What New York hockey fans know about Utah and its new NHL team

Riding up the elevator in UBS Arena, about a dozen New York Islanders fans, all wearing their team’s blue and orange, were asked if they knew who their team was playing that night.
Mostly, there were blank stares. One younger fan said “Utah?” — as if it was a question. The only definitive answer came from an older gentleman in an Islanders jersey.
“Coyotes,” he said.
During the Utah Hockey Club’s first-ever road trip, we spent time chatting with New York hockey fans to see what they know about the NHL’s newest market and the visiting team.
Regarding Utah? Most of the responses were predictable — mountains, skiing, reality TV and sports.
“I’m embarrassed to say, Salt Lake City, Housewives of Utah, moms of TikTok and the new hockey team,” said Tracy Ziegler, an Islanders fan who attended Thursday’s game at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.
“And the Jazz,” her husband, Larry Ziegler, added.
“They had the Olympics there, the senator’s retired, and there’s Mormons,” Islanders fan Rob Mehran said.
“Good skiing, right?” asked Frank Tornabene. “That’s about it.”
But Tornabene and Ken Dema, lifelong Rangers fans who stood near the players’ entrance to Madison Square Garden on Saturday, knew plenty about hockey and a surprising amount about the team in town. That was the case with most of the fans we talked to.
“You guys are 2-0, right?” said Emma Graffagnino of Long Island, who was waiting outside MSG with Damien Meyer and Jake Vormittag for the Rangers’ home opener, which Utah would win in overtime.
“The offense is definitely firing on all cylinders,” Meyer said. (Utah scored six goals against the Rangers after scoring five against the Islanders.)
Rangers fans Matt Wax of New York City and T.J. Lutz of Hoboken, New Jersey, have noticed the former Arizona Coyotes moving in a positive direction.
“The first thing the owner did was bring in an $8 million a year defenseman in (Mikhail) Sergachev,” Wax said. “Clearly, they’re willing to invest. And there’s some good young players there. It scares me. One of the laughingstocks of the league is actually a real team now.”
“The ownership was not great investing in the team, so the move and new ownership is only going to benefit the league and the team as a whole,” Lutz said. “You can already see the energy around the team, at least in my opinion, from over here.”
Mehran’s son, also named Rob, made sure to mention that Utah captain Clayton Keller is “a good player” and that goalie Connor Ingram is on his fantasy team.
And Dema was curious about the naming process.
“Is the name going to be the Yetis?” he asked.
Dema lived in Denver when the Quebec Nordiques relocated in 1995 and became the Colorado Avalanche. He sees a lot of parallels with the move from Arizona to Utah.
“(Denver is a) great market. Great team. They did very well,” said Dema, who has visited Utah on multiple occasions. “The people out there loved it. And I think in Utah they’re going to love it.
“It’s the Rocky Mountains as opposed to Phoenix, which is hot. I think it was a really good call to go there. I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work in Utah.
“I think the type of fan that’s a hockey fan fits Utah better than it does Arizona. These markets that aren’t flooded with teams, they get into it.”
Like Dema, Wax has spent time in Utah and sees it as “a great market for sports.”
“I think it’s going to bring a lot to the city,” he said.
Added Lutz: “The last two expansion teams have done very well in both Vegas and the (Seattle) Kraken, and clearly built big fan bases. So I don’t see why this team won’t do the same thing.”