{"id":443845,"date":"2024-06-27T12:04:47","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T16:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=443845"},"modified":"2024-06-27T12:04:47","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T16:04:47","slug":"nhl-rumours-utah-seeks-big-time-defenceman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/06\/27\/nhl-rumours-utah-seeks-big-time-defenceman\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Utah Seeks Big-Time Defenceman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another batch of fresh NHL rumours. We&#8217;re just days away from the start of free agency on July 1. However, there&#8217;s the NHL Draft in Las Vegas this weekend. Teams are lining up to reshape their rosters via trade or draft picks. One team that&#8217;s doing a complete makeover is the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/06\/26\/physical-depth-forward-signs-utah\/\" target=\"_self\">Utah Hockey Club<\/a>. The newly-minted franchise is the focus of this edition of NHL rumours.<\/p>\n<p>All NHL rumours come from the original source and are subject to change.<\/p>\n<h2>NHL Rumours<\/h2>\n<h3>Utah Hockey Club Wants Top-Four Defender<\/h3>\n<p><em>Analysis: David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported that the Utah franchise is looking at landing a big-time defenceman. <\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Utah is making some noise and is actively shopping for a top-pair defenceman by the sounds of it. Something to keep an eye on this week.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheFourthPeriod\/status\/1806060913239507290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Rumour:<\/em> Utah is looking to hit the ground running in its first year in Salt Lake City. Gone are the days of being a team that barely spent like they did when they were the Arizona Coyotes. Owner Ryan Smith said he won&#8217;t be afraid to be aggressive in free agency.<\/p>\n<p>This means that Utah is going to try to remake its roster. The Coyotes had some good young prospects, but not a lot of big-name players. However, it&#8217;s a new day for the yet-to-be-named team. One of the most pressing needs for the team is improving its defence. There are a few holes in the roster, but defence seems to be something Utah wants to address quickly according to Pagnotta.<\/p>\n<h4>Hey, Big Spender<\/h4>\n<p>There are a number of ways that it could be done. Players like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/montobr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Montour<\/a> and others are available in free agency. Utah General Manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/a\/armstbi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bill Armstrong<\/a> does have the luxury of nearly $43 million in cap space before long-term injured reserve allowances. Armstrong will probably be smart about how he deploys the teams funds. However, he&#8217;s got more money to play with than most general managers in the league. He can probably afford to be a bit aggressive when it comes to offering money.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been speculated that the team will <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/06\/01\/nhl-rumours-utah-hockey-expected-to-active-this-summer\/\" target=\"_self\">offer short to mid-term deals<\/a> with a bit more money to set the youngsters up for success. The team does have some great young players like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/coolelo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-27_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Logan Cooley<\/a> and others. However, Utah doesn&#8217;t want to be saddled with bad deals when the prospect group grows into bonafide NHL stars.<\/p>\n<h4>Let&#8217;s Make a Deal<\/h4>\n<p>The Fourth Period also reported that Utah may be <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.thefourthperiod.com\/june-2024\/utah-open-to-trading-6th-overall-pick\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">open to dealing the six overall pick<\/a>. Pagnotta and Anthony Di Marco said that Armstrong is willing to deal the six overall selection to score a defenceman or<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/06\/04\/six-top-ufa-targets-this-offseason-for-nhls-utah-hockey-club\/\" target=\"_self\"> scoring winger.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Utah&#8217;s general manager has been given the green-light to make things happen. Using the sixth overall pick as part of a trade package could really be something the team needs. However, Utah is just one of the number of teams that are entertaining the idea of using a top draft choice as part of a trade. The Fourth Period reported that the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/06\/27\/linus-ullmark-era-begins-in-ottawa\/\" target=\"_self\">Ottawa Senators<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/06\/24\/philadelphia-flyers-offseason-targets-whos-on-their-radar\/\" target=\"_self\"> Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/06\/19\/nhl-rumours-buffalo-sabres-jeff-skinner-buyout-candidate\/\" target=\"_self\">Buffalo Sabres<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/06\/21\/minnesota-wild-trade-forward-with-new-jersey\/\" target=\"_self\">New Jersey Devils<\/a> are willing to part with a draft pick via trade.<\/p>\n<p>The new franchise is eyeing a Stanley Cup Playoff appearance for its first year in Utah. There&#8217;s a lot of work to be done, but the franchise has plenty of money and picks at their disposal.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Gabriel Mayberry-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for another batch of fresh NHL rumours. We&#8217;re just days away from the start of free agency on July 1. However, there&#8217;s the NHL Draft in Las Vegas this weekend. Teams are lining up to reshape their rosters via trade or draft picks. One team that&#8217;s doing a complete makeover is the Utah [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":439790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4321,4547,4548,21],"tags":[5466,662,7908],"class_list":["post-443845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rumours","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-mammoth","tag-bill-armstrong","tag-nhl-free-agency","tag-utah-hockey"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}