Utah
Inside look at Utah Hockey Club | NHL.com
NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, the Utah Hockey Club.
While most of the NHL is preparing for new arrivals in the form of draft picks and free agents ahead of the 2024-25 season, things are a little different in Utah. Players and staff for the Utah Hockey Club are picking out houses, choosing school systems and finding their way to the nearest grocery store.
But once training camp starts, the Utah Hockey Club will get started on a season that it hopes will end in a competitive spring — and maybe even in a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
General manager Bill Armstrong won’t go quite that far, though.
“I really like the way it’s come together,” Armstrong told NHL.com in late July. “I like the way the organization is set up. It’s very rare that you don’t have a bad contract on your team, and we’ve set ourselves up to now make that next step.
“But it also has to happen organically. You can’t just make it happen on paper. The team has to make a step on the ice. And they have a chance to do that this year. If we can be playing meaningful games down the stretch, it’s going to be a hell of a season.”
The Utah Hockey Club officially joined the NHL on June 13 and purchased the contracts of Arizona Coyotes executives, coaches and players, taking over a rebuild that is in its fourth year. To go along with a bright young core, the organization has accumulated and hit on draft picks to bolster its prospect pool by taking on contracts and developing a scouting staff.
It has gotten them to the point where Armstrong will call his charges “a decent team.”
And though everyone in Utah, from the new owners to its newest fans, would welcome a playoff spot, that’s something Armstrong believes is a goal for next season. For this season, he’s keeping his expectations more tempered.
“If you look at our roster, how far we stripped it down, it’s very rare that a team going through the rebuild coming out of the fourth year makes the playoffs,” Armstrong said. “We’ve got to set realistic goals here. I don’t see us [in the postseason] — you never know — but it’s unlikely. What we want to do is take that step where we know we can be in the hunt and play meaningful games.
“If we can do that coming down the stretch and be driving in the final 20 games, it’s going to give us a lot of momentum for the following season.”
Utah
Here’s who will lead Utah Valley University as its next president
Jon Anderson will be charged with moving the Orem school forward following the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on campus last year.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Incoming UVU President Jon Anderson poses for a photo with his family after an event announcing his selection at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, July 17, 2026.
Utah
Beaver County residents set up thousands of sandbags ahead of flashfloods
BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A massive community effort is underway as volunteers and Beaver County crews distribute thousands of sandbags to protect homes from the potential path of floodwaters.
After the Cottonwood Fires, residents have been waiting for weeks for relief to come in the form of rain, though officials now warn it may come all at once with an increased risk of flooding and debris flow.
Emergency Service Director Les Whitney believes that the fire has left plenty of debris to bring trouble for residents.
“We got a lot of water. We’re bringing debris with it, so tree branches, tree limbs, logs, lots of different size firewood, and that’s all in the creeks. We’re worried about that plugging up our bridges and stuff, so we have heavy equipment and excavators located in strategic places so that we can keep those bridges open,” said Whitney.
An estimated 140 homes and condominiums were spared from the flames, but remain in the paths of floodwaters.
Residents can also pick up sandbags at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office or at the Beaver County Rodeo Fairgrounds.
Utah
Utah man arrested again for allegedly abusing dog twice in three months
EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An Eagle Mountain man currently on pretrial release in 4th District Court who is accused of abusing his dog has been arrested again for allegedly punching the same animal.
Keith Reaves Davis, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated cruelty to an animal.
Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to a grocery store on a report that a man was beating his dog after it had gotten off its leash and was stopped by a bystander, according to a police booking affidavit.
“I reviewed security camera footage from the grocery store, and an individual matching the description of the suspect was seen holding the dog in the air by one paw and repeatedly striking the dog on the right hind leg area. I observed the male strike the dog several times before dropping the dog from approximately 1-2 feet. The strikes appeared to be as hard as the male could hit,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The dog did not cry out or whimper as if the dog was accustomed to the abuse.”
When questioned, Davis “admitted to striking the dog because it was not behaving,” the affidavit states.
An animal control officer who responded to the scene to take custody of the dog noted it was the same dog he had taken from Davis exactly three months earlier during another animal abuse investigation.
In that case, Davis was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor; and public intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, after deputies received a tip from a neighbor that a dog was being abused at Davis’ home, according to charging documents. When questioned, Davis “acknowledged hitting his dog as punishment,” the charges state.
Deputies also reviewed videos that the neighbor had filmed. The neighbor told investigators “there was blood from the dog on the ground of the garage and (the neighbor) can hear the dog screaming as if it’s being hurt. Deputies got the videos from the (neighbor) and you can hear very loudly the dog screaming and crying with a lot of loud banging noises. In one of the videos, you can hear the dog sounding like it is being choked by a collar and is grasping for air,” a police booking affidavit states.
Davis’ next court hearing in the April case is scheduled for July 28.
In their latest booking report, sheriff’s deputies note that they “believe further harm will be inflicted on this dog if it is released back to the male a second time,” and have recommended the dog not be returned to Davis.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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