Utah Hockey Club’s first season is about to start. Here are names, dates and rules you need to know to sound like a true fan

Utah Hockey Club’s first regular-season game as a franchise is quickly approaching.
The team will play at home Tuesday night at 8 p.m. MDT at the Delta Center against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Although less than 48 hours remain before the puck drops, there’s still time for you to study up so that you sound like a true hockey fan as the action unfolds.
There’s probably not enough time to memorize the whole Utah Hockey Club roster by Tuesday night, but you can get to know the key players.
Here are some names you should know.
Clayton Keller led the Arizona Coyotes in both goals and points each of the past three seasons. He is the second-longest-tenured member of the team and was recently named team captain.
Keller isn’t a huge talker, but he gets his job done.
When the Coyotes drafted Barrett Hayton fifth overall in 2018, they intended for him to become the first-line center — one of the most important players on the team. He is now developing into that role, though probably slower than the organization would have wanted.
Hayton spent most of last season on the injured reserve, so staying healthy will be goal No. 1 for him this year. He can be flashy at times, as you may have seen in Tuesday’s preseason game against the San Jose Sharks.
Rounding out the first line is Nick Schmaltz. Schmaltz came to the Coyotes via trade when they sent Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2018. Something clicked with this group for Schmaltz, and he’s been a top point producer on the team ever since.
Fun fact: Schmaltz once scored seven points in one game. The all-time NHL record for points scored in a game is held by Darryl Sittler, who got 10 in 1976.
If Utah HC wins the Stanley Cup in the next decade or so, it’s very likely that Logan Cooley will have played a massive part in it. He’s a good mix of flashy and responsible, which might be the best combination to have.
Drafted third overall in 2022 by the Coyotes, Cooley is still young and has lots of room to grow.
Shhh. Matias Maccelli is the best-kept secret in the NHL. Don’t let the other teams know how good he is.
Maccelli is as elite a playmaker as they come. He has a unique ability to see plays before they happen, allowing him to make passes that nobody else would have thought possible.
As noted earlier, Keller is the second-longest-tenured player on the team. Lawson Crouse is No. 1.
The 6-foot-4 power forward is good for half a point per game and plays a crucial role in protecting his teammates. He has earned the nickname “The Sheriff” because when opponents take liberties on the ice, he’s there to physically reprimand them.
You may recognize Dylan Guenther’s name from headlines as he recently signed an eight-year contract extension worth a little more than $7.1 million a year. He hasn’t played a full season in the NHL, but you wouldn’t know it based on how he plays or how he carries himself.
Guenther possesses an elite shot. Combined with an above-average vision for playmaking, that makes for a good hockey player. He has won at virtually every level he has played at, and he hopes to uphold that trend during his time in Utah.
Speaking of winning, Utah HC added two-time Stanley Cup champion Mikhail Sergachev via trade over the summer.
You’d probably assume that someone who has twice captured the hardest trophy in sports to win is nearing the end of his career, but that’s not the case. Sergachev is only 26 years old and has seven years remaining on his contract.
Oh, and by the way, he’s an elite player. He’s easily Utah Hockey Club’s best defenseman.
Utah’s next-best defenseman is probably Sean Durzi, whom the Coyotes acquired two offseasons ago from the Los Angeles Kings. Durzi is an offensively gifted defenseman who does not get enough credit for his sound defensive play.
If you care about likability ratings, this guy is probably at the top of the list. He’s a guy who will go out of his way to talk to fans. If you see him out in public, don’t be shy.
Another big trade this summer sent John Marino to Utah HC from the New Jersey Devils. In fact, he was traded just minutes after the team acquired Sergachev.
Marino is a versatile defenseman who brings a lot to the lineup, both on and off the ice. He is injured right now, but is expected to be back in the lineup soon.
Connor Ingram will likely be Utah Hockey Club’s No. 1 goalie this year. Despite having sub-par defensive support in Arizona, he’s coming off of back-to-back seasons with good save percentages. With the team’s recent defensive acquisitions, he’s probably bound for a true breakout season.
If you watched the NHL awards show in June, you may recognize Ingram as the winner of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to a player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.” He won the award for battling OCD and depression — trials that put him through the NHLPA Player Assistance Program.
Ingram’s courage should not be understated here. He entered the program at a time when his hockey career was far from set in stone. He had not made life-changing money yet, and choosing to sit out the better part of a season could have ended his NHL career. But he knew he needed the help and now he’s much better for it.
Bill Armstrong is the general manager of Utah Hockey Club.
If he looks big and strong, that’s because he is. He played nine seasons in the AHL and the IHL as an enforcer. But he’s as nice a guy as there is.
Shortly after the announcement was made that Arizona’s NHL team was moving to Utah, team owner Ryan Smith hired Chris Armstrong to be the president of hockey operations. He’s essentially a second general manager, though he’s technically Bill Armstrong’s boss.
Chris Armstrong makes decisions regarding both hockey and business for the team. Before joining the club, he spent 14 years as an executive at Wasserman, a sports marketing and management firm in Los Angeles.
Andre Tourigny is the head coach of the Utah Hockey Club. The French pronunciation of his name can be difficult, so lots of people call him “Bear.” He’ll answer to either.
Tourigny is a lifelong coach. He’s only 50 years old and he’s been coaching full time for 26 years. Utah is his first gig as an NHL head coach, but he was previously an assistant coach with both the Colorado Avalanche and the Ottawa Senators. He was also a head coach in the QMJHL, the OHL and a few other leagues.
You can’t get away with only knowing Utah Hockey Club players. Here are a few important stars from around the league.
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl might be the most dominant pair of teammates we’ve seen since the days of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr.
McDavid is widely regarded as the best player in the world, while Draisaitl is in most people’s top five.
McDavid is especially camera-shy, though he is featured in the new Amazon series “Faceoff: Inside the NHL.”
Both men play for the Edmonton Oilers, who lost in game seven of the Stanley Cup Final last year.
If you plan to participate in hockey social media, you’ll undoubtedly see these three names in every other post. That’s because they play for the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of the most polarizing teams in sports. They’re either your favorite team or your sworn enemy — there’s no in-between.
By the time he’s done playing, Auston Matthews could hold the NHL’s all-time goals record. He scored 69 goals last year, something that hadn’t been done since 1995-96.
Mitch Marner is the subject of nonstop trade rumors. It’s mostly because he plays under the microscope that is the Toronto media. There are countless reporters, all with stories to write and air time to fill, and Marner trade projections garner a lot of interest. Despite all that, Marner is a superb player who doesn’t get enough credit for his defensive play.
“Willy Styles,” as William Nylander is affectionately nicknamed, is beloved for his off-ice personality just as much as his on-ice dominance. He’s always sporting trendy new outfits and modeling on Instagram.
It’s only his second year in the NHL, but Connor Bedard is expected to overtake McDavid as the best player in the world. He scored nearly a point per game as an 18-year-old last year, which is nothing compared to his 143 points in 57 WHL games in his draft year.
Like McDavid, Bedard doesn’t love attention. He’s fueled by a desire to be the best, but he doesn’t want the spotlight. His Chicago Blackhawks could end their rebuild around the same time as Utah HC, and being in the same division, they could meet in the playoffs for years going forward.
Sidney Crosby is the childhood idol of every hockey fan who grew up in the 2000s and 2010s. He has won everything he can win and he still wants more. Even at age 37, he’s still a top player in the league.
He has played his entire career with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Crosby’s longtime rival, Alex Ovechkin, is on the verge of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s goal record. He’s 41 short of tying it and 42 shy of breaking it.
He scored 42 goals two seasons ago and 31 goals last year, so it’s not out of the question that he could do it this season.
Ovechkin plays for the Washington Capitals, and like Crosby, has spent his whole career with the same team.
The Colorado Avalanche boast one of the most skilled forwards and arguably the most skilled defenseman in the league: Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. Needless to say the Avalanche are good.
Both players are in the primes of their careers. They won the Stanley Cup in 2022 and they have their sights set on it again this year.
If you play EA Sports’ NHL 25, you’ll probably recognize these three brothers from the cover of the game. Jack and Luke play for the New Jersey Devils and Quinn plays for the Vancouver Canucks.
Quinn won the Norris Trophy last year as the best defenseman, and is probably the only player in the same stratosphere as Makar in regards to all-around play.
Jack is a high-scoring forward and, unlike his brothers, is a darling for the cameras. Luke is a defenseman entering his sophomore season in the NHL, though he’s currently injured.
Do you remember that guy everyone was booing at the draft? That’s Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the NHL.
Fans love to hate him, but they don’t realize that without him, the league probably would have folded in the early 2000s. He is a financial genius and he’s a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame for good reason.
Here are some dates to mark on your calendar.
The NHL trade deadline is March 7 at 1 p.m.
Trades can still be made after this, but the traded players will be ineligible to compete in the playoffs. For that reason, the only deals that typically happen after the trade deadline involve only minor-league players.
The Four Nations Face-off is an international tournament being put on for the first time this year by the NHL. It involves Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland, and it will replace the NHL all-star break.
It will go from Feb. 12-20 with games in Boston and Montreal.
The other important international tournament is the World Junior Championship, commonly referred to as the “World Juniors.” Its magnitude in the hockey world is comparable to that of the NCAA’s March Madness tournament in basketball.
This tournament involves the best U20 players in the world. Most of the NHL’s top players played in the World Juniors when they were younger.
The World Juniors always starts on Dec. 26. The gold medal game this year will be on Jan. 5.
Just like in the NBA, the NHL playoffs start in early-to-mid-April and end in late June.
Here are some rules that you’ll need to know to make sense of hockey. For other important hockey terms, check out this recent Deseret News article.
Note that almost every penalty can be increased to a major penalty and further if the referees determine that there was an attempt to injure, but for the purpose of conciseness, we’ll just talk about the common determinations for each penalty.
Let’s get into penalties now.
Slashing is simple: You can’t hit someone with your stick. If you do, you get a two-minute minor penalty for slashing.
Hooking is when you impede an opponent with your stick. Think of it like a shepherd using a cane to pull a sheep. If you do it in hockey, you get a two-minute minor penalty.
You already know what tripping is. If you trip someone, you sit in the box for two minutes with a minor penalty.
You can hit someone with your body, but if you use the section of your stick between your hands to hit someone, you’ll get a two-minute cross-checking minor.
Interference is when you either hit or impede the path of someone who doesn’t have the puck. It results in a two-minute minor.
Goaltender interference is when a player either makes major contact with the opposing goalie, or when he prevents the opposing goalie from making a save by making contact with him.
The former results in a two-minute minor, and the latter typically just results in a goal being called off.
Boarding is when a player uses the boards as a weapon. What does that look like? It’s usually when you hit someone who’s in a vulnerable position.
Sometimes, a player is hunched over and gets hit into the boards. Other times, a player can be just the right distance from the boards that when he gets hit, he goes headfirst into the boards.
The array of punishment for boarding can be wide. It’s up to the referees’ discretion based on how egregious the infraction is.
A team can have six players on the ice at any time — typically five skaters and a goalie. If an additional player comes on the ice and has an impact on the play, it results in a minor penalty for too many men.
When a player shoots the puck directly over the glass from the defensive zone, he gets a minor penalty for it. However, if the puck is deflected or if it touches the glass before going over, it is not a penalty. Also, if the puck goes onto the bench, it is not a penalty as there is no glass there.
A high-sticking penalty is when you clip someone in the face with your stick. If it results in an injury — most commonly by drawing blood — it’s a four-minute double minor. Otherwise, it’s a two-minute minor.
It’s important to note that a high-stick that is the result of a shot or a pass is not a penalty.
The other type of high-sticking is when a player contacts the puck with his stick above his shoulders. If he or one of his teammates touches the puck next, the whistle is blown and the faceoff occurs one zone closer to that team’s end than where the play originally was.
If the other team is the first to touch the puck after a high stick, the play continues.
Here’s a phrase to remember to understand offside: “Black over blue before you.”
Essentially, the puck has to cross the blue line into the offensive zone before any players on the attacking team do. If a player crosses first, the linesman blows the whistle and a faceoff ensues just outside the blue line.
There is no penalty associated with offside — it just breaks up the play.
Also note that in hockey, offside is not plural. It’s not “offsides” unless, for some reason, you’re talking about more than one offside.
When a player on his own side of the red line shoots the puck past the other team’s goal line, a race starts. The race ends when a player arrives at the top of the faceoff circle in that zone, and the winner is the team whose player had the best chance of getting to the puck first.
It used to be an actual race to touch the puck, but it resulted in too many injuries.
If the offensive team wins the race, play goes on. If the defensive team wins, the linesman blows the whistle and the faceoff occurs in the other team’s zone. If the defensive team wins, the offensive team is not allowed to change players until after the following faceoff.
As is the case with offside, icing does not result in a penalty. It does, however, give the defending team the advantage of having an offensive zone faceoff.
Note that when a team is killing a penalty, it can ice the puck without getting called for it.
Be sure to follow the Deseret News’ coverage of Utah Hockey Club to continue learning more about the team and hockey in general.
Every game with be sandwiched by a pre-game and a post-game article, both with the intent to teach the game of hockey to the new fans in Utah.