Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy didn't elaborate much when asked recently what it would be like to share a building with an NHL team next season.
“I don't think we'll ever play on the same night,” he said with a grin. “Yeah, it looks fun.”
But Hardy star Lauri Markkanen, a native of Finland, is excited to welcome the team to Utah because he grew up always playing hockey outdoors with his friends and brothers.
“I'm excited,” Markkanen said. “I love going to the games whenever I’m on the road and I’ve been following them all the time… so it’s great.”
Markkanen tried playing team hockey when he was in elementary school, but it took too long to put on the gear, so he told his mother he wanted to play outside. As such, organized hockey was not part of Markkanen's childhood. His growth in height to his seven feet also helped turn him towards basketball. But now that he lives in Finland, he couldn't help but become a fan of this game.
“I always liked being a goalie,” Markkanen said. “So, if I hadn't grown this tall, I would have definitely wanted to be a hockey goalie.”
Markkanen, a lifelong fan of the game who has lived in the U.S. since 2016 when he played at the University of Arizona, already has an NHL allegiance and said it was impossible to be a fan of that team. Some people may think so. He is officially relocating to Utah. But Markkanen's NHL fans are paying attention.
“Right now? No,” he said when asked if he was a fan of a particular team. “I have some friends who play in Nashville, so I've been rooting for them for a long time. But they retired, they got traded, they don't play there anymore. So they're free agents now.”
On Thursday, the NHL Board of Governors voted to approve the creation of a team in Utah, owned by Ryan Smith's Smith Entertainment Group. The team is led by Ryan Smith, the same group that owns the Utah Jazz. Utah's new NHL franchise will begin play at Delta Center in the 2024-25 season.
