What to know about St. Louis Blues vs Utah Hockey Club preseason NHL game in Des Moines

It’s time for hockey in Iowa.

But it’s not the Iowa Wild, a Des Moines-based American Hockey League team.

The St. Louis Blues and the Utah Hockey Club of the National Hockey League will face off at Wells Fargo Arena in a preseason game dubbed the Des Moines Community Classic.

St. Louis and Utah will face off on Sunday, Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. CT and Des Moines hockey fans will get a glimpse of the NHL’s newest team, all while hosting one of the first preseason games of the season.

Here is what fans need to know ahead of Sunday’s preseason matchup.

What time is the NHL preseason game in Des Moines?

Date: Sept. 22, 2024

Time: 6 p.m.

Location: Wells Fargo Arena

Tickets: Available through the Iowa Event Center website

The Basics: St. Louis Blues

It’s been a downhill trend for the Blues since St. Louis won the Stanley Cup in 2019.

The Blues lost in the first round of the NHL playoffs in 2020 and 2021, lost in the second round in 2022 and did not qualify for the playoffs the last two seasons.

But St. Louis is under the direction of head coach Drew Bannister to start this season. He took over behind the bench in December of last year, replacing Craig Berube, who led the Blues to their Stanley Cup in 2019.

St. Louis returns all six of its 20-plus goal scorers from last season: Jordan Kyrou (31), Pavel Buchnevich (27), Jake Neighbours (27), Brandon Saad (26), Robert Thomas (26) and Brayden Schenn (20).

The Blues will be without one of their defenders, as Torey Krug will miss the entire 2024-25 season due to surgery on his left ankle.

The Basics: Utah Hockey Club

The Utah Hockey Club – which does not have a mascot or nickname yet – is an NHL expansion team based in Salt Lake City.

Unlike other expansion teams, the Utah Hockey Club is not starting from scratch. The team relocated – formerly the Phoenix Coyotes from 1996-2014 and the Arizona Coyotes from 2014 to 2024 – to Utah from Arizona.

The Coyotes failed to make the playoffs the last four seasons and struggled to find a profitable arena for home games. Because of these challenges, Arizona suspended hockey operations after the 2023-24 season and all players, staff and draft picks were transferred to the Utah Hockey Club.

Utah should start the season off strong because of this arrangement.

The Salt Lake City-based team features Clayton Keller, who finished last season with 33 goals. Utah brought in a few veterans in the offseason, including Stanley Cup-winning defenders Mikhail Sergachev and Ian Cole.

Will all the players from Sunday’s preseason game play in the NHL this season?

No. During the regular season, each team can have a maximum of 23 players on its roster, and opening day rosters must be submitted by 5 p.m. ET on Oct. 7.

Both St. Louis and Utah’s online rosters have well over the maximum allowed. Those rosters will be cut down as teams work after training camp and preseason games.

When is the first day of the NHL season?

It’s an international start to the season for the National Hockey League, with the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres playing back-to-back games on Oct. 4 and 5 in Prague, Czechia.

Games will kick off in North America on Oct. 8: St. Louis vs. Seattle, Boston vs. Florida and Chicago vs. Utah.

Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.