Mammoth center Caleb Desnoyers, whom they selected fourth overall in this year’s draft, has undergone successful wrist surgery, the team announced Thursday. He’ll be sidelined for approximately 12 weeks while recovering, keeping him out of training camp and delaying his season debut until early November.
Whether that debut comes in the NHL with Utah or back with the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats remains to be seen, but it’ll likely be the latter. Desnoyers wasn’t viewed as a likely selection to make the jump to the NHL in his post-draft season anyway, and a lack of training camp time to show he can hang with the big guns definitely won’t help his case.
Desnoyers has been dealing with wrist issues for nearly a year. He declined to participate in pre-draft combine testing after playing through injuries to both of his wrists since November, he told Scott Wheeler of The Athletic back in June.
While his initial MRI indicated he would be able to rehab his wrist issues without surgery – an assessment Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong concurred with, per Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune – something’s changed in the last several weeks. If his subsequent recovery goes to plan, though, it won’t take too big a bite out of a pivotal point in his development.
More of a cerebral-type center with decent size and some room still to grow into his 6’2″ frame, Desnoyers was among the most decorated players in the QMJHL last season. After recording 84 points and a +51 rating in 56 games for the Wildcats, he was named the league’s Best Professional Prospect, their Personality of the Year, and was included on the league-wide First All-Star Team at season’s end. The St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, native also added 30 points in 19 postseason games en route to a league championship, leading the playoffs with 21 assists and earning MVP honors.
Desnoyers is the highest-drafted player out of the QMJHL since the Rangers took Alexis Lafrenière first overall in 2020. While he may need an additional year of runway, the Mammoth are likely anticipating him joining them full-time for the 2026-27 season to complement an expertly constructed young center corps already headlined by Logan Cooley.