Month: March 2025

A couple of days ago, Donovan Mitchell was back in Utah with the Cleveland Cavaliers, which gave an opportunity to ask, what if? What if the Utah Jazz had decided against tearing down the Mitchell-Rudy Gobert team?

Ultimately, I agree with what Mitchell said — that the team had run its course, that the iteration of the Jazz he played for missed its window. But, as I wrote on Sunday, a more fair question to ask is probably, could the Jazz have done more in the way of roster construction to give the Jazz a chance leading up to their 2021 and 2022 playoff runs?

There’s a good argument to be made that the Jazz’s 2020 offseason decisions were the worst of the Mitchell-Gobert era, and it all started with the 2020 draft, when the Jazz had a chance to draft Desmond Bane, and decided against it.

*Note: The Jazz could have also drafted Jaden McDaniels, Isaiah Joe, or any other number of players. But today we’re talking about Bane.

The Jazz had just one first-round draft pick in 2020, which was held on Nov. 18 following the suspended-bubble-COVID 2019-20 season. The Jazz used the 27th pick to select Udoka Azubuike, which for about 24 hours seemed like a reasonable, though unexciting, selection.

If the Jazz were looking for a seasoned college player who showed marked improvement over their collegiate career, and one that could come in and play backup to Gobert, then Azubuike made some sense.

But on Nov. 20, the first day of free agency in 2020, the Jazz agreed to sign Derrick Favors for a second stint with the Jazz, this time on a three-year deal worth $27 million, which would account for the entirety of the team’s mid-level exception.

Pretty immediately the obvious question was, if you were going to use the full mid-level on Favors, why would you use your sole first-round pick on a player that would likely not get playing time and had a skillset that was not as versatile or coveted in the modern NBA? Also, Favors was at the absolute tail end of his career and was not nearly the player he once was.

Meanwhile, the Memphis Grizzlies used the 30th pick in 2020 to select Bane, a four-year 6′6″ shooting guard out of TCU who was a sniper from 3-point range. Though there were questions about Bane’s ability to operate as a facilitator and whether he could hang as an NBA defender, what was certain was that he excelled at the most valuable and prized NBA skill — shooting.

Bane immediately stood out for the Grizzlies, playing heavy minutes for Memphis throughout the season and into their first-round playoff appearance. By his second season, he was a full-time starter, perfectly complimenting Ja Morant.

The Favors experiment lasted just a single season for the Jazz and the team had to tack on a first-rounder when they wanted to dump his contract the next offseason. That first-rounder impacted so much about the Jazz’s trajectory over the last three years.

The pick sent to the Thunder was top-10 protected in 2024. If it didn’t convey, it would be top-10 protected in 2025, then top-8 protected in 2026. Only if it doesn’t convey after 2026 does the obligation extinguish.

The Jazz originally thought that they would be able to play poorly enough in the 2022-23 season to be in the Victor Wembanyama race, and if they were able to land Wembanyama, it probably wouldn’t make that protected first-rounder look so bad, especially if they quickly became competitive.

But the Jazz saw that they were good, not great. They decided to pull the plug and go full teardown/rebuild. The early-season good results hurt the Jazz’s tanking hopes for the 2023 draft, where they eventually ended up with the 9th overall pick, Taylor Hendricks, who was a good upside pick, but he was no Wembanyama.

So, without a franchise cornerstone, the Jazz had to face the implications of the first-rounder sent to OKC. If they wanted to keep their first-round pick, they would need to do some serious tanking from 2024 to 2026, which is where we are now. The Jazz are still looking over their shoulder and paying the price for having signed Favors, despite drafting Azubuike.

What if the Jazz had not flubbed the 2020 offseason decisions? What if they had drafted Bane and used the mid-level exception on a player with a few more years ahead of them?

At best Bane and a different player might have propelled the Jazz to more than a second-round playoff appearance. At worst, Bane would have been more valuable as an asset than Favors and Azubuike combined.

Favors is retired. Azubuike quickly fell out of the league and is playing in Montenegro. The Jazz are still tanking to avoid losing their first-round pick. And on Tuesday night the Jazz got to watch as Bane led the Grizzlies (who were shorthanded playing without Morant and a number of other players) to a 140-103 win at the Delta Center.

Utah-based solar energy company Torus last week joined exclusive company when it was certified as one of only two commercial battery providers to pass Rocky Mountain Power’s testing standards for the Wattsmart Battery Program.

The program allows residential and commercial customers to let Rocky Mountain Power manage qualified solar and battery setups while also providing the customer with an up-front enrollment incentive and ongoing bill credits.

“Commercial-scale energy storage is a necessary piece of the grid of the future, and Torus’ solutions have demonstrated their ability to integrate within the Wattsmart battery ecosystem,” Bill Comeau, vice president of customer experience and innovation at Rocky Mountain Power, said in a statement. “The Wattsmart program creates a more flexible and resilient grid while saving customers money, and Torus has proven their innovative systems can deliver.”

The approval builds on a January memorandum of understanding between the power company and Torus to develop a 70-megawatt demand response initiative capable of powering the equivalent of approximately 20,000 homes using Torus’ Nova technologies.

And both of Torus’ recent dealings with Rocky Mountain Power fall into Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s initiative to double the state’s power production over the next decade.

“This energy storage partnership is a great example of Utah’s leadership in innovative energy solutions,” Cox said in a statement. “As we double our power production capacity over the next decade through Operation Gigawatt, we’re making sure Utah continues to be a net energy exporter. This collaboration between Rocky Mountain Power and Torus demonstrates how we’ll achieve these ambitious goals.”

Last week’s certification enables commercial and industrial customers to harness Torus’ energy storage solutions, providing critical capabilities including power quality management, uninterruptible power supply with sub-250 millisecond failover (a system designed to switch over to a backup or standby system within 250 milliseconds in case of a primary system failure), long-duration backup and on-site generation integration with automated dispatching.

“We made sure that Torus’ systems met the highest technical and operational standards. This certification represents a major step forward in embedding energy storage as a core asset in the modern grid,” Dave Rackham, CXO of embedded systems at Torus, said in a statement.

The approval from Rocky Mountain Power positions Torus to scale commercial solar deployment across the entirety of PacifiCorp’s territory, helping businesses reduce energy costs and improve grid resilience while also providing more sustainable energy for the future.

“Being one of only two approved commercial battery providers by Wattsmart is a testament to our relentless focus on quality, performance and grid-scale impact,” Nate Walkingshaw, CEO and co-founder of Torus, said in a statement. “This milestone reinforces our commitment to pioneering energy storage solutions that deliver real value to businesses and the grid alike.”

“Deflated” might be the best word to describe the mood inside the Delta Center on Monday night.

After battling for months, the Utah Hockey Club’s 5-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings put the former six points out of a playoff spot with three teams ahead of them and just 11 games to play.

Hope is not yet lost in the locker room, though.

“There’s never going to be any quit in this room — ever,” said team captain Clayton Keller. “We’re going to fight all the way until the end.

“We’re going to try to win every single game from here on out. (You) never know what can happen. We’re going to stay motivated, learn from this game (and) attack this next road trip. We go 3-0, you never know what will happen.”

For large stretches Monday, UHC maintained control of the puck — they just couldn’t get past Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon, who took the place of Petr Mrázek less than two minutes into the game after a collision with Dylan Guenther resulted in Mrázek’s departure.

Utah was in such control that through the first 36 minutes of the game, it allowed just four shots on net.

“I think we got a little bit unlucky on our goals against,” said head coach André Tourigny. “The puck was bouncing a lot tonight. It was tough to execute. I would have loved to simplify a little bit, go more at the net and (be a) bit more dirty.”

Utah Hockey for dummies

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Dylan Guenther is an important player to this UHC team.

He was one of Utah’s few bright spots on Monday — and not just because of his early goal. All night long, he was in the mix offensively. He led the team in both scoring chances and high-danger scoring chances and he took the second-most shots of anyone in the game.

“He’s such a great guy, such a great player,” said Keller, who had the primary assist on Guenther’s goal. “I’ve said it so many times — one of the best shots I’ve ever seen. He works on it a ton in practice, before practice, after practice. … I can’t say enough good things about him.”

Guenther’s goal on Monday marked the 100th point of his NHL career. He signed an eight-year contract extension this summer worth just north of $7.1 million annually, and it already looks like an absolute steal for the team.

Utah Hockey for casual fans

Karel Vejmelka has started more consecutive games than anyone else in the last four seasons: 14. Per the Utah HC media relations department, the last to do it was former Jacob Markström with the Calgary Flames in 2021.

As solid as Vejmelka’s been this season, he seems a little tired.

“He should be tired,” Tourigny said. “All the players in this league are a little bit banged up or a little bit tired or a little bit worn down, but you need to battle through it and find a way.”

Vejmelka’s .692 save percentage on Monday was the worst of his career, excluding a few games wherein he played less than 10 minutes.

In all fairness, there were some bad bounces Monday that shouldn’t be blamed on Vejmelka, but he’s probably not as sharp as he might have been if he were more rested.

As hesitant as Utah is to rely upon the less experienced Jaxson Stauber for a game or two, it might be time. He stole a game in Las Vegas earlier in the season, earning the franchise’s first-ever shutout.

Who’s to say he can’t go on another good run?

Utah Hockey for nerds

For the first time since March 12, UHC scored a power play goal, but don’t go thinking all their woes are solved on that front.

They ended the game with a 20% success rate with the man-advantage — and that’s against the team with the worst penalty kill in the NHL.

“Quicker puck movement, I think,” Keller said in response to the question of what the power play needs to do differently. “At times, getting pucks to the net (and) being a little more simple. I think that’s the key for us — That’s when we’re at our best.”

Though you wouldn’t believe it given the final score, Utah trailed 2-1 the majority of the game. When the revolving door started on the Red Wings’ penalty box, the home team could have assumed that it would find ways to take advantage — but it just didn’t work out.

Two things come to mind when considering adjustments Utah could make to its power play, and they both have to do with personnel.

Ever since Barrett Hayton got bumped down to the second unit in favor of Logan Cooley, the first unit has struggled. Yes, it’s important to give power play time to your budding stars, but if it’s not producing the right results, you have to change something.

The other potential adjustment has to do with the second unit, which has struggled all season long. Utah doesn’t have the offensive depth to put a full firing squad on PP2, but they do have some players not playing there that have been successful in the past.

The first is Matias Maccelli, who has looked better since his return to the lineup and may be able to provide a boost. The other is John Marino.

Utah’s second unit currently includes four forwards and one defenseman, but changing that to three and two could be valuable, if for no other reason than to try something new.

What’s next?

UHC embarks on its penultimate road trip of the season — and it’s a sunny one. They visit both Florida teams, followed by a stop in Chicago on the way home.

First up are the Tampa Bay Lightning, whom Utah hosted on Saturday. It’s Mikhail Sergachev’s first game back in the city where he won the Stanley Cup twice, so expect an emotional tribute video and a prolonged standing ovation.

In their previous meeting, Utah walked away with a 6-4 win at the expense of Brandon Halverson, who made his first-ever NHL start in net for Tampa Bay.

This time around, it’s likely UHC will have to face Vezina and Conn Smythe winner Andrei Vasilevskiy instead.

The game starts at 5 p.m. MDT and can be seen on Utah HC+ and Utah 16.

An octopus came flying onto the Delta Center ice.

What started as a tradition for Detroit Red Wings fans in 1952 made its way to Salt Lake City for the first time on Monday night as Utah Hockey Club fell 5-1.

The ice crew, equipped with their shovels, came out to scoop the octopus off of the surface to allow the teams to finish the third period. It was the bookend to a slimy showing from Utah.

The “Legend of the Octopus” goes back to when Detroit won the Stanley Cup in 1952. Fans reportedly threw an octopus on the ice at the beginning of the run and the Red Wings went on to sweep the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens en route to the championship. It took Detroit just eight wins (the same number of arms on an octopus) to hoist the trophy.

So, the octopus ritual stuck. Utah — 73 years later — got an up-close view of it due to a mix of turnovers, struggles on the power play and a stagnant offense that awarded the Red Wings a win.

“I think for the most part it was a good effort defensively. Clogged up the middle, took away chances, blocked shots when we had to,” Ian Cole said. “But ultimately, goals went in the net and that’s the determining factor of whether you win or lose.”

Dylan Guenther put Utah ahead under four minutes into the first period while on the power play. Clayton Keller got the puck in the right corner and swung it across the zone to Guenther who was planted at his — now staple — left circle position. The 21-year-old ripped it by Detroit netminder Alex Lyon for the 1-0 lead at 3:46. It was his 26th goal of the season (a team-high) and 100th career point.

That was Utah’s first and last goal on the man advantage on Monday. Despite the Red Wings having the worst penalty kill in the league — coming in at 69% ahead of the matchup — the Club could not get anything going for the rest of the night. Utah proceeded to go 0-for-4 on the power play after Guenther’s tally — unable to convert on timely opportunities to tie the game.

“Power play has to be better,” Keller said. “Quicker puck movement, getting pucks to the net, be a little more simple. I think that’s the key for us, that’s when we’re at our best. Winning the loose pucks, those wall battles in the corner, supporting each other. Just a little bit more simple. We have a lot of talent so it’s just doing the little things right.”

The Red Wings found the 1-1 equalizer at 5:08. Sean Durzi mishandled a Guenther pass at the blue line which created a turnover the other way. Vladimir Tarasenko took off into the offensive before sliding it over to Elmer Soderblom who one-timed it past Karel Vejmelka (who made his 14th consecutive start).

“[Vejmelka] should be tired. There’s nobody in the league that did that — 14 starts in a row. He should be tired. You think [Sergachev] is not tired? You think [Dylan] Larkin is not tired on the other side?” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “It’s the NHL. All the players in that league are at this point a little bit banged up, a little bit tired or a little bit worn down. But you need to battle through and find a way.”

Despite holding Detroit to three shots on goal in the middle frame, Utah still found itself behind heading into the third period. A failed breakout by the Club turned the puck over once again and led to Marco Kasper’s tally in front which bounced off of Lawson Crouse and in to make it 2-1.

Austin Watson extended the gap for Detroit in the final stanza. Kevin Stenlund won the O-zone draw but Utah lost possession and could not create a rush up ice. Instead, Simon Edvinsson stopped the puck at the point and lofted it on net. Watson got a stick on the shot and tipped it in for the 3-1 scoreline at 9:51.

An empty-net goal from Alex DeBrincat at 17:06 and a snapshot from Tyler Motte at 18:32 brought the contest to its final 5-1 standing.

Utah’s playoff aspirations got further out of reach on Monday. The Club remains six points out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference and is now three points behind the Vancouver Canucks who beat the New Jersey Devils in a shootout. The St. Louis Blues’ recent 12-2-2 record has them currently locked into the last playoff position with 81 points.

Up next is a three-game road trip for Utah during which it will face the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Chicago Blackhawks.

“There’s never going to be any quit in this room ever. We’re going to fight all the way until the end. We’re going to try to win every single game from here on out,” Keller said. “You never know what can happen. We’re going to stay motivated.”

Utah’s Mia Love was a trailblazer.

A child of Haitian immigrants, Love was a Saratoga Springs City Council member, mayor and then the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress. She died Sunday after a three-year battle with brain cancer at age 49.

When Love was first elected to Congress in November 2014, Salt Lake Tribune reporters Matt Canham, Robert Gehrke and Thomas Burr quickly published a book, “Mia Love: The Rise, Stumble and Resurgence of the Next GOP Star.”

The book tells the story of Love’s family immigrating to the U.S., her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her historic rise in politics.

Seven excerpts from the book were also published in The Tribune and are available below.

U.S. Rep.-elect Mia Love’s optimism and her promises to reduce the size and power of the federal government will collide with what is arguably the most partisan, gridlocked Congress in modern times.

Opponents used ambiguity around her family’s story to accuse Love of being “an anchor baby,” a derisive and debasing term. Love dismissed talk of her parents’ legal status as irrelevant: The United States government granted them citizenship, the trump card to end the conversation.

Love wanted to be an actor, a singer and a dancer. She turned to Broadway and then Utah, where she joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Love got married and then 9/11 and an invasion of insects drove her to politics.

Love’s magnetic personality and her ability to deliver a speech help her get through a fierce Republican primary.

By the end of a fierce, $10 million-plus race, just 768 votes decided the election.

A rematch in the making turned into a new contest — with a different outcome.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Mia Love of Utah, a daughter of Haitian immigrants who became the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, died Sunday.

She was 49.

Love’s family posted news of her death on Love’s X account.

She had undergone recent treatment for brain cancer and received immunotherapy as part of a clinical trial at Duke University’s brain tumor center. Her daughter said earlier this month that the former lawmaker was no longer responding to treatment.

Love died at her home in Saratoga Springs, Utah, according to a statement posted by the family.

“With grateful hearts filled to overflowing for the profound influence of Mia on our lives, we want you to know that she passed away peacefully,” her family said. “We are thankful for the many good wishes, prayers and condolences.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox referred to Love as a “true friend” and said her legacy of service inspired all who knew her.

Love entered politics in 2003 after winning a seat on the city council in Saratoga Springs, a growing community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City. She later became the city’s mayor.

In 2012, Love narrowly lost a bid for the House against the Democratic incumbent, former Rep. Jim Matheson, in a district that covers a string of Salt Lake City suburbs. She ran again two years later and defeated first-time candidate Doug Owens by about 7,500 votes.

Love didn’t emphasize her race during her campaigns, but she acknowledged the significance of her election after her 2014 victory. She said her win defied naysayers who had suggested that a Black, Republican, Mormon woman couldn’t win a congressional seat in overwhelmingly white Utah.

She was briefly considered a rising star within the GOP and she kept her distance from Donald Trump, who was unpopular with many Utah voters, while he was running for president ahead of the 2016 election.

In an op-ed published earlier this month in the Deseret News, Love described the version of America she grew up loving and shared her enduring wish for the nation to become less divisive. She thanked her medical team and every person who had prayed for her.

Love said her parents immigrated to the U.S. with $10 in their pocket and a belief that hard work would lead to success. She said she was raised to believe passionately in the American dream and “to love this country, warts and all.” America at its roots is respectful, resilient, giving and grounded in gritty determination, she said.

Her career in politics exposed Love to America’s ugly side, but she said it also gave her a front row seat to be inspired by people’s hope and courage. She shared her wish for neighbors to come together and focus on their similarities rather than their differences.

“Some have forgotten the math of America — whenever you divide you diminish,” Love wrote.

She urged elected officials to lead with compassion and communicate honestly with their constituents.

“In the end, I hope that my life will have mattered and made a difference for the nation I love and the family and friends I adore,” Love wrote. “I hope you will see the America I know in the years ahead, that you will hear my words in the whisper of the wind of freedom and feel my presence in the flame of the enduring principles of liberty. My living wish and fervent prayer for you and for this nation is that the America I have known is the America you fight to preserve.”

In 2016, facing reelection and following the release of a 2005 recording in which Trump made lewd comments about groping women, Love skipped the Republican National Convention and released a statement saying definitively that she would not vote for Trump. She instead endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the GOP race, but he dropped out months later.

While seeking a third term in 2018, Love tried to separate herself from Trump on trade and immigration while still backing her party’s positions on tax cuts. Despite Republican voters outnumbering Democrats by a nearly three-to-one margin in her district, though, she lost by fewer than 700 votes to Democrat Ben McAdams, a former mayor of Salt Lake City.

Trump called out Love by name in a news conference the morning after she lost, where he also bashed other Republicans who didn’t fully embrace him.

“Mia Love gave me no love, and she lost,” Trump said. “Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia.”

After her loss, Love served as a political commentator on CNN and as a fellow at the University of Sydney.

Following Trump’s election in November, Love said she was “OK with the outcome.”

“Yes, Trump says a lot of inconsiderate things that are unfortunate and impossible to defend,” Love wrote in a social media post. “However, his policies have a high probability of benefiting all Americans.”

KEARNS, Utah — Practice, at least, offered something different as the Detroit Red Wings made their first foray to Salt Lake City since the scenic capital gained an NHL franchise.

The real trick, of course, will be for the Wings to finish their next game with a different result; namely a victory. They’ve only done that twice in their last 11 games, and that’s left them stalled at 70 points, five points and four teams behind the second wild card.

Their next chance to make inroads comes Monday when they take on the Utah Hockey Club – formerly the Arizona Coyotes franchise – and preparation for that took place Sunday at the 275,000-square-foot Utah Olympic Oval,  the long-track speed skating venue for the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics and an official U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Site.

“It’s fun,” Lucas Raymond said. “A lot of history in a place like this. Just driving in, seeing the mountains and all that, it’s pretty cool. My first time in Utah, so, it’s good.”

The Wings (32-31-6) expect to regain the services of defenseman Jeff Petry. Forward Elmer Söderblom practiced Sunday, but needed to be re-evaluated before any decision was made on his readiness.

Whatever the lineup looks like Monday at Delta Center, the message is uniform: It’s up to the Wings to show they want to make the playoffs.

MUST READ: Detroit Red Wings mailbag: This question shows far franchise has fallen

“We can talk about this all we want, and it’s great and we care and everybody wants to be there,” coach Todd McLellan said. “And there’s 32 teams that talk about it. Only 16 teams make it. And those 16 find ways to win games. We haven’t been doing that lately. So enough talking about it. Let’s do it.

“It’s not the fancy stuff. It’s not always the power play. It’s some of the grunt stuff that it’s hard to calculate its impact on the game until you start doing it over and over and over again. We talked about shot-blocking and net-play and board-work and shift-length. When you pull up the NHL website or even analytics, there’s not a lot of scores or grades for that stuff. But it all leads to wins and losses and enough talking about it – let’s do it.”

That message was a continuation of McLellan’s comments after the Wings began this trip (which ends Tuesday at the Colorado Avalanche) losing 6-3 at the Vegas Golden Knights. The Wings started well, generated scoring chances and scored twice on man advantages, so to still come away with nothing was deflating.

“We have to get back to our game,” Raymond said. “We have talked a lot for a long period of time of where we want to be, and it’s time for us to show up and take that step. It’s fun, right – it’s exciting times. We’re still in it. We have to get back to our game and start playing with a little more desperation and urgency.”

MORE: Todd McLellan sounds alarm on Red Wings: ‘Not sure we want to do’ hard work

It was around this time last season that Raymond put together an impressive stretch, leading the team with 12 points the last 10 games. It’s the time of year that tends to show what players are made off.

“We’re all keeping an eye on each other, and I don’t mean that from a manager or coach’s perspective,” McLellan said. “Teammates are looking at teammates – what are you going to give me tonight – which I think is really valuable. We need more from you – that type of thing goes on. But then that secondary level of coaches and managers watching at this time of year is really important as well.”

Practice, at least, seemed upbeat, and McLellan called it, “a good day for us. We needed to skate today. Wasn’t an over-exertion skate. We know what’s ahead of us, these two games, and then four games in six nights. But enough to get the crap out of your legs and feel good about yourselves again. Coming off right now, I feel good about our opportunity tomorrow.”

The rink the Wings practiced on sits like an island in the middle of the speed-skating oval, which is billed as the “Fastest Ice on Earth.” Defenseman Ben Chiarot took a turn before practice.

“Felt like ice,” he said. “It was just cool to check it out.”

Raymond declined.

“It looks exhausting,” he said. “But it’s a cool track and cool venue.”

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings embrace first trip to Utah, renew playoff chase