Utah Hockey Club lose a key defenseman to a long-term injury

This past off-season, the Utah Hockey Club make some very aggressive moves to improve an already talented young team, and while the trade for Mikhail Sergachev steals the spotlight, the move to pick up Sean Durzi last off-season as the Coyotes was just as important for the current squad. This season, the 25-year old has been solid to start the year, tallying two assists in four games with a +2 with the team going 3-1-1 through their first five games, but now, he's facing an extended stint on the sidelines.

According to Frank Seravalli, Durzi will undergo upper-body surgery that will keep him out somewhere between four to five months, meaning that at the very worst, he'll be back sometime in March. This is a brutal blow for a Utah Hockey Club blue line that has talent but lacks the depth of other top teams in the NHL, and with Vladislav Kolyachonok set to replace him in the lineup, it's safe to say that they may need to make another move in the near future to cover this injury.

The injury to Durzi was sustained in the team's only regulation loss to this point against the New Jersey Devils, but with Durzi expected to return before the end of the regular season, there's still plenty of optimism that they could make a Stanley Cup Playoffs run. However, the team and their leaders are still young, so expect plenty of growing pains along the way, and even if they're in the hunt by February/March, it will be one of the best stories in the NHL.