The Utah Hockey Club is one of the most interesting stories going into the 2024-25 NHL Season. Not solely because it will be their inaugural season but because they have the potential to take a massive leap up the standings and contend for a playoff spot.
However, this scenario of Utah contending for a playoff spot is contingent on many of Utah's young core taking significant steps forward in their development. There is little reason to expect these guys to regress or stay stagnant, as this team has improved its win total and point percentage in all three years under Head Coach Andre Tourigny.
With the expectation being Utah's young core taking a massive step forward, here are my three bold predictions for the Utah Hockey Club's inaugural season,
Three bold takes for Utah Hockey Club's inaugural season
- Clayton Keller's first 95-point season
I'll be the first to admit that 95 for Keller is a very bold prediction, but that is the point of this article. Keller's career high in points was 86 in the 2022-2023 season.
Keller is entering his ninth NHL season, yet he is only 26. He is just entering his prime and finally has some actual talent to play with. In addition to having other talented offensive players around him, the Utah Hockey Club has a competitive blueline with a defence that will get the puck out of the defensive end and on the forward's sticks.
Over the last two years, Keller has been a point-per-game player, getting out-chanced in every metric while on the ice. With three competent defensive pairings and tons of emerging offensive talent around him, Utah and Keller should be playing much in the offensive zone this year, leading to the best offensive season of his career.
- Connor Ingram gets Vezina Trophy votes
Connor Ingram finished the 2023-24 NHL season tied for the league lead with six shutouts. However, he was highly inconsistent, as only 56% of his starts were quality, and 22% were graded as really bad starts (via Hockey Reference).
However, most of that can be attributed to how bad the Coyotes were defensively last season, as they allowed the sixth-most expected goals per game. This year, with the additions of Mikhail Sergachev, John Marino, and Ian Cole, Utah should be much improved defensively, and we have a little bit of evidence of that with Utah allowing the eighth-lowest expected goals per game through the first few games of the preseason.
Ingram may not win the Vezina, but I bet he has a good enough garner vote and gets into the conversation.
- Mikhail Sergachev gets Norris Trophy votes
Sergachev missed most of last season due to injuries; when he played, it was a down year by his standards. However, knowing how much these injuries affected him on the ice is hard.
The year before, Sergachev posted 64 points in 79 games and finished the 2022-23 season 16th in the Norris Trophy voting while splitting powerplay time with Victor Hedman.
He will start the year in Utah as the unquestioned number one guy. There are questions about whether he is ready for that role, but Sergachev has played 20+ minutes per game in the playoffs for two Stanley Cup-winning teams. He is now 26 years old, and I would not be shocked to see him finish in the top five of the Norris Trophy voting this season.