SALT LAKE CITY — Despite the Utah Hockey Club failing to make the NHL playoffs, the team's top executives and head coach still feel like the inaugural season was a success.
"It's been a 10-out-of-10 all season long," said head coach Andre Tourigny. "Now we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and we believe in ourselves, and we believe we can be part of those teams that have a chance to play in game 83 and on, so it's really exciting."
"I just love the fact that we played hard, meaningful games, trying to get in down the stretch," added said general manager Bill Armstrong, "and our players were under pressure, and they responded."
The team has plenty of salary cap space and the backing from ownership to add some impactful players this offseason.
'We're going up;' Utah Hockey Club players excited for what's ahead:
"It never hurts to have a 100-point scorer on your team, as long as they play the right way," said Armstrong. "The one thing about our club is we are going to push to become better. Our goal is to get 10 percent better than we were last year. We are going to push all summer long.
What are the expectations for year two?
"Year two is a year that we have the playoffs in view," said Armstrong. "Coming back, we're going to hopefully add a couple of young players, hopefully a couple of players from around the league, and just make our team one notch better and see if we can make a push to not only get in but win in the playoffs. That's the goal."
