The Utah NHL team has signed forward prospect Noel Nordh to a three-year, entry-level contract, CapFriendly reported Saturday evening.

Nordh, 19, became the first player to officially sign a contract with the Utah team since it relocated from Arizona in April. The Arizona Coyotes originally selected Nordh in the third round (No. 72 overall) of the 2023 NHL Draft.

The 6’2″ left wing spent the majority of the 2023–24 regular season with Brynäs IF in the second-tier Allsvenskan league in Sweden, collecting six goals and 15 points in 50 games. Additionally, he racked up 10 goals and 22 points in 15 games with Brynäs’ U20 affiliate team.

The Coyotes originally acquired the draft pick they used to select Nordh from the Washington Capitals in exchange for forward Johan Larsson ahead of the 2022 trade deadline.

Nordh’s contract with Utah will take effect in the 2024–25 season. He’ll be eligible to play in the American Hockey League immediately but could remain in Sweden for another year while on loan from Utah.

Born on January 25, 2005, Nordh is one of the oldest players eligible to participate at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ottawa this coming winter, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll be picked to play for Team Sweden.

Nordh is the first member of the Coyotes’ 2023 NHL Draft class to sign a contract with the newly-relocated franchise. Utah retained previous Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong and the rest of his hockey operations department from Arizona through the move.

The Coyotes selected a pair of Russians in the first round of last year’s draft: Dmitri Simashev and Daniil But, both of whom will become eligible to sign with Utah after their KHL contracts expire at the end of next season. Nordh was the second of four players the Coyotes drafted in last year’s second round, along with Jonathan Castagna, Tanner Ludtke, and Vadim Moroz.

The final player to sign a contract with the Coyotes before the move was 2021 seventh-round pick Sam Lipkin, who won the NCAA Division I men’s national championship with Quinnipiac in 2023 and collected 78 points in 78 games over his two seasons of college hockey. As with the rest of the now-former Coyotes players, Lipkin’s contract transferred to Utah when Ryan Smith purchased the team from Alex Meruelo.

This article was first published as the Jazz Insiders newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Friday.

In the final interview of the season with Utah Jazz CEO Danny Ainge, the session started out with a question from broadcaster Craig Bolerjack. He asked Ainge what kind of players the Jazz needed, what attributes the Jazz were looking for. Ainge then posed the question back to Bolerjack. He wanted to know what Bolerjack thought the Jazz needed.

“I think obviously youth is one, athleticism would be another, length would be one, defending would be, I think another high level need or want. But I only call games and you get to solve the players,” he said with a laugh.

Ainge wasn’t being confrontational at all. He wanted us all to understand that the problems with the Jazz, and the holes on the roster that we all see, are the correct ones.

“It was a good answer,” Ainge said. “You answered your own question. I tell my grandchildren that all the time, ‘You can answer that question.’”

On a bit of a deeper level, I think it’s obvious that the Jazz want to put together a team that is built for the playoffs, and that means getting players that are not one-dimensional. The Jazz don’t just want a player who is young and athletic, or another player who is long and a defense-first guy. They want every player to have all of those attributes. They want versatile players that will sustain long-term careers and make the team successful when the games really matter in the postseason.

It’s what I’ve been thinking a lot about as I’ve been watching the first round of this year’s NBA playoffs. What works, and what doesn’t work?

“Optionality of being able to do multiple things is a huge factor for me as you get to the playoffs,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “I just don’t think you can throw fast balls the whole playoffs and win. You have to be able to pivot to something else on both sides of the floor, because certain matchups give you different problems. We are building a foundation with our players of being able to switch their mindset in a game or before a game.”

So as we continue to move through the playoffs and we get nearer to the draft and free agency, it’s important to look at what players end up on the Jazz roster. We don’t have to try to talk ourselves into believing that a one-dimensional player will end up on the roster long term. There are going to be plenty of players over the next couple of years that are with the Jazz short term.

But, when the Jazz find players that fit the bill and really feel like they fill a need, one that we can all see and understand, those are the players that will stick and that the Jazz want.

New with the Jazz

How to pass the time in the offseason

Now that the Utah Jazz offseason is officially upon us, it’s time to once again look for ways to fill the hole that Jazz games once occupied.

It probably is a little obvious to say that watching the playoffs is a great way to get a basketball fix, but it really is! More importantly, as I mentioned above, watching playoff basketball is really helpful when considering where the Jazz are in their rebuild.

The playoff matchups have been really exciting, and the second-round series between the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves, which kicks off on Saturday, is one that I can’t wait to watch. On a broad scale, the playoff games have reminded me of how far the Jazz are from being able to compete at the highest level.

Think about how the results in the postseason will impact the Jazz. Do the Jazz have a player that could match up with some of the emerging stars in the Western Conference? Can the Jazz capitalize on some of the teams that were upset in the first round by making deals for players? What do the shakeups mean in terms of what could happen on draft night?

The NBA playoffs, in my opinion, are the best time of the year, and that’s not only because it’s the best basketball of the year. It’s also because everything that plays out during the playoffs impacts what happens for the upcoming season.

From the archives

Extra points

• What are the Jazz’s offseason plans? Well, that depends on the rest of the NBA (Deseret News)
• Where does Keyonte George figure into the Jazz’s future success? (Deseret News)
• What’s the offseason priority for Utah Jazz rookies? Get in the best shape of their lives (Deseret News)
• The similarities behind the Jazz and Coyotes relocations nearly 45 years apart (KSL.com)

Around the league

SALT LAKE CITY — Drunk driving deaths have jumped since the beginning of the pandemic while DUI arrests have dropped. However, Utah is bucking some of that trend.

The number of arrests for drunk driving dropped from over 1.3 million in 2010 to about 788,000 in 2023, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s a drop of about half.

Utah bucks drunk driving trend

Utah stands out from other states because its number of arrests of people driving drunk has increased steadily over the last two decades. That comes from data updated earlier this year. 

“In 2023, we arrested more impaired drivers than we have over the last six years,” said Col. Michael Rapich, Utah Highway Patrol, at a January legislative hearing. “Over 11,000.”

Data from the Utah Department of Public Safety shows DUI arrests in Utah hit 11,246, or “an average of 31 arrests per day.” That adds up to 833 more than 2022.

In 2022, 174 people died on Utah roads from alcohol-related accidents. That’s a rise of about 61 from the year before.

From 2010 to 2022, deaths from crashes involving a DUI increased from about 10,000 to 13,500.

What the national numbers show

Nationwide, the data shows drunk driving arrests hit a turning point during the pandemic. 

According to the WSJ, police pulled drivers over less frequently to avoid catching COVID-19. In addition to that, the in-custody death of George Floyd, which prompted protests against police across the country, and again, a reduction in traffic stops. Police departments coast-to-coast also say the unrest greatly affected their recruitment and retention. 

More empty roads during lockdowns reportedly also convinced drivers to engage in reckless behaviors, like skipping their seatbelts and driving far over the speed limit.

How to curb drunk driving

The National Highway Transportation and Safety Administation is eyeing a new technology it hopes will stop DUIs before they happen: Blood-alcohol readers in cars.

The NHTSA is exploring built-in devices like breathalyzers or skin sensors that will shut down the vehicle if the driver is impaired.

The Centers for Disease Control recommends two strategies more than others: sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols.

The sobriety checks involve officers camping at a visible area and checking passing cars in a fixed sequence, say every fourth vehicle.

For saturation patrols, police publicize they will be out in force during a certain time and increase the number of officers looking for erratic driving behavior.

“Just like sobriety checkpoints, the goal of saturation patrols is to increase the perceived likelihood that impaired driving will be identified and penalized, leading to a reduction in impaired driving,” wrote the CDC on its website.

Read more: