Meet Owen Allard, the underdog of the Utah Hockey Club

Owen Allard watched 583 of his peers get drafted before he heard his own name called. That’s 19 rounds over three years that he had to sit there, wondering if his dream of playing in the NHL would ever come true.
His hard work finally paid off when the Utah Hockey Club took him in the fifth round of the 2024 draft.
Allard’s dream is still a work in progress. Being drafted in no way guarantees a roster spot, and he knows that. But having led Utah HC in scoring at the 2024 Rookie Faceoff, he’s probably on the right track.
The Allards are a hockey family. Owen’s father, Shawn, is a skills coach who worked for the Colorado Avalanche as a skills coach for five years. One of his brothers, Tristan, plays for the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL and his other brother, Sutton, has played high-level hockey in three different countries. His sister, Ashley, plays NCAA Division I hockey for UMass.
“Pretty much anything we’re doing involves the game of hockey,” Owen told the Deseret News. “Any little chat was always about hockey. We were always talking about the NHL. … There were definitely lots of intense road hockey games with my siblings and, you know, mini sticks and all that. At the end of the day, we just loved to play hockey.”
That love for the sport sent all three brothers to France during the pandemic, where they were able to keep their confidence high. The family had lived in France when they were younger as Shawn both played and coached in Ligue Magnus, the highest tier of hockey in the country.
When the Ontario Hockey League returned to action in 2021, Owen showed well, scoring 14 goals and 24 points in 66 games for the Soo Greyhounds. It wasn’t enough to get him drafted that year, so he accepted an offer to attend the Ottawa Senators’ development camp. About 15 minutes into the first practice, an awkward exchange with a much bigger opponent left him with a torn labrum — and worse, shattered hope.
“That was definitely tough mentally and physically,” Allard said. “I was just thankful to have good people around me: my family, my agent, my physiotherapist.”
Surgery put Allard out for six months, limiting him to 14 games that year. His Greyhounds missed the OHL playoffs after losing 15 games in overtime or shootouts. Allard wonders if he could have been a difference-maker in some of those games.
The following year, 2023-24, Allard returned with a vengeance. In 55 games, he recorded 18 goals and 44 points to help the Greyhounds reach the playoffs. They swept the Guelph Storm in the first round before losing in Game 7 of the second round to the eventual Memorial Cup champions, the Saginaw Spirit.
Allard contributed four goals and five points in his 10 playoff games, including an overtime winner against the Storm.
Hockey people who don’t closely follow the OHL learned of Allard during the 2024 World Junior Championship. The “World Juniors” is perhaps most comparable to the NCAA’s March Madness, minus the drama of one-game knockouts.
Allard became the fifth skater ever to make Team Canada’s World Juniors roster after going undrafted. He joins three-time Stanley Cup champions Mark Recchi and Mike Keane, among others, on that list.
The call to join Team Canada took Allard by surprise. He was sitting in the locker room one day when the Greyhounds’ equipment manager approached him with a computer, asking for his equipment preferences and sizes. He noticed a Hockey Canada logo at the top of the page, but when he inquired, the equipment manager brushed it off as no big deal.
Months later, after Allard had largely forgotten about the equipment form, some Hockey Canada scouts showed up at his game against the Sudbury Wolves. Allard happened to score a hat trick that night, in addition to an invitation to Team Canada’s selection camp.
Of course, Allard didn’t know the scouts were there until he received a call from his agent after the game.
When he got to Oakville, Ontario, for selection camp, he figured there was a specific role management wanted him to fill.
“I just tried to play my role,” he said. “I mean, I wasn’t the most skilled guy, or offensively dominant guy, but I knew the fact that I got invited means they saw something in my game that they needed.”
Allard figured he would fit into the third or fourth line. It was true — he did play in the bottom six — but he scored two goals and three points in five games, placing him sixth in scoring among Team Canada forwards, in addition to playing a key shutdown role.
Canada fell to Czechia in the quarterfinal, so Allard and his teammates went home without any hardware.
“It was a crazy, crazy experience,” Allard said.
As previously mentioned, Allard participated in the Senators’ development camp for about 15 minutes before getting injured. He also attended the Colorado Avalanche’s rookie camp last year. Now with Utah, attending his third camp with his third team, he’s a veteran — and it shows on the scoresheet.
Allard tied with two of his teammates for the team lead in points during the Rookie Faceoff. He really drew attention when he scored the overtime winner against the Los Angeles Kings.
“I was pretty gassed, so I was thinking of getting off for a good change, and then I saw the D kinda had a pretty poor gap on me, so I just decided to try to just put one on net,” he said. “Let it fly and it was lucky enough to go in.”
He also impressed on the defensive side of the puck. He was a staple on Utah’s penalty kill and he battled hard in the corners. That’s the type of thing that got Allard noticed in the eyes of Cory Banika, one of Utah’s Ontario scouts.
“This organization likes two-way, responsible players that work hard,” Allard said.
Though nothing has been decided and Allard could still make either the AHL or NHL team, it’s most likely that he goes back to the Greyhounds — and he’s completely fine with that.
“Obviously the goal is to play in the NHL as soon as possible, but it’s something you really don’t want to rush,” Allard said. “Whether I do go back to the Ontario Hockey League or if Utah wants to maybe put me in the AHL and develop there in Tucson, that’s always a good idea.”
Allard has one more season of OHL eligibility before he ages out. His goal is to be a bottom-six forward in the NHL in the next three to five years.
“The way I play kind of fits that identity of a bottom-six role,” he said. “I’m just going to try to do everything in my (power) to make Utah’s roster in the future and hopefully play well enough to help lead them to the Stanley Cup.”
Allard will attend training camp with the big club, at which point his 2024-25 home will be determined. No matter which way it goes, don’t be surprised to see this guy in a Utah Hockey Club sweater again soon.