The Utah Hockey Club is approaching their first-ever trade deadline in franchise history. The trade deadline is a pivotal time for every franchise. It could welcome a new player that is the final piece to a potential championship or for other franchises, it could trigger the start of a rebuild. Either way, it’s the final time any team can trade a player before the end of the season. If a player is traded post-trade deadline, they are not eligible to play any game until the following season.
Utah is in a weird position. They are in the thick of competing for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference, trailing the Vancouver Canucks who currently hold the spot by six points. They are also still in the final stages of their rebuild which means the team can go in a couple of different directions during the trade deadline.
The team does have five more games before the deadline which could decide what they do. Here’s what could happen in each scenario depending on how Utah performs in their final five games.
Utah Is a Seller at the Deadline
If Utah loses a majority of the games, they will have an under .500 record. With both the Canucks and Calgary Flames adding pieces over the past couple of weeks, likely, they’ll gain some ground on Utah if they start losing. In this case, the team should look at selling off their pending unrestricted free agents (UFAs).
It should be made clear that even if Utah becomes a seller, they won’t become true sellers like the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks likely will be. It will be just selling off minor pieces that Utah likely won’t re-sign in the offseason just like the Arizona Coyotes did last season.
The team has quite a few pending UFAs. That list includes Michael Carcone, Nick Bjugstad, Alex Kerfoot, Ian Cole, Robert Bortuzzo, Nick DeSimone, Olli Määttä, and Karel Vejmelka.
There are a couple of those players who will most likely stay in Utah despite their pending UFA status. Cole has been a big piece of the team’s locker room and has had a great season, logging the highest average ice time in his career. He might’ve earned an extension with Utah this offseason, which would mark the first time since his three-year stint with the Colorado Avalanche that he plays on the same team longer than a season.
Määttä is most likely in the same situation. He’s had a fantastic season with Utah becoming the team’s best defensive defenseman. When general manager Bill Armstrong acquired Määttä earlier this season in a trade with the Detroit Red Wings, he might’ve not expected him to fit in this well with the team but like Cole, the Finnish defenseman’s remarkable play might’ve earned himself a contract in the offseason.
Related: 3 Utah HC Players Who Could Be Traded at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline
Vejmelka is the other player who will most likely stay put. The goaltender has had a good season in net for Utah and has been at times the team’s most valuable player, especially during Connor Ingram’s leave of absence. Utah seems to be comfortable with their current tandem and with Vejmelka’s play this season, it wouldn’t be surprising if they roll with the same goalies next season.
That leaves Carcone, Bjugstad, Kerfoot, Bortuzzo, and DeSimone. Carcone’s 20 goals last season is looking more and more like a flash in the pan. He’s still a great bottom-six forward that teams could be interested in. The same could be said about Bjugstad and Kerfoot who have struggled this season but provide a great veteran presence in the bottom-six. If Jason Zucker and Matt Dumba got a sixth and fifth-round pick respectively, Utah will most likely get around that same return for any of their bottom six forwards.
DeSimone has been a good waiver claim, becoming an effective part of Utah’s bottom defensive pairing. It’ll be interesting to see what Utah could get for him, especially considering the Coyotes got a fourth-round pick for Troy Stecher last year who is another player that is great on the bottom pair or as the seventh defenseman. Sean Durzi will return in the team’s first game post-4-Nations break so that on paper pushes DeSimone out of the lineup. If the team loses out, he could be an asset worth sacrificing.
With Bortuzzo, the veteran has barely played this season due to injury. It’s just not likely that Utah could get much, if anything, for him besides future considerations. If Utah somehow can get a seventh-round pick in this scenario, it would be a win.
Utah Stays Put
In my opinion, this is most likely what’s going to happen. Even if Utah plays incredibly well post-4-Nations break, breaking the bank on a pending UFA isn’t the smartest option. Neither is selling off everything and giving up. Instead, perhaps the smartest option is selling off some of the pending UFAs and also acquiring some young players that could help the team in the future.
A player like Carcone could still be in play in this scenario. A young player like Juuso Välimäki who has really struggled this season and could benefit from a change of scenery could be another player that could be in play. While you could get draft picks for these players, they could be used to get other struggling young players who could benefit from a trade to Utah.
Those players could include Luke Evangelista from the Nashville Predators who had a 16-goal, 39-point season last year but has struggled this season with the rest of his team. The Predators have flipped a handful of their young pending UFAs this season including Juuso Parssinen during a disappointing season and Evangelista could be another they look to trade.
Alexander Holtz is another young player who could benefit from a change of scenery. After being traded to the Vegas Golden Knights last offseason, he hasn’t done much with his new team, producing only 11 points across 49 games. He was drafted in the first round only four years ago. With the Golden Knights looking to contend for another Stanley Cup, they could be looking for some established depth like Carcone and could be willing to part with someone like Holtz.
Hendrix Lapierre is the final example of a player Utah could look to acquire if they decide to not do much this trade deadline. Another recent first-round draft pick, the forward just hasn’t put things together with the Washington Capitals with zero goals in 27 games this season. With the Capitals looking to make one last run with Alex Ovechkin, similar to the Golden Knights, established depth might be a want for the team and Lapierre could be a trade target.
Utah Buys at the Deadline
With the cap rising over the next couple of years, Utah will have a significant amount of cap space coming. There have been rumors that they’ll be big players in trying to acquire some big names including Mitch Marner and Mikko Rantanen.
While Marner will absolutely stay with the Toronto Maple Leafs at the deadline, Rantanen might not stay with the Carolina Hurricanes. After being traded by the Colorado Avalanche a couple of weeks ago, Rantanen has only produced two points in six games with the Hurricanes. While it’s only been six games, the franchise doesn’t want to have another Jake Guentzel situation on their hands and wants to contend now. Utah could make their move on Rantanen a couple of months early if he becomes available.
There are other big names that Utah could chase if they decide to not pursue Rantanen. The Buffalo Sabres offer a couple of them, most notably, Dylan Cozens. After scoring 68 points in 2022-23 and then 47 points last season, he has struggled this season, producing 27 points. With the Sabres once again struggling this season, his name has been thrown out in trade rumors. He could be a good fit in Utah.
Bowen Byram is another young piece that the Sabres could part with. Again, everything is up in the air with the team thanks to their impending 14-year playoff drought. The difference with Byram is that he’s a defenseman, an area Utah now has a surplus in. Jack Quinn however, is another young forward who could interest Utah that the Sabres might part with. Similar to a lot of players mentioned in this article, Quinn is a former first-round draft pick who like others mentioned just hasn’t put it together with his current team.
The final name that Utah could chase is Trevor Zegras. Yet another first-round pick, he is about to have his second straight disappointing season, currently with 15 points in 32 games. Almost the exact same stats from last season. Zegras has been constantly injured and has not fit in well with head coach Greg Cronin’s system. If he is truly on the trade block, Utah should seriously look into acquiring him for two reasons.
The first reason is that Zegras has never played with talent like Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther, or Logan Cooley. The best player he’s arguably played with on the Ducks is Leo Carlsson. Outside of that, maybe Sonny Milano? Playing with players of Keller’s caliber could get him back to his 60-plus point ways. It could be fun to watch Zegras and Guenther play on a line with each other.
The other reason isn’t as big but Zegras would provide a great personality and presence to the locker room and the franchise. His creative and fun plays attracted a lot of people to the sport of hockey. If he went to the NHL’s newest franchise and revived those plays, it could boost Utah’s national presence. Plus, Utah doesn’t really have a personality like Zegras. He’s a person that is outgoing and funny. It could be another added benefit in acquiring him.
Utah still has a lot of draft picks they can put into play to acquire any one of these aforementioned players. There’s also the slew of pending UFAs that the team could add to the trade as well. Then there are two young struggling players of their own that Utah could add to pull off a trade. One is Välimäki who was already mentioned. The other is Matias Maccelli who has really struggled after a 57-point season. With only 18 points, Maccelli has shown flashes of brilliance which could intrigue a team into taking a chance on him.
While this most likely won’t be a massive trade deadline for Utah, it will still be one to keep an eye on as the team begins to shed its rebuild tag. Sometimes, even trades that look minor could end up delivering a core piece of a franchise. Just look at the previous Bjugstad trade that sent Michael Kesselring to the Coyotes. Now, Kesselring has been a core piece of the team’s blue line. The trade deadline is always an essential part of a team’s present or future success. We’ll see on March 7 if Utah decides to make a big splash or not to further their development on their road to contend for a Stanley Cup.
