SALT LAKE CITY — André Tourigny was a bit taken aback.
Nearly four years ago, Tourigny sat down with a young Clayton Keller for the first time. Tourigny had just been hired to oversee what was expected to be a lengthy rebuild project with the Arizona Coyotes, but that wasn’t the impression he got as he spoke to the young star.
Keller began listing all the things he wanted to achieve in the NHL.
Tourigny can’t remember all of them now, but some made him raise his eyebrows (at least internally).
“I was going OK, he’s either much better than I thought — or he wants it,” the Utah Hockey Club head coach said.
Who was he to put a limit on what the young star could do?
Four years later, Keller continues to hit new milestones. With a 4-point night Monday in Utah’s 7-3 win over Nashville, Keller set a new career-high with 89 points on the season.
Keller now has 29 goals and 60 assists, and will have a chance to break the 90-point barrier in the final game of the season Tuesday against his hometown team St. Louis Blues.
“I still feel young,” Keller said. “I feel like I just got out of college. I still have that hunger, that excitement to come to the rink every day, to get better, and being around my teammates. Just super thankful. So many people sacrificed to help me get to where I’m at today, so just want to say thanks to them — and my teammates, as well.”
Keller got on the scoresheet for the first time in the second period when he zipped a backhanded centering pass to the slot for Logan Cooley, who scored his 24th goal of the season. He added another assist during Nick Schmaltz’s 20th goal of the season later in the period to give Utah a 4-1 lead.
Keller gave Utah an insurance goal in the third when he got control of a free puck near the crease to make it 5-3. He then added an empty-netter in the final minutes.
He is now tied for 11th in the league with 89 points; his 60 assists are good enough for ninth in the NHL.
“I think I can still shoot the puck more, honestly,” he said. “I think that is the next step for me — being a dual threat. When I’m shooting the puck more, the other players tend to open up.
“It’s not in my nature to always look for the shot, but as I’ve grown as a player and learned and watched video, I think that’s when I’m at my best is when I’m attacking first. The rest kind of takes care of itself, and my instincts kind of take over. I can still be a lot better.”
That mentality has driven Keller to his current heights. Sure, setting a new career-high was significant, but, to him, it was just another rung on the ladder. It’s part of the journey, not the destination.
“I’ve been with Kells for a long time,” Schmaltz said. “He seems like he’s getting better every year. I’m sure he’s just gonna keep setting new new bars every year.”
But he doesn’t want those bars to simply be 90, 100 or any number of points. He wants the new standard to be playoffs and, heck, maybe even Cups.
“As happy as he is, he always wants more,” Tourigny said.
Utah didn’t reach the team success this season. The Club will fall a few points shy of reaching the postseason, but a strong finish — Utah is 6-1-1 in its last eight games — has the team already itching for next season.
“It becomes a culture thing at the end of the year when you’re out of it,” Josh Doan said.
A culture that has been set by Keller.
“People were wondering how he’d wear the C — you got your answer,” Tourigny said.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
