact for years, if at all.

Regardless of what you decide, the first round begins on Friday night and with it NHL hockey in Utah.