The Utah Hockey Club finds itself in a unique situation, boasting a highly-competitive roster that entered the 2024-25 season as the third-youngest team in the National Hockey League (NHL). The organization is also loaded with young prospects, all of their upcoming first-round draft picks, and nine total picks in the second and third rounds of the subsequent three drafts.
Top to bottom, the roster, the prospect pool, and all of the draft capital put Utah in the conversation as one of the healthiest organizations in the NHL. With an established young core and 19 players under contract for next season, Utah’s moves are expected to be limited this offseason. However, they do have some critical pieces of business to attend to.
Let’s discuss Utah’s top priorities going into this offseason.
Re-Sign Jack McBain
Jack McBain got off to a red-hot start for Utah, scoring 10 of his 13 goals on the season before the calendar flipped to 2025. Over this stretch, McBain scored on a completely unsustainable 25.32% of his shots, so his lack of offensive production through Utah’s last 45 games should not have come as a shock.
Regardless of the production drop-off, McBain set a new career high in goals and points in Utah’s inaugural season with 13 goals and 27 points. This marks three-straight seasons that McBain has put up 25 or more points in a bottom-six role without much power-play time.
Related: Utah HC Can’t Afford to Lose Jack McBain This Offseason
He has been highly reliable, playing 231 of a possible 246 games for the Arizona Coyotes/Utah over the last three seasons, including all 82 this season. That’s a rare feat for a player who plays as physical a game as McBain does. McBain finished this season ranked 34th in hits per 60 minutes among players who logged 100 minutes on the ice this season and ranked in the top 60 percent of forwards in blocked shots (From ‘NHL Player Cards’, The Athletic, April 18, 2025).
While McBain’s underlying numbers are not eye-popping, he impacts the game in various other ways that make him a valuable piece to keep going forward. His size at 6-foot-3 and 203 pounds is something Utah desperately lacked last season. He is excellent on the forecheck, averaging 1.24 pressures per 60 minutes above the league average (Player Cards, All Three Zones, April 18, 2025), and McBain fought eight times last season to either defend a teammate or attempt to change the momentum of a game.
At 25 years old, McBain will be an excellent fourth-line option who has demonstrated his ability to play up the lineup when the injury bug bites. Utah needs him back in their locker room next season, and needs to get a deal done before other teams have the chance to drive the price up by tendering McBain offer sheets when he hits restricted free agency.
Extend Logan Cooley’s Contract
Logan Cooley still has one more year on his entry-level contract, but is due for a massive pay raise following the 2025-26 season. However, Utah will be able to begin contract negotiations with Cooley once July 1 hits, as the NHL allows teams to negotiate extensions with players once they are officially down to one season remaining on their deal.
Cooley was drafted third overall in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft and posted 44 points in 82 games in his rookie season with the Coyotes. This past season, he took another significant stride forward, posting 65 points in 75 games, comparable to Mitch Marner’s 69 points in 82 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs in his sophomore season in the NHL.
Ultimately, in his final year of his entry-level contract, Marner tallied 94 points and significantly increased his value from when he could have initially signed an extension in Toronto to when the deal was finalized. With two NHL seasons under his belt, getting top-six minutes, power-play time and Utah is expected to take a big swing in free agency to bolster their top-six forwards. I don’t see 90-plus points being out of the picture for Cooley next season with the talent this team has. Utah needs to finalize this deal as soon as possible to secure Cooley for the future before his value increases further.
Keep Room for Top Prospects
Utah has numerous prospects who are nearly ready to crack NHL rosters. The problem is, Utah only has four roster spots to fill if they do not ship out any of their roster players this offseason. While it is a problem every team would love to have, Utah must balance bringing in talent to improve this team while still giving prospects a chance to make an impact at the NHL level.
Going into next season, Utah will have Maveric Lamoureux — who looked fantastic in his first 15 NHL games with Utah before getting injured — Tij Iginla — who was one of the last players cut from Utah’s training camp — and likely Daniil But and Dmitry Simashev, who are still competing for a championship in the Kontinental Hockey League as integral parts of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s team.
We have seen Lamoureux make an impact at the NHL level, and with the other three being drafted in the first round as well, you can expect them to compete for roster spots. While Utah cannot enter training camp unprepared, if these players require additional time to develop, they need an honest opportunity to compete for a place on this team. With 11 forwards and six defensemen under contract going into next season, Utah does not require a ton of moves to fill out its depth. These prospects should be given a chance early in the season to make an impact. If Utah needs to pivot, depth forwards are always available throughout the season in the trade market, and Utah certainly has the draft capital to make those moves.
Utah finds itself in a unique situation this offseason, needing to make an impactful move to help the team take another step forward and make the playoff while avoiding overreaching and hindering their top prospects’ development. While they want to make a big move this offseason, Utah has some in-house deals to attend to before it can go out searching for the missing piece.
