NHL Rumors: Utah Mammoth Ready to 'Take a Big Swing'

 We're getting ever closer to that time in the NHL: Draft, Trades, and Free Agency season. Teams are doing their due diligence, figuring out what their rosters need, and preparing contract and trade offers. And one team to definitely keep an eye on, per insider Elliotte Friedman on his 32 Thoughts podcast, is the Utah Mammoth.

You know which team everyone's watching now? The Utah Mammoth. People think Utah is going to take a big swing at something.

Owner Ryan Smith isn't afraid to make big moves. He's shown that with his Utah Jazz in the NBA, and as Friedman says, "they want to show the NHL what the NBA already knows."

Utah Mammoth are a prime suitor for Mitch Marner

The Mammoth have already been linked to taking that 'big swing' at the top unrestricted free agent who'll be on the market, the Toronto Maple Leafs' Mitch Marner. 

Utah has a ton of cap space with a projected $21 million, and, as James Mirtle notes in The Athletic, they'd be able to offer Marner a MUCH quieter environment than the madness that's surrounded him in the hockey hotbed of his hometown in Toronto. That could be a selling point for the Mammoth for any number of players who might not love being surrounded by a crazed media frenzy every day in big markets and Canadian cities. 

How close are the Mammoth to being a playoff contender?

The team didn't make the playoffs in 2024-25, but they are up-and-coming, and were mathematically in the hunt for a Wild Card berth until the later stages of the season. Adding a big fish, be it Marner or any other notable free agents or trade candidate, could take the likes of Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley and Mikhail Sergachev to new heights. 

Cole Bagley of KSL Sports in Utah told Daily Faceoff over the weekend, "Utah might be in the best position of any team in the National Hockey League looking forward based on their roster, their age, the amount of money that they have. But they have to do it the right way. So, I do think that they’re going to be aggressive (but not overpay.)"

GM Bill Armstrong will be a busy man over the next month or so.