Nothing Obstructs Utah Hockey Club’s NHL Debut

SALT LAKE CITY — On Tuesday night, the sound of the crowd at SLC’s Delta Center was cacophonous: Initially, when the brand-new Utah Hockey Club took the ice for the first time, and again soon after as right wing Dylan Guenther’s shot hit the net for the club’s franchise-first goal.

Officially, 11,131 fans watched Utah Hockey Club’s inaugural game, in which the home team secured a 5–2 victory over the visiting Blackhawks. Unofficially, the sellout crowd numbered at about 16,020—the roughly 5,000 discounted seats with obstructed views don’t count toward the NHL’s recordkeeping. If the franchise succeeds, plenty more people will be boasting they were there, too, as crowds gathered outside the Delta Center for a watch party.

“Every home opener is fun, but this one was probably a little bit extra special just with the fact that it was the first game in Utah history,” Utah Hockey Club forward Alex Kerfoot tells Front Office Sports. “It felt like there was a little more juice.”

Kerfoot, like much of Utah HC’s roster, was part of the Phoenix Coyotes team that played their final game at Arizona State’s 5,000-seat ice rink in April before the Smith Entertainment Group (SEG) acquired the team and moved the franchise to Salt Lake City under a different name. In five and a half months, SEG did what it could to make the Delta Center—home of the Jazz, a team also owned by SEG chairman Ryan Smith—suitable for hockey. 

Plans are underway to renovate the Delta Center starting this offseason, which will begin to cut down the number of seats without a full view of the ice. A full renovation will take years, but it is expected to wrap well before the Delta Center will be the main hockey venue for the 2034 Salt Lake Games. 

At least for the opener, it felt like hockey had indeed arrived in the city known for the Tabernacle Choir, and with a reputation as the nation’s most buttoned-up major city. The atmosphere felt as legitimate as any other NHL venue; if anything, it was perhaps edgier than some other rinks as two fans were shown on the big screen pouring beer into their shoes and drinking out of them in the third period.

“A year ago, I was in Pittsburgh for the Penguins’ season opener and now I am here,” Dylan Malstrom, who is among Utah HC’s 8,500 full-season ticket holders, tells FOS. “It’s weird. People think Salt Lake is all religious and all this stuff, but, really, everybody’s passionate about sports.”

The festivities started hours beforehand with a “blue carpet” walk-up by players and a concert alongside the Delta Center. Fans were invited to watch owners Ryan and Ashley Smith talk about their vision for the team alongside NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

Bettman didn’t get his usual boo-bird treatment when he went to the dais, although he said afterward he heard at least one. The fans are betting big on the franchise, with major dreams of a Stanley Cup hoisted by the captain of their team—one that will likely have a new name after this season. 

Bettman, too, appears to be all in. “I always believed the NHL belonged here,” Bettman said at the conference. “This just validates it.”