It’s been a crazy six months for Ryan Smith and Utah Hockey Club. Tonight, it all comes together.

On April 17, Ryan and Ashley Smith didn’t know they would be walking into a Scottsdale, Arizona, hotel the next day to change the lives of hundreds — and then perhaps millions — of people.

But on April 18, the billionaire Utah couple found themselves standing in front of the hockey team they were suddenly buying.

“You’ve been traded to Utah,” Ryan Smith remembers saying.

The six months since have been a whirlwind for the Smiths, the players, coaches and employees of what is now Utah Hockey Club, and sports fans across the state.

“Like, there’s not really a playbook there,” Ryan Smith said.

In a matter of months, the new team was branded, merchandise was made and a temporary practice facility was built all while the players settled into their new state. It all led up to Tuesday’s opening night against the Chicago Blackhawks at Delta Center, an event that, in some sense, almost seemed improbable.

How did it all come together?

Because it’s Utah, the Smiths said.

“We were in a spot to be able to do it,” Ryan Smith said. “Utah was in a spot to do it. No matter how great we are, or how well-funded we are, or how ready we are, the state is going to carry the day, the city is going to carry the day, the people showing up are going to carry the day.”

From the desert to the mountains

There had been rumblings throughout the 2023-24 season about the future of the Coyotes and potential relocation. The team struggled to play through the noise.

When Ryan and Ashley Smith bought the franchise, they wanted all outside concerns to be removed from the players’ minds.

“To be honest with you, when it came, I think it was a relief for them because they knew there was a conclusion,” general manager Bill Armstrong said of his team’s reaction to the move. “I think our players really appreciated the fact that they came right in and spoke to them. That kind of put a lot of people at ease. Ryan’s words, his kindness and his generosity were powerful that day for us.”

Ryan Smith sat the team down and asked what was needed to make this work. What did the players want from this ownership that they didn’t get from their previous ownership?

“Hey, look, we’re going to make 1,000 moves for the next five months,” Ryan Smith recalled saying. " Will you please just tell us which ones are important to you so we’re not guessing?”

With those answers — everything from family needs to a request for WiFi on the team’s plane — SEG had a clear to-do list.

“It was really nice of him to care about us and want us players to have everything we need to be successful. It’s a good feeling when you have an owner like that that gets rid of all the excuses of things you don’t have,” forward Lawson Crouse said. “Not only [has he] followed through, but everyone’s gone above and beyond. I think that’s what stands out the most.”

When the players arrived in August for the start of training camp, a temporary practice facility, weight room and locker room was waiting for them at the Utah Olympic Oval with a retrofitted sheet of NHL ice.

Utah Hockey Club will practice at the Olympic Oval for the 2024-25 season as construction gets underway at The Shops at South Town, which SEG bought in August to turn into the team’s official training facility. Youth, club and recreational teams will have access to the ice at the new facility. The project is aiming for a September 2025 finish date.

The Olympic Oval, though, has been a suitable back-up plan.

“The fact that a facility like the Olympic Oval even exists in Salt Lake and that we were able to partner with them as quickly as we were to create a transitory year home for our hockey club is pretty incredible,” said Chris Barney, SEG’s president of revenue and commercial strategy.

“Partnerships in this community mean everything. I think we’re able to do some unnatural things in Utah because people really do lean into and believe in partnerships. Things like this don’t happen in other communities on the timeframe.”

The Delta Center, meanwhile, holds the team’s official locker room in an arena it can call home.

In Arizona, the Coyotes played their final season in an arena with a capacity of 5,000. For Tuesday’s opening night, Delta Center sold out of its official 11,131 full-view seats.

The in-game experience is something that will change throughout the years for Utah Hockey Club fans. With help from $900 million in public funding, the Delta Center is undergoing a multi-year renovation to address the obstructed-view seats for NHL games. Work for that will resume after the season ends. The organization is not hiding the fact that these issues will persist for the first year.

“We’ve gone so far as to call the seats single-goal-view seats so people know,” Barney said. “We still want to get as many people in the building as possible so they can experience that, but be very transparent with how they’re going to be viewing the game.”

Utah Hockey Club’s early reception

Fan interest was evident from the moment the team was moved.

Smith Entertainment Group worked with SeatGeek to set up a system to take season ticket deposits within 24 hours of Utah Hockey Club’s official introduction to the public. By the end of the campaign, 34,000 tickets were placed under deposit.

“That number was on no one’s board for the amount of deposits we would have,” Barney said. “The day that it went live we had a group in a conference room kind of watching the web traffic and watching it grow exponentially over 30 minutes. It was overwhelming in a positive way.”

Of those 34,000 ticket deposits, only 8% were booked by Utah Jazz season ticket holders. SEG had a completely new audience to cater to. The Smiths said they have hired more than 800 part- and full-time employees for the hockey team.

Season tickets for the inaugural season are sold out, but the team is taking deposits for next year as additional capacity becomes available.

Meanwhile, Barney and his SEG team were expecting big numbers in merchandise sales on Utah’s opening night.

The team has not announced its official name — with six contenders, including apparent fan favorite Utah Yeti, still being considered — but fans have been quick to scoop up Utah Hockey Club gear. Sales during the Sept. 23 preseason matchup against the Los Angeles Kings at Delta Center exceeded the second-highest grossing sales night in Utah Jazz history, Barney said.

‘Let’s go’

Utahns evidently want to represent their new sport and the people that come along with it.

“We just want to be a part of the incredible community of Utah and we want it to continue to grow and thrive. What better way than bringing the NHL?” Ashley Smith said. “I just hope it continues the path of unity and community and kindness and love — all those things that Utah already does a really good job at.”

After years of turmoil in Arizona, the Utah Hockey Club has found stability and a community that has embraced them before the regular season’s puck drop.

“It’s been pretty miraculous, like it’s kind of meant to be because of the way it’s lined up,” Ryan Smith said.

With ownership committed to making Salt Lake a premier NHL city, the players can focus solely on their game and not the moving organizational pieces. That will be important for a team that’s pushing to make the playoffs in the fourth year of a rebuild. It will be important for a fanbase that is ready to cheer on winning hockey.

“We’re a legit NHL franchise with a great place to play, with first-class facilities,” Armstrong said. “Let’s go. Let’s go play some hockey.”