How long will it take for Utah Hockey Club to be a winner?

It’s easy for NHL general managers to get trapped in a cycle of mediocrity: never good enough to have deep playoff runs and never bad enough to get high draft picks. That’s what Bill Armstrong is trying to avoid as he builds the Utah Hockey Club.

As the Arizona Coyotes, the team was always mediocre. The playoffs were almost always out of reach, as was the draft lottery. When Armstrong took the reins of the Arizona franchise as general manager in 2020, he set out to change that.

He wanted to rebuild the right way.

Studying rebuilds

When he first took the job, Armstrong and his team started studying the successful rebuilds of the previous decade. Most of them had two things in common: high draft picks and significant time between those drafts and the respective teams’ championships.

The Colorado Avalanche, for example, won the Cup in 2022. They did so after abysmal seasons in the early 2010s landed them the second overall pick in 2011, the first overall pick in 2013, the 10th pick in 2015 and the fourth pick in 2017. They walked away with Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar, each of whom played major roles in the team’s championship.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had a similar story, winning the Cup in both 2020 and 2021. They picked first and second in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and added late-round gems over the next decade to fill out the roster.

“It was pretty shocking just to see how long it does take to become competitive after you strip it down and then make the playoffs and then go on to win a championship,” Armstrong told the Deseret News. “It’s a process that could take you up to five to eight years to make the playoffs coming out of it, and then it takes you 10 to 14 times, sometimes, to win it.”

“It’s amazing, the amount of draft picks you need — and you’ve got to hit.”

Acquiring picks

The COVID-19 pandemic caused worldwide devastation, but its timing could not have been better for Armstrong and his staff as they began rebuilding in Arizona.

The NHL salary cap typically rises by a few million dollars each year and teams plan their contracts accordingly. Because revenue took a downward dive during the pandemic, the salary cap didn’t rise at all the following two seasons.

Teams were stuck with their unwanted contracts — until the Coyotes came to their rescue.

It started with Andrew Ladd, a veteran forward whom the New York Islanders had signed to a long-term deal. He had failed to live up to expectations, so the Islanders, a perennially contending team at the time, needed to move him to create salary cap space. Armstrong agreed to take Ladd off the Islanders’ hands for two second-round picks and a third-round pick.

Next, he took Shayne Gostisbehere from the Philadelphia Flyers for a second- and a seventh-rounder. He then took three bad contracts from the Vancouver Canucks for three additional picks, sending a good player and a bad contract of his own the other way.

The Coyotes rescued teams’ salary caps time after time over the next two years and before they knew it, they had more picks than they knew what to do with. Fast forward to today, with the Utah Hockey Club having arguably the deepest prospect pool in the NHL .

Building through the draft

With the exception of the Vegas Golden Knights, whose situation is different than most because of its recent expansion, every Stanley Cup-winning team has acquired most of its top players at the draft. That’s Armstrong’s mission as the general manager of the Utah Hockey Club.

“You’ve got to have a really good amateur staff because 50% of your team and core is built through the draft. The other 50% is done through trades,” he said.

Over the last four years, Armstrong has drafted 42 players. Of those 42 players, 24 came in the first three rounds. The cupboards are overflowing and now it’s time to develop.

When Dylan Guenther cracked the roster in 2022, he quickly earned a spot on the powerplay, helping him produce nearly half a point per game as a 20-year-old. Now, as Utah HC gets better, there will be tougher competition for those valuable spots.

“You want to (give) guys a chance to succeed,” Armstrong said. “With our team the way it is now, they’re going to get opportunities but they’re going to have to battle extra hard and sometimes wait for that perfect spot.”

Armstrong and his crew will get a good look at the prospects’ development in mid-September, starting with rookie camp in Salt Lake City , Sept. 11-12, followed by the Rookie Faceoff in Los Angeles from Sept. 13-16.

What does that mean for this year?

Armstrong’s plan involves Utah HC playing meaningful games at the end of the season, regardless of whether they’re in the playoffs or not. He hopes to make the playoffs the following year and be able to compete for the Stanley Cup within the next few years after that.

The timeline should align nicely with the renovations to the Delta Center and the construction of the team’s practice facility.