Robert Bortuzzo is now 35 years old and he’s had a fruitful NHL career. He’s been on some very successful teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues, and the New York Islanders. He even won the Stanley Cup with the Blues in 2019. At this point in his career, Bortuzzo could retire and no one would blame him, especially as his role gets smaller and smaller for teams. However, the veteran defenseman decided to stay in the league and pursue a spot on a team by signing a one-year, two-way deal with the Utah Hockey Club.
Wanting to Be a Part of Something
As mentioned, Bortuzzo has done a lot in his career. However, his favorite moments thus far have been being a part of building something special. During his time with the Blues, he went through the ups and downs until they eventually became Stanley Cup champions. With the Islanders, he helped them battle a horrible start to the season to eventually squeak into the playoffs.
“Playing in the NHL is fun and cool and all, but I think being a part of something has always been something I’ve been passionate about,” Bortuzzo said. “We had in St. Louis and for a small time in Long Island where you just want to be a part of building something, and that’s what they got here. It seems like they got a ton of buy-in from all the guys, and it’d be great to just be a part of that and jump in and be a part of this cool thing that they’ve done and what ownership and management are building here and a new city, and just be a part of that excitement. There’s no better feeling than to be a part of something as a team and trying to accomplish something together.”
Related: Ian Cole Sees High Potential in Young Utah Team
Utah has started building something special, especially on the blue line over the offseason. General manager Bill Armstrong added Mikhail Sergachev, John Marino, and Ian Cole to bolster their defense which was a key weakness last season for this core. The massive additions are exciting for the new market as they look to compete for the playoffs this season.
With the multiple additions to the defense that the team has made, Utah has added five Stanley Cups and 318 postseason games worth of experience to the blue line. Because of that, Bortuzzo knows that playing every night isn’t likely for him. However, he’s ready to play hard and support his teammates in the games he does make an appearance in.
“You want to play every night, but I understand that this is a rock-solid D core,” Bortuzzo said. “So for myself, it’s just kind of bring what I bring. They signed me, not looking to do anything outside of what I’ve done for the last 12 years. So play hard and be a good teammate. I like to play with a little bit of gamesmanship and intensity and raise the level of fashion and intensity in the game. So I’m going to try and continue to do that and just enjoy the ride and try and contribute in any way possible.”
Bortuzzo also brings the experience of being on three different teams that made the Stanley Cup Playoffs consistently. It’s helpful for this young Utah team as many of their players have played only a handful of playoff games. If Utah runs into any injuries as well, Bortuzzo will most likely be the first player to jump in and be a decent replacement on the bottom pairing.
One of Bortuzzo’s biggest goals is to be a good teammate. Coming into the Utah organization, he has heard how strong the locker room culture has been. Now with younger players like Logan Cooley and Michael Kesselring in the lineup, he’s excited to be a part of that culture and be around those younger players.
“I think they know I take a lot of pride in being a good teammate. It sounds like they built a good culture of guys there who love hanging out with each other and doing this together. Like I mentioned earlier, how awesome is it that? They have this young core that can grow together. It’s going to be exciting to be around the dressing room. I was one of those young guys once, and I enjoyed being around older guys. I’m sure now I’ll just love hanging out with the younger guys. You know, there’s always that fun energy between young and old. I’m definitely looking forward to that part of it.”
The Road to Winning
Armstrong brought in Bortuzzo for a reason. The general manager worked with him before back when he was the assistant general manager for the Blues. Armstrong wants his team to take the next step towards winning the Cup in Utah and the addition of Bortuzzo shows their commitment to winning hockey games.
“He (Armstrong) mentioned that this is a team looking to take a step,” Bortuzzo said. “You could feel that playing against them last year. You could tell that although being super young, they were just trying to win hockey games, and to go into a situation like that is all you can really ask for. He wanted me to chat with Bear, and had a good conversation with him, and their direction for the group. They want to be hard to play against, competitive, and play fast. He mentioned to me, in terms of my skill set, it’s just trying to play as steady as I can play with an edge and chip in on the penalty kill.”
Bortuzzo adds depth to the blue line that players like Sergachev and Sean Durzi will help lead. The veteran believes in the defense core and knows the existing youth will only get better thanks to the impressive pickups in the offseason.
“Anytime you add a guy like Sergachev, he’s a world-class player,” Bortuzzo said. “He can play 25-26 minutes, both sides of the puck, penalty kill, and power play. That’s an impressive pickup. I know they have a bunch of young pieces there. I know Durzi had an awesome season. Marino has played for a long time, and he’s rock solid and steady.”
With the Blues, Bortuzzo played with elite players like Alex Pietrangelo and Ryan O’Reilly. With the Penguins, he played with Sidney Crosby and Evgenii Malkin. In his latest stop with the Islanders, he was on a team with Bo Horvat and Mat Barzal. Now, with Utah, he’ll be playing on a young and talented core. Even last season, Bortuzzo saw the talent that the team has and he sees some similarities between them and the playoff teams he’s been on.
“Just watching from last year and seeing what they were building, they were highly competitive,” Bortuzzo said. “All those teams (I was on) were playoff teams for a long time, they just had a hunger to them that you can as a player, you can kind of just see it. They competed hard at the puck. They played with tenacity on offense and defense. It’s only been mentioned to me, but it sounds like it’s a close-knit group. All those things connected, all those playoff teams that you mentioned, they all had all those things as a part of it.”
While Bortuzzo isn’t the biggest signing of the offseason for Utah and he most likely won’t play every game, the reason for him being in Salt Lake City is clear. He’s there to help guide the rookies and provide experience and lessons he’s learned in the past as they continue building toward a playoff appearance.
“I think coming in here for me is just to try and support some of the leaders and learn and pass some things on that I learned from guys like Alex Steen and Jay Bouwmeester and support the leadership group,” Bortuzzo said. “You got tons of high-end guys like Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. I’ve heard Lawson Crouse is quite the leader. If you can just kind of support those guys, and also enjoy the excitement of growing with these young guys, it’s gonna be pretty cool.”
Bortuzzo might be a veteran in the league but there’s always room to grow not just for him as a player but to help others around him grow as well. While the acquisitions of Sergachev and Marino might be bigger than Bortuzzo’s deal, his coming to Utah might be one of the most underrated signings of the offseason.
