Utah Hockey Club knows it finally has a home in Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Defenseman Sean Durzi got a taste of the NHL in Salt Lake City when he and the Kings played the Golden Knights in a 2022 preseason game.

Durzi had a goal and two assists in Los Angeles' 6-4 loss to Vegas, but more than his play on the ice, what stuck with him was the fans' passion that night even though they didn't have a home team to cheer on.

That will soon change. Delta Center now is the home to the Utah Hockey Club, which opens its first training camp Thursday after 28 seasons in the Phoenix area as the Coyotes.

“You come here on the road in the ‘Frozen Fury,' you get a great atmosphere," Durzi said. "But to know this is our home now, this is where we're going to be playing in front of such passionate fans, it's special.”

The club had its first media day Wednesday, another step in the process of completing the move from Arizona. Because there could be another form of the Coyotes in the future, Utah is calling itself as much of an expansion team as a relocated franchise, so all the club records and statistics begin anew.

In practical terms, though, this is mostly Arizona's old club that even general manager Bill Armstrong refers to as “the fourth year of the rebuild.”

In addition to the players, the front office also made the move from the triple-digit-degree days in the Valley of the Sun to the snowcapped mountains overlooking Salt Lake City thanks to Wednesday's fresh powder dump. The Jazz staff is handling the business side, such as marketing and ticket sales, with about 90 people being brought onboard to assist in those efforts.

There is renewed hope that maybe the franchise is — at long last — trending in the right direction. The Coyotes made the playoffs just once in their final 12 seasons. Perhaps more egregious, they spent their final two years playing in Arizona State University's rink as management tried in vain to get a deal done for a new arena to keep the team in the state.

Then Jazz owners Ryan and Ashley Smith bought the club, moved it to Salt Lake and poured resources into making sure what the team lacked in Arizona it had in Utah. That included putting money into a top-level temporary practice facility rather than piecing one together until a permanent structure is completed in about a year.

Renovations were made to Delta Center with more planned later to improve all the sight lines and create a better overall fan experience. Capacity this season will be 11,131 with obstructed-view seats added for select games, and that baseline seating number will increase in future years.

“There's very clearly a buzz around our team, as there should be, and we're looking forward to jumping on that opportunity” forward Lawson Crouse said. “In the past in Arizona, a lot of things were up in the air with the arena situation. It's clear we now have a home, so we can move on from all those distractions and just go play hockey, and we're really looking forward to doing that.”

Forward Clayton Keller, who led the club in goals (33) assists (43) and points (78) last season, is the top returning player and at 26 is part of the young core that the club is building around. To supplement the players that have been homegrown through the draft, Utah also upgraded its defense by acquiring Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino within 10 minutes of each other at the NHL draft and later signing veteran Robert Bortuzzo.

Goalie Connor Ingram, who won the Bill Masterson Memorial Trophy for perseverance and sportsmanship last season, comes off a campaign in which he had a .907 save percentage with a 2.91 goals-against average.

Players and management speak in cautiously optimistic tones about what to expect this season, and Armstrong didn't shoot down the question whether Utah could be buyers at the trade deadline. After pointing out there's a lot of work to do between now and then, Armstrong added, "If that moment presents itself, we do have the assets to make things happen.”

Being in playoff contention would be quite an initial season for a franchise just entering the honeymoon phase with its new fan base.

Even before the club put season tickets up for sale, 34,000 deposits were placed. The team has sold just short of 4,500 season tickets that covers all 41 home games and another 8,000 half-season packages.

On a more anecdotal and personal level, there's the in-person feedback those on the team have received as they've started to become more involved in the community.

“The way we've been received by people, by people inside the organization of the Jazz, they show their excitement to all of us,” coach André Tourigny said. “From everybody, it's been really, really welcoming.”

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Utah Hockey Club's Clayton Keller speaks during NHL hockey media day Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Utah Hockey Club general manager Bill Armstrong speaks during NHL hockey media day Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Utah Hockey Club coach Andre Tourigny speaks during NHL hockey media day Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Utah Hockey Club's Sean Durzi speaks during NHL hockey media day Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

A mission specialist for the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year told the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday that the firm was staffed by competent people who wanted to “make dreams come true.”

Renata Rojas was the latest person to testify who was connected to Titan owner OceanGate. An investigatory panel had previously listened to two days of testimony that raised questions about the company's operations before the doomed mission. OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among five people who died when the submersible imploded en route to the site of the Titanic wreck in June 2023.

Rojas' testimony struck a different tone than some of the earlier witnesses, who described the company as troubled from the top down and focused more on profit than science or safety.

“I was learning a lot and working with amazing people,” Rojas said. “Some of those people are very hard working individuals that were just trying to make dream come true.”

Rojas also said she felt the company was sufficiently transparent during the run-up to the Titanic dive. Her testimony was emotional at times, with the Coast Guard panel proposing a brief break at one point so she could collect herself.

“I knew what I was doing was very risky. I never at any point felt unsafe by the operation,” she said.

Earlier this month, the Coast Guard opened a public hearing that is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. The public hearing began on Sept. 16 and some of the testimony has focused on problems the company had prior to the fatal 2023 dive.

During the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.

“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”

Also expected to testify on Thursday is former OceanGate scientific director Steven Ross. The hearing is expected to run through Friday with more witnesses still to come and resume next week.

Lochridge and other witnesses have painted a picture of a company led by people who were impatient to get the unconventionally designed craft into the water. The deadly accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual recreation presented earlier in the hearing.

When the submersible was reported missing, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Four days later, wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. The Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

This June 2023 United States Coast Guard still frame from video provided by Pelagic Research Services, shows remains of the Titan submersible, center, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard Video courtesy Pelagic Research Services via AP)

This June 2023 United States Coast Guard still frame from video provided by Pelagic Research Services, shows remains of the Titan submersible, center, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard Video courtesy Pelagic Research Services via AP)

In a still from from a video animation provided by the United States Coast Guard an illustration of the Titan submersible, right, is shown near the ocean floor of the Atlantic Ocean, as June 18, 2023 communications between the submersible and the support vessel Polar Prince, not shown, are represented at left. (United States Coast Guard via AP)

This June 2023 image provided by Pelagic Research Services shows remains of the Titan submersible on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (Pelagic Research Services via AP)