Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Trevor Lewis, a Utah native and NHL player, sees hockey growing in SLC.
- Utah's NHL team has increased local interest, leading to plans for new rinks.
- Lewis notes rising talent and fan support, calling the growth 'pretty special.'
SALT LAKE CITY — When Utah Hockey Club defenseman Sean Durzi found out he was headed to Utah, he reached out to the one person in the NHL who knew a thing or two about the state: Los Angeles Kings center (and native Utahn) Trevor Lewis.
"I was maybe going to rent his place while he was gone," Durzi said. "It kind of works that way for guys who live in cities, but I ended up buying a home here, and he just kind of steered me in the right direction."
Lewis is the only player from Utah currently skating in the NHL and one of only five Utahns to ever make the league. He's tried to bring hockey to his home state, visiting with the Stanley Cup and playing the part of the pseudo-host during preseason exhibitions at the Delta Center.
But he never thought he'd experience something like Thursday night: skating in an NHL game in his hometown.
"I didn't think it would ever happen, especially while I was playing," he said of Utah getting a team. "But I knew the city would be on board right away. And, obviously, the fan support they're getting has been pretty amazing, so it's pretty cool, and it's pretty special."
Utah has long been a small pond when it comes to hockey talent. Lewis was introduced to the game through his Canadian father, but accessing high-level training in the state proved to be a challenge.
Ice time was hard to find due to a lack of ice rinks, and few were clamoring for more to be built.
"There were not a whole lot of kids playing," he said.
That is changing — and not all that slowly.
The NHL's arrival in Utah has sparked a surge of excitement for the sport. That can be seen by the demand for tickets to Utah's inaugural season but also in the interest in the youth game.
In March, Utah resident Matthew Harayda had a question for Utah HC owner Ryan Smith after struggling to find a place for his son to skate.
"Any plans to help the state build more ice rinks?" he wrote to Smith on social media. "It's brutal up here in Davis/Weber County. Ogden Ice Sheet is always full and Bountiful was closed tonight."
That question was answered about a week later. On March 31, Smith announced plans to donate up to $10 million to help build 20 new rinks in the state.
"To see him care about the rest of the state and the growth of the game and how much people want to play the game now in Utah is awesome," Utah forward Josh Doan said. "And I think as a team, to take pride in that and want to play for that."
Doan knows a little about growing the game in non-traditional hockey markets.
Doan's father, Shane, an Arizona Coyotes legend, helped foster hockey's growth in the desert. That work eventually led to a high-level collegiate team at Arizona State and helped develop the shining hockey star of the state, Auston Matthews.
It's not too hyperbolic to say that without the Coyotes, the hockey world might not have Matthews.
And there's no reason to think the same thing can't happen in Utah. Head coach André Tourigny has already seen the game grow in the year since the team was announced.
"The growth of the passion, the growth of the knowledge, a growth of the excitement, I think the people were really happy to have an NHL team," he said. "Having seen them embrace the game and embrace our team and embrace our players, I think it's been magical."
And Lewis, for one, already sees an uptick in talent, too. He used to have a hard time finding ice time because there was hardly any available; now, it's because more and more people are playing.
"There's a lot of good kids that I am able to skate with and train with and stuff like that," Lewis said. "It's funny, you come back and now there are guys getting scholarships to colleges or going off to play Junior. It's grown a ton since I played, and I think with the team coming here, it's only gonna get bigger and bigger."
The place he had to leave in order to fully pursue his NHL dreams has now embraced his sport. Rinks are being planned, kids are getting into the sport, and an NHL team is in his backyard.
"I always thought it could be a hockey town, but I never thought it would be," Lewis said.
