Almost a year ago, Ryan and Ashley Smith walked into a room full of their now Utah Hockey Club players and introduced themselves for the first time.
Smith Entertainment Group, on April 18, 2024, had just bought the Arizona Coyotes with plans to move the team to Salt Lake City.
Beyond the monetary transaction, there was a lot to be done.
“It was pretty daunting a year ago,” Ryan Smith said. “Walking into a room and then not knowing really what to say to the guys besides, ‘Trust us, it’s going to be OK.‘”
On Monday — 354 days later — Ryan and Ashley stood in front of the team in Utah’s new practice facility (now finished with the structural phase of construction) at The Shops at South Town, which SEG acquired in August. The players and front office participated in a ceremonial beam signing, too.
(Smith Entertainment Group) Utah Hockey Club's practice facility is set to be completed open by September. Pictured here is a rendering of one of the ice rinks.
The facility in Sandy is on track to be open for the Club’s use on Sept. 1 and for the public in January 2026.
“It’s a little full circle for these guys because when we got a team, this was one of the big challenges we had – where are we going to put this? How are we going to go fast?” Ryan Smith said. “We want to be competitive in the NHL and to do that you’ve got to have a place where these guys can practice, recover, that’s home.”
Here’s everything you need to know about Utah Hockey Club’s practice facility for next season:
Utah Hockey Club has practiced at Utah’s Olympic Oval during its inaugural season. While the make-shift, quick-fix setup has worked well for the year, the team will move over to the facility at The Shops at South Town for 2025-26 training camp and beyond.
The new facility boasts more than the two ice sheets. SEG got feedback from the Utah players regarding what they wanted and needed in their home base. From the plans, it looks like everything will be delivered.
“We do have the open space to really build this how we want to,” said Jim Olson, an SEG executive. “The goal is that we will have the best or absolutely one of the best practice facilities in the NHL. Every time we’ve made decisions, we’ve asked ourselves, ‘Will this help us have one of the best facilities in the NHL?‘”
(Smith Entertainment Group) Utah Hockey Club's practice facility is set to be completed open by September. Pictured here is a rendering of the building's player lounge.
The 115,780 square-foot building designed by Salt Lake City-based Babcock Design (and construction is led by Layton Construction) will include a “state-of-the-art” locker room for the team, players’ lounge, kitchen, coaches office, film room, workout and gym space as well as recovery amenities like hot, cold and hydrotherapy pools and a steam room.
It will also serve as the team’s official headquarters, including all training and medical facilities and team offices.
The players had a specific request for the lounge — instead of spread-out, smaller tables, the team wanted one long dining table in the middle of the room so they could all be together. And so, that is the plan.
“From practice areas to locker rooms to everything, we tried to involve them as much as we can in every part of this,” Ryan Smith said.
(Belle Fraser | The Salt Lake Tribune) Construction is under way at the Utah Hockey Club practice facility at the Shops at South Town on April 7, 2025. The NHL franchise expects to open its new facility in September.
The modern, high-performance additions to the facility are also part of an effort to continue to display Utah as a desirable market in the NHL for outside players. There have been eyes — and positive feedback — from the public on the fan base, Delta Center experience and player satisfaction in the Club’s first season. The hope is this facility elevates that conversation.
“I think we are definitely a destination, I think we already feel that in hockey. But we’ve got to continue earning that,” Ryan Smith said. “This is the next step. There’s a lot more — the arena remodel and everything that’s coming around there. It’s all just part of a big puzzle that we have to put together.”


Got to tour the new #UtahHC practice facility today.

The team also participated in a ceremonial beam signing. Here are some highlights! pic.twitter.com/j9PwLqyxGt
While the facility is for Utah Hockey Club, its use will go beyond that of the NHL. One of SEG’s main goals for this project is to have it be a place where the community can gather to both watch its team during practice from the public viewing areas above and also learn to play (and love) hockey on the ice.
The two NHL-standard ice surfaces will be available to youth clubs and free skates when the team is not using them. There will be eight public locker rooms open to those local teams to use as well as equipment rentals and other spaces for those groups to gather when not on the ice.
“This is the place where we’re going to interact with the community most,” said team president Chris Armstrong. “This is the place where we’re going to inspire the next generation of kids in Utah to play the game of hockey. This is where we’re going to put down all of the habits and the identity of this team for the future as we pursue a Stanley Cup for Utah.”
(Belle Fraser | The Salt Lake Tribune) Construction is under way at the Utah Hockey Club practice facility at the Shops at South Town on April 7, 2025. The NHL franchise expects to open its new facility in September.
While practices at the Olympic Oval this season have been closed to the public, Utah Hockey Club fans will eventually be able to sit in on the NHL sessions at the new facility. There will be concessions, skate rentals and a pro shop that features both team-branded merchandise and basic hockey gear — like sticks, tape, helmets, socks — accessible right on the campus, too.
“We know how Utahns are. We know how the youth and the parents are all about recreation for kids,” Ryan Smith said. “We have the most kids in the country. It’s really how do we create the next great hockey community?”
Renovations to the Delta Center will happen over the next few offseasons, but September’s opening of Utah’s new practice facility is another quick benchmark the organization will be able to check off in terms of giving its players the best.
“We always talk as an organization about doing whatever it takes — no exceptions, no excuses,” Armstrong said. “I want to thank Ryan and Ashley for investing in us and providing us the opportunity to do that.”
Nick Bjugstad — who spent a cumulative two years with the Arizona Coyotes before they were relocated to Utah — was happy about what he saw on the team’s tour of the facility on Monday.
“Seeing the work that’s been done thus far, it’s incredible,” Bjugstad said. “It’s a long way from what we came from in Arizona, as far as the facilities we had there. It’s just really cool to see and a lot of excitement from the guys.”
Bjugstad was in that initial meeting with Ryan and Ashley Smith nearly a year ago and said that he and his teammates could immediately tell they were “genuine and there was a level of buy-in that we were excited to be a part of.”
While there are many elements to the facility that will benefit players’ recovery habits, Bjugstad is most excited for the deprivation tank.
“It’s like an Epsom salt bath. It’s completely dark, you go into a pod and you just lay there in silence. You just lay in there — it’s almost like you’re in the womb,” Bjugstad said. “I haven’t had a team that has one of those. They have basically everything you can ask for.”
Head coach André Tourigny was part of the planning and will soon get to see his players break in their new space.
“What we want is to have the best facility in the world. That’s the mentality we went there [with],” Tourigny said. “That’s exciting. I think that gives a little push to everyone.”

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