The Utah Hockey Club needs back-end reinforcements. However General Manager Bill Armstrong is constantly looking and seeking to improve his hockey club, he didn’t think it would happen so soon as he was trying to build a winner for owner Ryan Smith.
However, the club announced on Wednesday that defenders Jean Marin And Sean Durzi will miss a lot of time. Durzi will be out for four to six months after undergoing surgery on his right shoulder. Marino will be out three to four months after lower back surgery.
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As Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta said Wednesday in the Sirius XM Power Play segment with Steve Kouleas and Martin Biron Regarding the situation of the Utah Hockey Club and its defenders, he believes that they will be active immediately to try to replace them, but that they will evaluate all their options.
Transcripts from NHLRumors.com
Martin Biron: “The Utah Hockey Club has suffered some injuries at the back. Should we expect the trade rumors regarding depth defenders or free agents that are still out there to really kick in now, when it comes to Utah needing to replace Durzi and Marino at the back?
Dave Pagnotta: “Not yet. That’s the news coming out of Utah right now, but it’s not there yet. They’re going to try to work things out internally, and definitely, they got some bad news with Marino’s injuries; he is out for three to four months, and then Duzi too, who is going to be out, I think the projection is four to six months. So it’s definitely a difficult question.
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They called up one of their top young prospects today to help shore up that blue line and see if they could work internally; if things can get better and you can stabilize them, at least for now, then I think Bill Armstrong and his team in Utah will hold out before they start exploring other options.
That doesn’t mean that looking for other options, excuse me, doesn’t mean they won’t explore them, and you need to do your due diligence to see what’s available in the commercial market. And Marty, like you said, there are still a few free agents left.
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Justin Schultz signed overseas today, but there are other people looking for gigs here, veterans, Marc Giordano, Kevin Shattenkirkstill there. Can they be a stopgap? Potentially, if Utah’s younger kids can’t get the job done.
Armstrong and company, they’re going to wait until things are over before doing anything. You definitely don’t want to make knee-jerk reactions at this point in the season. So let’s see if some of these kids can step up. If they can easily navigate to Utah, if they can’t, then they will start looking for other alternatives. »
