On a recent episode of the Clean Hits Hockey Podcast, a Utah Hockey Club-based podcast, they talked with Utah insiders Cole Bagley from KSL Sports, Belle Fraser from the Salt Lake Tribune and Brogan Houston from the Desert News, who have been around the team since the start of the season and have invaluable insight on this team. The podcast asked the Utah insiders, “Who is Utah’s midseason MVP?”
The panel came to a consensus that Utah’s MVP throughout the first half is either Mikhail Sergachev, Utah’s number one defenseman that they traded for in the offseason, or Karel Vejmelka, who has played well enough to get into the Vezina Trophy conversation. While I agree that these two players have been Utah’s best players, I would like to add another name to this conversation after analyzing the two players discussed on the podcast.
Mikhail Sergachev
Utah acquired Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a blockbuster offseason trade. He was brought in to be Utah’s number-one defenseman. However, he was coming off of a gruesome leg injury in the previous season, which raised questions about his durability and ability to step into such a significant role after only playing in a top-four role his whole career behind Victor Hedman with the Lightning.
Sergachev quickly erased those doubts, getting off to a great start in his first season in Salt Lake City with Utah. Through 38 games, he has scored eight goals and 28 points. These 28 points rank him tied for sixth among defensemen in the NHL. The one knock on Sergachev’s offensive production is that 53% of his points have come on the powerplay. While you might like to see more even strength point production from Sergachev, he has done a great job quarterbacking the powerplay and being directly involved with the goals he is getting points on, with 67% of them being either goals or primary assists.
In addition to excellent offensive numbers, Sergachev has been reliable. He has played the fifth most minutes among defensemen. He is also averaging the most time on ice per game and the most penalty kill minutes among defensemen in the NHL.
The other knock on Sergachev would be that his on-ice advanced metrics are not the best at five-on-five. Examples are his expected goal share and high-danger chance share below 50% while on the ice. However, Sergachev has been on the ice for more goals than he has been on for goals against. He consistently draws the opposition’s toughest matchups for 42% of every game he has played and has been the backbone of this injury-riddled blue line in Utah.
Karel Vejmelka
Going into Utah’s inaugural NHL season, their most significant question mark was goaltending. Connor Ingram was expected to carry most of the workload in Utah’s net after finishing last season tied for the most shutouts in the NHL with six. Vejmelka was expected to be the weakness of this tandem entering the season with a career .898 save percentage (SV%), 3.50 goals-against average (GAA) and minus-30.8 goals saved above expected (GSAx).
As expected, Ingram started the season getting the lion’s share of the workload. Before getting injured, he had been struggling, while Vejmelka gave Utah three steady starts, allowing three goals or less in the first three games he got into this season. Shortly after that, Vejmelka was rewarded with back-to-back starts after stopping 49 of 50 shots he faced to beat the Carolina Hurricanes.
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From this point in the season, Vejmelka has been Utah’s number-one goalie, starting 16 of the team’s last 20 games since Ingram’s injury was announced following Utah’s game against the Washington Capitals on Nov. 18, 2024. Vejmelka has now made 21 starts and played in 23 games. He has a .915 SV%, which ranks seventh in the NHL, a 2.43 GAA, which ranks 13th, and a plus-9.39 GSAx, which ranks eighth among goalies who have made five starts this season.
Vejmelka has kept this team in games they otherwise should not have been. His 9-10-2 record does not do justice to how well he has played this season. He has played well enough to where he should get Vezina Trophy consideration, despite his team giving him the ninth least goal support of any goalie to start five games this season. He has only given up four or more in three starts this season and has given up less than three goals in 42% of games he has started. He has been highly consistent and is one of the most significant reasons Utah is still in playoff contention.
Clayton Keller
The one name that wasn’t brought up in this conversation on the podcast but I think deserves a mention is Clayton Keller. By no means is Keller lighting it up; in fact, he is on pace to put up 57 points this season, which would be 19 less than he put up last season and 29 fewer points than he had the season prior when he set his career high of 86. However, his value is best shown when you look at how much better he makes players around him.
For most of the season, Keller has been playing on a line with Barrett Hayton and Nick Schmaltz. The trio has played exceptionally well, having the 28th-best expected goal percentage and 18th-highest expected goals per 60 minutes among lines that have played 100 minutes together this season (via MoneyPuck).
However, there have been some circumstances this season, such as Dec. 31 against the Edmonton Oilers when Keller missed the game with an illness. This line has been split up, and when you look at Hayton and Schmaltz’s stats from when they play with Keller to when they don’t, the difference is astounding. I have put together the table below to illustrate this.
| On-Ice Percentage | Shot Attempts | Unblocked Shot Attempts | Shots On Goal | Scoring Chances | High Danger Chances | Goal | Expected Goal |
| With Keller | 60.16 | 60.05 | 58.75 | 62.33 | 64.39 | 61.54 | 59.02 |
| Without Keller | 50.16 | 49.57 | 40.00 | 47.22 | 40.74 | 33.33 | 47.97 |
These numbers show two things: Keller’s actual value and how little help he has offensively. He leads Utah with 20 points at five-on-five, 13 being primary points. Schmaltz is not far behind with 17, but he only has nine primary points, and Hayton only has six at even strength. Schmaltz and Hayton only have primary points combined on three of Utah’s goals at five-on-five, when Keller did not record a point on the goal. While this line might have some of the best analytics among trios that have played at least 100 minutes together, it is clear Keller is the one driving this line against other teams’ best lines every night.
It is hard to blame Keller for his point production, considering Hayton and Schmaltz have been two of the streakiest players on the team. It took Schmaltz 53 days before he scored his first goal of the season on Nov. 30, and then Hayton had his own 53-day goal draught from Nov. 30 to Dec. 22. While you’d love to see more production from Keller in the box score, his value to this team is evident with or without career-high numbers.
You could argue that any three of these players would be Utah’s most valuable midseason player. They have all brought a ton of value to this team in different ways, and Utah would be nowhere close to contending for a playoff spot without them. With Utah still coming out of a lengthy rebuild and general manager Bill Armstrong setting the expectation before the season that he wanted to see them play meaningful hockey this season, these three, among others such as Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther, are leading this team to exceed expectations and compete for a playoff spot.
All stats via Natural Stat Trick unless specified.
