The Utah Hockey Club is gearing up for the franchise’s first-ever puck drop as we inch closer and closer to hockey season. With that time approaching, players will start to head to Salt Lake City in order to attend training camps and preseason games where head coach Andre Tourigny and general manager Bill Armstrong will make the calls to see who makes Utah’s inaugural roster.
When players that Utah signs don’t make the NHL cut, they are usually sent down to either the American Hockey League or the ECHL which are the two minor leagues affiliated with the NHL. However, with Utah not existing for very long, some may be confused about where exactly these prospects and players are heading. Here’s where you could be seeing some of the cuts going after Tourigny and Armstrong start trimming their roster.
Tucson Roadrunners
The Tucson Roadrunners is Utah’s AHL affiliate. Originally the Springfield Thunderbirds, the Arizona Coyotes purchased the team in 2016 and relocated the franchise to Tucson. They were named in homage to multiple hockey teams that played out of the Phoenix area as far back as 1967 who paved the way for professional hockey in Arizona. The team plays out of the Tucson Convention Center and has made the playoffs four times during their seven full seasons in southern Arizona.
During Ryan Smith’s purchase of the Coyotes, former owner Alex Meruelo retained ownership of the Roadrunners and agreed to keep the affiliation agreement between Utah and his team. He planned to move it full-time to Mullett Arena in Tempe to fill the void of the former NHL team which would’ve needed the approval of the AHL Board of Governors. However, he soon retracted the comments during the relocation press conference for the Coyotes’ hockey operations.
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“This is very early in the process so I’m not sure what we’re going to do,” Meruelo said. “We’ve talked about playing half a season in Tucson and half a season in Mullett. There’s a lot of discussion going on. There’s no commitment from anybody right now so I want to make sure my words aren’t being taken out of context. We don’t have any agreements with ASU and we haven’t even spoken to the people in Tucson. We have different ideas. We just want to make sure hockey is thriving in the desert.”
Eventually, Meruelo and the AHL Board of Governors settled on letting the team play six games at Mullett while playing the remainder down at the Tucson Convention Center. After the Arizona State Land Department canceled the June 27 land auction that the former NHL owner planned on using to build a new NHL arena, Meruelo relinquished his five-year exclusive window of holding the rights to reactivate the Coyotes. He also announced that the Roadrunners would remain in Tucson for the following season.
Recently, reports have emerged that Meruelo will be relocating the Roadrunners for the 2026-27 season when his brand-new 10,000-seat area is finished building in Reno. The arena will house the University of Nevada’s basketball team but is also being built for a hockey team if needed.
The Roadrunners have developed many of Utah’s everyday players like Matias Maccelli, Barrett Hayton, Michael Carcone, Michael Kesselring, Josh Doan, and Dylan Guenther, the last three of which actually played in the Roadrunners’ two playoff games in April. It’s been an important key to the development of players on Utah’s roster and others in the NHL like Michael Bunting and Adin Hill.
It’s obvious that especially recently, the coaching staff has been instrumental in helping the youth grow and keeping the Roadrunners competitive even during some hard times off the ice. It’s a big reason why head coach Steve Potvin and his staff got extensions during the offseason.
“I think there’s a real sense of community in our team,” Potvin said. “Everybody fights for each other. They fight really hard for each other. I think goaltending has been a really big bonus for us. Matt’s (Villalta) has been our MVP. I think our guys are just buying into the game plan. We’ve got a bunch of guys who enjoy playing. When they enjoy playing for each other, it makes it a really strong team.”
The Roadrunners will begin play on the road against the Colorado Eagles on Oct. 11. They’ll play their first home game of the season the following weekend against the Texas Stars. While the roster is unknown at this point, it’s expected the team will house a lot of Utah’s top prospects like Maveric Lameroux, Aku Raty, Sam Lipkin, and Julian Lutz.
Allen Americans
Utah announced on Wednesday that they will be affiliated with the Allen Americans for the upcoming 2024-25 season. It is the first time since the 2022-23 season that Armstrong and his staff will have an ECHL affiliate to use.
“The Americans are a first-class organization with a passionate fan base and a reputation of winning,” said John Ferguson, assistant general manager of the Utah Hockey Club and general manager of Utah’s AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. “We look forward to working with Americans ownership, Myles and La Sonjia Jack, this season.”
The Americans started in the Central Hockey League in 2009 and were brought into the ECHL in 2014 after the CHL ceased operations and folded. The Americans won the Kelly Cup (the ECHL’s championship trophy) in their first season of existence and won their second championship the following season.
Last season, the Americans were affiliated with the Ottawa Senators and their AHL affiliate, the Belleville Senators. After making the playoffs, they lost in the first round to the Idaho Steelheads.
While Utah fans in Allen probably won’t see a lot of the top prospects, they likely will see a decent goaltender or two. Many of the goalies in the NHL have played in the ECHL at some point. In Utah, Connor Ingram played with the Adirondack Thunder and the Orlando Solar Bears before eventually making the NHL. Matt Villalta, who helped the Roadrunners reach the playoffs last season, spent parts of the 2019-20 season with the Fort Wayne Komets. After signing Jaxson Stauber in the offseason, it will be a three-way battle between Stauber, Villalta, and Anson Thornton for the two goalie spots on the Roadrunners which could get even more complicated if top goalie prospect Michael Hrabel joins the organization sometime soon.
Early Look at the 2025-26 Agreements
While Utah will play the full 2024-25 season with the Roadrunners and Americans as minor-league affiliates, the future is unclear after this season. The deal between Utah and the Americans is a one-year deal and it wouldn’t be surprising if Smith would like to move on from the Roadrunners to create his own AHL affiliate closer to Salt Lake City.
Smith would most likely have to purchase an expansion team for the AHL if he would like to locate a team closer to Utah. It’s unlikely he purchases a pre-existing franchise and relocates them as 21 of the 32 AHL teams are owned by their NHL affiliates. The remaining teams are some of the league’s most historic teams like the Milwaukee Admirals and Hershey Bears. Expansion would take time including the construction of a new arena and with Smith already building a practice facility and revitalizing downtown, he most likely won’t have the time to take on another construction project.
What could end up happening is taking over an already existing team but not in the AHL. The ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies, who have been around since 2005, are currently affiliated with the Colorado Avalanche, but the two sides only have at most two seasons left on their deal. They play out of the 12,600-seat Maverik Center which is more than suitable for AHL hockey. Smith and the Utah Hockey Club could request for the Grizzlies to be promoted to the AHL. It’s been done once before when the Colorado Eagles were promoted to the AHL to become affiliated with the Avalanche.
If that happens, it wouldn’t be surprising if Utah goes after the Idaho Steelheads to replace the Americans as their ECHL team. The Steelheads are the closest team to Salt Lake City (besides the Grizzlies) keeping the three organizations somewhat together. The Dallas Stars, who are currently affiliated with the Steelheads, could then partner with the Americans, which is perfect for both sides since the Stars and their AHL affiliate both reside near Dallas.
With the goal of having minor league teams as close as possible to your NHL team, it’s more than likely the Utah Hockey Club and the Grizzlies become affiliated at some point. With Utah choosing to only have a one-year partnership with the Americans and the Grizzlies only having at most two years left on their partnership with the Avalanche, it seems like a match made in heaven. However, it’s all just hypothetical right now and only time will tell if it actually happens. As of right now, Utah has their minor league situation set for this season and fans in both Tucson and Allen should see some competitive hockey in 2024-25.
