Month: April 2025

The Utah Hockey Club seems to have leaked its new team name.

As first pointed out publicly by @dusty_bxnes on X, the team’s official YouTube channel has changed its handle to “@UtahMammoth” — though the official name of the channel remains “Utah Hockey Club.”

The offseason signing period for Utah Hockey Club has already kicked off, with goalie Jaxson Stauber signing a two-way contract.

Considering all the contracts Utah signed before the free agency period, it should come as no surprise to see the club looking to continue re-signing pieces from a roster that came so close to a playoff run.

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While Stauber’s extension continues that trend, it does not answer some of Utah’s major offseason questions, such as what kind of deal the club will offer Jack McBain and whether Nick Bjugstad and other unrestricted free agents will be re-signed.

But the biggest question Stauber’s signing raises is what Connor Ingram’s future with Utah will be. Right now, Ingram is signed through the 2025–26 season and is set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2027.

There has been no update on his status in the NHL’s player assistance program, and he has not posted on social media since announcing his entry into the program on March 9.

“A lot of it is unknown. When players go into the program, we don’t have any contact with him so it’s hard for us to speculate,” Armstrong said. “The good news for us as we sit here in this room is we know he is in a good place at the program. We wish him the best.”

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Aside from Armstrong’s comment, the status on Ingram is relatively unknown. So as of now, Utah and its fans can only hope Ingram is doing good and getting the help he needs from the NHL.

Utah’s GM Bill Armstrong Provides Update On Connor Ingram Yesterday, Utah Hockey Club GM Bill Armstrong provided an update on Connor Ingram during his end-of-season exit interview.

Ingram has had assistance before, during his time with the Nashville Predators in the 2021–22 season, and returned to play the next season with the Arizona Coyotes.

So based on that, Utah should be confident that Ingram will be ready in time for next season, but until Ingram rejoins the team, Utah is left waiting to hear from Ingram like everyone else.

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But with only a year on Ingram’s contract remaining, Utah will soon have to make another decision regarding one of its goalies.

After all, before Karel Vejmelka’s rise to the starting position that earned him a five-year contract extension and the starting goalie job, Ingram was slated to be the starter heading into the season.

It makes sense that Utah still sees Ingram in a positive light, even though he has lost the starting role to Vejmelka. Despite Ingram’s inconsistency this season, Utah has to feel confident that his play will improve when he is able to play a full season and remain consistently available.

Report: Utah Changes Youtube Channel Username To “Mammoth” It looks like the Utah Hockey Club may have made a change. In the very early hours of the morning (April 30), their official YouTube channel’s username was updated—and then the entire channel went dark.

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Even with Jaxson Stauber serving as Vejmelka’s backup for most of the season when Ingram was not playing, Utah still decided to bring in goalie Matt Villalta by the end of the season, opting to keep Stauber with its AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners.

Considering Vejmelka started 22 straight games, regardless of Utah had as a backup, Utah will need figure out who will backup Vejmelka as he starts his five-year contract.

Based on Utah’s signings this year, it seems likely the team could offer Ingram a contract extension, or in other words, retain another piece from its current roster.

But with Ingram still away from the team and no timetable for his return ahead of next season, a contract extension probably will not come this offseason.

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Instead, Utah may want to see how Ingram performs at training camp and throughout the season before offering him an extension.

What Will Utah HC’s Second Line Look Like Next Year? With Utah’s offseason just beginning, there will be time to heal, watch and learn from the current playoff teams, and game plan for the upcoming season.

There is also the possibility that Utah decides to trade Ingram if Stauber shows signs of growth and the club feels it would rather move on from Ingram’s expiring contract at the trade deadline.

Considering Vejmelka was in Ingram’s position as a backup goalie on an expiring contract, Utah could look to extend Ingram, just as it did with Vejmelka in the week leading up to the trade deadline.

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But with three goalies currently signed under contract including its starter for years to come, utah won’t need to worry about getting Ingram under a contract immediatle;ly and is in position where it can wait to see how Ingram is when he returns to the team.

Rather, Utah’s next move likely will be figuring out McBain’s contract as a restircted free agent and deciding who of its unrestricted free agents it wahts to return and who it wants to look for in free agency.

Utah Hockey Club wrapped up its inaugural NHL season by finishing sixth in the Central Division with a 38-21-13 record and 89 points. Despite missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs, excitement over hockey in Salt Lake City has been through the roof, especially late Tuesday night, local time.

When owners Ryan and Ashley Smith brought the Arizona Coyotes’ roster, coaching staff, and front office to Utah in April 2024, Ryan Smith made it clear he wouldn’t rush the process of choosing a team nickname.

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“It will 100 percent be ‘Utah,’ and then it will be ‘Utah Something,’ obviously,” he said. “I don’t think given this timeline that we’re going to have time — or nor should we rush with everything else that’s going on — to go force what that is in the next three months.”

Ryan Smith—already well-known to Utah fans as the owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz—wanted the community to help choose a permanent team name. So, he and the organization let fans vote on the original options and then the finalists, which included Utah Mammoth, Utah Hockey Club, and Utah Outlaws.

The name was expected to be announced this summer before the 2025–26 NHL season, but those plans may now be changing.

Just after midnight Eastern Time on Wednesday morning, a fan scrolling through the official team YouTube account noticed the handle read “UtahMammoth” instead of “Utah Hockey Club.”

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The news then began to spread like a wildfire on social media.

The University of Utah is discontinuing its beach volleyball program at the end of the academic year, the school announced Tuesday.

The Utes have fielded a beach volleyball team since 2017 and were coming off the program’s best season to date.

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With the elimination of beach volleyball, the university will sponsor 19 intercollegiate programs moving forward.

“This was an extremely difficult decision, and we did not arrive at this conclusion without a significant and appropriate amount of thought, consideration and consultation,” Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said in a statement.

He further explained the reasoning behind the move — it was about the landscape of the sport and its limited growth potential.

“We looked at the landscape of intercollegiate beach volleyball and the future opportunities of our student-athletes,” Harlan said. “Currently, there are only 12 beach volleyball programs among power conference institutions, with little evidence of the sport expanding at this time.”

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“With the sport’s growth stunted, and without the home facilities with amenities that allow us to host championship-level events, we are not providing the world-class experience that we seek to provide to our student-athletes.”

When Utah added beach volleyball in 2017, it was the ninth member of the Pac-12 that sponsored the sport.

In the Big 12, which the school joined this academic year, there are only four Big 12 schools that sponsor the sport, and the conference does not have an automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament.

TCU, Arizona and Arizona State also sponsor beach volleyball. The Horned Frogs, as an at-large bid, earned the No. 2 seed in the upcoming NCAA championships.

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Utah’s season ended last week at the Big 12 championships following the Utes’ most successful record in its nine-year run. Utah finished the year with a school-best 21 wins, to 14 losses.

At one point, Utah was ranked in the top 25 for the first time in program history.

On the same day of the Utes’ final match of the year, the school announced that Brenda Whicker, who served as the Utes’ head coach the past eight seasons, was retiring.

“The University of Utah is like a second home to me,” Whicker, a Utah Athletics Hall of Famer in volleyball, said in a statement at the time.

“My time at Utah began as a player and I have been so grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to come back here and coach. It’s been so fun to be a part of this program from the beginning and to see the growth of beach volleyball in college athletics. I have been very blessed to coach some amazing young women and I will forever cherish the relationships and experiences we’ve had together.”

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Harlan said Utah will work with its student-athletes impacted by this decision to help them through this transition and aid them in finding another school if they choose to continue playing collegiate beach volleyball.

The school will also honor student-athletes’ scholarships through the remainder of their undergraduate work if they choose to remain at the university, and all scholarships for incoming student-athletes will be honored as well, Harlan said.

“We are mindful of the impact this decision has on the current students in our beach volleyball program, as well as on the incoming student-athletes who committed to Utah,” Harlan explained. “We will work closely with each of our impacted student-athletes to provide them with all of the support they need.

“Should any member of the team decide to remain at the university, their scholarship will be honored through the receipt of their undergraduate degree, and the incoming student-athletes also will have their scholarship offers honored.”

“Should a current or incoming student-athlete elect to pursue their sport at another school, Utah will do all that it can to facilitate the process,” he continued. “Scholarship funds previously dedicated to the beach volleyball program will be redirected to our other women’s sports programs.”

Michelle Jackson already possessed several of the qualities needed for college success: Ambition. Strong work ethic. Tenacity. And, finally, a vision for her personal and professional future.

But what Jackson needed were those educational opportunities that can be challenging to find for so-called “First Gens.”

Jackson is a first generation immigrant and a first generation college student. She’s also a young mother and a new homeowner — busy tackling the day-to-day tasks of caring for a couple of small children and helping to support a household.

Utah Valley University, said Jackson, is her ongoing source for those essential educational and mentoring opportunities.

“Anyone who wants to go to UVU has the same opportunities available to them. They make it really accessible for everyone,” she told the Deseret News.

The institutional opportunities being offered to Jackson and many of her classmates have earned UVU — the state’s largest university by enrollment — an “Opportunity College and University” designation by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

The designation highlights UVU as “a model for studying how campuses can create and support student success by providing more access to more people in their communities and fostering high earnings post-graduation,” according to a university release.

The UVU designation is part of a newly introduced Student Access and Earnings Classification, published this month by the Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education.

The new classification assesses how well institutions create opportunities for student success by measuring whether they enroll students who reflect the communities they serve and by comparing the graduates’ earnings to their peers in the same areas.

Only 16% of the nation’s colleges and universities received a similar “Opportunity College and University” designation.

“As an open-access institution, UVU encourages students to ‘Come as you are’ and provides a high-quality education with seamless pathways to a degree, whether through vocational/community college offerings or four-year and master’s programs,” said UVU Acting President Jim Mortensen in the release.

“This innovative model has resulted in strong job placement and competitive wages for our graduates, who consistently earn above the national median.”

“This Carnegie Classification affirms that our student programs truly make a difference in fostering career success.”

UVU reports almost 75% of its graduates securing “high-wage, high-demand” jobs with 4- or 5-star ratings by the Utah Department of Workforce Services in a variety of fields — including nursing, elementary education, engineering, computer science, finance and marriage and family therapy.

Feeling seen on a sprawling campus

UVU leaders also point to the school’s comprehensive approach to student support services as key to fostering an opportunity-rich campus.

The school’s Student Success Center, for example, offers students of all backgrounds academic advising, tutoring, mentorship and wellness programs.

Meanwhile, the First-Generation Student Success Center and UVU’s GEAR UP resource assistance program offer admissions-to-graduation guidance for students such as Jackson.

A Mexico City native, Jackson and her family moved to Provo when she was a little girl.

After graduating from Provo High School, she discovered a path to higher education via UVU’s GEAR UP program. She began attending school, married and expected to follow a linear student path to Graduation Day.

But life intervened.

Family challenges and pregnancy prompted Jackson to step away from school.

But when she and her husband later found out they were expecting their second child, “I decided I needed to be a good influence for my children and teach them the importance of education — so I re-enrolled at UVU.”

Excited to be back in class and pursuing educational goals, Jackson said she’s been “all in” during her second stint at the Orem school. She participated in the school’s “Presidential 100” program — enjoying the mentorship of UVU President Astrid Tuminez and others on campus.

Jackson remembers Tuminez encouraging her to chase and capture dreams.

“President Tuminez said, ‘Go write down your dreams and start working on them. You really can accomplish these things.’”

That sort of campus leadership and support has proven pivotal for Jackson and her family in purchasing their first home — and she’s a year away from graduating with an accounting degree. She has her post-graduation eye on entrepreneurship.

Jackson added she has never felt unseen at UVU, despite the school’s massive student body of almost 50,000.

“They do a wonderful job of connecting with everyone, individually,” she said.

Affordable paths to higher education

Inside Higher Ed recently highlighted UVU’s classification as an “Opportunity University,” noting the school’s commitment to first generation students and non-traditional students.

Kyle Reyes, vice president for institutional advancement at Utah Valley, said he attributes the university’s high “Return on Investment” for students to the institution’s long-term investment in student success initiatives — and an unwillingness to deviate from its original mission as a broad-access institution.

Some of those efforts, Inside Higher Ed noted, have included partnerships with K-12 schools; helping students fill out federal financial aid applications; offering scholarships; academic advising; a food pantry; low-cost, on-campus childcare; student research opportunities; paid internships; and completion grants for returning students.

Recognition as an affordable pathway to economic stability through the new classification system is both “validating” for Utah Valley and a “game-changer” for all of higher education, Reyes told Inside Higher Ed.

“For so long, the incentives were for exclusion, prestige, lower admission rates and higher test scores — even though on the ground we knew the masses weren’t being served by that model,” he said.

Utah’s average household has more buying power than anywhere else in the nation, according to research from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. That’s despite rising housing costs and reflects the Beehive State’s strong economic growth, Gardner Institute economists said.

Utah had the highest-growing gross domestic product of any state in the country last year and is considered the top economy by a conservative, nonprofit group focused on limited government.

When evaluating the state’s economic growth using income as a metric, Natalie Roney, a research economist at the Gardner Institute, noted that this approach also makes Utah look good.

Larger households up income potential

The state has the eighth-highest median household income in the nation, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Utah’s rating is high largely because its typical household has more people than in other states.

“We just have more workers per household, meaning there’s more income potential in our average household,” Roney said.

Utah jumps to the top spot when using U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data to adjust for cost of living.

Roney said that while Utah’s low cost of living might surprise some people due to current housing costs, there are reasons the state’s expensive market doesn’t have as much of an impact.

Housing costs are above the national average, based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis that Roney showed during a recent presentation. But goods, utilities and other services are lower. Utilities, in particular, are much lower.

Roney added that the cost-of-living data doesn’t capture higher housing costs in recent years because the average household already owns its home.

Below the national cost-of-living average

Although Utah overall has a low cost-of-living index, regional price parity — or RPP – varies by county.

Summit County has the highest RPP score, something Roney described as “not really surprising.” The county is home to Park City and some of the most expensive housing in the state and was the only county with a score above 100, a marker representing the national cost-of-living average.

Wasatch County has the second-highest score, followed by urban centers, like counties along the Wasatch Front and Washington County.

The lowest cost of living is in Emery County, while other rural counties round out the bottom of the regional price parity scores. business-friendly

In general, Utah is well-positioned for success, said Phil Dean, chief economist at the Gardner Institute.

“We often get asked, ‘Why is Utah experiencing this growth?’ It has been very robust, very strong,” he said. “I always go back to Utah’s very strong fundamentals.”

Those fundamentals, he said, are a young and well-educated population, a diverse economy, business-friendly policies and the ability to talk to each other and work together – Utah’s “secret sauce.”

Consistently ranked top economy by nonprofit

Other economists agree, including those who put together the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Rich States, Poor States report.

The latest report, released earlier this month by the conservative group, again ranks Utah as the top state economy in the nation. The report has 18 iterations and has consistently recognized the Beehive State as having the best economic outlook based on 15 policy variables.

“Rich States, Poor States” particularly recognizes Utah’s lack of a state-level inheritance tax, the state’s right-to-work status and low federal minimum wages, though it notes that Tennessee and North Carolina could catch up

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is a nonprofit that brings together conservative-minded state lawmakers and corporations to draft model legislation. It describes its point of view as “dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.”

In Utah, Republican lawmakers Sen. Lincoln Fillmore and Rep. Karianne Lisonbee serve as ALEC’s state chairs, according to the group’s website.

Jonathan Williams, the organization’s president and chief economist, recalled coming to Utah after the first report, shortly after the state passed a flat tax, which made all taxable income subject to the same rate.

If Utah’s Republican supermajority hadn’t passed additional conservative legislation in the years since, he said, ALEC projects the state would have been ranked 23rd this year instead of first.

The state’s advantage, Gov. Spencer Cox believes, is that leaders look ahead to make sure they are “planting trees not for our shade but for the shade of a future generation.”

House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, paraphrased Wayne Gretzky — the Canadian hockey legend who celebrated Donald Trump’s return to the White House at Mar-a-Lago on election night — by saying lawmakers know they need to “skate to where the puck is going to be,” and that gives him optimism.

Megan Banta is The Salt Lake Tribune’s data enterprise reporter, a philanthropically supported position. The Tribune retains control over all editorial decisions.

When the first major of the LPGA Tour season came to a close in Houston this Sunday, seven private jets were waiting to take off for Utah.

The Black Desert Championship — the first LPGA Tour event in the Beehive State since 1964 — is trying to roll out the red carpet for its players. That includes airfare to the course, something seldom offered on tour.

“I thought it was important to go a little bit over the top,” Patrick Manning, the resort’s managing partner, said last week. “We partnered with SkyWest, and we’re sending private charters to go pick up the entire field and a plus-one. When they get on the plane, there’s going to be custom Black Desert Championship Minky Couture blankets for them.”

Manning believes Black Desert in Ivins is the only LPGA Tour event offering chartered jet travel to a tour event.

“At least not domestically,” he said. “If they go international, [maybe]. I’ve been told that there are no domestic charters doing that.”

It is part of an effort for Black Desert to establish itself as a key stop on the tour. The southern Utah course opened last year, hosting a fall PGA Tour event in October.

Top LPGA golfers headed to Utah

Unlike the men’s event, which came after the PGA’s playoff had concluded, this LPGA stop will have many of the top players in the world.

Lilia Vu, the tour’s No. 4 golfer, will tee it up. The field also includes Charley Hull (No. 8), Megan Khang (No. 22) and Allisen Corpuz (No. 30). Six of the top 10 golfers will head to Utah.

The tournament has a $3 million purse, which is on par with some of the top events outside of the majors. For context, the Mizuho Americas Open in Jersey City has a $3 million purse. The Portland Classic in Oregon is $2 million.

“I felt it was very important to really celebrate the women coming in. You know, they don’t always have the elevated experience that the men typically do,” Manning said.

The field is notably missing the top player in the world, Nelly Korda. Manning said it was due to a scheduling conflict.

“The only reason Nelly specifically [didn’t come] is because she’s defending a major the week before us,” Manning said, noting Korda won the Chevron Championship last year.

Next year, Manning is hoping Korda will be on one of the planes taking players from Houston to St. George.

But for now, he is planning on an elaborate reintroduction of the LPGA in Utah — hoping it attracts top players for the foreseeable future.

On the grounds in Ivins, the players will stay for free and will have access to player dining.

“Nowhere else on tour can they stay privately in a whole building; it’s just theirs,” Manning said. “And they can travel from the room to the locker rooms without public interface. They get from the locker rooms to player-only dining without public interface. So when they’re outside the ropes, they’ve got a pretty private experience if they want one.”

How to attend the Black Desert Championship

Black Desert is offering two free youth tickets with every adult ticket purchased. It is an effort to get more fans out to the course and make the experience more affordable. A daily pass costs $60 for Thursday’s competition and $70 on the weekend.

“We want to get as many youth out as we can and frankly, make it more affordable for families to be able to come,” Manning said.

Utah hasn’t hosted an LPGA Tour event since 1964, when Riverside Country Club in Provo hosted an event. Courses in Ogden and Salt Lake also hosted LPGA Tour events in 1963 and 1962.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Under a cloudless Sunday sky, Krew Jones lined up against Sam Greer for a one-on-one rep at an Under Armour camp hosted by Pickerington North High School.

The former is a four-star edge rusher in the 2027 class. He’s a prospect with room to grow, but he’s catching the attention of some of the nation’s top schools.

The latter is a four-star offensive tackle in the 2026 class — a 6-foot-6 force committed to stay close to home with Ohio State football.

Greer, an Akron product, won his share of reps against the visitor from Utah. But on this rep, Jones unleashed a wicked spin move which would’ve put a quarterback, had there been one, in an unfavorable situation.

That’s what Jones can do. It’s why he earned an offer from and visited Ohio State two days before.

“It’s different,” Jones said of OSU. “I haven’t been to a school like that yet. Their culture, their motives, their fight. They’re all about development. That’s something I love.

“It’s a big-time school where you’ve got to work to get what you want. They’ll get you where you want to go, so that’s definitely something I love.”

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah (ABC4) — The Boston Marathon is one of the most popular marathons in the country. And for one Utah man, it was also an opportunity to break a record that some people may find unusual.

Jordan Maddocks, who owns 21 Run in South Jordan, has been running in marathons across the country for years. On April 21, he ran in this year’s Boston Marathon, breaking an unusual world record: The fastest marathon run in a fruit costume.

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Maddocks was unable to run in the 2024 Boston Marathon due to injury, when another runner broke his previous record by over six minutes. Maddocks trained for a year while rehabilitating his injury, focused on breaking the record.

That he did — setting the record with a time of two hours, 33 minutes and 19 seconds, over two minutes faster than the previous record. But his journey began well before this year’s marathon.

In 2019, Maddocks made his first run at the record during the Arizona Rock and Roll Marathon, clearing the record in that race by 15 seconds. Unfortunately, in May of that year, Maddocks received a letter stating the record was denied due to the banana suit he wore at the time being one inch too short in the back. But his attempts didn’t stop there.

“I saw that Chiquita Banana had sponsored a guy in Canada to set the record for the fastest half marathon at the Toronto Marathon and he got the record,” Maddocks said. He reached out to the company to ask if they would sponsor him during the 2020 race, and they said yes.

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Maddocks added that he also got to run that marathon with his dad, all while he wore the banana costume. But he adds that specific race was about more than just the record and the banana suit.

“I got to crown my dad with his medal at his finish,” Maddocks said. “Out of all the marathons that I’ve done, that was one of the most special moments of my entire career — because I got to be there and watch my dad do something he always wanted to do.”

Maddocks’ long-term goal is to qualify for the 2028 Olympic Trials, but for now, he says he’s going to continue to do what he loves.

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