UTHC Player Profile: Olli Määttä

The Professional

No matter how meticulously crafted a General Manager can construct a roster it is impossible to prepare for catastrophe. Over the course of the 2023-24 season, it became clear that the Arizona Coyote’s forward core was bubbling over. Six different forwards had 20+ goals and seven forwards had 40-plus points. And that’s not counting Dylan Guenther who was producing at a 32-goal and 63-point pace in his 45 games played.

The team was tied for 15th in goals for per game play (GF/GP) and had the 15th ranked power play. While there was room to grow, firepower was not the main reason the team ended 13th in the Western Conference with yet another losing record. The patchwork group of defensemen, all but one who had an expiring contract, is what really sank the team. And General Manager Bill Armstrong let all but two of those defensemen walk this summer, re-singing swift puck mover Sean Durzi long term and keeping the team’s longest-tenured defenseman Juuso Välimäki.

Bill Armstrong went to work this summer making a blockbuster trade for Mikhail Sergachev, followed by another trade for the New Jersey Devil’s rangy defenseman John Marino and then signing Ian Cole and Robert Bortuzzo. Armstrong managed to bring in four Stanley Cup-winning defensemen who excelled at different facets of the position, while also leaving room for prospects like Michael Kesselring to get a shot to take a roster spot.

In essence, building the current iteration of the defense cost Bill Armstrong a first-round pick and five second-round picks. A mass of picks and prospects that many teams take years to acquire.

Now after 13 games, the Utah Hockey Club has never played a single game with this revamped defense and has lost both Sean Durzi and John Marino for the majority of the season. Catastrophe struck, and Armstrong had to pivot.