Mammoth Rumors

Now more than a month into the new league year, the bulk of the heavy lifting has been done from a roster perspective. Most unrestricted free agents have found new homes, the arbitration period has come and gone, and the trade market has cooled. Accordingly, it’s a good time to take a look at what each team has accomplished this offseason.  Next up is a look at Utah.

Utah’s first season in their new city didn’t see them make the playoffs but they took a big step forward in the standings, getting within seven points of a playoff spot while several of their young players made steps in their development.  Accordingly, GM Bill Armstrong continued to add to his group this summer with an eye on getting the Mammoth to the playoffs in 2025-26 and snapping their five-year drought.

Draft

1-4: F Caleb Desnoyers, Moncton (QMJHL)
2-46: D Max Psenicka, Portland (WHL)
3-78: F Stepan Hoch, Ceske Budejovice (Czechia Extraliga)
4-110: F Yegor Borikov, Dynamo (Russia)
5-142: G Ivan Tkach-Tkachenko, Ufa (Russia)
6-174: D Ludvig Johnson, Zug (Swiss National League)
6-182: D Reko Alanko, Jokerit (Finland)

Desnoyers worked his way up the draft rankings during the season as potential impact centers are hard to come by.  He was one of the top all-around players in this draft class and that defensive awareness looked like it might give him a chance of sticking with the big club at the start of the season.  However, recent wrist surgery that will keep him out for three months will put an end to that.  Desnoyers hasn’t signed his entry-level deal yet which keeps him NCAA-eligible but he’s expected to return to QMJHL Moncton and play a big role once again for the Wildcats.

Psenicka continues Utah’s recent trend of trying to add some size to their system, particularly on the back end.  He split last season between his native Czechia and WHL Portland, not bringing much to the table offensively.  Instead, he profiles as a true stay-at-home physical blueliner, the type of player who might not play big minutes in the NHL but could fill an important checking role on a third pairing for a long time.  Hoch was another big selection from Czechia, bringing Utah some size on the wing this time.  He hovered around the point per game mark in their junior league last season while also getting into 23 games at the Extraliga level.  He’s more of a longer-term project and with another year plus an option left on his contract overseas, he’ll have some time to develop before Utah needs to reassess in a couple of years.

Trade Acquisitions

F JJ Peterka (from Buffalo)

Peterka finished second in scoring for the Sabres last season, but a perceived lack of willingness to remain in Buffalo fueled plenty of trade speculation, which came to a head a little before the draft when the trade was made.  His 68 points also would have been second in Utah scoring and at 23, there’s reason to hope that he still has another gear to get to offensively.  After going and making a big splash to shore up the back end at the draft last offseason when they acquired Mikhail Sergachev, Armstrong basically did the same thing up front.  The Mammoth now have Peterka in his prime years and he should be a strong boost offensively to a team that finished 20th in goals scored last season.

UFA Signings

F Michael Carcone (one year, $775K)^
F Cameron Hebig (two years, $1.55MM)*^
D Scott Perunovich (one year, $775K)*
D Nate Schmidt (three years, $10.5MM)
F Brandon Tanev (three years, $7.5MM)
G Vitek Vanecek (one year, $1.5MM)
F Kailer Yamamoto (one year, $775K)*^

* denotes two-way contract
^ denotes re-signing

Beyond Peterka, most of Utah’s offseason activity revolved around improving their depth.  Tanev has had a solid run in recent years of being a physical bottom-six winger who can kill penalties and chip in a bit offensively and his addition should give the Mammoth some grit in their forward group which is something they could benefit from.  Carcone wasn’t planning to return to Utah next season, even going as far as saying so after the year.  However, no other offers to his liking materialized on the open market, resulting in the two sides reuniting.  He’s likely to hold the same depth role he had last season although he’s only a year removed from that improbable 21-goal campaign.

On the back end, Schmidt comes over from Florida after his one-year pact with them following his buyout from Winnipeg went about as well as possible.  He showed that he can still be a quality contributor on the third pairing and he should be in a spot to play a similar role in Utah.  Perunovich was once a touted prospect with offensive upside but has struggled to stay healthy and hasn’t been as productive as expected when he has played.  After splitting last season between the Blues and Islanders, he’ll be hoping to land a spot at the back of the roster but starting the season in the minors with the Roadrunners is a real possibility.

Vanecek is coming off a year that didn’t go so well for him.  He struggled in limited action with the Sharks before Florida brought him in at the trade deadline after moving Spencer Knight to Chicago as part of the Seth Jones trade.  Vanecek was only a little better with the Panthers but he was able to secure this contract as some insurance with, at the time, some uncertainty about Connor Ingram who was in the Player Assistance Program before being cleared earlier this week.  He’ll battle Ingram for the backup spot behind Karel Vejmelka.

RFA Re-Signings

F Jack McBain (five years, $21.25MM)
D Montana Onyebuchi (two years, $1.55MM)*
F JJ Peterka (five years, $38.5MM)

Peterka was signed as soon as he was acquired but interestingly enough, he signed a deal that bought Utah just one more season of club control than what they would have had if they went year-to-year with him.  Evidently, the price tag for tacking on more UFA years was higher than what Armstrong wanted to pay.  It does, however, set Peterka up to reach unrestricted free agency at 28 where he’ll be in good shape for a max-term deal at that time if he wants one.

McBain has been rather consistent in production over his first three full NHL seasons, ranging from a low of 26 points to a high of 27, that coming last season.  One of the most physical players in the league, he also made some strides at the faceoff dot last season and could be their checking center for the foreseeable future.  This price tag is a little high now given his production but as the salary cap continues to go up quickly, it should hold up fine.

Departures

F Travis Barron (unsigned)
F Nick Bjugstad (signed with Blues)
D Robert Bortuzzo (unsigned)
F Josh Doan (trade with Sabres)
D Michael Kesselring (trade with Sabres)
F Justin Kipkie (unsigned)
F Matias Maccelli (trade with Maple Leafs)
F Egor Sokolov (signed with CSKA Moscow, KHL)

Kesselring was the headliner in the package going to Buffalo for Peterka.  The 25-year-old took a step forward in his development last season while chipping in with 29 points.  Knowing that right-shot defensemen are always in high demand, Utah was able to sell high on him and could do so knowing that Sean Durzi and John Marino are still around.  Doan was the other part of that trade and has shown some upside over his first two professional seasons but hasn’t been able to establish himself as a full-time NHL player just yet.  With the strength of their prospect pool, he was someone who was relatively safe to move, especially getting a player like Peterka in return.

With Peterka coming in, Maccelli’s lineup spot was even more tenuous than it was last year when he slid down the depth chart and even spent a bit of time as a healthy scratch.  Considering that he had seasons of 57 and 49 points the previous two campaigns, they certainly sold low on him, only managing a third-round pick that could elevate to a second rounder depending on his production.  Bjugstad had a great first full year with then-Arizona in 2023-24, coming close to his personal best in points.  However, injuries and ineffectiveness limited him to just 19 points in 66 games a year ago and with the club having surplus center depth already, they didn’t need to go outside the organization to replace him either.  Bortuzzo, meanwhile, was limited to just 17 games last season largely due to injury and his ice time was minimal when he was in the lineup.  At 36, he might have to settle for a PTO heading into training camps next month.

Salary Cap Outlook

Utah was able to quietly offload Shea Weber’s contract at the trade deadline and in doing so, that allowed them to stay below the cap even with the additions of Peterka, Schmidt, and Tanev.  As things stand, they’re set to enter the season with a little under $6.7MM in cap space, per PuckPedia.  That gives them more than enough flexibility to add another piece now should one become available or bank enough in-season flexibility to be able to make a big splash or two at the trade deadline if they find themselves in the playoff hunt.

Key Questions

Will Cooley Sign Now? Young center Logan Cooley is entering the final season of his three-year, entry-level contract which makes him eligible to sign an extension.  We’ve seen several young players quickly sign long-term deals but he hasn’t done so just yet.  Cooley is coming off a strong sophomore season that saw him record 25 goals and 40 assists, finishing second to Clayton Keller in team scoring.  We’ve seen the market for post-entry-level top young centers hover around the $8MM mark in recent seasons which would seemingly serve as a realistic starting point in negotiations.  However, another jump offensively for Cooley could elevate him to an even higher asking price, especially in the context of the $8.5MM cap increase next summer.  Accordingly, some have wondered if he might be better off waiting but given Armstrong’s penchant for trying to sign players quickly, expect them to take a real run at getting something done in the coming weeks if they haven’t already done so.

Can Crouse Rebound? Winger Lawson Crouse signed a deal very similar to McBain’s three years ago with the expectation being that he had gotten to another level offensively.  That held true for the first two seasons of the contract but things fell off a cliff last year.  After putting up 23 goals in 2023-24, Crouse had just 19 points last season despite playing in 81 games.  At his best, he’s a legitimate top-six power forward but that was rarely the case last season.  He’s not in a position of being at risk of slipping out of the lineup altogether like Maccelli briefly was last season but if he can’t get back to form in the first half of the season, expect his name to come up in trade speculation leading into the trade deadline.

Will The Young Russians Make An Impact? In recent years, there haven’t been as many Russian players going early in the draft.  However, in 2023, the Coyotes (before their move to Utah) bucked the trend, selecting defenseman Dmitri Simashev and winger Daniil But with lottery selections, going sixth and twelfth, respectively.  Both players spent the last two seasons as teammates with KHL Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and have now signed their entry-level contracts to start their time in North America.  Both prospects are raw but could plausibly play themselves into NHL action at some point this season, particularly Simashev.  Getting quality NHL contributions at some point from them would certainly give them a boost and show that more pieces of their long-term plan are in place.

PHR’s Gabriel Foley also contributed to this post.

Photos courtesy of Nick Turchiaro and Rob Gray-Imagn Images.