The former Arizona Coyotes team arrived in Salt Lake City and attended the NHL in Utah event at the Delta Center on Wednesday.

Utah’s @NHL team arrives in Salt Lake City 🤩 pic.twitter.com/nSy2YH9Z8b

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) April 24, 2024

This was the first time they had been in Utah since the announcement of the team’s sale and relocation from Arizona.

New owners Ryan and Ashley Smith hosted the event for the team as fans packed the arena in excitement of the arrival of the team and the NHL to Utah.

The team has arrived. It’s real loud. pic.twitter.com/bxBjKr8a8N

— Ryan Miller (@millerjryan) April 24, 2024

Smith thanked the fans as he greeted the crowd and announced the fans in Utah would have a part in choosing the name for the team next season.

“None of this happens without you,” Smith said to the crowd. “This is a community asset, a community team and everybody is going to have a part of it.”

“The @NHL chose Utah.” – @RyanQualtrics #NHLinUtah #NHL pic.twitter.com/HwRzPLGSB0

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) April 24, 2024

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General manager Bill Armstrong greeted the fans at the event and thanked the crowd for their support of the team.

“These guys are some of the toughest human beings you’ll meet for what they’ve gone through,” Armstrong said. “I know what it is like for them when they see you and see you cheer like that. You have no idea what that means to us.”

“Utah, you touched my heart today. You have no idea what that means to us. We will pay you back for all of that emotion you gave us today.”

GM Bill Armstrong on the crowd response in Utah 🫶#NHLinUtah #NHL pic.twitter.com/s3N1MUte0q

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) April 24, 2024

Head coach Andre Tourigny told the media before the event the experience of the past few weeks with the team was challenging.

André Tourigny describes the emotions of the last week, the “stability” of Utah, and his team’s excitement.#NHLinUtah #NHL pic.twitter.com/sF581doGee

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) April 24, 2024

“The process of the sale was complicated from everybody,” Tourigny said. “Both ownerships, past and present could not talk and the league would not talk as they were working on the business transaction [of the team].”

Tourigny said when he met with ownership, he and the team were excited about the move to Utah and the stability with the new ownership.

“From the moment Ryan and Ashley talked to us and how excited they were about having a team in Utah and they were talking about the growth in Utah, it got us excited,” Tourigny said. “We are excited and everybody is all in.”

Forward Clayton Keller explained his excitement of the team’s move to Utah.

.@ClaytonKeller37 describes stepping off the plane this morning and his excitement of being in Utah.#NHLinUtah #NHL pic.twitter.com/8Jzf4AUfce

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) April 24, 2024

“A lot went on the last couple weeks but we are super excited to be here,” Keller said. “Just seeing the youth hockey programs and lot of kids knowing our names, we couldn’t be more excited.”

Last year, nine Utah ties were taken during the 2023 NFL draft.

That included three former Utes, three former Cougars and three others who played high school ball in Utah but played college outside the state.

If national experts are to be believed, there could be a similar number of Utah ties taken in the 2024 NFL draft, which runs Thursday through Saturday in Detroit.

The University of Utah has the highest amount of draftable prospects in this year’s class, while BYU has one likely high draft pick and a couple other potential late-rounders. There are also a couple of former Utah prep stars who are expected to hear their name called.

Here’s where five recent seven-round mock drafts have predicted for Utah ties to get drafted:

Jackson Powers-Johnson, C, Corner Canyon High

Kingsley Suamataia, OT, BYU and Orem High

Cole Bishop, S, Utah

Jonah Elliss, Edge, Utah

Sataoa Laumea, G, Utah

Sione Vaki, S, Utah

Dallin Holker, TE, BYU and Lehi High

Ryan Rehkow, P, BYU

Other Utah ties projected as draft picks

Three other Utah ties received one projection as a draft pick:

• Keaton Bills, G, Utah and Corner Canyon High: Round 5, No. 165 overall to Baltimore Ravens by Josh Edwards, CBS Sports.
• Winston Reid, LB, Weber State and Copper Hills High: Round 7, No. 251 overall to San Francisco 49ers by Chad Reuter, NFL.com.
• Kedon Slovis, QB, BYU: Round 7, No. 255 overall to Green Bay Packers by Chad Reuter, NFL.com.

Kyle Dunphey

(Utah News Dispatch) From members of Utah’s congressional delegation to the state’s governor and attorney general, elected officials in the Beehive State are voicing their opposition to a new rule from the Bureau of Land Management, vowing to fight it in both Congress and the courts.

The BLM last week finalized its “Public Lands Rule,” which allows parcels of public land to be leased for conservation, similar to how the agency currently leases land for mineral extraction, energy development, recreation or grazing.

The rule would allow for a restoration lease, intended for groups or individuals to improve habitats and restore or conserve land — and a mitigation lease, aimed at offsetting existing development and projects on BLM land.

It was widely celebrated by environmental groups, including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which in a statement said the rule will “keep conservation front of mind.”

“For too long, the BLM has allowed extractive industries to have their way with our public lands. That’s led to degraded landscapes across the West and the decline of iconic species, like the greater sage-grouse. This rule gives the BLM the tools it needs to right these wrongs and start improving the health of our public lands,” said Kate Groetzinger, communications manager for the Center for Western Priorities.

But in Utah, Republicans argued the rule would lock up land, excluding traditional uses like grazing or commercial guiding. According to a statement from the Utah Department of Natural Resources, the rule will “negatively impact the 22.8 million acres of BLM land in Utah.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, in a statement last week, said he looked forward to working with Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes to fight the rule in federal court.

“The added layers of red tape and federal bureaucracy embedded in the BLM’s Public Lands Rule create new roadblocks to conservation work. The health of Utah’s lands and wildlife will suffer as a result. This Rule is contrary to the bedrock principle of ‘multiple-use’ in the BLM’s governing law, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act,” Cox said.

That was the sentiment from Republican Reps. John Curtis, Celeste Maloy and Blake Moore on Monday during a Federal Lands Subcommittee field hearing — part of the House Committee on Natural Resources — in Sand Hollow State Park in Hurricane.

“The rule favors wealthy individuals and environmental groups by creating a new, convoluted leasing system that will allow them to lock up lands that belong to all Utahns,” said Curtis, who recently sponsored a bill that would permanently repeal the Public Lands Rule.

That bill, the Western Economy Security Today Act, passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee but has yet to receive a full vote from lawmakers.

Curtis argued that any new public lands leasing option should come from Congress, not the BLM, or what he called “the will of one person.”

His bill would promote “true conservation,” Curtis said, “rooted in local input rather than preservationist policies handed down by the Biden administration.”

Moore, who said the rule “doesn’t really solve the problem,” asked Washington County Commissioner Adam Snow whether the policy helps or hinders grazing on public land. Snow called the rule an “absolute hindrance.”

“In this county alone, we have massive amounts of land set aside,” said Snow. “Conservation is important, nothing to take away from that. But, it’s balancing multiple uses, and to elevate the conservation rule to say that conservation is at the same level … that only hinders grazing.”

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance on Monday called the hearing “partisan” and “out of touch with local and national support for protecting public lands.”

“Keeping conservation front and center is particularly important in places like Washington County and across Southwest Utah that are seeing both significant growth and the impacts of climate change such as prolonged drought and diminishing water supplies,” said Travis Hammill, the group’s Washington D.C. director.