What was the Utah Hockey Club missing this season?

The Utah Hockey Club got off to a great start in their new home, looking competitive out of the gate despite some injuries. However, as the season has went along, they’ve struggled to keep up in the playoff race, and now with a bit over a week left in the season, they’ve been officially eliminated from the playoffs, their fifth straight year doing so if you include their years as the Arizona Coyotes.

Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton talked about what went wrong with Utah this season on Daily Faceoff Live.

Tyler Yaremchuk: To me, they battled a little bit of health problems. Their blue line was so banged up for a little bit. They missed a guy like Dylan Guenther for a while, and I think he’s blossoming into being a true star in this league.

But I think they’re just missing a little bit more scoring up front. You can see here, 21st in goals per game.

Carter Hutton: Yeah, I think that’s the biggest hole in this lineup. Clayton Keller has a great year, but I think he’s a player that would compliment someone who could be more of a finisher, and I think Guenther is going to settle into that. He’s got 26 goals, but he missed some time as well.

When I look at this line up, I feel like they’ve accumulated a lot of draft picks moving forward. I think Bill Armstrong has done a great job when he was with the Coyotes, and now bringing this over to Utah to build a good base here, but they still need to make a splash. I feel like they’re at a point now where they have their base, they have the future. Let’s build on that.

I think Connor Ingram being hurt this year didn’t help, and then him stepping away from the team. Vejmelka played very well this year, and he was rewarded with a great contract. When I look at those stats, he’s played 21 games straight. It’s really hard to stretch a guy that thin. He is a great goalie, but that being said, you need a little relief.

You look at that little run they had where they dropped three straight, they dropped four and five. It’s tough to really keep pace when you look at teams like the St. Louis Blues and their winning streak.

You can watch the full episode here…