Connor Ingram: Overcoming Struggles and Leading Utah Hockey

Hello fans and welcome. It's official, the Arizona Coyotes have relocated to Utah, and while the season is over, the fun is about to begin. I'm Brandon, and alongside my co-hosts Dustin and Ryan, we will bring you inside the team, giving you all the news, highlights, and an in-depth analysis on everything the NHL in Utah has to offer. Welcome to another episode of The Two-Line Pass.

Welcome in fans. Good evening to you. I am Brandon with me always Ryan Dustin ready for another player profile episode of the two line pass podcast and today we have an exciting episode. This is the month of June, which is a little known fact. It's the men's mental health awareness month. And so we wanted to profile a very special player for the Utah hockey team.

The number one goalie, our main man, Connor Ingram. We're going to talk about his struggles and how he's overcome those and helped others in similar situations, and then break down what you can expect from Connor in the future. I'm excited to talk about it. Ryan, Dustin, are you guys excited? Are you guys ready to profile Connor Ingram? I'm insanely ready for this. I'm also extremely ready for this. I think it's going to be a good episode, a very fitting person to do this episode on.

I'm excited for us. Listen, we're going to start with you, Dustin. Dustin, I want you to break it down. Give us a little backstory. Give us the little history of Connor Ingram, where he came from, to how he ended up playing for the Utah hockey team. So, Connor Ingram, a wee lad born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. If you follow any funny people, you know all about Saskatoon.

And I can't even say the darn name correctly. Saskatoon. Oh, what movie was that where I think it's grownups where they see the hot bodied lifeguard. He's like, oh, I'm from Saskatoon, eh? So, yeah, that's where he's from. He grew up playing youth hockey all over the place. In 2016, he was drafted 88th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning. And like most hockey players, especially when they're drafted a little bit lower in the draft, he had to work his way up through the minors.

He started his first season after being drafted in the WHL, which is like a youth hockey league, mostly in Canada, a little bit into like the northern United States. And then from there, he spent most of the 18 and 19 season with the Syracuse Crunch and the Orlando Solar Bears, who are the ECHL affiliate of the Lightning. Those are the AHL and ECHL teams, like AA, AAA-type minor league teams that he played for. In his time with the Crunch, he was an AHL all-star.

So he knows what he's doing. He knows how to play well. In 2019, the Nashville Predators acquired Ingram for a seventh round pick in the 2021 entry draft, played with them, not much. And then he entered the player assistance program and went, he got released from the Predators. And in October of 2022, Ingram was claimed off of waivers by the Arizona Coyotes, now the Utah Hockey Club.

He set career highs and wins and appearances in his last season with, in his first full NHL season with the Utah Hockey Club. And following that, the Coyotes signed him to a three-year, $5.85 million contract extension on June 2023. So he is our goalie for the foreseeable future. He's very good at shutting teams out. He tied for the NHL lead in shutouts, which I think ties perfectly into what Ryan wanted to talk about. So Ryan, if you want to take it from there, it's all set up on the plate for

you, buddy. Speaking of the shutout, Connor Ingram is very good at shutting things out. But as it is mental or men's mental health month, and Dustin mentioned in 2021, he entered the NHLPA, which is the Players Assistance Program for either mental health, family stuff, alcoholism, drug addiction. Wild behavior, whatever it may be. And he entered for OCD and alcoholism. And one of the first things people noticed when that it first started is that

he didn't shake fans hands at all. Like he didn't want to meet fans. He didn't want to do any of that because he was scared of becoming contaminated by whatever the outside world has.

And in 2021 he entered the program and before that that year for the Chicago Wolves he had a decent season but not his best and I think the mental health was playing on him in that year since coming back he won the Bill Masterson trophy which is for players who persevere and come back from non-injury related things but one thing I do like to note about him and his shutouts is the more games he plays, the more shutouts he has.

And I think a big part of his shutouts come from when he's feeling good and the years that preceded it, the more games he played, the more shutouts he had and that you could tell his mental health was doing better. And you can, his numbers perfectly correlate to what you could see is right. Like what he's, he's going like that with the mental health stuff. And I'm very proud of him as a recovering addict myself and someone who suffers from mental health issues.

It's good to see guys like him in a position to where they admitted they needed help took those steps to get help by asking for it and entering programs and then coming back and arguably in my opinion he's one of the better goaltenders in the National Hockey League he just doesn't get the credit for it because he plays for the Utah Hockey Club slash played for the Arizona Coyotes in the NHL but when you look at his numbers

I will take them all day long for a hockey team But I'm hoping that here in Utah that we do have some stigmas about mental health. But I think Connor Ingram can be a big voice for that here in Utah to kind of bring more light to an already not talked about subject in Utah. Absolutely. And I think he's one of those players that wants to lead that charge and have those discussions. And I don't want to misspeak because I'm not an expert on the subject.

But given my own personal kind of opinions on it, I feel like OCD is one of those kind of mental health aspects that maybe it's tossed around a little too loosely for people. It's like, you know, maybe a pencil's not on your desk and you're like, oh, my OCD says I got to do that. And it's like, it kind of diminishes the debilitating aspects of people who truly do suffer from this, like Conor Ingram did. and I was reading about his struggles.

Now you have to imagine he's at the height of the pandemic, right? He's in the bubble. He's in an unfamiliar hotel room, terrified that anything he touches is going to get him sick. And not just like a germaphobic way, like you might say, like, oh, he was just scared of germs. We're talking obsessively checking for rashes every five minutes to make sure that he was still okay and not feeling safe, secure, and healthy until he checked it.

Like that's the sort of thing that's just debilitating and the longer that goes on and especially if you you don't know because you know when he first starts having these things he's not in the player assistance program yet and still kind of just thinking well maybe he's overwhelmed by his entry into the nhl you know kind of thing and almost is going to give it up right he's going to give it up and then he reaches out and does something that too often men are kind

of pushed away from doing and simply asks for help. And when he gets the help that he needs, he understands and starts to learn about the issues that he's having, how they're affecting him, how they're impacting him. And furthermore, how he can overcome them through understanding them. And that's something that I think that is important. Over the years has gotten so much better in the way men handle their mental health and the way they talk about it.

And it's no longer a badge of honor to bottle up your feelings, do this macho thing. And I think more and more men are helping other men understand that or understand that and be okay with that. And so that's why it was so great to see Conor Ingram do that and then be rewarded for his efforts and that turnaround story and win the award, the Bill Masterson award for that type of comeback and overcoming those things.

It's not just purely on the ice, even though that is a big part of the award is coming back and being as productive as he was. I mean, he's incredibly for where he was in such a relatively early career with the Arizona Coyotes. I mean, last year or this year, I guess you could say, is his first real season. You know, he plays 50 games and has a tremendous impact.

And like you guys said, you know, leads the league or ties the league and shutouts for playing fewer games than some of the other goalies. I wouldn't say necessarily than the other elite goalies, because some of the most played goalies aren't the first elite, but he's right there with them. And it all started with him saying, I have an issue and I need help with it. And I think that's just an incredible, incredible thing for a player to go through at this level.

I did want to add just one thing to him being rewarded with the Masters and Trophy. Not just that, he was rewarded with a $5 million contract. I know in the athlete world, a lot of newer hockey fans are going to hear $5 million. That's what a bench player in the NBA makes when he's like 39. And it's like, yeah, but in hockey, we don't have that kind of money. And if you can give a goalie, like you're telling that goalie, hey, man, we believe in you and we trust you to be our guy.

And that's got to be so much bigger than even the trophy, not the money part of it, but just the part that comes with them know or them believing in you. That even with your struggles, you're still the guy we want to net and we want to financially compensate you, which will help immediately take a burden off. I don't care who you are. If you sign a $5 million contract, if that's just like a regular kid as a regular athlete, your life and your family's lives are changed.

And I couldn't be more happy for the guy. And he's only 27. He's still got his whole life ahead. It's going to be good. Yeah, as Dustin said, we've got him for at least the next two years. And based on his conversations with the media, he's excited. He's been to Utah many times before. He would often stay in the offseason. He would stay in Sundance, which is just south of Salt Lake City, if you're unfamiliar with the area.

But he would stay there on his way back home. And so he's familiar with the area. And I think he's genuinely excited to be here. And we got him for two more years.

So get ready fans because you're going to be seeing me he's going to be the number one goalie there is in my opinion there is no more doubt there's not going to be a a goalie you know who's going to get the starting job maybe some coach talk to to you know say that there's a little competition in the offseason that you say just to just to say it but he's the number one goal he's going to be starting in net for us barring any strange thing or for or an injury if.

You're going to be seeing him. So I think it's, it's fun to, to have somebody like him come and be that, that guy that I think too, can hopefully sign another extension, maybe another two or three years, because I think we have a very, very good young goalie who may take another three to four years to be NHL ready.

And so if we have our guy that takes us through the last year or two of this rebuild and into the year or two where we expect this team to be competitive out of rebuild mode, contending for a playoff spot year in, year out. And Connor Ingram is the goalie that not only ends that rebuild transition and starts potentially the new era of competitive Utah hockey. I'm very, very excited to have him. And I think he's going to be great. And he's going to keep you in games.

He's absolutely, if he can get the offensive support to win the games, he's going to keep you there. He is not a liability. He is, you're not going to hear us talk to about, you know, how, you know, he's like a Stuart Skinner. If, if only he could have saved a few more easy ones. No, he will keep you in every single game he starts. And then it's up to the offense to, to finish those games.

And so I'm excited to, to see what he brings this upcoming season, and hopefully can just continue to build on his successes that he's had. If I'm the Utah hockey team after this year, if he keeps us, if he plays the exact same as he did last year, or just slightly better, maybe, as long as it's not a huge decline, I'm asking him if he wants to sign an extension immediately, because his numbers are so, so good.

But you put You put a defense in front of him where he's going to be taking a lot less shots. His save percentage is going to skyrocket from 906, which that's nothing to shake your head at. I'll take a 906 in a regular season with a 2.91 goals against average. If you're keeping teams at a less than three goals a game rate, yeah, we should be winning more games than we're losing with that in net. And especially coming out off of the 2021 season, he's only gotten better since

coming. But you know what I mean? His last two years, they've been phenomenal in net. But we need to put a team in front of him to give him even more confidence. I would be terrified of a Connor Ingram with confidence and a solid decor in front of him.

I would be terrified as an offensive team like we're not we're not getting shit done today unless we're conor mcdavid but even then i still believe in him you know one thing i noticed sort of like looking at his at his stats and if you're just looking at like his save percentage his goals against per game he's he's right around like middle of the league like he's not he's not one of the elites but he's not towards a bond ability either

and the the margin is so razor thin between between save percentage. He's sitting at, what you just said, 907. And I believe the lead second is 921, would be second in the league. It's so razor thin between where he is and the elite goalies of the league. But what I really love about him is he played on a team that finished the season below .500. And his win-loss record is above 500. If you're a goalie on a sub-500 team with a winning record yourself, you're doing something right.

And I think Ryan hit it perfectly. If this front office is able to put good defenders in front of him and they really round out this roster correctly, I think he's going to be a very important, very good piece for this team. I think he's done enough to absolutely silence any doubt that he is our main man. We still have Vij Milka as the kind of going to, I think, take more of the backup round. And Rabel is the young goalie that I'm excited for.

I just drafted. So we give him a few years to develop and take over the Conor Ingram legacy. I mean, and I don't want to, obviously, I'm not going to be there like, Like, oh, he's 32 years old. Got to kick him out. As you know, some of the greats played well into their late 30s. And I think if he continues to have productive years, absolutely. Sign him again. Sign him again. Sign him again. And continue to just build the roster behind him and have that confidence and goal.

I think this season, I want to see, obviously, it's not his fault because it's 100% on the coaching staff and the organization to have make that commitment. I would like to see him start 55 games or more 60. I don't need to see more than 60. But 55, I would say is the is the minimum I would want to to see him start, which is only five more games than he played last season.

With that, he had the six shutouts 906 907 save percentage and a sub three goals against average, which in the NHL, in the modern offensive era, if you're below three three goals against average, you're doing okay. Obviously, the elites may be at the 2.5, maybe a little bit lower.

But what we expect offensively out of this team, hopefully, if you keep them under three goals, you're going to give your team a chance to win every single night, which is exactly what Connor Ingram is going to continue to do. I hope that his shutout numbers are consistent and can stay consistent. And that wasn't a random fluke of a, of a season.

And hopefully when he gets those, that undisputed mentally that you're our guy, I hope that he continues to rise to the occasion and continues to play as well as he played last year, especially with that confidence and hopefully with the change of scenery and the stability that the new organization is going to, to bring because, because. Love it or not, obviously, there's a lot of passion from the fans in Arizona.

Nobody's denying the passion, but the organization was in a very bad spot for a very long time, not just the past two years in Mullet Arena. This organization has had a lot of rough times. But now we're hoping that that stability helps solidify a lot of those players who were already having great performances in that kind of chaotic structure now hopefully can really, really blossom into the fullness and, and get even more than they're already great numbers suggest.

And I'm, I'm excited and hopeful that that's what the stability of Utah will bring. And, and Connor Ingram is going to be the guy to, to lead it and push it forward. If we're looking for, for, for leaders on the team, I don't know that he's the outspoken leader and I'm not going to say he's going to be captain. I don't want to get yelled at for naming captains, but I think everybody's going to have confidence in their man. And when you have confidence in the guy in net, you just play better.

You know, as a defender that maybe he's going to highlight some of those, you know, maybe defensive lapses. And so you know that he's got your back and that you're going to play and get his back as well. And then as forwards, you know he's going to keep you in every game. And if you just do your job, then you're going to get the wins and we're going to go to the playoffs and it's going to be great.

The first season, maybe getting a little ahead of myself, but... Connering him is going to give you that chance to go to the playoffs. Now, I will ask you, Brandon, one question. Since you've been more adept to the game of hockey now, in some of the other big sports, like especially in football, the home crowd plays a huge part. And in baseball, like really good pitchers and really good closers can kind of feed off the energy of a home crowd.

How much do you think that plays into like the NHL game? Do you think a goalie can sort of ride the emotion of a crowd that he's going to be playing at in the Delta Center coming from playing in front of just a few thousand fans down in Arizona to coming up here and playing in at least for at least his first season is going to be a packed and very loud and boisterous Delta Center? How much do you think that actually impacts the performance of a goalie at this

level? I hope he feeds off of the energy of the crowd, and I hope that it elevates his game. I think the NHL is kind of weird in terms of the maybe home ice advantage isn't as important as some of the other sports, especially come playoff time. It always seems that maybe home ice doesn't mean as much, but the crowds, I think, can very much impact the team. I will say, and Ryan, I want your thoughts on this too, because we were discussing this.

Goalies are very particular people and they tend to have their own kind of, I don't know what you'd call it, but they're just different, you know? I think there's a lot of stereotyping around goalies. They have these kind of weird habits and things, and they do things a certain way. Especially if you've got somebody like Conor Ingram, who very much will like his routine. I hope he feeds off the energy, but I don't know.

I don't know if he, you know, maybe he has some sort of tick where he just, he needs to shut it out or anything, but I know that goalies absolutely can hear and react to crowd noise because I've seen it at the ECHL level. Now you could argue maybe that that's a rookie who's letting a crowd get under their skin, but, but it's exciting to see it at that level. And I think you'll see that, that it's a hockey player and an athlete. It's hard to completely ignore the noise.

And I'm just hoping that the Delta center brings it for him and he can, you know, it was spicy tuna who said, you know, if you guys come out hard for us like this, we'll go out hard for you guys and i hope that conor ingram internalized that i think he did but yeah goalies are weird ryan goalies are weird what can we say yeah they're arguably the weirdest of the athletes if you fans don't believe us there's a person you can just google or youtube his name is elia.

Brizgalov go watch his interview where he talks about the universe goalies are just different, Not in a bad way, not in a good way. They're just, they skate to the beat of their own drum. I mean, you kind of have to be a little weird, though, to sit there and take, slap shots all day and get, you know what I mean? To be a goalie, you got to be a little crazy. But one thing I think the fans should do is we got to figure out what works for Ingram.

You know what I mean? Some goalies thrive on, you know what I mean?

That like support and the noise but maybe you know maybe don't boot you know maybe they don't do us too well when you know when you're hard on him or booing him because he gets pulled after five goals or something you know what i mean i feel like the pressure i don't think is a thing to him necessarily you know what i mean because it is at least with me i know as a addict there's way other like there's other things to worry about and yeah that could play into him playing bad if

he's having a bad mental health day but i think he's built different than a lot of other goaltenders i think once the crowd kind of figures out what he likes and like what he needs is support we're gonna you know what i mean yeah goalies are weird they're different you know they i noticed something about hockey fans and i i don't know i haven't noticed it in other sports but hockey fans, specifically in goalies, hockey fans love people's names that have an ooh sound

because I think they like to make it sound like they're booing, but they're saying the name. So maybe it's like Connor, you know, I don't know. You try to, you try to, but hockey fans love that for some reason. And then the announcer is, he's just like Smithers. He's like, oh, oh, are the fans saying boo or are they saying boo-erns? And the announcer's like, oh, everybody, they're saying boo-erns.

The announcers love to say they're not saying boo, they're saying, you know, Roo, which is his name or whatever. So, like you said, they're going to find something and adapt to Connor and how he wants it. But I hope they come out. And that's something maybe NHL, Utah fans, especially those who didn't go to the ECHL games here locally, I think learning when it's appropriate to make a crap ton of noise and recognizing great saves, great hustle on the ice.

That's something that the fans are going to, they're going to maybe take a game or two, but Connor's going to give them a lot of reasons to cheer and not say boo.

Sidebar to that, I'll just give out a PSA since you're talking about fans and when to make noise and maybe fans who haven't been to hockey games before or whatnot. Do not walk to your seats while the puck is in play. While there is action going on, you stay at the freaking top of the stairs until the puck stops, and then you make your way to your seat.

I don't want to be at a game and have somebody who doesn't understand proper hockey fan etiquette trying to nudge in front of me with their two sodas and two nachos going, oh, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, and miss something going top shelf over the opposing goalie's shoulder and completely miss it because you don't understand hockey fan etiquette. So I'll just put that out. It's like a sidebar PSA. Don't go to your seats while the puck is in play. Thank you.

And also, when our team is on a power play, don't just scream shoot it over and over and over.

It doesn't work. it doesn't work don't randon stop it you stop it you stop it i love being that guy i am absolutely the shoot guy in the crowd i mean randon has a point you can't score power play goals unless you shoot the puck you can't score if you don't shoot look you can't shoot the puck but sometimes having a shooting lane is kind of important we don't want to just be shooting it bouncing off of people getting breakaways. So don't be that person. Just don't be, don't. Brandon, stop it.

You're a bad influence on the fans. Don't worry, fans. We'll figure it out together. We'll figure it out together.

But that's persevering. And that is, again, Connor Ingram, your Bill Masterson award winner for the 23-24 season. I'll read this. It's the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. He's had a long road to get to the Utah Hockey Club. And what a grateful fan I am to have him take that road to get to us. Because when you're on that road with Conor Ingram and Nett, you're going to have a good time. And it's going to be a really good season.

We're going to love watching him. We're going to love watching him continue to elevate his game and elevate the Utah hockey team. Ryan, Dustin, do you guys have any closing thoughts on anything we've discussed today about Connor Ingram? I will touch. I forgot to mention one thing while I was covering him. And you mentioned the long road that he took to get to Utah. I do want to mention that his career started with a team called the Flynn Flom Bombers, the Flynn Flon Bombers.

And I think that's a great name. The Flin Flon Bombers, based out of Flin Flon, Manitoba, Kanata. That's where he got his start. So anytime you think of the Flin Flon Bombers, I want you to think of Connor Ingram. That is where his wild go to Utah started. The pride of the SJHL. Yeah, my final thought is for just to know how important it is for an NHL team to have a goalie that can play like Conor Ingram. Because one of the hardest things

to find in the NHL is a consistent goaltender. Not a great goaltender. We got plenty of them. They have great games, but they're a liability every other game.

Game but to have a consistent goalie who's going to give you a chance to win so then you can that's no longer an issue we have we get there because very rarely are there goalies even available in free agency or for trading like goalies don't like to get moved teams don't like to move goalies but so having a guy like connor we are we should all be very very grateful because we can that's just one less thing the team needs to worry about is oh no now we need a goal

it's like nope we just need some defense. I'm going to be honest. We need maybe one more top six forward, maybe two, and some D, and then we are going to be good to go, baby. The rebuild's almost done. Connor Ingram's helping build one step at a time. Ryan, Dustin, thank you guys very much for your thoughts. I hope everybody enjoyed learning a little bit more about Connor Ingram, starting goaltender for the Utah Hockey Club, and thanks so much for listening.

I'm Brandon, again for Ryan Ryan and Dustin, thanks, and have a great night, guys. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Two Line Pass podcast. Please follow us on Twitter, at TheTwoLinePass. You can follow Dustin, at HighlightsUte. You can follow Randon, at TLPRandon. And Ryan, at KarnsRyan0420. During the off-season, new episodes of the podcast drop every Wednesday with

bonus episodes throughout. And during the season, we will have our weekly show plus game day episodes so you don't miss a minute of the action.