HOW GOOD IS THE HEAVIEST PROSPECT POOL IN THE NHL? | Utah Mammoth Prospect Rankings
On today’s show, we are breaking down the third best prospect pool in the entire NHL, the Utah Mammoth. Headlined by the very best defensive defenseman outside the NHL, Dmitri Simichev. You are locked on NHL prospects, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome back to Lockdown NHL Prospects, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. On this show, we break down everything prospects related for you 5 days a week, Monday through Friday. I’m your host, Sebastian Hy, the USA Scout over at Elite Prospects. And on today’s episode, we’ll be looking at the Utah Mammoth as we did a ranking series over the summertime at Elite Prospects. and we’ve been making episodes about different teams that are featured in the top end of these prospect pool rankings. And the Utah Mammoth came in third in the entire National Hockey League. So, we’ll be breaking down the ranking of the Utah Mammoth prospects uh in that article which will be linked in the description down below. And uh it is headlined by some really exciting players like Dmitri Simishv who’s just an incredibly mobile and physical playkilling force who’s going to be a great NHL piece in very very like soon in my opinion. I think it’ll be sooner rather than later. And there’s so much depth beyond him too. Whether you’re looking at physical, snarly goalcorers like Ta Ginla or really projectable two-way centers who can play great defensively and be playmaking forces like Caleb Denwi. There’s not much that you’re missing out on in this prospect pool, but there’s one thing that you get a whole bunch of and it’s size. There is a whole lot of big boys in this organizational pool. 6’6, 6’5, 6’7. basically every player is above 63 that we’re going to be looking at today. There are definitely some exceptions, but for the most part, these are really hulking players. And the ones who don’t clear the height marker, they make up for it usually in their motor, in their intensity, in the violence with which they play hockey. So, this is a prospect pool that Utah built with a very clear intention in mind. They want to be hard to play against. They want to have a lot of size, a lot of range, a lot of power, and they want to be better in the playoffs than they are in the regular season. So, I think with that idea in mind, this is certainly one of the organizations in the league that is built through the draft with the most singular target in mind. They know exactly the kind of team that they want to build. And yeah, they have dynamic pieces already in the NHL like Logan Culie and Clayton Keller and Dylan Gunther, but in terms of what’s left in the prospect pool that hasn’t graduated yet, you’re looking at a lot of big guys that are really, really bruising to play against. So, let’s just dive straight into the show here because we have a lot to talk about. We have 26 prospects, so it’ll be a bit of a quick fire, at least towards the end of the show as we go through more of the depth names, but we’ll take a little bit more time here with the big guns. Starting off at number one, we have Dimmitri Simichev. He’s huge, 6’5, 203 pounds as a left shot defenseman, and he skates with such agility and fluidity and grace. He’s wonderful to watch, just moving on the ice. doesn’t matter if he’s even doing anything out there and he’s almost always doing something out there. He is just a pleasure to watch skate around on his own. And when he gets involved, he’s able to really blend that skating with real real violence and uh and snarling. He gets involved, he finishes his checks, he smothers players into the boards to secure possession, but he’s really good at the smaller details. And this is what was what’s going to make him a very good physical player at the National Hockey League level. He has the details down. He gets underneath opponents. He ties up sticks. He’s really hard to push off when he is holding down a player’s stick or is holding on to the puck. He’s really difficult to push off that position. He’s just a solid player. But even with the puck on his stick, he’s got some really special elements. Even though the production has never really jumped off the page. I mean, he played in 56 games in the KHL last season with Locomotive Yaris Lavl and he scored six points. very pedestrian numbers, but this is a very good passer and he shows up most in the breakout. He’s constantly trying to change the his angle of release, make the first checker bite in one direction in order to go the other way. Uh, and he’s a player that I think has a bit of that gravitational pull. He’s able to draw players in and play through them, play around them. And I think that he has a lot of these elements that could make him a really solid problem solver in his own end at the National Hockey League level. Is he ever going to be dangling through defenses going end to end every single game? That’s not his style whatsoever. This is a guy who settles things down, is able to create, is able to connect passes, uh, connect plays at high speeds. He’s a very adaptable player, which is going to make him tremendous in the NHL, but don’t expect him to be your offensive driver from the back. Nonetheless, he has top pairing upside as a true shutdown piece. And I think that uh that that that Utah got a really really good value player at sixth overall back in 2023. Moving on to the 2024 first round selection, we have Tee Agla coming in at number two and this is a player that I absolutely fell in love with in his draft year as well. I am ranked fourth overall in that class. Uh he’s a player that I had above uh more established names perhaps in terms of blueliners like RTM Levinov. I think every single blueer I had underneath TJ Ginla in my rankings may have been one exception but he’s a player that really stands out for his intensity, his engagement, his non-stop motor, but more than anything what he’s able to create through that. He’s a very intelligent player, constantly scanning the ice around him, makes decisions at really rapid speeds, and he’s able to leverage them physical battles and and puck wins down low into very, very quick offensive sequences. He’s one of the best players in junior hockey, anywhere in the world, in terms of creating offthe-wall, in terms of winning battles, getting pucks to the middle of the ice fast, whether it be through pass or driving it in himself. And when he does that, he has the playmaking touch, the precision, the intelligence to find really great passes. He’s a a great playmaker. I think it’s a very projectable element of his game, but the goal scoring is even better. He drives down to the low slot. He gets to the most dangerous areas and he has an absolute arsenal of whopper releases. like this guy has a cannon of a shot and and that remains true whether it be a one-time, a snapshot, an awkward little wrist shot from an off angle. Doesn’t matter. This guy unleashes the puck with real viciousness. So, there’s so much to love with this player. I I so hope for him to stay healthy this season. He had a season ending double hip surgery, but he was so unstoppable before that point in the WHL last season, scoring 32 points in 21 games. He’s a player to watch. I think he has real top six upside and he could be the ideal player to facilitate and to be a puck winner for a guy like Logan Culie and Dylan Gunther long term. There’s so much upside with Tisha Ginla. Moving on to another top six projection and high-end first round draft pick. Caleb Dinway the 2025 first round selection. These are all top six selections drafted three years in a row going one two three here down the rankings. And Dane gives another profile entirely. This time you don’t get a winger, you don’t get a defenseman. You get a two-way center who wins faceoffs, wins battles defensively, works really hard, is a very projectable, physical guy. He gets involved. He plays with some with a real edge, but more than anything, he is able to unlock defenses through his playmaking. He does have that game-breaking offensive capability. Will he be a point of game guy in the NHL? I don’t believe so. I think you’re talking more about a 60 to 70 point second line center who just locks things down in his own is your main penalty killer uh and can just take a lot of those defensive zone draws but also has the creativity to set up players on his wings and has the physicality to create space for them down low in the offensive zone. So I think he’s a great addition to the prospect pool and adds a profile of player that they just didn’t have to date in the pool. So really great selection this year by the Utah Mammoth. Then at number four, we have another top 11 selection in the first round. This time going back to the Demetri Simichev draft in 2023. And another big Russian, Denil boot, 6’6, 216 pound right shot winger. This guy has a whole bunch of tools that NHL teams salivate over. Whether it be the rampant physicality, the ability to just make his space down low in the slot and just push defenders off, like plant himself there and not get pushed off. Has a ridiculously hard shot. Really deaf playmaker. The playmaking has grown massively since his drafty. There’s a real air of creativity and deafness and the hands just keep up so well. That blend of shot, handling, and passing is unbelievably smooth for a player this big. and he adds in also a real level of intelligence and awareness. He’s constantly scanning the ice around him and he’s also really started to explore more creative uh incursions with the puck on his stick. So, in terms of IQ and puck skills, there’s not much that you can really fault Denil Denil boot on. And even though his skating is a little bit subpar, which you would expect for a player of this frame, he has every other asset. And the skating I don’t think is is anywhere near a big enough liability to pull him down from how high his tools are going to let him rise into the NHL. He has real second lineup side. I think we’re talking more of a middle six projection than a pure top six, but he has so many uh technical abilities that he’s just going to be a real fun player to watch in the National Hockey League. At number five, we have another hulking frame. Nothing new here. 6’7 Maverick Lamour played a really good season last year, 42 games in the AHL in Tucson and then also got into 15 matches with Utah uh in the NHL scoring a goal and three points in that span. This is a guy that has really really nice number four number five shutdown defenseman upside. He’s incredibly physical. He’s inc so difficult to push off of his position. He gets involved. He’s really, really engaged. He is not one of these big guys that that doesn’t show his physicality. He shows it every single shift. He layers in cross checks. He makes himself difficult to play against. He brings a real fluidity in the way he moves around the ice. There’s definitely still some drawbacks at his size with how he moves, but his edge work, the agility for his frame are real, real real strengths. And on top of that, this is also a guy that’s gotten a lot more comfortable in terms of connecting sequences in the neutral and offensive zones, activating up the weak side along the the boards and just connecting with quick little passes. Uh definitely I still think that handling and passing are his biggest weaknesses, but this guy has bottom pairing piece written all over him. Then to wrap up this first segment, we have a projected starting net minder in Michael Prabell, who’s been playing some fantastic hockey at UMass in the NCAA. Uh last season, he got into 36 games, put up a 924 save percentage, and he just moves so well. And guess what? He’s also 6’7. He takes up a massive amount of the net. He stands tall in his crease. I think the skating is something that is probably an above average projection, but is not the strongest piece of his toolkit at that size as well. His edge work could use a little bit of improvement and he can like push off his back his back foot a little bit much and slide back at times, but still this is a net minder with a lot of confidence. He’s he has a really good uh vision for the puck and the the puck tracking is obviously supported by that size as well, being able to look above the other players on the ice, but he’s had a really upward trajectory since being drafted. And hopefully that just keeps on going here for Utah. And even though he doesn’t have the maybe elite net minder upside, he could be a more than serviceable starter at the National Hockey League level. Then uh at number seven, I lie, we have one more player before the break. We have Cole Bedwain. A really easy player to fall in love with. He is all intensity, all physicality. 6’2, 209 pounds as a defensive center. He has a decent shot, has decent passing, but it’s more play connecting than play making really. You’re not going to want him to be your offensive falcrum on his line, but he will be the ideal guy to lock down a pair of more creative wingers who bring a bit more speed than he’s able to. But what he does very refined to two-way habits, constantly scanning, constantly kind of, if we’re taking a turn from soccer, rest defense habits in terms of even when he’s playing off on the offense and he has the puck or his team has the puck, he’s always looking for where he has to be to also mitigate chances going back the other way. So, a very responsible player who plays with constant intensity, rampant physicality, and is a serial serial faceoff winner. He’s a possession monster. So, in terms of 3C projection or luxury 4C projection, this guy is a fantastic piece to have and every single team in the National Hockey League should be jealous of this guy in the system. That wraps things up though for the first segment. In the next one, we’re going to keep things going with players that we have ranked 8 through 17 in our rankings at Elite Prospects. But first, a quick message from our sponsors here at Locked On NHL Prospects. The NFL season is here and FanDuel is making sure that you’re ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and if your bet wins, you’ll get 300 bucks in bonus bets to use across the app. I love using Fandal because it fits however you like to bet. Player props, building same game parlays, or even jumping into the action live as it’s unfolding in front of you. I personally love same game parlays the most. They’re the absolute best way to pump up the excitement and combine different expectations of what’s going to happen in a given game and to just be clinging to the edge of your seat as you’re watching the game on your TV in the living room. So, are you ready to play? Download the FanDuel app right now by visiting fanduel.com to get started. That’s fanduel.com to place your first $5 bet. All right, let’s keep things going here in the second segment as we kick things off with another very recent and very large draft selection. It’s Max Tenitzka this time who was a second round pick here in 2025, just a couple months ago. and he’s a six foot 585 pound right shot defenseman and I loved this pick and it was also an incredibly Utah player to pick in that range of the draft. He brings incredibly projectable physical habits. He’s a big guy. He knows how to use it and he’s still filling out his frame. So, you can expect his physical effectiveness to only get better as the years go on. But he brings so much more than just that to the equation. He’s a really intelligent and opportunistic player. a sense of timing of when to close his gaps and close down opponents, when to maybe play it a bit more safe and just angle dynamic wingers into the boards, try to smother out the play there instead. This guy has a lot of fine-tuning in those habits. But I think that on top of that, you also have a level of layered intelligence in his onpuck involvement as well. This is a a guy who’s really able to sell a first fake pass in order to go cross ice the other direction. I think that the passing game in transition, especially in the breakout, is something that could be honed into a real element of strength in Senita’s game down the line. And there’s definitely still room to kind of like iron out some miscues. And um and especially in terms of defending multivariable situations when there’s only one threat, he’s really good at just closing that down. But when he has to balance risks of multiple players coming in and being in threatening areas, there’s still definitely some poor decision-m in those qualities. So, he’s going to refine. He’s going to mature uh as time goes on here in the coming seasons. But the progression he showed going from uh playing in Czecha at the in the first half of last season to then just playing half an hour a night with the Portland Winderhawks in the WHL at year’s end. really really great um progression for him and he skates so well for his size. There’s a lot to love here with Senitka. Then at number nine, we have a big German defenseman in Maxameleian Zuber uh who is 6’3, 201 uh and played a really solid year in Tucson this uh this past season. 32 points in 65 games. Also got into six games for Germany at the World Championships. The clock’s ticking a little bit with Sub. He’s on the older side of this prospect pool as an O2 born player. That’s my birth year. He’s still younger than me by a little bit by a couple months, but makes me feel a little bit old considering that the Alex year was uh the theoretically my draft year. Not that I was ever anywhere near to even uh playing hockey competitively, let alone being a a draft eligible player. But uh but yeah, so Zuber is the first of two back-to-back Germans here that we have on the board. And he’s just a very mature, physically involved, simple, straightforward defenseman. I think he’s a very straightforward bottom pairing projection to the National Hockey League level. He doesn’t over complicate things. He doesn’t try to do too much with the puck on his stick. He knows his limitations quite well and he just tries to keep play to the outside, protect the inner slot. Uh really tries to like just smother out the dangerous chances and and settle for the the more peripheral ones where he trusts his net minder uh to keep him covered. and he has a lot of pro uh pro ready habits in terms of his physicality, his involvement, his timing of when he does get involved as well. So very interesting player there. At number 10, we have another German in Julian Lutz who’s a 6’2 194 pound checking winger. He’s very very intense as well. He also played in Tucson this previous season where he got 13 points in 47 games. His motor is just never never ending. He’s a really good skater and that blend of intensity and speed is one that’s suffocating on the forche especially. I don’t think he necessarily has the the toolkit to be a a top nine staple um with the the other players in the system here in Utah, but as a bottom six checker that can move up the lineup to insulate more softskilled players. Uh, I think that he’s a great player to have in the system and is probably only like maybe two years out from being a a reliable piece there in the National Hockey League. Then at 11, we have Sam Lipkin, who again, another Tucson Road Runner. We got quite a few players that are in that age category around 23, 22 years of age in the in the AHL that are really making their mark in pro hockey at this point. And Lipkin scored 10 goals and 15 points in 56 games last season. and uh he’s a player that uh really has a decent amount of playmaking chops, but I think that is really his tenacity that that that makes him tick. And he’s probably another guy like Lutz that’s going to be a a checker more than anything if he does crack the NHL. At number 12, we have Gabe Smith, a 6’5, 207b left shot center, uh who played with the Monton Wildcats alongside Caleb Dwayi this past season, scoring 20 goals and 39 points. and he’s just a guy with rampant physicality. It’s all physical with this guy. He’s constantly seeking out contact, trying to get in, trying to make life miserable for his opponents. Uh, and he has a decently powerful mid-range shot as well. He just like uh puts all the strength into it and whips whips pucks at the net. He’s not not the most like refined mechanically goal scorer either, and he relies on a little bit more space than he will likely get in professional hockey to get his shots off. But in terms of a projectable netfront presence who’s just a physical monster more than anything else, I think Gabe Smith has a shot at a fourthline role in the NHL someday, maybe in that Brian Bole capacity. Then at 13, we have Jonathan Castana, a 6’2, 203 pound left shot center from Cornell University. Got 15 points in 32 games there last season, and he’s a really speedy player. I watched him a decent amount in uh in the research process as well for this article series and uh his skating was really the thing that impressed me every single shift. He’s really involved, really pacy. He uses his skating to get to the middle of the play and that motor really translates to a a dangerous game in transition, an effective transition game defensively as well. He gets back effectively on the back check and is just overall quite disruptive. And I think that combination of speed and disruptive habits and motor could certainly elevate him to a fourthline role in the NHL in the future. Then we have an Austrian left shot defenseman in Gregor Ba in Gregor Bieber at 6’3 196 pounds. Uh he’s a left shot playing uh in the SHL in a great development system with regular uh last season after being drafted by uh the Utah Mammoth. And uh he’s a guy that I mean three points in 50 games kind of paints the picture. He’s a physical defensive defenseman. He keeps his on puck game simple. He defers to his uh his teammates to kind of create what the puck on their sticks and he is just perfectly content um being disruptive in his own end killing plays very effectively uh and just being aggressive against the rush. He steps up. Um I think the mobility is is about average with this player. He’s able to move around the ice with quite decent fluidity, but maybe that like um recovery speed when he does get beat is missing a little bit. At 15, we have a winger Vadim Morose, a 6’2, 183 pound right shot playing in the KHL with Damo Minsk last season and he scored 26 goals and 44 points there as an 03 born player. So, uh he is is turning 22 here in November. very great produ production for a player that young in the KHL and he was an integral part of that playoff run as well in Minsk. Uh so he was fourth on the team in regular season scoring and overall he’s a physical netfront scoreer that has a bottom six NHL uh potential. the skating holds him back a little bit from creating in transition, but he has a really good shot and that those those physical habits of just winning his space in tight, pushing off opponents, popping out of congested areas at the right moments to receive a pass. These are all habits that he’s been building very effectively in the KHL. Then at 16 to wrap up this second segment, we’ve got Will Scan, another very physical player. Again, nothing new here. 6’4″, 216 pounds. This guy is a heat-seeking missile for contact and physical involvement. He leaves his mark and he leaves bruises on almost every single shift. And he balances aggressiveness without compromising his position or getting drawn into easily. And I think that’s a really important asset for a player like him who is just so physical but doesn’t have the above average mobility to recover necessarily and make up the the the lack of explosiveness that players at that size have when they just have to lug around so much weight on the ice. But he has the potential to be a really capable and reliable third pairing play killer. Um and he’s been just chugging along nicely in his development there at Boston College this previous year. But that wraps things up here for the second segment in the final one. We’re going to wrap up the show with the last couple names. But first, a quick message from our sponsors here at Locked On NHL Prospects. All right, let’s wrap up this show here in the final segment. Kicking things off at number 17 in the Utah Mammoth prospect pool, Artium Duda, a left job defenseman who stands at 6’1 and 187 pounds, who’s had a very interesting um kind of career trajectory and leagues that he’s been playing in. Last season he was uh playing in the AHL, his first professional campaign with the Tucson Road Runners. He got six goals in 29 points in 70 games. was actually given decent deployment there throughout the season. But the year prior, sandwiched between seasons in the AHL and KHL, he played in you sports with uh Toronto Metro University in Canada. Very odd, very a strange choice. He only played 12 games that season. Um but I think that he’s a player that suffered a little bit from just bouncing around the leagues and not really finding up until this past season an environment that he’s been able to really settle in. but he has a good combination of mobility, handling, and puck moving skill. He’s a guy that he can also be quite disruptive on the penalty kill, which he showed a lot more later on in the season. He has some NHL caliber tools, but the question is, are they going to be able to kind of crystallize together into one cohesive package in time before kind of the clock gets ticking on on his NHL future? But uh he seemed to really rebound quite nicely this past season and he’s projecting a lot better now than he was a year ago in my view. At number 18, another big defenseman, Tom Lavois out of the JHL and the Cape Breton Eagles. 6’4, 216 pounds. You know the drill here with Utah at this point in the episode. He’s a guy whose production just absolutely exploded last season. In his draft year, he was an allout physical play killer. wasn’t really getting too involved on the offensive side of the puck, but he really really got so much more involved and as a big right shot defenseman with offensive involvement and crushing physicality in his own end. He was one of the more dominant players in the QM JHL last season. He’s a guy that was just activating a lot more frequently in the offensive zone, trying to connect on plays, trying to also explore his toolkit and allowing himself to make mistakes on puck. But he found himself making mistakes while trying to create something rather than being caught in hesitation. And I think that’s a really important place to be in in terms of of learning and being active uh in terms of developing proactively. So to my love was a very interesting player and he has a number four defenseman upside. So maybe should have even ended up a little bit higher on the board here for us because he had a fantastic year this previous campaign. At number 19, we have Melkerthine. Uh 6’276 pound left catching net minder who played in hockey this previous season. Uh he’s two years out from being drafted and uh and he put up a 9008 save percentage in 23 games last season. He’s kind of a whatif net minder because the skating is really quite uh below average. Um, and and overall I think that there’s definitely still a lot of room for physical tweaking and improvement with Feline, but he has a bit of that it factor when he get kind of gets going, he gains his momentum. He’s a really, really hot net minder. Like he’s a bit streaky, but when he’s on his hot streaks, he really is impressive. At number 20, we have Matthew Mortyn, a big 6’4 left shot defenseman who played with Harvard this past year. and he’s uh not your typical big looming defenseman. He has some nice flashes uh of of passing and springing plays out of the defensive zone, but he just hasn’t been able to unlock the offense through two years at the college level. He’s probably going to have to do that in order to really project um above the other big left shot defenseman in this system that are all going to be vying for that third pair role down the line in Utah. but he has the physical frame, he has the physical involvement, and he has some decent intuition as well in his own end in terms of his defensive positioning that I think stands out amongst the group here. Then we have Ilia Fett, a right shot winger from Russia, 6’1, 172 pound, a real dwarf among this prospect pool in terms of frame, and he was playing in the KHL this past year with HK Sochi, and he’s still very physically involved. So, as we’re saying, even the guys that aren’t the biggest in terms of just the metrics, they bring the intensity. They bring the snarl. They got that dog in them. I don’t think there’s a single player in this prospect pool that ain’t got that dog in them. They’ve all got it. So, that’s very much the the vibe that uh that that Utah, not Arizona, Utah is going for in their uh in their team construction here. And I think with Fedatov, you have a player that can create in flashes, but he just hasn’t been able to to really find his foothold as a creator at the KHL level just yet. And as a 23, sorry, 22 year old, he has maybe two, three more years to figure things out and put his tools together, but the clock is ticking slowly here. Then we have at number 22, Ludvig Jansen, a very favorite of um one of our new scouts at Elite Prospect, Seth Ditchfield, who did take the lead on this Utah article as it is his team. Uh and Ludvig Jansson’s a player that is just very hard to miss, not because of the plays that he makes, but because of the confidence with which he makes them. He’s a great skater. Real great mobility, the playmaking, the the the passing ability at speed in motion mid handle. Really, really impressive stuff. He loves to quarterback at the blue line, take control of a power play, really try to like make defenders bite, commit one direction in order to switch play to the other side of the ice. and uh he has a lot of these aspects while still being quite solid on his feet, difficult to play against, but it’s with the puck on his stick that he really sets himself apart from the other blue liners in this pool. At number 23, we have BT Visonin. Another 6 foot 190lb left shot defenseman. And he’s another guy who’s more of a puck mover than a play killer. Uh but he’s definitely a a thoughtful open ice defender. He’s intelligent. He makes the right decisions at the right times and he’s just disruptive with his stick. He doesn’t get involved physically too too much, but he’s he skates at a well above average level and he uses that to just steal space and time away from opponents. At 22 24, sorry, we have Voytech Radits, uh, a six foot, 201 pound left shot center, drafted a year ago by the Utah hockey club and he played in the Czech Pro League this past year uh, with Mlada Bolis in uh, in Czecha scoring 12 points in 37 games. He played a really big role on that team logging heavy minutes in the Czech extra lia and uh he excelled on the international stage as well at the world junior championships for Czecha. He put up four goals and eight points in seven games and he projects as a really effective defensively minded center who brings just rampant physicality. He’s very disruptive with with his physical engagement. I feel like I’ve said the word physical 10,000 times so far this episode, but there really is no other word or term that encapsulates this prospect pool anywhere near as effectively. Uh, and he’s like, Harats is going to need to really refine his skating and his tools. Like he’s basically below average as a skater, shooter, passer, and handler, but he just makes his mark as being disruptive, high motor, physically engaged. He’s going to have to work on those tools a little bit to refine them to, I think, keep up with the NHL pace, but if he can, he’s got fourth line upside. At number 25, we have Tanner Lucky. Another player that I researched in preparation for this article article series, and he’s another averagesized player down the depth chart here in the pool at 6 feet and 185 pounds. and he uh had a a really heartbreaking campaign this previous season as he only got into eight games before a season ending injury, but he scored two points. But he was expected to really take on a lot of the offensive burden uh with Nebraska Omaha, but instead this season he’s transferring to the University of Minnesota as he’s a very very strong team. he should settle in their middle six as a an effective play connector, but he’s a guy who’s just he can constantly facilitates play for the guys around them. He makes their lives easier. He takes supportive offpuck roots. He’s constantly reading the flow of the game and adjusting to it. He’s very much a a cerebral player and I think that gives him some bottom six potential in the NHL, but he’s got to stay healthy and he’s got to maybe up the ante a little bit in his skating and physicality to keep up. Last but certainly not least in the prospect rankings here for the Utah Mammoth, we have Noel Nord, a hardworking winger who stands at 6’2 and 198 pounds. And he made an immediate impact as he transferred to the OHL last season with the Sue Greyhounds, scoring 21 goals and 52 points in 47 games. He’s not the biggest playmaker or dynamic threat, but he’s got a good shot. He drives the middle the middle of the ice, crashes for rebounds. He’s not the most like pretty player to watch, but he’s certainly direct and he’s very effective. I think he’s going to have to up the ante a little bit in terms of his ability to play inside contact because he’s going to likely be a checker in the NHL if he cracks it. But he definitely has a couple tools to be excited about. But that wraps things up here for the show today. I’d love to hear from you, especially if you are a Utah fan. What are your thoughts about the future of this organization, especially the the the strength of the prospect pool itself? I think so many of the most exciting pieces have already graduated to the National Hockey League, but there’s still so much to be excited for in this pool as evidenced by the fact that that they’re ranked third among all 32 teams in terms of the system. But I do find that that’s the top end of the pool does a lot of heavy lifting. As soon as we got to like the 10 11 range in the rankings, we’re almost exclusively talking about fourth line and third pairing projections. But I’d love to hear again your thoughts. Who did we have too high? Who did we have too low? Let me know in the comments down below. But that wraps things up here for the show today. For your next listen, go and check out uh NHL Fantasy Hockey as Flip and Steel breakdown everything that you need to know to build yourself a competitive and sustainable fantasy lineup. That’s everything. Thanks so much for listening. and I’ll catch you tuning in again very very soon.
The Utah organization has approached the previous three drafts with very clear goals in mind: get bigger and play hard. With one of the best Top-5 prospect collections in the league, the Mammoth have play-killers and game-breakers alike, and they all relish the physical game. From Dmitri Simashev to Tij Iginla and Daniil But, there’s no shortage of young, toolsy talent on the shores of Great Salt Lake.
Elite Prospects Ranking Article: https://www.eliteprospects.com/news/prospect-pool-rankings/elite-prospects-2025-nhl-prospect-pool-rankings-no-3-ranked-utah-mammoth
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