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Logan Cooley Among Four Mammoth Facing Injury Updates

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The Utah Mammoth issued a string of injury updates on Monday morning, after playing through their first preseason game against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday. All injury updates come courtesy of Cole Bagley of KSL Sports. Most notably, top center Logan Cooley was designated as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury sustained on a check from behind from Avalanche winger Zakhar Bardakov. Cooley left the ice after the hit, while teammate Lawson Crouse stepped in to fight Bardakov.

In addition to Cooley, forwards Jack McBain and Barrett Hayton have also been dubbed day-to-day with undisclosed injuries. Finally, defenseman Nate Schmidt is expected to be back in the lineup after being previously designated as day-to-day due to maintenance.

Much like the list of injuries, their ramification on Utah’s daily lineup will be a lot to take in. Cooley is set to return to the team’s top-line center role when the regular season kicks off – a spot he cemented with a fantastic 25 goals and 65 points in 75 games last season. He continued the all-star performance into the summer, netting 12 points in 10 games at the World Championship, tying him with Frank Nazar for the scoring lead on a USA squad that went on to win the tournament. Mammoth head coach Andre Tourigny told the media, including Bagley, that he didn’t appreciate the blindside hit on Cooley in the preseason opener – and that he’s hoping Cooley’s absence is “really short”.

Those same hopes will be extended to McBain and Hayton, who seem well-set to fill the two center positions behind Cooley. Few details have emerged about either injury, though both players will be worth close attention from the Mammoth faithful. Both set career-highs in scoring while appearing in all 82 games of last season. For Hayton, that was marked by 20 goals and 46 points on the year, while McBain posted 13 goals and 27 points. With no indication otherwise, they should be set to return to camp activities within the week – though missing potentially all three of the lineup’s top centers will be a tough blow even in the short-term.

Utah will find their silver lining through the return of bulky defender Schmidt, who will make his debut with the Mammoth in his next game. He filled a bottom-pair role, and won the Stanley Cup, with the Florida Panthers last season. En route, Schmidt was able to rack up 19 points in 80 regular season games and 12 points in 23 playoff games. He’ll hope to bring his spark from the postseason straight to his new role with the Mammoth. If he can do that, Schmidt could find a way to usurp Ian Cole as the team’s second-pair left-defenseman. If not, he’ll face firm competition for a lineup role from rookie Dmitri Simashev, who scored six points in 56 KHL games last season.

Snapshots: Capitals, Schmidt, Buium, Celebrini

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Training camp updates are rolling in as many teams approach their first round of cuts. The most pertinent updates came for the Washington ahead of an early-morning scrimmage. Superstar Alex Ovechkin didn’t take the ice with the team as he continues to face a day-to-day, lower-body injury per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. Silber also reported that forward Justin Sourdif and defenseman Martin Fehervary continue to not take contact during practice, and thus didn’t take part in Washington’s scrimmage.

None of Washington’s updates are cause for much concern. Ovechkin is expected to continue progressing towards a return, and be held out of action as a precaution. Ovechkin will return to his perennial role on top of Washington’s lineup when the regular season kicks off. Fehervary is also still on an expected track, continuing to work his way back from a torn meniscus suffered late last season. He underwent surgery on the knee during the off-season, but has since been unable to kick minor inflammation. Once that goes down, he’ll return to a solid role in Washington’s daily lineup. Sourdif was facing illness, and should work back to full speed after taking a few laps with the non-playing group on Sunday.

Other notes from around the NHL:

  • Utah Mammoth defenseman Nate Schmidt was absent from the team’s Saturday practice. He was designated as day-to-day due to maintenance by head coach Andre Tourigny, per Cole Bagley of KSL Sports. That designation makes Schmidt’s availability over the next few days difficult, though it doesn’t seem the Mammoth are concerned about the long-term availability of their summer signing. Schmidt played a bottom-pair role on the Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers last season, working his way up to 19 points in 80 games. He’ll likely fill a similar role in Utah, though brings the experience of a 741-game veteran and one-time Cup-winner to the NHL’s newest club.
  • Continuing the list of absences was top Minnesota Wild prospect Zeev Buium, who missed his third-consecutive practice on Sunday per Michael Russo of The Athletic. Russo pointed out that Buium did skate with Jonas Brodin before practice started. Again, Buium’s ailment isn’t expected to be a serious issue, head coach John Hynes told Sarah McLellan of Star Tribune Sports. Buium will be pushing for a starring role on the Wild roster this season, after playing the first four games of his NHL career in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. He recorded one assist and four penalty minutes in those outings. An extended absence will make a run to the NHL a bit tougher, but the one-time NCAA National Champion should have no problem convincing the Wild brass when he’s back to full health.
  • In a positive swing, San Jose Sharks star centerman Macklin Celebrini returned to the team’s practices after missing multiple days to illness, per Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. Celebrini won’t take part in San Jose’s first preseason game, though he’ll otherwise be fully on track to return to the role of San Jose’s top forward when the season kicks off. Celebrini scored 63 points in 70 games as a rookie last season, marking a franchise record in San Jose.

Mammoth Sign Nate Schmidt, Brandon Tanev To Three-Year Deals

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The Mammoth have signed winger Brandon Tanev to a three-year, $7.5MM contract worth $2.5MM per season, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The team also announced they’ve signed defenseman Nate Schmidt to a three-year contract worth $3.5MM per season.

Just like last offseason, Utah is quickly solidifying its defensive core and strengthening the bottom six of its forward group. Impressively, Schmidt parlayed a one-year league minimum agreement with the Florida Panthers into a three-year contract with the Mammoth.

There’s reason to believe he’s earned that deal. Schmidt scored five goals and 19 points in 80 games for the Panthers last year with a +4 rating, while averaging 16:32 of ice time per game. His possession quality skyrocketed to a 57.4% CorsiFor% at even strength, and he’ll come to Salt Lake City as a Stanley Cup champion.

Unfortunately, Schmidt’s signing could spell the end for Juuso Välimäki’s time in Utah. After scoring four goals and 34 points in 78 games for the Arizona Coyotes in 2022-23, Välimäki’s output dropped to two goals and five points in 43 games with Utah last season. According to PuckPedia, the Mammoth now has nine defensemen signed to one-way contracts for the 2025-26 season. This supports the idea that Välimäki could be buried or traded to another organization.

Meanwhile, the Mammoth have also added Tanev, who was one of the better bottom-six options on the market this summer. He’s been a quality physical winger for the last several years, scoring 33 goals and 73 points in 227 games between the Seattle Kraken and Winnipeg Jets, with 506 hits.

He has an element to his game that the Mammoth desperately need if they hope to make a statement next season. Utah only had five players deliver more than 100 hits last season, and one of them, Nick Bjugstad, already departed the team earlier today. Now, with Tanev in hand, the Mammoth could put together one of the game’s most physical lines by placing Tanev next to center Jack McBain.

PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed significantly to this article. 

UFA Notes: Allen, Schmidt, Ceci, Perry, Asplund

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The Devils are likely to go “down to the wire” on extension talks with goaltender Jake Allen before the market opens at 11 a.m. CT today, independent insider Frank Seravalli reports.

Allen was a spectacular backup option to Jacob Markström in his first full season in Jersey. There’s no surprise that they’ve expressed strong interest in retaining him, but they’ll likely have to commit significant financial resources to do so. He’s the clear top goalie available amid a weak market and could very well have multiple offers out there for three or more years with an AAV north of $5MM.

Would the Devils be willing to make him their highest-paid goaltender for a season? Markström has some salary retained by the Flames, so he only costs $4.125MM against the cap as he enters the final season of his contract. A multi-year commitment to the 34-year-old Allen might still be a good idea to help guard against a potential Markström departure next summer, especially with no true blue-chip prospects in the system.

Despite a 13-16-1 record, Allen put up better numbers than Markström last year in 20 fewer starts with a .906 SV% and 5.0 GSAA while tying him with four shutouts. He may decide to at least wait to test the market to see if a goalie-needy team like the Sharks, who also need to add nearly $20MM in cap hits next season to reach the floor, gives him an offer he can’t refuse.

Other notes of interest before the market opens:

  • While the Panthers have managed to get extensions done for Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, and now depth forward Tomas Nosek in the last few days, the same won’t happen for defenseman Nate Schmidt. He’ll head elsewhere on the open market today after recouping some market value on a one-year deal with Florida following a buyout by the Jets, according to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. Schmidt, 34 in July, had 19 points in 80 regular-season games but broke out for a 3-9–12 scoring line and a plus-nine rating in all 23 playoff games for the Cats.
  • Another UFA Florida will lose is depth forward Rasmus Asplund. Swiss National League club HC Davos announced they’ve signed him to a two-year contract. Asplund, 27, saw just six games of NHL action with Florida this year and instead spent most of the season with AHL Charlotte, where he had 20 goals and 43 points in 63 games.
  • With the Kings expecting to lose Vladislav Gavrikov in free agency today, they’ve shown interest in inking Cody Ceci on the open market to help recoup some defensive depth, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. A righty compared to Gavrikov’s left-shot, Ceci might be more of a direct replacement for the recently-traded Jordan Spence rather than Gavrikov. The 31-year-old had 24 points and a plus-six rating in 85 games last season between the Sharks and Stars while averaging 21:13 per game, his fourth straight season above the 20-minute mark.
  • The Flyers will make a play for veteran winger Corey Perry today, Friedman says. The 40-year-old may have priced himself out of a new deal with the Oilers following a renaissance postseason performance for Edmonton, ranking second on the team with 10 goals in 22 games.

Panthers Sign Nate Schmidt

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July 3: The Panthers confirmed a one-year deal for Schmidt on Wednesday.

July 2: The Florida Panthers are reportedly nearing a contract with defenseman Nate Schmidt, per Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press (Twitter link). The deal was confirmed by Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff, who added that it will be a one-year, $800K contract (Twitter link).

This signing notably comes after Schmidt was bought out of the final season of his contract with the Winnipeg Jets. He was slated to count as $5.95MM against the salary cap – and was due $4.85MM in salary. He’ll take a substantial cut from that to join the reigning Stanley Cup champions.

The 32-year-old struggled badly last season, registering just two goals and 12 assists in 63 games in what was his worst offensive season since a one-year stay in Vancouver during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season. Schmidt spent three seasons with the Jets, with the last two being some of the most difficult seasons of his 11-year NHL career. While his stay in Winnipeg was largely unsuccessful, he will be reunited with former head coach Paul Maurice in Florida which factored heavily in his decision.

While Schmidt’s offensive numbers have fallen off in recent years, his underlying numbers remained strong last year. Schmidt continued to post strong possession numbers with a CF% of 52.9% at even strength and a FF% of 54.1% (as per Hockey Reference). As good as those underlying numbers were, Schmidt struggled badly in the playoffs posting a -5 in just three games.

Jets Buy Out Nate Schmidt

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The Winnipeg Jets have bought out the final season of defenseman Nate Schmidt’s contract, per Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff (Twitter link). Schmidt will first have to pass through unconditional waivers before the buy out goes into effect. Should he clear, Schmidt’s contract will count towards $2.717MM of Winnipeg’s cap next season – a savings of $3.233MM – and an empty $1.617MM in 2025-26.

This move pushes Schmidt to the open market one year sooner than expected, while ridding Winnipeg of the $5.95MM cap hit he’s carried since 2019-20. Schmidt’s six-year, $35.7MM contract was originally signed with the Vegas Golden Knights, who traded Schmidt to the Vancouver Canucks in the offseason ahead of the 2020-21 season. Schmidt spent the shortened year with the Canucks, before being flipped to the Jets for the 2022 pick used to select Jordan Gustafson.

Schmidt kicked off his tenure in Winnipeg with a strong year, recording 32 points and averaging 20 minutes a night, while still offering the stout defense he’s become known for. But that impact has dwindled in the seasons since, with Schmidt managing just 19 points last year and 14 points this year. He’s fallen from a top pair role to a bottom pair role alongside the low scoring, though he still recorded the best xGA/60 (2.03) of any Jets defenders, per Evolving Hockey.

Schmidt’s decline over the last two seasons has made his hefty price tag hard to bear, especially for a Jets team in the midst of a cap crunch. But there should be no shortage of suitors for Schmidt on the open market – with his veteran presence and stout defense a great replacement for Chris Tanev, who is expected to be taken off of the market after a trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Schmidt will be set for a significant pay cut, but at 32, he could still find his way into a deal with term.

Jets Notes: Monahan, Coaching Staff, Schmidt

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Ken Wiebe and Mike McIntyre of The Winnipeg Free Press write that the Winnipeg Jets are increasing their efforts to retain the services of center Sean Monahan whom they acquired ahead of the trade deadline. Monahan didn’t have a great playoff with Winnipeg tallying just a single assist in five playoff games but was solid in the regular season occupying their second-line center role and posting 13 goals and 11 assists in 34 games.

Monahan made just under $2MM last season on a one-year contract and could be in line to double that figure on a multi-year deal given that he is one of the best centers available in unrestricted free agency. The 29-year-old Monahan dressed in 83 games last season split between Winnipeg and Montreal and finished the year with 26 goals and 33 assists.

If Monahan reaches free agency the Jets may not have the cap space to replace him as they stand to have just over $13MM available at this time.

In other Winnipeg Jets notes:

  • Wiebe and McIntyre write that the Jets have two remaining slots available on their coaching staff and are likely to hire a veteran associate coach to occupy one of those roles next to new head coach Scott Arniel. They speculate that former Seattle Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol could be a possibility as well as Western Hockey League head coach James Patrick who has ties to Arniel. It is expected that the Jets will decide on rounding out their coaching staff in the next few weeks.
  • It’s possible that Jets defenseman Nate Schmidt may receive a buyout this summer as Winnipeg looks to clear cap space to address some of the holes in their lineup (as per Wiebe and McIntyre). Schmidt has one year remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $5.95MM and has struggled the last two seasons. Last year, the 32-year-old tallied just two goals and 12 assists in 63 games and saw his ice time dwindle to just 16:49 per game down from over 20 minutes a night in the 2021-22 season. A buyout would save Winnipeg $3.2MM in cap space next season but would create a $1.616MM cap hit for the 2025-26 season (as per CapFriendly).

Jets Healthy Scratch Defender Nate Schmidt

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The Winnipeg Jets are expected to healthy scratch defenseman Nate Schmidt in their Thursday game against the Vegas Golden Knights. This will be only the second time that Winnipeg has scratched Schmidt, with his last scratching coming on March 4th of last season. Schmidt slotted back into the lineup immediately after, scoring a goal in his first game back and recording seven points in 18 games through the rest of the season.

The 32-year-old Schmidt is in his third season with the Winnipeg Jets, joining them via trade after Winnipeg dealt a 2022 third-round pick to the Vancouver Canucks for the defender. His first year with the Jets was a career year, with Schmidt recording 32 points in 77 games, good for the second-highest scoring season of his career. He also averaged 20 minutes of ice time, confidently operating in the team’s top four. But his role, and his scoring, dwindled last season, with Schmidt netting 19 points in 71 games while serving on the team’s third pair. He’s maintained this latter role into the 2023-24 season and currently sits without a point, and with a -3, through three games this year.

Logan Stanley will appear in his season debut in light of Schmidt’s scratching, likely lining up next to Dylan Samberg. Stanley, 25, appeared in 19 games with the Jets last season, tallying three points and 21 penalty minutes. It was his third year of operating as Winnipeg’s seventh defenseman, with Stanley appearing in 114 games and scoring 20 points through that stretch. Winnipeg traded up to select Stanley 18th overall in the 2016 NHL Draft and awarded him his NHL debut during the 2020-21 season.

Evening Notes: Boeser, IIHF/Russia, NHLPA Leadership

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After the Bo Horvat trade yesterday, the floodgates appear to be opening on the trade front. That’s especially true for the Vancouver Canucks, who have some desirable trade assets other than Horvat that could find their way out of town by the trade deadline.

One of those is Brock Boeser, who TSN’s Darren Dreger said today continues to receive interest from around the league. However, he reported that any Boeser trade, and the corresponding interest, hinges on how much salary Vancouver is willing to retain in a potential trade. Boeser is signed to a steep cap hit of $6.65MM for the next three seasons. With so many teams already dipping into LTIR pools to stay cap-compliant, Vancouver is unlikely to find a trade partner willing to take the full brunt of the deal. The 25-year-old has nine goals and 30 points in 41 games this season. That’s a 60-point pace over 82 games.

Injury Notes: Wheeler, Kane, Gustavsson

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Cole Perfetti, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Nate Schmidt were all expected to jump back into the lineup soon for the Winnipeg Jets, but they had another nice surprise at practice today. Blake Wheeler was present in a full-contact sweater and practicing on the top line. All four players were taking regular turns, suggesting that the team is getting a huge group of reinforcements all at once. To make room, they will need to move at least one other player off the roster. Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet reports that Michael Eyssimont is not on the ice.

While it still leaves Mason Appleton, Logan Stanley, and Saku Maenalanen on injured reserve, getting Wheeler back is big news for the Jets. The 36-year-old seemed rejuvenated this season (like so many other Winnipeg players) and had 26 points through 29 games before going down to injury. Though he is seeing the lowest average ice time since his days with the Boston Bruins, Wheeler has been great and should be another big boost for a Jets team that is still within striking distance of the Central Division crown.

  • After leaving early on Tuesday night, Patrick Kane’s status was completely unclear. When he was absent as practice started for the Chicago Blackhawks today, alarm bells rang out. Luckily, it seems like he has avoided serious injury, as the Blackhawks listed it as a maintenance day. Andreas Athanasiou was also missing with a non-COVID illness. With so many fans expecting Kane to be the belle of the trade deadline ball this year, a serious injury could throw a wrench into the next few weeks. Hopefully, this will prove to be nothing more than a minor ailment that needs some rest.
  • During last night’s game, Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson was suddenly removed from the net. Head coach Dean Evason told reporters including Joe Smith of The Athletic afterward that he didn’t know what was going on, only that Gustavsson “skated off and puked his brains out.” Michael Russo of The Athletic confirms today that it was an illness, not an injury, that caused the departure and that there is no recall anticipated by the Wild.

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