6. Utah Hockey Club
Last season Utah finished seventh in the central with 77 points.
This offseason Utah had some pretty significant additions to their roster this season. They added John Marino, Mikhail Sergachev, Ian Cole and Kevin Stenlund. In turn they lost J.J Moser, Conor Geekie and Josh Brown.
They have pretty much rebuilt their blue line over the offseason. The acquisitions of Sergachev, Marino and Cole have given Utah a new look on their defence core while also moving out J.J Moser who played 80 games for them last season. Sergachev is projected to play on the first pair with Sean Durzi while Marino is on the second pair with Juuso Valimaki. I thought Sergachev was overrated in Tampa but that doesn't make him a bad player. It is an upgrade for Utah on the top pair. Marino used to be one of the best defensive defensemen and has since had a drop-off. If he can bounce back after a tough year in New Jersey, that would be big for Utah.
The forward core is very similar to last year with the core pieces of Keller, Cooley, Hayton and Guenther. They also have other nice pieces in Schmaltz, Crouse and Macelli. Josh Doan, the son of Coyotes legend Shane Doan, is going into his first full season in the NHL. Doan played 11 games with the Coyotes last year, scoring five goals and four assists for a total of nine points. Steps from Cooley, Hayton, Guenther, Doan and another great season from Keller could make this team very solid offensively.
I like their tandem of Ingram and Vejmelka and I think we'll see another solid season from the two of them.
While I don't think they'll make the playoffs, I like Utah this year. The blue line is better and I would bet on their young forwards taking steps and producing more this year. The problem is I'm not sure that Utah got 15 points better than last year. This season will be better but I still think the teams ahead of them didn't get much worse, if at all.