{"id":151880,"date":"2025-09-18T04:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T04:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151880\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T04:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T04:05:09","slug":"nhls-newest-team-opens-practice-facility-while-vancouver-canucks-continue-at-a-snails-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151880\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL’s newest team opens practice facility while Vancouver Canucks continue at a snail’s pace"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Vancouver, it has become a punchline.<\/p>\n

But in Utah, it is reality.<\/p>\n

Building a team practice facility has proven to be an impossible task for the Vancouver Canucks for over a decade.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the NHL\u2019s newest team, the Utah Mammoth, just opened theirs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty special,\u201d said Mammoth owner Ryan Smith. \u201cWe told the players a year ago that we would build this for them when they came up here and I think just being able to pay it off (is huge). Our mission is very much we\u2019re going to do what we say what we\u2019re going to do and it\u2019s pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utah has only had an NHL team for 17 months, but that was apparently enough time build a dedicated practice facility, which is now the norm in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter it was announced that the hockey team was coming to Utah, we knew having a world class practice facility was a top priority, and we knew that we needed to do it as fast as possible,\u201d Jim Olson, SEG Executive leading SEG facilities projects, explained. \u201cIt was a great team effort by everybody to get it done in a 13-month period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"utah<\/p>\n

The new practice rink in Utah (@utahmammoth\/X)<\/p>\n

What a contrast this is with the Canucks, who will soon be the only NHL team without their own practice facility.<\/p>\n

Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford stressed the importance of a new practice facility three years ago<\/a>, calling it a \u201cpriority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gaining momentum on it,\u201d he said at the time. \u201cGetting down to two, maybe three different sites. Very close to making a decision on the site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, Rutherford has expressed frustration about the process. It was clearly more difficult than he could have envisioned.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why when Daily Hive asked for an update on the ongoing search for a new facility at Wednesday\u2019s media availability, it was met with laughter from the 76-year-old executive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought somebody would ask that question,\u201d Rutherford joked, before providing some positive news.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are closer [to building a new practice facility],\u201d he said. \u201cWe do have a few legitimate options now. We are in conversations with those options. If I say anything beyond that, you\u2019re gonna laugh at me.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be able to get this done at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re still short on details and shovels have yet to hit the ground. But there are at least some signs of hope.<\/p>\n

Canucks management toured a number of local rinks in the spring. They were spotted at Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre in Burnaby,<\/a> and they\u2019ve had discussions about Britannia<\/a> and the PNE in East Vancouver<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But if those plans fell apart, it wouldn\u2019t be the first time. There were plans to build a practice facility<\/a> across the street from Rogers Arena, at the Plaza of Nations<\/a>, in 2018. Those plans were abandoned<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n

The Canucks currently practice at Rogers Arena, but are forced to skate at UBC when concerts or other events take over the stadium. They don\u2019t have a problem finding a sheet of ice, but having a dedicated practice facility is about more than just having a place to skate.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s clear when you hear how other teams talk about their facilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is spectacular,\u201d Utah GM Bill Armstrong said. \u201cIt\u2019s a state-of-the-art facility, I believe it could be the best facility in the National Hockey League. The impact that this will have on our franchise is massive. It will give us a chance to become an elite NHL franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"utah<\/p>\n

The lounge (@utahmammoth\/X)<\/p>\n

Utah is now home to a 146,000-square-foot practice facility, which will also act as the team\u2019s official headquarters. It includes multiple ice sheets, a team store, skate rentals, locker rooms, and concessions.<\/p>\n

\"utah<\/p>\n

The weight room (@utahmammoth\/X)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new Utah Mammoth practice and training facility is one of the most tech forward facilities in all of sports. Not only will it be an epic place for players to train, but it will be an incredible gathering place for the community as well,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery detail of the space was designed with the athlete experience in mind, giving players the ultimate environment to succeed and creating amazing spaces for them to rest and recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"utah<\/p>\n

A place to take a dip (@utahmammoth\/X)<\/p>\n

And in Vancouver, the search continues.<\/p>\n

You might also like:New Canucks coach explains what “Adam Foote hockey” will look like<\/a>7 things we learned at Canucks season-opening press conference<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Vancouver, it has become a punchline. But in Utah, it is reality. Building a team practice facility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-151880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}