{"id":520980,"date":"2026-03-24T22:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/520980\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T22:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:51:14","slug":"connor-ingram-prepares-for-return-to-utah-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/520980\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor Ingram prepares for return to Utah \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four months ago, Connor Ingram<\/a> had some of the worst numbers in the AHL. As much as he wanted to return to the NHL, it just didn\u2019t seem plausible.<\/p>\n

But if there\u2019s one thing the 28-year-old has learned thus far in his pro hockey career, it\u2019s that the odds don\u2019t apply to him.<\/p>\n

It took a trade<\/a> and a subsequent injury to land him back in the NHL. And on Tuesday, as one of the most important players on the Edmonton Oilers, he prepares to face his former Utah Mammoth for the first time. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been good,\u201d he told the Deseret News after Tuesday\u2019s morning skate at the Delta Center. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s a good hockey team, it\u2019s just a good place to play. Get to play a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the success they\u2019ve had over the last couple of years. I mean, the last three years, I\u2019ve played on a team that was openly losing hockey games. So it\u2019s nice to play somewhere competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Utah chapter of Ingram\u2019s life didn\u2019t go as smoothly as he\u2019d hoped.<\/p>\n

A month and a half into the team\u2019s inaugural season, he took a leave of absence<\/a> to be with his mother, who was nearing the end of her battle with terminal breast cancer. He returned to the team when he was ready, but would soon take another leave \u2014 this time to reenter the player assistance program.<\/p>\n

It was a challenging situation for both Ingram and the then-Utah Hockey Club. If it had been a forward or a defenseman who needed time off, they could have easily replaced him. But losing your starting goalie can derail an entire season. <\/p>\n

That was the main reason Karel Vejmelka started 23 consecutive games in the final weeks of the season.<\/p>\n

When the season ended, management had a tough call to make. <\/p>\n

The team placed him on waivers as soon as he was eligible. Shortly after he cleared, they traded him to the Edmonton Oilers for future considerations, and retained $800,000 of his salary.<\/p>\n

But he doesn\u2019t resent the fans, who showed him support when they congregated during the intermission of a game to write him more than 150 letters of support<\/a> after he entered the player assistance program.<\/p>\n

Life in Edmonton<\/p>\n

Connor and his wife, Sarah, have lived in six different houses in the last year. They\u2019re glad to finally be settled in Edmonton, which happens to be the closest NHL city to his hometown of Imperial, Saskatchewan (though he didn\u2019t cheer for the Oilers growing up \u2014 he was simply a Jos\u00e9 Th\u00e9odore fan).<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t get to go home during the season, but he gets plenty of visitors who make the seven-hour drive to see him play.<\/p>\n

After several years of facing Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on a regular basis, he loves being their teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, yeah, it\u2019s something that will be cool forever, you know, you played with two of the top \u2014 what do you want to say, top-three, top-five (hockey players in the world) \u2014 however you slot them in there. It\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lots of players struggle with the pressure of a big market, and although Ingram prefers to fly under the radar, he hasn\u2019t minded the attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot less problems there than I have here, for sure,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve found it easier.<\/p>\n

\u201c… It\u2019s different, obviously. Obviously, Rogers (Place) is such a nice place. It\u2019s loud and people are into it,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople know what\u2019s going on. It\u2019s a lot of fun. It\u2019s a cool place to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ingram will back up<\/a> Tristan Jarry on Tuesday in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

\"\"Utah Hockey Club goalie Connor Ingram (39) makes a save on the shot by Colorado Avalanche center Ross Colton (20) at the Maverik Center in West Valley City on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four months ago, Connor Ingram had some of the worst numbers in the AHL. As much as he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[198,146,5300,5,3157,4,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-520980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-edmonton","9":"tag-edmonton-oilers","10":"tag-edmontonoilers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-news-feed-local","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-oilers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116286606441047843","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}