Utah Mammoth Trying To Take Swings On 3 Massive Names

The Utah Mammoth have firmly established themselves among the elite teams in the Central Division so far this season. But they're far from finished building their contending roster. Insider Pierre LeBrun, speaking on the French-language Aux 4 coins de la LNH show, said that GM Bill Armstrong has the Mammoth in on every big name that becomes potentially available, including 3 doozies already this year.  

The standard for Utah is rising this season... This is a team that hopes to be among the elite by the end of the season, among the teams that truly has a chance to win the Stanley Cup.

Look, according to my information, Bill Armstrong was in on the Connor Hellebuyck situation, and gave it a shot on the goaltender who ended up being traded to New Jersey.

Meanwhile, there have been conversations with the Red Wings regarding Dylan Larkin. I’m not sure if that’s a priority for Utah, but he’s getting involved—just in case.

And I can tell you one more thing: as for Nikita Kucherov, we’ll see what happens with him this summer. Utah is going to be in on that, they're going to try to get involved there, that's absolutely certain. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll get a meeting with Kucherov, but I think they're going to take a shot at it.

                                                —LeBrun translation provided by RDS

The Mammoth are one of the teams on Larkin's 10-team approved list that he provided to the Red Wings, but there's no telling if Kucherov would be open to going to Utah. It appears more and more that the Tampa Bay Lightning superstar will be heading to the open market as a UFA next July 1st, so they'll certainly try, as LeBrun said. 

Armstrong hasn't been extremely happy with the team's performance of late, as they've split their last eight games (4-4-0). He's anxious to make another big splash.