The Utah Hockey Club's first training camp is well underway. The team has started the preseason on fire, winning its first two games, one of which was in front of a packed Delta Center full of fans trying to get their first look at their new team.
Through the first week of training camp, there have been a lot of encouraging signs, such as Connor Ingram looking sharp in his first preseason game, Mattias Maccelli and Sean Durzi both registering multiple points on the powerplay in the lone preseason game they have played or Mikhail Sergachev showing the new hometown fans what he is all about posting a 58% on-ice expected goal percentage in his first preseason game in Utah.
While these performances warrant a lot of excitement from fans, Utah gave fans another reason to be excited on Wednesday.
Before training camp started, the Utah Hockey Club announced that 64 players would attend. However, a few of these players were missing when camp opened due to injury. One was Utah's 2024 first-round draft pick, Tij Iginla, who was drafted sixth overall.
Well, Tij, son of NHL legend Jerome Iginla, skated with the team for the first time Wednesday and was highly impressive!
Tij Iginla shines in first practice with the Utah Hockey Club
After being drafted by Utah in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft, Iginla suffered a lower-body injury, which caused him to miss Utah's entire rookie camp and the start of training camp.
With Iginla returning to the ice today for the first time, Utah coaches and players had a chance to watch the kid up close, and he did not disappoint.
Utah Hockey Club Insider Cole Bagley was at the Olympic Oval, documenting Iginla's first practice with the club. He posted clips of Iginla flying up and down the ice and ripping pucks in the back of the net in shooting drills. But he also noted that Iginla scored two goals in the five-on-five portion of the practice.
After the skate, Iginla admitted that he is not yet 100% healthy (via KSL Sports). Still, it is highly encouraging to hear that Iginla is already keeping up with the pace of practice and is getting close to being fully healthy.
It is still yet to be determined whether Iginla will make the big club in year one, but being close to 100% this early in the preseason hopefully means we will see him suit up for Utah in an actual game. But, I am sure everyone is looking forward to seeing what he can do against NHL competition after lighting up the OHL last year, tallying 99 points in 77 games, including the playoffs.