- Earlier this afternoon, the Utah Hockey Club gave a vague injury update regarding defenseman Sean Durzi. The organization announced Durzi “would be out for the foreseeable future” with an upper-body injury without any additional context. Durzi’s prognosis could be similar to that of Gudbranson’s where the organization won’t have a firm recovery timeline until more tests are performed.
Utah Rumors
Utah Hockey Club Recall Patrik Koch
The Utah Hockey Club will have quite the hole on their defense for the foreseeable future with Sean Durzi dealing with an undisclosed injury. To fill that void, the organization has recalled defenseman Patrik Koch from their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners.
Koch made his way to North America last season by signing a one-year, $848K deal with the Arizona Coyotes after spending much of his professional career in Czechia and Slovakia. He spent nearly the entire season with AHL Tucson scoring one goal and 15 points in 63 games while also collecting 97 PIMs.
Koch, who is from Malacky, Slovakia, was set to become an unrestricted free agent this past offseason. His strong performance at the 2024 IIHF World Championship, where he had one goal and four points, likely contributed to Utah’s decision to sign him to a one-year, $775K contract on June 20th.
He continued his solid play into training camp this September tallying three assists in two games while posting a +5 rating. Utah reassigned Koch to AHL Tucson on October 4th after clearing waivers but he’s been held scoreless after two games to start the year.
The team will likely utilize veteran defenseman Robert Bortuzzo tonight to fill in for the injured Durzi. Should he not meet expectations; however, Koch could make his debut in Utah sooner than expected.
Utah’s Sean Durzi May Miss Time With Injury
Utah defenseman Sean Durzi left the team’s game today against the New Jersey Devils and there may be lasting consequences. Belle Fraser of The Salt Lake Tribune reported the team didn’t have any updates on Durzi but he was seen leaving the game wearing a sling.
It may take until the weekend to unveil the total extent of Durzi’s injury with the team wrapping up their current road trip against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday of this week. The sling suggests Durzi won’t be available for the team in that game and could already be on a plane home to Salt Lake City.
Durzi was off to a great start with Utah before the injury as the team technically still hasn’t lost a game when he was in the lineup. He tallied two assists in the first three games of the year while putting one puck on the net and blocking two shots before exiting the game today. Depending on the severity of the injury the NHL’s newest franchise might be without one of their top defenseman for the foreseeable future.
Durzi’s absence paves the way for veteran defenseman Robert Bortuzzo to make his regular-season debut with the organization. Bortuzzo signed a one-year, $775K contract with Utah this past offseason after posting zero points between the St. Louis Blues and New York Islanders last offseason while averaging 13:44 of ice time in 27 games.
Utah Hockey Club Names Lawson Crouse Associate Captain
- The Utah Hockey Club has already laid out its leadership hierarchy to start the year by naming Clayton Keller the first captain in franchise history. TSN’s Chris Johnston reported earlier the team has named Lawson Crouse an ’associate captain’ for the 2024-25 regular season which is an interesting designation. Most teams refer to players wearing an ’A’ on their jerseys as ’alternate captains’ unlike what Utah has done with Crouse.
[SOURCE LINK]
- The Utah Hockey Club has already laid out its leadership hierarchy to start the year by naming Clayton Keller the first captain in franchise history. TSN’s Chris Johnston reported earlier the team has named Lawson Crouse an ’associate captain’ for the 2024-25 regular season which is an interesting designation. Most teams refer to players wearing an ’A’ on their jerseys as ’alternate captains’ unlike what Utah has done with Crouse.
Utah Hockey Club Signs Kailer Yamamoto
The Utah Hockey Club has its first successful professional tryout agreement in league history. The organization announced they have signed forward Kailer Yamamoto to a one-year, two-way contract for the 2024-25 NHL season.
Yamamoto is hopeful this contract will translate into a solid bounceback year for the former Edmonton Oilers prospect. He was drafted with the 22nd overall pick of the 2017 NHL Draft as one of the smaller players in the class at 5’7″.
The NHL has changed quite a bit over the last few decades with smaller frame players becoming some of the game’s best but this has not been a reality for Yamamoto. He showed flashes of being a reliable top-six scorer as early as the 2019-20 season with 11 goals and 26 points in 27 games for the Oilers.
He fell into a middle-six role from 2020-22 scoring 28 goals and 62 points in Edmonton in 133 games. The team hoped Yamamoto would eventually blossom into a consistent top-six threat and opted for a two-year, $6.2MM bridge contract with their young forward in 2022.
Yamamoto only saw a year of this contract with the Oilers scoring 10 goals and 25 points in 58 games. Edmonton traded Yamamoto with Klim Kostin to the Detroit Red Wings for future considerations the next offseason before he was eventually bought out.
The Seattle Kraken, a 280-mile drive from his native Spokane, became his new landing spot on the back of a one-year, $1.5MM contract. The one-year gamble proved bad for both parties as the Kraken limited Yamamoto to an average of 11:59 of ice time per game and the player produced his lowest offensive output since 2018-19.
The depressed season paved the way for Yamamoto to sign a PTO with the new Utah team for training camp. He’s scored three goals over four preseason contests and will now compete for a spot in Utah’s middle six.
TSN’s Chris Johnston was the first to report Utah had signed Yamamoto.
Waiver Wire: 10/6/24
Today is the major day for the waiver wire as most teams in the NHL are preparing the 23-man rosters for the 2024-25 NHL season. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed that all players on waivers from yesterday have cleared. The following list is each player placed on waivers this afternoon as reported by PuckPedia.
Boston Bruins
F Patrick Brown
G Brandon Bussi
G Jiri Patera
D Billy Sweezey
F Jeffrey Viel
Buffalo Sabres
D Kale Clague
G James Reimer
F Lukas Rousek
Calgary Flames
G Devin Cooley
F Jakob Pelletier
F Cole Schwindt
Carolina Hurricanes
F Josiah Slavin
D Ty Smith
F Ryan Suzuki
Chicago Blackhawks
Detroit Red Wings
F Sheldon Dries
D Justin Holl
D William Lagesson
D Brogan Rafferty
F Joe Snively
Edmonton Oilers
D Josh Brown
F Drake Caggiula
F Raphael Lavoie
G Olivier Rodrigue
Los Angeles Kings
G Pheonix Copley
F Samuel Fagemo
F Jack Studnicka
Nashville Predators
New Jersey Devils
F Shane Bowers
D Nick DeSimone
F Nolan Foote
D Colton White
New York Islanders
D Samuel Bolduc
F Pierre Engvall
F Hudson Fasching
F Liam Foudy
G Marcus Hogberg
D Grant Hutton
F Fredrik Karlstrom
G Jakub Skarek
New York Rangers
Ottawa Senators
Pittsburgh Penguins
D Sebastian Aho
F Bokondji Imama
St. Louis Blues
D Corey Schueneman
D Tyler Tucker
Tampa Bay Lightning
F Gage Goncalves
D Steven Santini
F Jesse Ylonen
Toronto Maple Leafs
G Matt Murray
D Marshall Rifai
Utah Hockey Club
Vancouver Canucks
Vegas Golden Knights
F Zach Aston-Reese
F Tanner Laczynski
F Jonas Rondbjerg
Washington Capitals
Winnipeg Jets
Utah Names Clayton Keller Captain
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.
Waiver Wire: 10/3/24
All 12 players placed on waivers yesterday passed through unclaimed, Chris Johnston of The Athletic and TSN reports. PuckPedia relays that 17 new names hit the wire today for teams to claim over the next 24 hours:
Calgary Flames
F Walker Duehr
F Dryden Hunt
D Jarred Tinordi
Florida Panthers
F Rasmus Asplund
D Tobias Björnfot
F Zac Dalpe
D Jaycob Megna
Nashville Predators
Seattle Kraken
Toronto Maple Leafs
Utah Hockey Club
F Andrew Agozzino
D Patrik Koch
F Ben McCartney
Winnipeg Jets
F Axel Jonsson-Fjällby
D Simon Lundmark
F Mason Shaw
F Dominic Toninato
Training Camp Cuts: 10/3/24
We’re still five days away from opening night, but the regular season technically kicks off tomorrow, with the Devils and Sabres taking each other on in Prague. Most teams have trimmed over a third of their initial training camp rosters by this point, and most have no more than five to 10 cuts left to make – if that – before they reach their final form. Today should mark some of the last minor moves involving players who never had much of a shot, with the weekend signaling an end to much fiercer camp battles. All of Thursday’s cuts will be listed here:
Last updated 5:03 p.m.
Buffalo Sabres (per team announcement)
F Tyson Kozak (to AHL Rochester)
Calgary Flames (per team announcement)
D Hunter Brzustewicz (to AHL Calgary)
F Martin Frk (to AHL Calgary)
F Justin Kirkland (to AHL Calgary)
F Sam Morton (to AHL Calgary)
Columbus Blue Jackets (per team release)
D Ole Julian Bjørgvik-Holm (to AHL Cleveland)
Nashville Predators (per team release)
F Zachary L’Heureux (to AHL Milwaukee)
F Ozzy Wiesblatt (to AHL Milwaukee)
D Adam Wilsby (to AHL Milwaukee)
New York Rangers (per team announcement)
F Benoit-Olivier Groulx (to AHL Hartford)
Pittsburgh Penguins (per team announcement)
D Mac Hollowell (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
F Jimmy Huntington (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
F Marc Johnstone (to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
Seattle Kraken (per team announcement)
D Cale Fleury (to AHL Coachella Valley, pending waivers)
Toronto Maple Leafs (per team announcement)
F Nicholas Abruzzese (to AHL Toronto, pending waivers)
D Matt Anderson (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
F Matthew Barbolini (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
D Jacob Bengtsson (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
F Jacob Frasca (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
G Jon Gillies (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
F Mathieu Gosselin (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
G Dennis Hildeby (to AHL Toronto)
F Braeden Kressler (to AHL Toronto)
F Brandon Lisowsky (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
F Robert Mastrosimone (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
D Ryan McCleary (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
D Tommy Miller (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
D Rhett Parsons (released from ATO to AHL Toronto)
G Vyacheslav Peksa (to AHL Toronto)
D Chas Sharpe (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
F Marko Sikic (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
F Zach Solow (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
F Sam Stevens (released from PTO to AHL Toronto)
D William Villeneuve (to AHL Toronto)
F Ty Voit (to AHL Toronto)
Utah Hockey Club (per team announcement) – waivers separate
F Andrew Agozzino (to AHL Tucson, pending waivers)
F Miloš Kelemen (to AHL Tucson)
D Patrik Koch (to AHL Tucson, pending waivers)
D Maveric Lamoureux (to AHL Tucson)
F Ben McCartney (to AHL Tucson, pending waivers)
F Aku Raty (to AHL Tucson)
D Maksymilian Szuber (to AHL Tucson)
Winnipeg Jets (per the team’s Mitchell Clinton)
D Tyrel Bauer (to AHL Manitoba)
F Axel Jonsson-Fjällby (to AHL Manitoba, pending waivers)
D Dmitry Kuzmin (to AHL Manitoba)
D Simon Lundmark (to AHL Manitoba, pending waivers)
G Thomas Milic (to AHL Manitoba)
F Mason Shaw (to AHL Manitoba, pending waivers)
F Dominic Toninato (to AHL Manitoba, pending waivers)
Training Camp Cuts: 10/2/24
We’re in the final stages of teams making sweeping training camp cuts before the true final roster battles come into play. There are only six days to go until opening night, and most teams now only have five to 10 players – if that – to trim from their rosters to comply with the 23-player maximum. We’ll list all of Wednesday’s cuts here.
Last updated 1:33 p.m.
Carolina Hurricanes (per the team’s Walt Ruff)
G Spencer Martin (to AHL Chicago, pending waivers)
Chicago Blackhawks (per Mario Tirabassi of CHGO Sports)
D Louis Crevier (to AHL Rockford)
D Kevin Korchinski (to AHL Rockford)
F Frank Nazar (to AHL Rockford)
F AJ Spellacy (to OHL Windsor)
Colorado Avalanche (per team announcement)
D Jack Ahcan (to AHL Colorado, pending waivers)
D Sean Behrens (to AHL Colorado)
F Jean-Luc Foudy (to AHL Colorado)
F Jere Innala (to AHL Colorado)
F Jayson Megna (released from PTO to AHL Colorado)
G Trent Miner (to AHL Colorado)
F Matthew Phillips (to AHL Colorado, pending waivers)
F Jason Polin (to AHL Colorado)
D Calle Rosén (to AHL Colorado, pending waivers)
F Matthew Stienburg (to AHL Colorado)
Columbus Blue Jackets (per team release)
F Trey Fix-Wolansky (to AHL Cleveland, pending waivers)
New York Rangers (per team release)
F Anton Blidh (to AHL Hartford)
G Louis Domingue (to AHL Hartford)
D Casey Fitzgerald (to AHL Hartford)
G Dylan Garand (to AHL Hartford)
D Brandon Scanlin (to AHL Hartford)
Pittsburgh Penguins (per team announcement)
F Avery Hayes (released from PTO to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
D Dan Renouf (released from PTO to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
San Jose Sharks (per team announcement)
F Andrew Poturalski (to AHL San Jose)
F Scott Sabourin (to AHL San Jose)
F Colin White (released from PTO to AHL San Jose)
Utah Hockey Club (per team announcement)
F Tij Iginla (to WHL Kelowna)
Vegas Golden Knights (per team release)
D Robert Hägg (to AHL Henderson)
F Mason Morelli (to AHL Henderson)
G Akira Schmid (to AHL Henderson)