Utah Mammoth Rookie Showcase Recap

Utah Mammoth Rookie Showcase Recap

Hey everyone, welcome back to 996. The how this past weekend, Friday and Saturday, the Utah Mammoth were part of the rookie faceoff only playing two games. Usually they play three games and I would have loved to watch three games, especially after the result of the second game. The Avalanche were hosting this year’s rookie faceoff. Last year it was in LA. This year, I mean, the rookie faceoff, rookie tournament, prospect tournament, it’s not for the faint of heart. you’re looking at and watching hockey on a 480p resolution. The camera’s behind the mesh. There’s no overlay scoreboard. This year, they didn’t even have commentating and no replays either. At least last year, they had replays and commentating in LA. This year, it was, man, what do they call it? Just raw dogging hockey. It it was very rough to watch, but it’s hockey nonetheless. And it was great to just sit down and get locked in to watching hockey, getting used to writing down notes while watching games. And you had to be very locked in to like recognize who is who on the ice. And with no commentating, you have to like use your eyes, see the number, see their stature and posture of the player to really recognize who that player is. So, I really do think I kind of nailed it for myself uh with these categories. Usually, it’s excellent. This is like my third or fourth time doing a prospect tournament, but this year I don’t think anyone was excellent considering the results. But here are the lineups. This is for game one. And if you see names you do not recognize, don’t worry. Like, those are amateur tryyouts just to fill up roster spots. You can see there’s literally zero Utah prospect goalies on this roster. The again, even the word prospect or rookie face off, it’s pretty disingenuous. It’s not all of Utah Mammoth’s prospects. It is only players eligible for this tournament, which is basically players who have signed an entry- level contract with their NHL team and Canadian hockey players in the OHL, WHL, and the Quebec League because the Euro Leagues, KHL, Sweden, Czecha, Finland, those leagues are starting. So those players or prospects aren’t coming over to play in this tournament. So there’s no one from the KHL like Maro. There’s no one from the Czecha League like Heratic. Uh NCAA players aren’t allowed either. So no Hurabal, no Castia, no Mer. Uh Mer and Hurabal for the goalies. Thelen, another goalender uh is in Sweden. He’s not here. And Ivan the goalender who they most recently drafted, he’s in the KHL, so he can’t come either. So there’s no goalies eligible. So they have to fill it up with the amateur triyouts. Here’s the second games lineup. They went with 11 forwards, seven defenseman for the second game. Interesting. The head coach for these tournaments is the American Hockey League coach, Steve Podvan, who coaches the Road Runners. I’ve been pretty underwhelmed with him. I’m surprised they keep them going. I mean, the Road Runners haven’t really, you know, put a stamp on their league, that they’re going to be competitors for the playoffs year in and year out. Last year was just a total disappointment and disaster for me with the Road Runners uh barely making the playoffs, getting eliminated in the playoffs, very few bright spots if your name was in Don Yamamoto or Stalber. So maybe this could be the last season for the head coach Steve Podvven. The captains, they maintain the same captain and alternate captains for both games. Lamaru was a captain for both games and the captain of the tournament and assistant or alternate captains were Bodu and Dmitri Simichev. They lost the first game to Colorado 5 to3. They tied it up late in the third period. This was a fight of a game even though I think the Avalanche went out to a two nothing lead. Utah battled back. It was pretty evenly matched. And then um once they tied it up, I believe Utah did, they let in like two back-to back goals right after they tied it up to end the game and lo lost 53. Was were they up 3-2? Pausing it. So in fact, Utah got a late third period lead of 32. Their momentum, their mojo was high, emotions were high, and then immediately the Avalanche tied it up and then scored a game-winning goal to make it 4-3 and then got an empty net to make it 53. So, Utah thought they were going to win late in that third period getting that goal, but the Avalanche score like two straight really quick goals on these amateur triyout goalies. These goalies pretty bad. I’m not going to put all the blame on the goalies. The defense, you know, could have been better. The whole team obviously could have been better. They could have scored more goals than just four goals in two games. The second game against Vegas, it was looking all right. It was a 2-1 game and then they scored three goals late in the second to bring it up to 5-1. And the third period was just a huge unraveling and then it went to 8-1. There was a fight. Julian Lutz got into a fight. Great job there to actually show some emotion. But let’s get into the players. These tournaments aren’t all about did they win. It’d be really nice if they won. I think my Spears would be higher if they won, but definitely coming off that 8-1 loss to Vegas really put a damper on my mood for this video. It would have been so much better if they were good. They don’t Utah, Arizona in these prospect tournaments, they haven’t been amazing. They’re always like sort of lukewarm. I think this is the first year where it’s kind of really disappointing and that’s pretty much due to the amateur triyout goalies. But some bright spots, they didn’t have a lot of amateur triyout players. I think it was two players up front on the fourth line and then obviously the goalies and I think one maybe amateur trial defenseman whereas last year it was like 40% of the lineup was amateur trial. So that just goes to show that they’re finally having a lot of prospects. They’re coming over. It’s a slow build for the rebuild and then every year there’s going to be less and less amateur triyouts and then there’ll be zero amateur triyouts and you have a full team of prospects like next year you can expect her about to be the goalie because he’ll sign his entry level contract. Dyier will be there. Uh guys like Goldmith was injured. He couldn’t participate. They also didn’t bring Zuber McCartney. This video is all over the place. Or Anen Thordon the goalender. Thordon’s played in like two or three prospect tournaments. Maybe they had enough. I I don’t even know what the rules are of who’s eligible for these rookie tournaments cuz it’s not age cuz Michael Kunch the free agent signing out of Czecha really early in the summer. He’s 24 years old and he was able to play. Lamaru has 15 NHL games, 40 American Hockey League games. He was able to play. So maybe decisions from organization on players they want to see more of um maybe went into the decisions of their lineups. But back to the players, uh Lipkin got the most points, a goal and assist. He was pretty involved in plays. He has more offensive instincts than I think other players do, but wasn’t consistent enough. Didn’t look dynamic. Just whenever you saw a good play and his line was on the ice, he was kind of always involved around the net, around the puck, making good plays. A Gimla had a snip show of a goal. I’ll put it up right here beside me, just picking the top corner, literally a really tough angle and really small area to put that puck in past a goalender, but he makes that shot. For me, Agla, I know it’s his first games from injury, which happened in December, so it’s like nine months, and it’s his first real competitive game with referees and facing an opposition. And for me, I felt like maybe he’s holding on to the puck a little too long. He’s always looking to shoot. He’s not really a playmaker. The point of these rookie tournaments for me is just looking at the tendencies of these prospects. Not really like score, get assists, what’s your point total. like how really do you play? How will you fit in with the NHL team? And I really do think again has that shoot first mentality. Likes to shoot. Not really a playmaker. So maybe we’ll see what type of player Purka is up with the Utah Mammoths. Maybe a GIA is that sort of JJ Purka type of player. Matika had a goal, a nice spinama goal uh around the slot area. I honestly didn’t even I I think there’s a mistake on that second lineup sheet because I didn’t notice him at all in that second game. Like I’m like this guy cannot have been playing in that second game. Didn’t see him once. And even though the first game he was looking pretty good, had that goal like complete no-show for the second game. And to be honest, if someone in the comments was like, “Yeah, he didn’t actually play. It was a mistake by the reporter that he wasn’t in the lineup.” I believe you cuz like he was nowhere to be found in that second game. Michael Kun had a great shot goal in that first game against the Avalanche. He was all right. Um had a great shot but nothing really else stood out to me for a free agent signing and I really don’t have any expectations for a free agent signing from Czecha. And then I’ll just start here with the great players. I think Simv was the best player for the Utah Mammoth. I think he has poise. He’s really calm, not frantic at all. Doesn’t panic. He’s able to break up plays with his long reach. He’s pretty smart, too, in breaking up plays. The offense maybe left a lot to be desired, but you can see like when he gets the puck in the offensive zone, he’s always looking for that sort of uh, you know, gliding backwards fadeaway wrist shot against the grain on the blue line. I think that’s going to be his his trademark, but I really liked his defensive play and I think he has the poise and calmness to really be in the NHL lineup on a third pairing. I didn’t see any weaknesses in his game. He’s a very smart cookie. Knows that it’s defense first. Uh so really impressed with Simichev. Also really impressed with Gabe Smith. It is my first time seeing Gabe Smith. Giant. He’s a giant on the ice. Uh alongside Daniel Boot as well. Smith was on the third line against the first game against the Avalanche and then was promoted to the top line uh for the Vegas game. They brought Bod Duan down from first to third line. I thought he did great. He’s always in front of the net like his job like Simv where Simichev knows his role as being defense. He knows my job go to the front of the net and things will happen like zero fear in going to the front of the net. That’s going to be his office. and Utah Mammoth. They kind of need a player like that. Like Hayden is like that player that goes to the front of the net, McBain, but they could be a little bit better. You see some hesitancy on the Utah Mavage to going to the front of the net uh to screen the goalie, getting tips, getting garbage goals, but Smith, that that’s literally his play. Like that’s how he’s going to make money is just going to the front of the net. I’m going to be here. You guys do whatever you want. He doesn’t really hold on to the puck. Doesn’t really make plays. It’s just simple hockey right to the front of the net. Again, like I said, great shot, best shot on the team, probably the best skill on this roster as well. I thought this prospect tournament roster really lacked in skill, really lacked in creativity, but what they lacked in that, they were relentless on pucks. They were always on top of pucks, hounding the opposition everywhere on the ice, all three zones. like that. That’s good to see that a lot of these prospects have that same sort of thought process of I’m going after the puck using all my energy to hound pucks. But obviously, and I do agree like the creativity, the skill ceiling just wasn’t there in these two games. But again did show glimpses and had the best shot on the team. Lamaru doing a little bit too much. He’s huge as well. has that composure, breaking up a lot of twoon- ons, a lot of rush chances from the other team with his long stick like Simv using his body as well. He gained 15 lbs in the off season eating like 5,000 calories a day, but doing a little bit way too much like jumping up in the rush pretty much consistently and then getting caught or having to rely on a winger to cover him because he jumped up in the play. Just your defense, you got some amateur goalies behind you. I think the defense just really needed to play defense in this tournament. I think they were trying to do too much, especially Lamaru. Uh boot really big just like Gabe Smith. But where he differs from Smith is he holds on to the puck. He tries to make plays. He tries to goes for shots. He moves his feet a lot. Whereas Gabe Smith, it’s like strong strides and he’s not really skating around the ice. He’s just going in the front of the net and just staying there. Whereas Boots like moving around, moving his legs a lot. It looks like a giraffe on skates. Maybe a little bit too like it’s my first time seeing B play. To me, it’s watching NHL players for so long. It’s like, is he comfortable in his body? Is he too raw? Maybe he has to learn a little bit more. I’m not convinced he’ll make the NHL team right away. Maybe like 10, 15, 20 games in the American Hockey League and then it’ll get better. I just feel like maybe that’s his style. Like I could be totally wrong that that’s literally his style, but to me just a little bit more rawness to him than you know a guy like Simichev who I see zero rawness in his game. Bod the creativity is not there. Offensive instincts isn’t there, but that’s not who he is. He’s just a really great third line, fourth line center. Relentless, hard, just pursuding the puck, going to the front of the net as well. a little bit more skilled than Gabe Smith. But again, that creativity, that high ceiling skill, I just didn’t see it from Bodin. And that’s fine. I always see him as that third line center, fourth line center guy who plays hard, plays simple, and it just like permeates throughout the roster of all these players just playing really a hard nose, simple type of game. So like I liked what Bodan brought as well. for noticeable. Lipkin, like I said, he was he was over it like in plays, but like it’s it’s hard to explain. It’s great he went on the score sheet. Grady got two points, but he’s not really doing anything amazing. It’s just like when his line was on the ice, he was he was just around the puck, involved with the puck a lot. But nothing really jumped out the page to me about Lipkin that, oh, this guy’s excellent. It’s like, wow, you’re doing pretty good. And I hope you kind of bring that to the Road Runner season because his first year in the American Hockey League was a disappointment coming off two point per game seasons in the NCAA. Duda, he’s like that Rover defenseman. He’s like the smoothest skater on this team. Probably next to Simv. The way he skates, it’s so smooth. The way he controls the puck and commands the puck, has great vision as well. Just it wasn’t consist especially in that second game. I think he was great in the first game. He was a power play number one quarterback for that power play unit in the first game and then in the second game they switched him up with Simishv and then was a first line of again bod and boot and then Smith was the netront presence for power play number one. So you can see how the coaching staff um trusted Smith. But Duda I I could see him being that he’s our offensive defenseman in our prospect system. Uh maybe Lamaru is like that as well, but you know, I I think Duda is that offensive jersey type of defenseman who if he plays with some great highskilled players, I think he can make a lot of great dangerous plays in the offensive zone. Allard and Nord, just like Bodu, they’re always hard on pucks. I love their work ethic and their e work effort to go to pucks, hound pucks. Uh the I know I’m saying it all the time, just hardworking, simple, pursuiting the puck at all costs. Uh Nord and Allard really great bottom depth players to have you on your third and fourth line. Kunch had a great shot, great goal. Didn’t see really much else from him. Underwhelming Zenichko was the youngest player on this roster considering he was just drafted like 2 or 3 months ago. He was playing on the third pairing paired with Loftton or Vassin. And when you’re on third pairing D minutes, you’re not playing much. And when you have amateur trial goalies behind you, they just played a simple game, not going up for rushes, just clearing the puck out of the zone. That’s pretty much what they did. So that’s why they’re in the underwhelming category, which is fine. You could just play defense and play simple. Like that’s perfectly fine for me. Matika already talked about him how totally invisible in that Vegas Golden Knights game and I I’m pretty sure he didn’t even play in that game. Lutz had a fight. I’m always hard on Lutz. Could be a little bit better. And uh yeah, Ray talk about Vasin and Loftton. If you’re wondering, Loftton, why was he here? Because he’s a Swedish prospect. He’s signed a contract with the United States Hockey League. So he’s going from Europe to USHL and then will go to American Hockey League next season probably. That’s the same route Julian Lutz did. Went from Germany, played in the USA for one year and then went to Tucson. So that’s why Loftton was allowed, not allowed, eligible to play or wanted to play cuz he’s already in North America and he could play. His European leagues haven’t already started because he’s not in Europe anymore. He’s in North America. Vassin plays in the WHL. Zenichka, even though he’s check, plays in the WHL as well. So, don’t get mixed up there. I think it was a pretty long video. I think I covered it pretty well. Uh, really disappointing, but some bright spots. And they’ll go into training camp not with their heads held high with this fake confidence. Uh, they know they got to work. It was pretty disappointing. So, hopefully they get even better and work harder in training camp and these preeason games. That’s it for me. Thanks for watching. If you like what you see, spread the word. And as always, thank you for your

A disappointing 2 game tournament for the Utah prospects; were there any bright spots?

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