NHL veteran expresses strong belief in Utah Hockey Club’s potential — this year

Ian Cole, a veteran defenseman who signed with the Utah Hockey Club this summer, knows how to win.
NHL teams place high value on guys who know how to win. Utah HC general manager Bill Armstrong talked about it as a factor in determining that he should sign Dylan Guenther to a long-term contract, despite the fact that he hasn’t even played a full season in the NHL. He won the WHL championship with two different teams and Armstrong believes he will bring that same level of competitiveness to Utah.
Cole won the Stanley Cup in both 2016 and 2017 as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. In his 14 NHL seasons, his team has made the playoffs 13 times, though he didn’t always play due to injuries and other factors. Joining his ninth team this year, he knows what winning locker rooms look like.
And he chose Utah.
Utah this year reminds Cole of Vancouver last year. He signed a one-year deal with the Canucks, a team that had missed the playoffs seven of the previous eight years.
“Nobody expected us to be a playoff team,” Cole said. “I had media asking me, ‘Why would you want to go to Vancouver? That team’s terrible. I thought you wanted to win.’ Then we’re right in the thick of the race for the Presidents’ Trophy.”
The Canucks obliterated even the highest expectations, making it to Game 7 of the second round of the playoffs. They ultimately lost that game to Edmonton, which came within two goals of the Stanley Cup.
Cole thinks Utah could be in that same boat this season.
“I think that there are a lot of similarities between that situation and this situation, in terms of a team that has elite skill, a team that has probably underperformed over the past couple years and is really sick of losing hockey games in that plane, come late April, May,” he said.
“It’s that recipe that makes guys raise their competitiveness and realize, ‘I don’t care as much about points — I want to do whatever it takes to win.’ And then you couple that with the inaugural season, a whole new thing. It could be a really exciting perfect storm of ingredients going into this recipe that could make for a really special and cool experience this year.”
Under the branding of the Arizona Coyotes last year, this team was in the hunt for a playoff spot the majority of the season. When the rumors surfaced that they would be moving to Utah, they went on a 14-game losing streak, destroying their playoff hopes.
Armstrong and his staff have brought in a good mix of veterans, bolstering the defensive core particularly. Along with signing Cole, they traded for both Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino and they inked Robert Bortuzzo and Kevin Stenlund. The defensive side of the game had been the Coyotes’ biggest struggle, and these moves all help them in that regard.
The team is also getting more experience as a whole. Their average age is 26.5, which makes them the fifth-youngest team in the NHL, according to Elite Prospects. As youngsters like Guenther and Logan Cooley develop, they’ll be expected to contribute more to the team’s success.
It’s far too early to tell where this team will finish this year, but if 14 years’ worth of winning in the NHL taught Cole anything, Utah will not be in the running for the draft lottery.