Bill Armstrong spent his first few years as GM of the Arizona Coyotes making future-focused trades. Now, the future is here. The Utah Mammoth have so many prospects you could practically make a full …
Bill Armstrong spent his first few years as GM of the Arizona Coyotes making future-focused trades. Now, the future is here. The Utah Mammoth have so many prospects you could practically make a full team with them — and still have some left over.
That’s exactly what we did. Here’s our hypothetical Utah Mammoth all-prospects team.
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Rules
We defined “prospects” as players who are younger than 23 at the time of writing with fewer than 82 games of NHL experience. Players such as Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther, while young and promising, have too much NHL experience to be considered prospects in this context.
Also, not every player will be positioned in his usual spot — some centers will be listed on the wing, etc., to allow the best players to fit into the lineup.
And remember: It’s completely hypothetical and it’s meant to be fun!
Utah Mammoth all-rookie team
Forwards
Tij Iginla – Caleb Desnoyers – Daniil But
Julian Lutz – Cole Beaudoin – Noel Nordh
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Vojtěch Hradec – Gabe Smith – Vadim Moroz
Štěpán Hoch – Owen Allard – Miko Matikka
Extras:
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Sam Lipkin
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Ilya Fedotov
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Jonathan Castagna
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Yegor Borikov
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Tanner Ludtke
This is a balanced forward group with both star power and grit. It’s not out of the question that most of these guys could become NHL regulars. Of course, it’s not realistic for all of them to make the same team, so don’t expect this to be the Mammoth’s actual team in 2028. But these are all promising players who have real NHL potential.
Among those who will absolutely see NHL action at some point are the four first-round picks: Iginla, Beaudoin, Desnoyers and But. They all have high-end talent on both sides of the puck, which is a key component of any Stanley Cup-winning team.
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Nordh, Lutz, Hradec and Moroz all have potential upside as middle-six forwards in the NHL, though nothing is guaranteed. Allard and Smith are likely to play a Jack McBain-style checking game if they make the league, and everyone else is probably considered long shots at this point in time.
Defensemen
Dmitri Simashev – Maveric Lamoureux
Maksymilian Szuber – Max Pšenička
Artem Duda – Tomas Lavoie
Extras:
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Will Skahan
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Aleš Čech
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Terrell Goldsmith
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Gregor Biber
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Reko Alanko
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Ludvig Johnson
Utah has enough defense prospects for two full teams and then some. Naturally, some good players were left off the roster — but don’t count them out to push for NHL jobs.
The theme here is height (6-foot-4 on average). A lot has been said about the last handful of Cup-winning teams’ size on defense. That’s an aspect Utah has covered with its next generation of players.
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They have some excellent potential up top. Simashev was the team’s development camp MVP, and for good reason. His skating is already NHL-caliber and the rest of his game isn’t far behind. Lamoureux, who played 15 NHL games last season, should also turn into a full-time top-four guy.
Szuber and Duda have shown well in the AHL thus far, but there’s still much to be determined for their respective career paths. Everyone else on the list falls squarely into the “wait and see” category.
Goaltenders
Melker Thelin
Extras:
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Carsen Musser
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Ivan Tkach-Tkachenko
Hrabal’s potential matches his height: It’s way higher than everyone around him. He turned down an NHL contract this spring in favor of playing another college season. Once he turns pro, it’s only a matter of time until he starts bagging Vezina trophies.
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Thelin and Musser aren’t guaranteed to make the NHL. As for Tkach-Tkachenko he’s, as Mammoth director of amateur scouting Ryan Jankowski put it after the draft, “very raw.”
If any of them pan out, it’s found money for Utah.
When will Utah’s prospects turn into NHL players?
Each prospect is on a different development path, so there’s no one-size-fits-all timeline in terms of NHL readiness. Generally, though, players outside of the top pick or two in the draft take between one and five years to reach the NHL (and goalies take even longer).
Simashev, But and Lamoureux will almost certainly play in the NHL this year, though it’s not certain that any of them will stay in the big league the whole season. Players like Beaudoin and Iginla likely aren’t far out either, and Desnoyers could be a year or two away from his first NHL action.
Source: Utah News