
Busy Week For Utah Sports Fans
Summer officially began 4 days ago.
Family time is now thee main priority for a lot of households here in Utah.
With the kids out of school, expect an uptick in social media posts of families at the lake, the beach, Disneyland, Lagoon, hiking, biking maybe even a little bit of Thanksgiving Point.
As great as that is, for those dedicated to the grind of being a sports fan, especially a sports fan here in Utah, it can be tough to see your social media fill up with happy families while your skimming for high quality draft content. (Blatant Sarcasm)
In years past, the off season for Utah sports fans meant waiting for the NBA draft, and NBA free agency whilst arguing passionately about whether Utah or BYU was primed for the better football season and maybe the occasional Real Salt Lake game.
Now, with the new addition of the Utah “Hockey Club” (please vote Mammoth), the beehive state has double the draft fun and double the free agency whirlwind to look forward to.
With the NBA and NHL following eerily similar schedules, that means that the week of June 24th is chalk full of available programming to distract you from family time.
First of all, tonight at 6:00 Utah time, Hockey fans will be sure to tune into game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals as the Florida Panthers try to regroup after blowing a 3-0 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers.
No Utah isn't involved per say, but if your new to the hockey scene what better way to get a feel for the experience, passion and intensity that is professional hockey?
There is not a single better scenario that you could conjure that would stick with new fans.
It is historic.
This is the first seven game series in the Stanley Cup finals since 2018 and with Edmonton erasing a three game deficit, the Oilers could be the first team to complete such a comeback on the biggest stage in hockey since 1942.
Florida of course, losers of last years cup to the Vegas Golden Knights, would very much like to avoid having a historic meltdown, an 0-3 Stanley cup finals series record, and giving Canada their first cup since 1993.
The story lines are abundant.
Once the dust settles there, Utah fans get a taste of the next direction for the Utah Jazz on Wednesday and Thursday night with Round 1 and Round 2 of the NBA draft starting at 6:00 our time.
The Jazz are already expected to be major players owning the 9th, 29th and 32nd overall selections.
Take into account the amount of Jazz players involved in trade rumors and a potential desire to move up, and the draft could be more than action packed for Jazz fans.
With Danny Ainge leading the way, no draft pick or player is safe when it comes to acquiring… more draft picks and likely younger players.
The draft isn't for a couple of days and the Jazz already have rumors swirling about, something that was absolutely unheard of with this organization years ago.
The Jazz are a bit more bold, a bit more brash and certainly less committal than in years past, and for better or worse, Utah will provide some of the spice that can be absent in these summer months.
If that doesn't transpire fans will likely settle for heavy debate over a brand new three additions to the Jazz family, with six players from the draft in two seasons time.
That influx of youth is rare in Utah basketball.
If you feel like making this a family event, and checking two boxes at once, look no further than the draft night party the Jazz will host for Round one.
As you can tell from the memo above, the Delta Center is all about shredding the stereotype that Utah cant party hard.
Not one, but two parties in the same week? Absurd. How is that even possible?
As soon as you've vented your frustrations on social media, or have been certain to admit your absolute belief in whomever Utah selects, you get a rare opportunity to turn around and do it again.
Just down the road in Las Vegas, the NHL draft will take place on Friday and Saturday night at the Sphere and Salt Lake City will throw another party in honor of it.
For Utah ,this is their inaugural draft, and technically their first ever draft selection, as despite having most of the makeup of the Arizona Coyotes, are by definition a “brand new” franchise with no preexisting history.
The first ever pick for the future Yeti/ Mammoth/ Outlaw will come off the board at pick #6, where they look to improve a talented but incredibly young and developing roster most likely on the defensive side of things.
Despite the team being new, the names doing the selecting will not be.
GM Bill Armstrong and company have been around long enough to warrant a level of confidence in making a solid selection when Utah’s name is called.
Despite the NHL draft being composed of 7 rounds, only round one will hit the big screen on ESPN.
That takes place Friday night at 5:00 Utah time.
Rounds 2-7 will see Utah attach their name to 12 more draft selections assuming they keep every draft pick (they wont) and will kick off as soon as 9:30 on Saturday morning.
That can be caught on NHL Network and the + version of ESPN.
Utah holds the rights to the following selections in each round after going 6th overall in the first round:
2nd round: 3 selections
3rd round: 3 selections
4th round: 2 selections
5th round: 1 selection
6th round: 2 selections
7th round: 1 selection
13 draft picks marks the highest count in the league.
If you think that your going to wake up Sunday morning with as much summer sports news that you can handle, well your wrong.
Come Sunday, free agency will open up in the NBA.
At 4:00 for the Utah Jazz, free agency is unofficially a go.
"Unofficially" due to the fact that contracts cannot be signed until July 6th, but negotiations can be had, deals can be verbally agreed to and the news will come hard and fast.
Utah will get a chance to flex the 4th most cap space in the association and try to tie together the newest iteration of the young and hopeful Jazz.
The following day, Monday the 1st of July, the Hockey club will get a chance to woo players to the brand new and exciting hockey market known as Salt Lake City.
If you thought the Jazz financial situation is impressive, you'll be delighted to know that the Utah Hockey Club has the highest projected cap space per CapFriendly by practically 10,000.
With Ryan Smith on board and the team jonesing to make a great new impression, look for Utah to put their money where their mouth is.
Buckle up Utah, the future of the two largest franchises in the state begin to take shape this week and will do so at a very rapid pace.
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