The Utah Hockey Club went fishing in the free agency market and reeled in their own tuna.
Liam O’Brien, the man who emphatically introduced himself as “Spicy Tuna” to fans in April, is signing a three-year contract to play in Salt Lake City.
The forward spent the last few seasons in Arizona playing with the Coyotes, but now Utah has its first major personality for its fanbase. O’Brien can switch from talking about his love for hitting people to caring for his newborn baby all within a few minutes.
And he isn’t opposed to making bold predictions along the way.
“I see us being in that playoff picture soon,” O’Brien said about Utah’s early hockey prospects.
O’Brien had little doubt that he would eventually end up in Utah. Many of his teammates in Arizona have already started the process of moving to Salt Lake, he said.
But now O’Brien can officially ingratiate himself to the fanbase. Salt Lake already had a taste of his personality when he got up in front of the Delta Center and shouted that fans “can call me Spicy Tuna.” A chant soon broke out serenading the Canadian with his moniker.
On social media, O’Brien simply goes by the “Official Big Tuna.”
He was more than happy to explain the nickname’s backstory. It first started when he was a rookie playing in Hershey, Penn. A defenseman, Nate Schmidt, walked in one day and started to say it.
“Came in the room and just started calling me tuna,” he said. " And everybody loved it. Coaches started calling me it.”
The name evolved to Spicy Tuna, then just Spicy. Ironically, O’Brien revealed in Arizona that he was allergic to tuna and tries not to eat it anymore.
Now some in the locker room are calling him Obi.
O’Brien paired the nicknames with his physicality on the ice. He had more than 200 hits last year, good for top-15 in the NHL.
“[Hitting somebody] is the best feeling in the world,” he said while smiling “And the second best feeling in the world is getting hit and it wakes you up. And you are like, ‘OK, now I got to go run somebody.’”
O’Brien still lives in Arizona but is plotting his move to Salt Lake. His family just welcomed their first child, a daughter named Leilani Eva. Before the season begins, he plans on bringing her back home to his family in Canada.
After that, he will start the process of building hockey in Utah.
“It is still really fresh. Ownership-wise it has been really top-notch. That is really refreshing for us as players,” he said. “... Super excited to bring my family to Utah. Really good place to be and a really good place to have a family.”
He will be in schools, and other youth events, to grow the game in the state.
The man with the nickname, meanwhile, is waiting to see the name of the team.
“Stay patient, it is going to come,” he said.
But now he is settling into his new home. Utah is where he wants to be. It is just a matter of time, he thinks, before the state embraces “Spicy Tuna.”
“I knew I wanted to stay,” he said. “The group that we have, we are really close. We have been through a lot together. There was no doubt. I knew I wanted to be in Utah.
“I look forward to bringing hockey to Utah and bringing in a strong hockey culture here.”
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