Utah’s Sean Durzi Acclimating to New Home While Recovering From Injury

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It was a cold Wednesday morning in Salt Lake City. Customers were lining up in Bjorn’s Brew to get their usual cup of coffee. However, it wasn’t a normal day in the small local coffee shop. Reporters and cameras were everywhere as the baristas walked around them to get orders out. One of them made a black coffee and handed it to a 6-foot-tall man adorned in a black hockey jersey.

“I got a Sean special,” Utah Hockey Club defenseman Sean Durzi called out from the counter.

When Durzi signed a four-year extension with Utah over the summer, he probably imagined he would be playing top-four minutes in front of a loud new fanbase after the Arizona Coyotes were moved to Salt Lake City in the offseason. The defenseman had a career season in his lone season in the desert, scoring 41 points in 79 games. He also put himself in the history books by scoring the final goal in Coyotes history.

Durzi probably imagined being part of an improved Utah blue line that would help the team contend for a playoff spot. General manager Bill Armstrong acquired top defensemen John Marino and Mikhail Sergachev via trade and signed Ian Cole to help fix what was one of the Coyotes’ main problems the prior season.

Durzi probably never imagined he would find himself serving coffee in December, sidelined with a potential season-ending injury after only playing four games while his team was battling for a wild card spot. It’s been tough for him to sit around and watch his teammates compete without him, especially with the incredible amount of injuries to the blue line. However, in his handful of months of being sidelined and living in his new city, Durzi has gotten to start his new life in Salt Lake City connecting with the community in a unique way.

Acclimating to the New Community

Durzi is definitely not a person who likes sitting around and doing nothing even with a shoulder injury. During his recovery time, he’s been going out into the community and helping the Smith Entertainment Group with their events.

Most recently, Durzi participated in SEG’s Pay It Forward event: a day where the organization went into the Salt Lake community and paid for groceries, gas, and coffee in hopes of those people passing on the goodwill during the holidays. Durzi and Marino, who has also sat out this season due to injury, went to Bjorn’s to help baristas make coffee and food and hand it out for free to customers.

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Durzi knows he and Marino haven’t done a lot on the ice this season. The new community however doesn’t care and has done their best helping the two defensemen get used to their new home. So for Durzi, helping out in events like Pay It Forward is a way to help give back to the city that has done a lot for him in such little time.

“Me and John, obviously, are not contributing too much on the ice right now,” Durzi said. “It’s great for us to give back to the community. The people have been too kind to us. Everybody we see, whether it’s at the rink or just out in the town, has really expressed how much they miss us on the ice. I know it’s just a statement, but to us, it means a lot. To be here and to acclimate to the community has been important to us, and it’s nice for us to have this opportunity.”

Durzi has also shown up at other events across Salt Lake City like at KSL studios to help promote the “switch” to Christmas music for the holiday season. It’s been a tandem between him and Marino who have helped the team create a presence in the community. It’s been helpful to Durzi to have someone alongside him during this challenging time. 

“I don’t want to ever wish injury on anyone, but for me and John to be going through it together keeps us motivated, pushing each other every day,” Durzi said. “It’s unfortunate that you got to go through it. But there couldn’t be a better guy right now to be going through it with. For us to be bonding and pushing each other and competing to try to get back on the ice as quick as we can, it’s as good as it can be.”

The two have been hungry to get back on the ice. With the absence of the two defensemen, it created an opportunity for rookie Maveric Lamoureux to make his NHL debut. In 15 games, he proved why Armstrong drafted him in the first round back in 2022, producing three points and playing like a defenseman twice his age. Unfortunately, luck wouldn’t go Utah’s way as Lamoureux was also struck with injury, sidelining him for about four to six weeks. 

Robert Bortuzzo was also injured, forcing Utah to acquire Olli Määttä from the Detroit Red Wings and claim Dakota Mermis off of waivers. It hasn’t been the improved blue line Utah and Durzi imagined at the beginning of the season but it has given the chance for Durzi, Marino, and Lamoureux to get to know each other off the ice, have fun while doing community events, and push each other to get back in the lineup.

“You hate to miss games,” Durzi said. “At the same time, it’s part of our game. It’s why we do what we do….Having a guy like John Marino and now Mav joining us. It’s a group of guys who are hungry to get back and a good group of guys who keep it fun and push each other to get better.”

The three players’ main goal is to obviously get back to playing. However, their other main goal has been using their unique personalities to create a connection with the fans. Ultimately, it’s helped Durzi and the other two defensemen give back, an important part of having a new team.

“I think that if we can’t do it on the ice right now, it’s nice for us to contribute in other ways,” Durzi said. “Let the guys focus on what they do on the ice…With this free time, it’s really important for us to come here and show everybody that we love this community, and we’d love to give back.”

Battling to Come Back

Although Durzi has loved spending time helping out the Utah community, he’s eager to get back on the ice. He’s been working hard to continue getting better. He’s no longer in a sling and has been at the rink, stickhandling from the bench. He’s impressed many with his determination to recover, including head coach André Tourigny who knows how important he and Marino are to the locker room even though he has to remind Durzi not to rush back into action too quickly.

“We need to put an anchor on Durzi to make sure we slow him down a little bit,” Tourigny said. “Those guys bring energy. They’re good teammates, great guys, great leaders. It’s good to have them around.”

Sean Durzi Utah Hockey Club
Sean Durzi, Utah Hockey Club (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

Despite only being 26 years old, Durzi has played quite a bit in the NHL. Before his time with Utah and the Coyotes, the defenseman played two seasons with the Los Angeles Kings. With the Kings, he appeared in 13 playoff games. While it doesn’t seem like a lot, it does give him more playoff experience than other players on the blue line like Michael Kesselring and Jusso Välimäki. 

The experience that Durzi got with the Kings makes him a valuable asset in Utah’s locker room. He learned from guys like Drew Doughty and Anže Kopitar who have won multiple Stanley Cups in their legendary careers. Durzi doesn’t take the time he spent with those players for granted. He has used the things he learned from the winning culture in Los Angeles and has applied them within the young and growing team in Utah.

“Believe it or not, I think I learned more off the ice, with the staff over there,” Durzi said. “The team dinners and just getting together with some of those leaders over there and what they could teach me, I learned more off the ice than on the ice. It’s lessons that you can’t be more grateful…I’m glad that they showed me a little bit of the way, and I can bring that and do my best to learn more here within the team and show a couple of guys what they taught me.”

With Durzi being injured, it brings more challenges than just the pain of not being on the ice. It means he doesn’t get to travel with the team, be at the practices every day, and get that bonding time he would like to have especially being an important figure on the blue line.

“It sucks when the guys are gone and we’re not there,” Durzi said. “You miss everybody, (even if) it’s just the bonding time together.”

Durzi has become somewhat of a fan in his time away from the team. He’s been watching as many games as he can, hoping for his teammates to get as many wins as they can while keeping up with Utah’s systems.

“I’m a bit of a fan, which is weird right now,” Durzi said. “I’m really just dying for the guys to get some wins, so in that sense, I’m cheering the guys on pretty hard. We (the players) watch it a little differently than the casual hockey fan. We’re looking at our systems, what we’ve talked about in the room, what we have to work on. It’s pretty exhausting actually, watching games in a short amount of time.”

Durzi isn’t expected to be back until the end of the season, which means he’ll only play at most a few more games this season. He could be a key figure for Utah if they make the playoffs but for now, he’ll continue to try his best to recover in time for a potential final playoff push in the spring.

Happy to Be in Utah

One might imagine the long-term injury Durzi suffered early during his time in Utah has potentially created some mixed feelings about his new city, especially considering the fact that he only had the summer to pack up and move from Arizona permanently. However, Durzi has nothing but the best things to say about Utah. He’s been loving everything from the scenery to the passionate and electric fans that pack Delta Center every home game.

Even the small things like the Delta Center and the team’s practice facility are things Durzi doesn’t take for granted. His favorite thing about living in Salt Lake City? The beautiful mountains that act as a backdrop to the city.

“The mountain range is pretty good,” Durzi said. “It’s been great to drive to the facility (or) from the facility (and) to see the mountains is spectacular. It almost puts you in awe every time. On a clear day, it’s a special experience.”

There’s no one doubting that it’s been a rough start in Utah for Durzi. It’s not been the dream start that he wanted and it’s only going to be an uphill battle from here. However, it’s clear that despite his injury, Durzi has loved his time in Salt Lake City. He’s become passionate about the new fanbase and wouldn’t have pictured the first couple of months in the city to be any better.

“It couldn’t be better,” Durzi said. “It’s been a spectacular experience. It’s nice to sit back and see the crowd at games, and you know how passionate they are. It’s motivation for us to want to get back out there on the ice…I think just the welcome and everything as a whole, Utah has been spectacular.”

Durzi knows when the time comes, he will play his heart out for the community that helped him get through his injury and welcome him to his new home. For now, he’ll gladly stay connected with the fanbase while he recovers, even if that means serving up a couple of “Sean specials” at Bjorn’s. He’ll do it all with a big and energetic smile on his face.

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