The Hockey News Makes Bold Prediction About Utah | SLC Puck! Ep. 138

The Hockey News Makes Bold Prediction About Utah | SLC Puck! Ep. 138

[Music] What’s up everybody? Welcome to SLC Puck. I’m your host Austin Facer. It is a delight to be with you guys. It’s what I’m trying to read. The date is really small in the corner of my computer. It’s 8:27. It’s about 6:41 p.m. It’s SLC Puck Time. Thank you for joining me. I’m your twice weekly show about all things hockey in the state of Utah. And um I’m also known as one of the more generous guys in this business. And people go say this to me like, “Austin, you you give so much of your talent, ability, and heart to this already. What more could you possibly have to give?” I’ll tell you what more. I’ve got this pair of gloves right here. Whoa. Right here. And a stick that I’m going to give away once we hit a thousand subscribers on Substack. That’s right, folks. Easy. Oh, let’s see. I’m trying to switch the screen here. Here we go. Puckision. Easiest giveaway you’ll ever enter. All you got to do is go to slcpuck.com, punch in your email, hit subscribe. you’ll be entered to win the giveaway. And uh I’ll say this, I said this last week, uh we’re getting closer to this magic number. We we jumped up about a hundred subscribers last week. I don’t know how many of these are legit. How many of these are like Russian bots? How many of these are burner accounts that people are just, you know, creating as many accounts as possible to give themselves the best chance possible to to win the the prize? I say go for it. I don’t really care how you do it. We just got to get the numbers up, folks. Uh, integrity is a valued thing here, but it’s your integrity on the line, not mine. You can do whatever you want. If you want the stick and gloves that badly and you’re willing to work that hard for it, go for it. That’s what I say. But hey, if you want to support the show in other ways, not just by giving us your data, but also your hard-earned cash, I’ve got a great way for you to do that. Head over to bigtusenergy.com or slcpuck.shop. Got lots of great merch here for you. And because I’m such a nice guy, like I said, everything’s pretty much at cost right now. It’s the limited time founding herd sale. Everything’s about 25 bucks or less. Tanks coming up on the end of summer. I want to show off your summer bot a little bit. Hats, t-shirts, stickers, more hats. So anyway, that’s that. Hey, one more housekeeping item before we get into the show. This Friday is a big day. a charity hockey event at the Weber Ice Sheet Ogden. Uh should be Oh, someone from my my uh my audience right now is subscribe right now. It was just that easy, huh? It was just that easy to enter the raffle. I saw it took you what less than 3 seconds to do that and you’re in you’re in the running now, right? Although, if you win um and I’ll maybe I’ll allude to who this who is sitting in in here with me later, people are going to be up in arms. They’re going to be really They’re going to be like, “Inside job. You just wanted to give it to to her cuz she was at your hockey game last week.” Well, were you guys at my hockey game last week? I didn’t Yeah, I didn’t think so. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, if you go to If you do go to my hockey games in the future, you’ll have a much better chance of winning my prizes, folks. That’s all I’ll say. It certainly won’t hurt. What was I talking about again? Oh, yeah. Charity hockey event on Friday in Ogden at the Weber Eye Sheet. Uh the ultimate goalie showdown. I was very graciously offered a spot to play in that. Um, I’m in the procreator game for some reason. Uh, which I think is kind of a big mistake because there’s going to be like a lot of much better hockey players there. Um, so I’m fully prepared to look like a a a dumbass in front of, you know, my loyal fans and and everybody else, but it still should be a lot of fun. Uh, all the proceeds go towards great great cause, the last save charity. Uh Ryan Beckman runs that and he he’s done the this event in Arizona. I think he’s going to do another one in Danbury, Connecticut after this. So super cool dude and I’m super uh humbled that they asked me to be a part of it. And so I’m going to get you guys in on the loop as that for that as well. For more information on that, you can go to ultimate goalie.com. And this is really easy too, guys. Everything I put out here for you guys is super easy to do. Look at all this cool stuff going on. By the way, there’s a slick little video, the ultimate goalie showdown. You can see there’s the over the bench guy, off the bench, guys. There’s Pat Shay. Like, like so much. There’s uh Swaggy P right there. He’ll be there with us. Reagan Ray. Lots happening there at the Weber Ice Sheet on Friday. Uh ticketed event. But here’s the deal, yo, folks. Because I like you, because I love you, because I care about you, and because I’m a generous guy. If you go to purchase a ticket and enter the promo code SLC Puck, all one word, you’ll get 25% off. Holy hell, how do they do it, right? And here’s the other incentive I’ll tell you guys for this. Um, me and the other podcast boys, other folks who do hockey podcasts in the area, yes, there’s more than just one, more than just one person with an excellent idea. Uh, we’re competing against each other to see who can sell the most tickets using our promo code. Winner gets a fabulous prize. And tell you what, if I win the prize, I might just give it away. So, tell you what, go. I mean, what more reason do you need to use my promo code than that? I give and I give and I give. I give it till it hurts and then I give a little bit more. That’s what we do. So, anyway, check that out. Should be a lot of fun. Again, I’ll be there Friday. We were icy. But let’s Hey, let’s get into this, guys. So, what I would like you to do as soon as this episode ends, I would like you to run, not walk, to your nearest Barnes & Noble because there is something on the shelves there that is going to be flying off. It’ll be a collector’s edition piece of hockey memorabilia that will age like a fine wine, like a like a Honus Wagner baseball card from 1908. like uh like Pokemon cards from the from the early 90s from the was it early 90s late 90s whenever it was. This is a big deal. It’s the Hockey Newses 2025 2026 yearbook season preview issue. A lot of hard work went into this issue by a lot of talented people. I know that because I am one of those talented people who put a lot of hard work and effort into this issue. So anyway, for the second consecutive year, yes, there we go. Yeah, let’s hit the applause. Oh, yeah. Stop it, guys. It’s too much. One more. Okay, sure. Uh, for the second year, Hockey News asked me to help out write the season preview for the Utah Mammoth this year, which I was more than happy to do. Uh, mostly because they offered to pay me. Uh, but again, I I enjoy this assignment quite a bit. Um, it’s always fun to see. There’s something about seeing my name in print that just really gets my uh narcissistic juices running. So, it it makes me pretty pretty happy. But I I do I do enjoy doing this. I know you guys think I just like to podcast and be sarcastic in a microphone. I actually I do like that. You’re right. Uh but my my true passion is really writing and I love to write. So, um you can see here page 158, that’s where you can find the season preview for the Utah Mammoth by line says by Austin Facer. There we go. And uh again, if you want to read the whole thing, you’ll have to buy a magazine. And no, I don’t get a cut of the sales, although I wish I I wish I would. There’s no contest for that. And I don’t have a promo code for that one either, so apologies. But again, run to Barnes & Noble. These are going to be collector’s editions. And tell you what, if you see me out in the wild, maybe at the Ultimate Goalie Showdown on Friday, I will sign your copy of the hockey news with my article in it. Yes, that’s what I I’d be willing to do that for you guys for free, too. Again, that’s another gift for you. But let’s just go through this here really quick. I’ll just I’ll just touch on some quick highlights. Um, I like this magazine. It’s It’s very well done, very well put together. I think it’s probably the leading hockey publication. I mean, I certainly can’t think of any others. Uh, I love a good print issue as well. Um, you can see Clayton Keller’s on the cover right here next to the NHL Shield. But I think I think what I really enjoy about this is it just kind of gets like a nice conversation started. It really kind of marks the start of the season before we really get into things, get things cooking. They do the season preview. They make their pick who they think is going to win Lord Stanley’s Cup. And I will play spoiler here for hockey news. Sorry, Hockey News. Uh if you want me to keep my mouth shut, pay me a little bit more money next time. Just kidding. Or give me a sale the the magazine sales. But the hockey news is predicting that the Vegas Golden Knights are going to be the 2025 2026 Stanley Cup champions. They are the right here. You can see Stanley returns to the to the strip, the Las Vegas strip is the headline there. uh they think the acquisition of Mitch Mner and the uh the improvement that he should make being out of the Toronto market and all that and and getting a little bit of that pressure off his chest coupled with you know the goalending of Aiden Hill, Jack Eel, you know, Mark Stone at forward as well that this is going to be the most potent team in the National Hockey League. So right here at the end. So where is the Stanley Cup heading this season? In our estimation, like a washed up pop act or an unimaginative bachelor party, all roads lead to Vegas. That’s good writing. Whoever wrote that dang Jared Clinton, great job. I like that. Uh they’re predicting Vegas will beat the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup final. But here’s something that will probably be of interest to you guys here in the Beehive State. They are also predicting that the Utah Mammoth in their first season as the Utah Mammoth will also make their first appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs. So, that’s pretty exciting, pretty fun. Um, they’re predicting uh let’s see here who else to make the postseason. Looks like they’re predicting uh top three in each division. They’re predicting um the both wild card teams in the Western Conference to come out of the Central Division. So they’re predicting Oilers, Golden Knights, Kings out of the Pacific Division, Stars, Avalanche Jets, Mammoth, and the Minnesota Wild as the teams out of the Central Division. So that’s great news. I think that’s kind of what we’re hoping for uh to see in this second season of NHL Utah is uh the team take the step in the right direction, making the playoffs. Uh, but again, going back to to my favorite part of this magazine, the part that I wrote, um, you can see like I I think really for me the biggest thing that I think is going to help the Mammoth make the jump to the playoffs this year is going to be just the stability, right? And I wrote about this in the intangible section and uh I’m quoting myself here. Despite the excitement of a new name and fresh faces, Utah’s biggest offseason asset may have been stability. Last year was a whirlwind. I think I used that word last year when I wrote that section, too. Dang it. Relocating from Arizona and relaunching as a new franchise in just five months. This summer, by contrast, offered a return to relative normality for a team looking to take the next step. Not having to manage the chaos of a complicated move could make all the difference. I bet that’ll be the big story when we uh see the guys on the ice again in Utah for training camp. So, expect that to be a thing. Uh more little notes here in the section here. Future Watch top 10 prospects. T Jaginless top of the list. Caleb Denoy second. Dimmitri Shimichev third. Denil boot fourth. Maverick Lamro fifth. Cole Budwan six. Artim Duda seven. Michael Herbal goalender eight. Thomas Levio nine. And Max Bazinka 10. They’re predicting Clayton Keller will take a little bit of a decrease in his points. They’re they’re predicting he’ll go from 90 points last year to 87. Uh they’re projecting a 74 point season for Logan Culie, 65 point season for Dylan Gunther, a 62 point season for JJ Purka, and a 61 point season for Nikki Schmaltz whose sticks whose stick and gloves were given away. So there you go. I again, don’t walk. Run to Barnes & Noble right now. Get your copy of this magazine. bring it with you to Ogden on Friday. I’d be happy to sign it and I’d also be happy to give you guys some recommendations on where to spend the rest of your money. Uh, and it’s not just bigtusenergy.com. It’s not just slcpuck.shop, although you should set aside a little bit of a monthly budget, I would say, for SLC puck merch. You know, it doesn’t need to be a lot. A few items every month to fill up your closet would be fine. Hey guys, let me interrupt really quick. I just want to remind you once again, as I’ve been doing for a while now, that I have an incredible partnership lined up for SLC Puck listeners with Payne Anthony Creative Jewelers and Jonathan’s Jewelry. We’re doing the greatest giveaway anyone’s ever heard of. All you got to do is scan this QR code right here. You’ll be entered to win. Just Here’s how it works. You scan the QR code, you hit send on the message on your phone, you’re entered to win a raffle for a $250 gift card. We’ve been giving out gift cards. Like they’re going out of style. We’ve done one every episode of SLC Puck for months now. So like thousands of dollars have been given away by Pay Anthony Creative Jewelers and Jonathan’s Jewelry. Get there, check out some of their amazing products and jewelry. Some of the best stuff you ever see. They got like antique vintage stuff, new stuff. They take custom orders as well. Unreal. You got to see it. You got to be a part of it. And don’t forget, you don’t need to win this raffle. Although, we have had a lot of winners to take part in this giveaway. Just go in either one of these locations. Jonathan’s Jewelry is in Cottonwood Heights. Pay Anthony Creative Jewelers is at Charlie Square. Just mention SLC Puck and they’ll knock $100 off your purchase. So, really appreciate those guys for their support of our show. Amazing team over there. They’ll take good care of you. Let’s get back to the show. Um I I mean some of you guys actually have more SLC puck merch than I do, which is a little bit uh suspicious. I’m kidding. I appreciate that. Oh, here’s what here’s the here’s the fun thing about uh buying slcpuck.shop merch. Well, I’m just going to plug it while I’m here. Um for every time you buy an item, I will send you a personalized thank you video. Isn’t that great? I’ve heard that’s a really fun momento for everybody. So anyway, you’re welcome again is is the what I’m trying to say here. Uh but more ways to spend your money. Uh how about ways to watch the game? Uh and as we as we’ve been talking about here, season’s rapidly approaching schedules out the uh the Utah Mammoth have announced the full broadcast schedule for the 2025 2026 season. Let’s switch over to PCO Vision to see the press release on utmamoth.com. So, um, you know, it looks like there’s going to be 11 regular season matchups that are pre-d designated as national exclusives. Um, but also, uh, you know, we still have our great options on SCG Plus and Mammoth Plus, as well as over the air on Utah 16, which is owned by Scripts, right? And I believe you can get the TV antennas to do that. Go over the great crew that uh, does the the broadcast. We know them. We We love them. Matt McConnell, Dominic Moore, Nick Olc, Sarah Marfield, Kim Becker, my guy Tyson Nash, and all that. So, um, looks like, uh, 11 games on the national TV schedule. It looks like, uh, game those games include the October 17th home game against the San Jose Sharks, the uh, G October 21st matchup against the Colorado Avalanche at home. Uh, when the Mammoth hit the road to play the Ducks on December 3rd, that’ll be on national TV. That’ll be on TNT. Those first two that I mentioned will be on ESPN, by the way. And then on December 17th when they head to Detroit to play the Red Wings, that one will be on national TV on TNT as well. When we turn the calendar to 2026 and we host the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 13th, you can catch that game on ESPN Plus. the March 10th tilt in the state of hockey, Minnesota against the Wild, that’ll be on ESPN. Uh the March 19th matchup at the Vegas Golden Knights, predicted to win the Stanley Cup, that’s uh on ESPN Plus. The game on March 24th when we host the Oilers and perhaps maybe the last appearance by Conor McDavid in an Oilers uniform, perhaps that’ll be on ESPN. And then coming down last month, the regular season when the Mammoths should be making their playoff push, we’re going to have three games on national TV. So it looks like it looks like, yeah, right there in the last month, March and April, we’re Utah Mammoth are going to be on national TV six times. That tells you the decision makers probably think they’re going to be playing some pretty exciting hockey here at the end. Uh but again, getting back to April last month, uh road game against the Kraken on April 2nd, that’s on ESPN Plus and then the game on the 7th of April, uh hosting the Oilers again, May, so that one could be Conor McDavid’s last appearance in Oilers uniform in Salt Lake City. Uh that’s on ESPN. And then this is the big one, the probably the biggest game of the year. We’re hoping April 16th, Blues are in town. two teams that could be pushing each other for that last playoff spot. Salt Lake City, the Delta Center, ESPN, the Barn is going to be rocking. It’s going to be absolutely crazy. So, tons of fun. Again, it gets more real that the the season is rapidly approaching. We’re here. It’s August 27th. This is our last month without hockey, by the way, because September 21st is the preseason opener at and against the Colorado Avalanche Split Squad contest. And then we’ll be at the Delta Center on October 2nd against the Kings. That’ll be our first look at the new Delta Center after months of renovation, hosting the Sharks again for another preseason matchup. On the 4th, we’re on for the regular season opener at Colorado on October 9th. And then the big one, the season home opener at the Delta Center October 15th against the Calgary Flames. I call it the Rod Anderson Super Bowl. Rod Anderson, of course, has been a day one listener of SLC Puck. Shout out to Rod. We love you. We care about you. We appreciate you. So, anyway, that’s that. That should be a lot of fun. Um, as as I’ve reiterated again, it it it the for me like it’s it’s becoming like so real. I’m getting like more into like a routine now. I’ve kind of been a little bit of a funk this summer to tell you the truth. Just like not knowing what to do with myself. Uh I’ve I totally under underestimated how long a hockey off season can be. I think it’s because last summer just like with the the excitement of the the team coming I think it it felt like a like a blur at times just like you know there was just so much to absorb so much to learn. It felt like we’re like drinking out of a fire hose in a lot of ways. This this summer I feel like we’ve been drinking out of like a very leaky faucet that like maybe only gives you like one or two drops and then if like you really like you know if you really crank the the handle maybe you’ll get like a little bit more maybe a cup full of water. Uh you know that’s that felt like that was what the JJ Purka trade felt like but other than that just little drops here and there especially the last few months so or last I guess maybe not months maybe like we month maybe six weeks. So, um it’s been a little bit more tricky, right? And you know, I find myself twiddling my my fingers and and and toes trying to to get ready, but uh it’s exciting. Um again, as we continue to proceed, you know, we’ll ramp up more SLC Puck stuff. Um we have a lot of fun content ideas. Um, you might have noticed on Instagram I teased SLC Pup, which teases a feature that we’ll have on social media throughout the year. Uh, there will be some dog, some canine involvement in the programming, so that’ll be a lot of fun. Yes. Yes. Uh, the my studio audience is like grinning from ear to ear. They’re so excited about uh what’s to come. Um, but yeah, it should be fun. you know, I’m I’m I’m I want to redo a lot of the uh Big Tusk Energy merch and maybe launch a new site. So, the stuff you get right now is going to become even more valuable. Um I hope they preserve stuff like the original Big Tusk Energy merch and the uh the Hockey News yearbook, uh you know, behind glass, put it in the Smithsonian or something, you know, as as they should. But it’ll be funny. I I said this last last week, you know, I think this uh this summer was really a good opportunity to like find the more of the love that I I had for actually playing hockey when I was little. Like uh I joined a team uh this summer, the Whiskey Deaks. Um I didn’t choose the name, you know, is what it is. And we’re and just and just so everybody knows, we’re we’re working on getting new uniforms, too. So, that’s going to be just absolutely electric. For those of you who are following the Whiskey Deaks, the rebranding should be truly magnificent. We’re not going to put it to a vote like the Mammoth did. All right, we’re just we’re we’re staying with Whiskey Deaks. Uh we have a little bit of a dictatorship with our team leadership. They’re calling all the shots and and we allow them to do that. Uh but it still should be a lot of fun. But again, like being out on the team with being out on the ice with with a team and being involved with the the Mammoth youth program. um has been a lot of fun. I want to give a shout out to Oliver um who makes a point who is is is in one of my I think he’s either in learn to play or continue to play. Uh but makes a point to tell me before every uh session that he just watched the last episode. So this is me saying hello to Oliver. Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Um but yeah, I I it’s it’s been an interesting summer. I’m really excited for for hockey season to get here. I’m excited for us to all be doing it together and growing and I’ll be giving away a lot more crap. I’ve got like a big pile of of koozies and t-shirts that I’m going to give away at some SLC Puck watch parties. So stay tuned for that. More information to come. But we appreciate you guys so much. Thank you for tuning in to yet another episode of SLC Puck, episode 138 in the book. So, don’t forget to like, comment, subscribe, go to slcpuck.com to enter the big stick and gloves energy contest to get the stick and the gloves. Follow me on social media, slcpuck. And uh we’ll talk soon. Thanks, guys. [Music]

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The Hockey News just released its annual season preview edition, making a bold claim about the Utah Mammoth’s postseason chances. SLC Puck host Austin Facer, who also wrote the Mammoth’s section for the magazine, gives his take. He also rates the Mammoth’s national television schedule in this episode of SLC Puck.

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