Early Wednesday morning, the Utah Hockey Club announced they would send Tij Iginla back to the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL. This ended Tij Iginla's first NHL training camp, and he will now have to play out the year back in the Canadian Hockey League, where he put up 84 points in 64 games last year.
The Utah Hockey Club drafted Tij, the son of NHL legend Jerome Iginla, with the sixth pick of the first round of the 2024 NHL entry draft back at the end of June. This selection will forever mark Tij Iginla as the first player ever drafted by the Utah Hockey Club!
Even though Iginla was a lottery pick, there was no real expectation that he would play at the NHL level this season. Utah's forward core has a ton of depth (see the ongoing battle for the last roster spot between Josh Doan & Kailer Yamamoto), and they don't need to rush Iginla into the NHL and possibly hinder his development.
Although he was sent back to his junior team, that does not mean he did not impress in camp! Iginla left a positive impression on management, the coaching staff and his teammates. This kid has a bright future ahead of him in Utah!
Utah Hockey Club sends Tij Iginla down to Kelowna Rockets
The Utah Hockey Club has a luxury that many other teams don't have: depth. While 64 players were invited to training camp, 37 of which were forwards, Utah was not interested in adding new prospects to the mix as they already had 13-15 NHL quality forwards signed when the team can only dress 12.
Going into camp, Clayton Keller, Barrett Hayton, Nick Schmaltz, Jack McBain, Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Lawson Crouse, Alex Kefoot, Matias Maccelli, Michael Carcone, Nick Bjugstad and Kevin Stenlund all felt locked into a roster spot. That is 12 forwards, enough for a full lineup, essentially only leaving one place to fill out the forward group.
Josh Doan and Kailer Yamamoto were brought in on a professional tryout contract throughout training camp, and they have been battling for this last spot.
Even though the path for Iginla to play in the NHL this season was not open, it does not discount anything he did in camp. Iginla left management, the coaching staff and players in awe with the few skates he had with the team; Utah superstar Clayton Keller gave Iginla a glowing five-star review, saying, "You can tell right away. He shoots it very good as well. The first couple skates I was surprised at how hard and good he shoots it. He's going to be a special player…a guy I'm looking forward to playing with soon." (via KSL Sports).
There were numerous quotes I could have chosen from praising Iginla, but the reality is, there isn't room for him on this team this year, and that is perfectly okay! Iginla will be better off dominating junior hockey for another year rather than playing a 4th line role with Utah. It will be exciting to see what kind of numbers Iginla puts up in his fourth year in the WHL & here at Utah On Ice, we will follow his progress all year long!