Utah Primed To Be a Top Free Agent Destination

If you clicked on this article after reading the headline, I commend you.

You deserve credit for seeing such a title and saying “ya, that’s plausible, let me check it out.”

Afterall, not even people in Utah have ever thought “pro athletes are going to flock to Salt Lake City in droves.”

Free agency in Utah has been an afterthought and big time free agency signings don’t even become thoughts at all.

It wont happen, so why dream about it?

Like any small sports market, Utah has had to be competitive the old fashioned way.

By forcing players into joining you via the draft rather than giving them the choice that free agency brings.

Think of your favorite Jazz player.

Even your top 5 favorite Jazz players.

Deron Williams?

John Stockton?

Paul Millsap?

Gordon Hayward?

Karl Malone?

Donovan Mitchell?

Rudy Gobert?

Kosta Koufos?

Everyone of them, drafted or acquired on draft night.

Through drafting players and trading for players is how Utah has been able to be consistently competitive.

It must be that way because well you know Utah, it’s cold, it’s boring, it’s small, the list goes on and on and on.

Jazz fans have heard it all, year after year.

They’ve heard it from opposing fans, they’ve even heard it from players themselves.

But what if I told you that what has been said about Utah’s potential on the free agency market recently is the exact opposite of what Utah fans have been hearing since 1980?

That’s right, out of the blue, the views on the beehive state have shifted dramatically and all one has to do to see that is shift the sport itself.

By rotating the Utah Jazz for the NHL’s newest team, the Utah Hockey Club, you can see a total 180.

After one season in the books, the Utah Hockey Club are about to enter their 2nd ever free-agency period and their first as an established franchise with a full season under their belt.

With a willing owner and an eager front office the Hockey Club is willing to make some big time moves, ready to offer some big time contracts, and ultimately go all out.

But this time around and in this sport, players may be willing to commit, something the Jazz could never really fulfill.

Hard to believe after being spurned as a Jazz fan so many years?

That’s ok, don’t take my word for it, take the current athletes in Salt Lake City and what they had to say during exit interviews after their inaugural season via Cole Bagley of KSL Sports:

These words, this phrasing, these sentences, all new for fans of Utah professional sports.

While the Jazz await on lottery results, trying to build the only way small-market teams can in the NBA, the Hockey Club has a real chance to do more than wait on in-house talent.

All this talk could be pure bluster, anchored to a brand new shiny organization, trying to capitalize on that new car smell.

Or....

The players genuinely believe what they've experienced in Salt Lake City, from the ownership and facilities to the community and the fanbase, will be something others will want to soon experience.

Either way, I’d be sure to buy all stock now, because early signs point to the Hockey Club being able to do some things that Jazz fans simply aren’t accustomed too, and for many it’s going to be a ton of fun.