Utah Hockey Club’s practice facility is 1 of a kind

The Utah Hockey Club will play its first regular-season game on Oct. 8 against the Chicago Blackhawks at Delta Center in Salt Lake City (10 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+). NHL.com is counting down to the first game with a five-part series about hockey in Utah. Today, in Part 3, columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika looks at how Utah put together a practice facility in a matter of months:

KEARNS, Utah -- The Utah Hockey Club practices in an environment unlike any other in the NHL, and the story behind it illustrates Utah’s commitment and creativity since the NHL established the new franchise April 18.

The locker room is part of a two-story, 17,400-square-foot structure Utah built in 3-1/2 months at a cost of several million dollars for the inaugural season while it broke ground on a permanent practice facility.

The structure sits in a corner inside the 275,000-square-foot Utah Olympic Oval, the long-track speed skating venue for the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, the home of US Speedskating, and an official U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Site.

When the players leave the locker room, they walk on a carpet laid over a running track and skate across a 400-meter speed skating oval known as the “Fastest Ice on Earth.” Their practice rink is on an island in the middle of the oval and has been converted from Olympic size to NHL size.

The practice rink sits next to another rink used by figure skaters and short-track speed skaters. Utah Hockey Club banners hang on the walls with Olympic banners. Flags from nations around the world hang overhead.

The players see speed skaters and figure skaters training. They use the running track to warm up or work out. They even used the oval for speed testing in training camp, sprinting down the same ice that produced 10 Olympic records and eight world records in front of 53,000 fans over 14 days at the 2002 Winter Games.

“It’s a high-performance environment,” said Chris Armstrong, Utah president of hockey operations. “You feel it the minute you walk in here. There are always athletes pushing to be their personal best. That’s just a good environment to be in for any athlete.”

The practice facility was one of many challenges Utah had to tackle on a tight timeline. Where could the team practice for the first season while a permanent practice facility was being built? How could it meet NHL standards quickly?

The Utah Olympic Oval, built in 2001 about 25 minutes southeast of Salt Lake City in the suburb of Kearns, presented unique opportunities and issues. Converting a rink from Olympic size to NHL size was one thing. The coaches and players might be able to share an existing kitchen, lounge and weight room. But where would they dress? How would they get to the ice?

Utah thought about building a structure outside. It thought about a tunnel under the oval or a bridge over it. Then it realized it could build a structure in an unused corner inside, and the players could cut across the oval to the rink if the team practiced when the speed skaters weren’t training. There were entrances and exits in that corner, but not for day-to-day use or to comply with code. They were there specifically for the Olympics.

The plans weren’t finalized until late May. Yet when the coaches and players reported for camp in September, they had everything they needed in an area all their own. The upper floor has a coaches’ office, a meeting room with theater seating, and a kitchen and lounge area, all with windows overlooking the facility. It also has an open-air balcony. The lower floor has a locker room, a training room with hydrotherapy, and a weight room. There is open space the players can use outside the weight room too.

Hockey operations is based in a former medical area in another part of the facility, but the only time coaches and players need to go there is when they must do paperwork or attend a meeting.

“I’ve been here for 2 1/2 months now, so I’ve been following it pretty closely,” forward Lawson Crouse said, sitting in the locker room. “It’s amazed me how quickly they’ve done everything and to the extent that they’ve done it. You look around this room. It’s a beautiful room. It’s big, spacious. Got a big spot for the players upstairs with food, everything. It’s been top notch. I think it just speaks to the commitment of the team, the ownership, and it’s good to be a part of it.”

Armstrong credited Utah owners Ryan and Ashley Smith; Jim Olson, president of the Utah Jazz and facilities for Smith Entertainment Group; and Jamie Galileo, senior vice president of construction and facilities operations for SEG.

“It’s relationships,” he said. “It’s obviously Ryan’s reputation. A big part is the excitement everybody has for what we’re doing, for the team coming here and the chance to be a part of that. It’s kind of this Utah mentality of, ‘We get stuff done.’ Everybody’s like, ‘How can we help?’ That’s how it got done.”

Armstrong also credited the Utah Olympic Oval.

“All those banners were here,” he said, pointing to six big banners on a far wall listing the United States’ speed skating rosters from each Olympics since Salt Lake. “They let us put our banners up and moved them. They’ve been amazing partners, because obviously we are in their space. But it’s great for them long term too, because we’ve improved the building in a significant way.”

The permanent practice facility is slated to open next season. Utah is converting part of a shopping mall, The Shops at South Town about 20 minutes south of Salt Lake City in the suburb of Sandy, like the Seattle Kraken did at Northgate in Seattle. It will have two ice sheets, with the potential to add a third, and serve as both Utah’s headquarters and a public facility.

Go there today, and you can peer through a sheer black construction fence with Utah and SEG logos. You can see construction equipment in the parking lot. A sign hangs over the doors of a former Macy’s touting it as the “SITE OF FUTURE UTAH HOCKEY CLUB TRAINING & PRACTICE FACILITY.”

The temporary practice facility will be turned over to the Utah Olympic Oval unless Utah finds another use for it.

“Maybe one day we can have an [American Hockey League] team practicing out of here or another affiliate practicing out of here,” Armstrong said. “We haven’t ruled out the possibility of continuing to have a relationship here and utilize what we’ve built for our development system.”

In the meantime, the coaches and players are soaking up the experience. Forward Liam O’Brien said he’s glad they get to share the space with the speed skaters and learn from them.

“It's amazing,” O’Brien said. “It’s super cool. They train so hard. I’ve talked to a couple of them and asked them about their week and what it looks like, and they train like crazy.”

Coach Andre Tourigny said when he works in his brand-new office, he thinks about how much has been done by so many in so little time.

“You have to feel special,” he said, “and you have to feel all in and committed to deliver for those people.”