The Utah Hockey Club has anointed Clayton Keller as the first captain in franchise history, the team announced Friday.
It’s a fitting honor for the team’s first star. But dating back to this roster’s time in Arizona as the Coyotes, it’s been Keller’s team ever since former captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson was traded to the Canucks in the 2021 offseason. The 2016 seventh-overall pick has broken out as an undeniable first-line threat since then, averaging just shy of a point per game over the last three seasons.
The 26-year-old winger took a career-high 228 shots on goal last season while averaging 19:15 per game, scoring 33 times and adding 43 assists for 76 points in 78 contests. It was the second time Keller hit the 30-goal mark in as many years.
He’ll be the focal point of Utah’s offense in Year One, but it’ll no longer rest entirely on his shoulders. The work that general manager Bill Armstrong did to construct a roster rebuild in Arizona should start coming to fruition this season in Salt Lake City. Names like Josh Doan and Dylan Guenther are slated to be full-time NHLers for the first time, and 2022 third-overall pick Logan Cooley is primed for a step forward after hitting 20 goals and 44 points in his rookie season.
Keller exceeded the point-per-game mark once during his 86-point showing in all 82 appearances in 2022-23. Utah will likely be in the wild-card mix for a good long while this season with John Marino and Mikhail Sergachev now in tow on the back end, but if they’re set to bring postseason hockey to Salt Lake City in 2025, they’ll likely need new career-highs from their new captain.
Have they announced a timeline for giving this club a proper name, or are they just gonna roll with Utah HC?
They said multiple times over the offseason it’s only for year one. Had a fan vote on a permanent team name that will roll from 2025-26 onward
I’ve heard talk over the past year on NHL radio of them being called the Utah Yeti. According to Bill Armstrong, it has been an extremely popular name, especially with kids.
Utah Football Team, I thought they were going with…
Kids are idiots and Yeti is gimmicky garbage.
Utah Americans, Utah 96’s, Utah Cimarron, Utah Summits.
Reminder that we literally have a team called the “Maple Leafs” and your gatekeeping is pointless in consideration of that reality.
As a Canadian, the maple leaf is a symbol for the country. No different than Americans loving the stars and stripes.
“… gatekeeping is pointless in consideration of that reality.” sounds like something from a 12 year old’s book report written by Chat GPT the night before its due.
Yeti is a bad name. At least add an ‘s’ to make it Utah Yetis. I don’t really understand this trend of not pluralizing new team names (e.g., Seattle Kraken, Utah Yeti, Edmonton Elk).
Good team names should pay homage to the history, traditions, and/or geography of the host city and/or state/province. Yeti does none of those things.
The plural of Yeti is Yeti. Just like the Manitoba Moose. The plural of elk is also… Elk. English is a silly language.
Kraken also works, because the creature itself is so massive each player could be seen as a tentacle – a single being working in unison to a common goal. It’s clever, I like it.
That’s kinda a blanket-statement about the youngsters. Why can’t a name be fun? I see no issue considering that it is a region that is both mountainous and forested. It sounds better than the Utah Bigfoot or, in the case of your desire for an incorrectly plural name, Bigfeet.
Yeti feels like a cheap attempt to ride the hype of the Kraken, but whatever.
Just because the little kids you hangout with are smarter than you, doesn’t mean they aren’t stupid.
perfect name is the Swarm with the arena named the Hive
The perfect name is the Utah Swarm and they play at the Delta Hive? And are they the same colours as Boston and Pittsburgh? Or is there more to your perfect scenario?
Relax there skipper, you’re getting awfully worked up over being called out.
Your pettiness aside, I don’t much care for the “Yeti” as a name, but if it sells tickets (which it will), that’s business. Calling them the “96’s” any kind of numerical name just sounds dated. Ottawa has the “67’s”, Philly has the “76ers”, and San Fran has the 49ers. Hard pass. Though, you might have something with the “Summits”.
I’ll die on the hill that the “Salt Lake City Spectre” was the best idea they could have gone with.
Hate Kraken and Yeti, but I bet that’s it so I won’t bother trying to come up with a better one. I have a different issue with this club…
When I saw the Utah color scheme, I thought of the Pens’Winter Classic jerseys and liked it, but…seeing them in reality, they are just knockoff Winnipeg jerseys. In the same division, no less.
Just because I think you’re a moron, doesn’t mean I’m worked up.
Next time you see someone wearing a sasquatch t-shirt, ask them how many hockey games they’ve been to. They will say none, and return to their parents basement.
Team names don’t sell tickets, winning does.
And this team will sell tickets by doing both. Have you even seen the roster that they’ve been building over the years?
Stop being such a doofus.
Says the guy who thinks 10,000 people are buying season tickets because they have a Yeti on their jersey