Grizzlies start 10th year in Utah with opener against San Antonio

The Utah Grizzlies are into the double digits.

The franchise turns 10 years old when it opens its third American Hockey League season on Friday in the E Center at 7 p.m., hosting division rival San Antonio.

Like anybody else with a pending birthday, third-year coach Don Hay isn't really sure what the coming year will bring.

In his first season with the Grizzlies, Utah's first in the venerable AHL, Hay's club was 40-29-6 with five overtime losses for 91 points and third place in the West Division. Last season, Utah finished 37-34-4-5 for 83 points, fifth in the West but ninth in the 14-team conference, good enough for playoffs but not as consistent.

"Two years ago," he says, "we seemed to jell real quickly. We had two organizations, Florida and Dallas, that the year before had missed the playoffs, so they were very hungry to create a winning environment. Last year it just didn't seem to come together as quickly as we wanted it to. It came together in spurts last year but not really for a complete 80-game schedule."

That's the beauty, and the difficulty, of the AHL, a development league that limits the number of veteran players (more than 260 pro games) a team can play to six per game, encouraging more turnover than fans saw in the Grizzlies' first seven years in the old International Hockey League.

In the IHL, the Grizzlies won Turner Cups in their first two years, one in Denver and one when they came to Utah in 1995-96. The franchise has been cup-less since.

But in a development league like the AHL, strength can change from year to year. With Utah so far removed from most of the league that it isn't cost-effective to play preseason games, Hay really doesn't know what to expect.

"We try to do our best in evaluating our players and having a good camp. This has been a real solid camp as far as finding players who will be depth players for us," he said.

Hay expects that, when he completely trims the roster in a week or two, down to probably 21 players from 24 or 25, 10 to 12 of them will be new faces.

Utah made its first training-camp cuts Saturday, trimming goalies Peter Hirsch and Sean Connors, six defensemen (Wade Davis, Darryl McArthur, Tyler Butler, Randy Perry, Jonathan Zion and Jonas Lennartsson) and 10 forwards (Mark Smith, Ben Kilgour, Chris Gobert, Joe Dusbabek, Greg Day, Chris St. Jacques, Brian Passmore, Jonathan Gagnon, Fraser Clair and Derek Hahn).