“Nobody Cares Anymore”: Clayton Keller's journey to becoming captain of the Utah Hockey Club

SALT LAKE CITY — Clayton Keller raced around a defender. The roar of the Arizona crowd grew louder as he neared the goal.

For a moment he wanted to score. Next thing he knew, he was lying on the frozen ground.

At the end of the 2021/22 season, Keller got caught in a chunk of ice that caused speed fluctuations. He didn't have time to recover; His legs began to split and he hit the boards hard.

He tried to get up from the ice, but his right leg wouldn't obey. He tried to turn around, but his body didn't respond. Reality set in: he couldn't move.

And then came the pain.

It was as if the air that had left the Gila River Arena crowd after the awkward fall suddenly fell onto his thigh. It was like something had wrapped itself around his quadriceps and wouldn't let go.

“I was in the worst pain you could imagine,” he later said.

General manager Bill Armstrong rushed to the medical room after seeing the young star being carried off the ice on a stretcher. Armstrong entered, hoping to let Keller know that everything would be okay. However, when he saw the x-ray hanging above Keller's head, he was at a loss for words.

The image sent shivers down Armstrong's spine. You didn't need a medical degree to read it: there was a huge gap in the femur; Keller had broken his femur.

“Oh my God, this is bad,” Armstrong thought.

That was the story Armstrong was thinking about when the Utah Hockey Club named Keller the team's first captain. Not because of the fall or the injury, but because of what happened next.

What makes a good captain? Talent? Toughness? The ability to inspire others to go beyond their limitations? With Keller, the Utah Hockey Club has a leader who ticks many boxes.

In the immediate aftermath, Keller just wanted to know one thing: Would he play hockey again? When the doctors said yes, that was all he needed. No matter how hard or long the rehab was, he would be back on the ice. That was good enough for him.

“When he had his rehab, he trained four times a day,” said coach Andre Tourigny. “People asked, 'Do you think Kells will be back at the start of the season?' He will definitely come back. He is a machine.

Keller returned for the 2022-23 season and scored a career-high 86 points (37 goals, 49 assists). A machine indeed.

And now captain.

“He’s one of the best competitors I’ve ever seen,” forward Lawson Crouse said. “He really pushes and demands a lot from everyone. Those are the qualities you want in a leader.”

When Keller was 10 years old, at his father's suggestion, he taped a list of goals to the wall of his closet. Some had something to do with hockey (shooting 1,000 pucks a day, making the NHL); Some were lifelong off the ice (attending colleges, getting good grades). It shouldn't be a meaningless list.

“I was able to check them all off one day and ended up signing them,” Keller said. “It’s something I still have.”

He credits his father, Bryan, for instilling that drive in him.

Bryan told his son that, at his size, he would have to work twice as hard if he wanted to be an NHL player. The concrete walls of the cellars' unfinished basement are covered in black puck marks – a kind of diary for hundreds of shootings and evidence of Keller's early work ethic.

This trip helped him get to Shattuck-St. to land. Mary's, one of the top hockey prep programs in the country, and why he dedicated himself to hockey by later attending the US National Team Development Program (USNTDP) in Plymouth, Michigan.

But if you were to read Keller's junior scouting reports, you would often find him viewed as undersized, not the faster skater, and someone who lacks mustard in his shot.

Keller couldn't control his height – he's 5'10″ – but he turned everything else into a strength. He attacked the weight room to win battles for pucks and it wasn't uncommon for him to fly past defenders. Oh, and he can absolutely shoot the puck.

“Nobody cares anymore. Nobody competes harder,” Armstrong said.

This has never been more evident than in Keller's rehabilitation from his broken femur. It was a difficult, sometimes painful process. Every day he would spend hours with the team's training staff — and then leave to do more yoga, Pilates or anything else he thought would help him.

“I had to stay super patient. I couldn’t really leave the house for a long time,” he said. “I limped for four months.”

Months that seemed endless. As the days passed, he woke up and thought (or maybe just hoped) that the limp would be gone – only to find his right leg still favoring him.

It was almost poetic that skating was easier than walking. He was at least allowed to experience some refuge on the ice.

The injury reminded him of what his father had told him as a child: skate every shift like it was your last. That showed in how he prepares and plays for games and how he pushes his teammates to do the same.

“Men will say it, I'm hard on them sometimes, but that's because I care and deep down I want the best for them and also for myself,” Keller said. “This is a great honor. This means so much to me.”

Keller was just starting to develop into a young star when Armstrong went into tear-down mode. The GM traded veterans for draft capital to put together what he hoped would be a fruitful rebuild.

The steps made sense. The Coyotes were unable to keep up and lacked the resources to restart. Still, he would have understood if Keller had been frustrated.

“When Kels walked into that room and all the good players were gone, it wasn’t an easy thing,” Armstrong said. “He could have turned around and just said, 'Look, I have every excuse.' He didn't do that.

Instead, he tried to lead a young squad to every victory possible. It was then that Armstrong knew the team had a very special player.

“He’s tough on his teammates at the right times,” said defenseman Sean Durzi. “He expects the best from everyone, which is what I think a good leader of a team should do.”

Now he's not just a leader; he is a captain.

“We believe that with his leadership we can win a championship in the future,” Armstrong said.