The National Hockey League is in Las Vegas this weekend, playing on the city’s most spectacular stage, the Sphere. A number of stars will become available on Monday when the league opens its free agency period.
The Utah Hockey Club, with new fans and a new owner to please, will have the most salary cap in the NHL: more than $40 million.
With so much cash and this background, it would be so easy to risk everything.
It would be so obvious. It would be so expected.
It wouldn’t be Bill Armstrong either.
“It’s our fourth year of rebuilding,” the team’s general manager said this week. “We shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves.”
The GM’s life is different now, but the work remains the same.
Armstrong realizes he’s a minor celebrity in Utah. People wave at him on the streets around Salt Lake City, he says. When an Uber gives him a ride, they know who he is. That hasn’t happened in Arizona, he says – there are more people in the desert, but everything else is lit up with more attention.
There is no doubt about it: Utah residents are firmly focused on their new major league pastime and the soon-to-be-renamed Utah Hockey Club. But these Utah spectators don’t just want hockey, they want good hockey. Playoff hockey. With the astronomically high ticket prices, they want to be entertained.
Oh, and that’s not the only pressure Armstrong faces. He has to please a new owner: Ryan Smith, who just spent over a billion dollars, probably more than market value, on his new professional sports team.
Smith also just appointed a new man to the helm: former sports agent Chris Armstrong, who is not related to Bill. Chris Armstrong has worked in both hockey and golf in recent years (his most famous client was Utah golfer Tony Finau), but was named president of hockey operations for the new hockey club shortly after Smith took over the team.
All in all, circumstances arise that require a lightning strike.
Lots of money? Done. New bosses who need to impress? Done. An expectant, passionate fan base? Over 34,000 checks for season ticket deposits.
The team could spend big money now, preferably on a flashy new forward – 57-goal scorer and Cup winner Sam Reinhart and 40-goal scorer Jake Guentzel are both on the free agent market. There have even been unsubstantiated rumors that Utah is signing Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner.
But Armstrong does not believe that his team
He believes that the team’s management needs to focus on defense rather than attack.
“We need to add some defenders to strengthen our team and take the next step,” Armstrong said.
He believes the team should spend some of the available salary cap space in the offseason but save the majority to pay its young talent later.
“We can do a lot of good things. But I don’t necessarily believe that if we reach our limit, we’ll win the Stanley Cup next year,” he said.
He believes the No. 6 pick in Friday’s draft and the rest of his 13 picks in the 2024 NHL Draft are unlikely to play in the top league right away. “They play a lot of minutes down there, they have a great developmental role down there and when they move up, they end up fighting harder.”
He believes his team can follow in the footsteps of the newly crowned Florida Panthers. “Florida beat Edmonton (in Game 7) by +11… We’re going to continue to build our team not only with hockey sense, but with some size and grit.”
And yes, he believes his team can bring the Stanley Cup to Utah – not now, but later.
Under his plan, the Utah Hockey Club’s success will not be rushed. It will come when it is meant to come, when the young players he recruits are collectively ready. And when it does, Armstrong believes the process will culminate in one of the longest periods of sustained success the modern NHL has ever seen.
Time will tell if that moment will come. As Utah’s NHL team heads into its first offseason, he’s hoping not for a huge leap, but for a small, sensible step.
