The KSL Sports Zone NHL Draft Roundtable Show | June 27, 2025
the Utah Mammoth push to the playoffs begins tonight you’re locked on the Utah Mammoth NHL Draft Night Roundtable show on 975 the KSL Sports Zone
all right everybody welcome on in it’s officially our NHL draft roundt special right here 975 KSL Sports Zone alex Cury Jeremiah Jensen we’re going to be carrying you up all the way through seven o’clock and uh we’re going to keep going as long as this uh Utah Mammoth team is uh looking to make some moves last year at this time there was some movement this team obviously made a couple of waves and they made some moves around to make sure they got Tigla what does the 2025 draft hold for this team who has so much more on the table when it comes to what their goals are going to be featuring for that 2025 2026 season the Mammoth are poised to be that team not just on the cusp of the playoffs they’re hoping to make that push and what does that turn into the possibility of a championship window that could open up over the next few seasons that’s at least what they’re hoping that’s what you plan for and the top brass for this Utah Mammoth team are of course uh heavily steeped in all of the draft coverage and what they’re going to be able to do to make sure that they get you uh a team here on the ice across the street at Delta Center that is going to be not just competitive not just a fun team to watch but also one that’s going to be in those Stanley Cup playoffs it’s a playoffs are bust kind of a feel for this team now it’s been the developmental side of things uh but now it’s the reality of how far have those developments brought you as a team jj we’ve talked about this a lot uh we’ve talked so much about how this team has tried to do so much in the off seasons in the drafts in their trades you saw of course this week uh to be able to pull off the trade that they did to fleece this Buffalo Sabres team uh I mean come on
oh my
that’s the way it felt
was their GM drunk i listen serious when the when the trade kept coming down when all the when all the rumors were happening it was like yeah but there there’s still something there’s a contingency still in here
was like oh they want the number four overall pick what that was was maybe some other draft picks maybe some other thing and it was almost like you you you already got from from the team I don’t know what the negotiations looked like uh but I think that to be able to pull off the trade that they did it’s not fun to send off Josh Don it’s not fun to be able to send off uh Michael Kessle ring those are guys that people here in state Utah really started to like but this is the this is the nature of it but they’ve added another really really young prospect and and obviously when you’ve got a guy who’s already scoring almost 60 points uh a season that fits right along with what you’ve already got you needed that that top six to be able to put on the ice and man it’s a young group and I just think that that the opportunity this team has tonight they’re sitting in a in a really really good spot the proverbial hockey catbird seat to make those picks joining us tonight Kevin McCloskey uh he is the GM of the Utah Outliers he’s also a former NHL draft pick himself he’s also a guy who knows a few things about hockey he brought his uh his signature uh folder that he brings and uh he’s going to have a First of all Kevin thanks for joining us for round for year two of the NHL draft we did this for seven hours last year let’s pray to the hockey gods we don’t have to do it for another seven uh this year well at least it’s uh air conditioned today yay
last year we were outside it was about 119 degrees it was crispy
and uh and here we are for for round two
not hockey weather last year for the draft for
Jay Stevens uh Utah Puck Report also joining us here in the studio as well jay thanks for being with us man it’s a it’s a good day to uh to follow the mammoth
yeah I’m excited to be here uh last year I was with you guys but from Vegas doing the draft that was a lot of fun
hey look uh
kind of kind of wish it was there every year to become They had a thing i thought that was like the best possible solution
so this year LA right and isn’t that what we’re
Yes la and it’s like they only brought the top 60 players they didn’t want scouts they didn’t want I vote for the sphere every year
agree agree the sphere was it’s because of the vibe that was there it’s because of the energy that was around it and uh
yeah obviously you’re one and I think wasn’t it uh did did Ryan Smith get booed when they walked up there for the first time too it was something weird like that what are you booing for i haven’t done anything yet
hey she’s wearing his Gary Bman uh Halloween mask
that’s probably what it was that’s where the booze will come out is when you start uh shaking hands and and hugging the uh the commissioner but uh you guys right off the bat this is a team that this this Utah team of course has a lot going on for it and youth is the name of the game uh for these guys and speaking of youth you help develop a lot of young players Kevin and when you watch teams put guys out on the ice it’s a gamble but you try to make it the least amount of a gamble as possible you want to get these guys developed as much as possible and that’s what this team is doing and they’re getting a lot of young scorers on the ice for him
it is so hard for Bill Armstrong and any NHL general manager staff scouting staffs to project an 18year-old young man where he’s going to be at 25 23 it’s just darn near impossible obviously you have kids that uh that develop early they grow early but do they really continue and and listen it all evens out in the end and some are better than others but it’s a hard thing to do to predict 18-year-olds it really is yeah
i was I was looking at the the JJ Purka news this week and and we were and we were over the moon about it because everybody the consensus was that uh hey they they got a great deal out of this thing and you never love to give up big names yet at the same time you’re getting a bigger name back and you’re getting a guy who’s got a lot of upside jay when you saw this I heard you talking a little bit about how you may have thought like that that the that the that the Mammoth may have gotten uh not as much for their for their uh for their buck as they thought but I think overall that have you changed your mind over the past couple days about JJ Purka and maybe how this trade went down
yeah 100% and and it wasn’t that I was saying I I just thought it was a steep price to pay because we don’t know the full potential of Josh Don yet with with Kessle Ring i was I I you know we’ve seen what he can do and we know what he can do i think Josh Don has a big upside i know Purka does and he’s only 23
they’re the same age
they’re two weeks apart in in age yeah
and that’s what’s amazing to me is that to bring him in so when you trade a 23-y old for a 23 year old and and then throw in Kessle ring basically and I thought when they were talking about the contingency I’m like are they looking at somebody on our roster that has a no trade so then I started getting a little bit nervous looking to see who we had that had a no trade but no when it when it all when it all washed out and you see Purka and what he what he can do and imagine him I don’t know if you’ve looked at the highlights of him but on the right side and Gunther on the left side and Keller setting those two up on a power play unit that finally gives us that scoring touch that we missed last year that because our power play was so predictable so I’ve come I I was on board i think maybe the fandom got me a little bit because I you know I was at the locker room every day i really like Josh Dolan like there
you knew those guys yeah
yeah he is a he is as quality person and Kessle Ring as well as you can get and I think that kind of culture sometimes goes further than talent when you can get when you can get that winning culture in a locker room like that and Kevin you can attest to this more than anybody
so important like it it beats talent if you have guys that love to work and love each other and go out there and battle all the time you have what you need to go far in the playoffs and it’s that I’ll die beside you mentality that is is hard to get and those guys had it but you know I haven’t met Burka yet but I’m excited about them i think the Burka trade for me was a signal that Bill Armstrong is ready to be aggressive this off seasonason they mean business like last year they had TJ Gila they took him in the draft they they added you know obviously we know how big of an impact that they made with the trademark it last year and completely reformed the back line and and gave themselves a star in Sichev that they desperately needed now they’re going all in that we’re going to make the playoffs next year we’re going to be a factor in this league that’s at least the sign that I got from that move and and what we’re going about to see tonight is the next step in that
part of that trade and it didn’t make the footnotes I think happened several weeks ago when Bill Armstrong and the Mammoth signed
uh bot and and Simichev
yes
6’5 he’s 20 he’s already played 145 or 50 games in the KHL which is every bit as good as the American League that kid appears to be NHL ready he steps in as a number six right away so they don’t miss Kessle Ring at all
right
oh here we go oh okay and uh so I think that signing several weeks ago had a lot to do with making that deal and the availability to move Kessle Ring
uh we saw that obviously the defense side of things for this Mammoth club got to be crowded right but it’s also it’s a good thing to have because you’ve got massive guys who are coming in uh both Simichev and Boot are big bodies that are going to come in and uh they’re hoping can make an impact very very quickly but that does you’re exactly right Kevin i think that part of it is is that when you have those things start to come down and they start to signal like hey these are going to be our this this is our these are our Dmen these are the guys that we want to build a future around from the defensive side of things then maybe other defensive guys become a little bit more expendable but but more importantly you’re adding to the scoring that you that this team that everybody looked at and said “Hey yeah you you you’ve got some great hot shots that are young that are going to be really really good on this team you might need to add something else.” And and and you know I think what what doesn’t help as we go to the first pick of the NHL draft right now let’s go right to the podium in Los Angeles let’s take a listen with the first overall selection in the 2025 NHL draft the New York Islanders are proud to select from the Eerie Oddters Matthew Schaefer most great hockey players come from
All right Schaefer not a surprise to go first he was the odds on favorite uh speaking of Eerie Otter uh Conor McDavid also part of that lineage of uh of of Eerie Otter of that same that same group um I love all the by the way I love all the junior teams and their and their names and nicknames and stuff i was thinking about too because it’s at some point Trevor uh Trevor Lewis who was on here with us was a De Mo Buccaneer and I thought no weirder place to have Pirates than in De Mo Iowa
how do I get one of those hats
oh they’re there they are out there and that’s going to be my next move no but uh this wasn’t the super talent that we’ve seen the last couple of years like in a Connor Bard and a Min Cabrini but this is a guy that everybody looks at and says “No if if he goes to the right team he could be playing immediately.” Does he play pretty quickly for this Islander team that picked first
well they just traded Noah Dobson a couple hours ago to Montreal so I think that was a clear indication that he’s going to be there next year and he he didn’t play past the World Juniors he got hurt in the World Juniors and missed the rest of the year you played like 20 games this year
crazy so that hurts him in his development that kid can freaking skate he can flat out fly he’s a big strong body left D and he can skate so uh be interesting to see if he sticks it’s tough as an 18-year-old in this league
so when you’re 18 and they put you on the ice in year one and you’re you know 18 turning 19 uh what are the biggest things that are that are the toughest thing to develop on an NHL sheet of ice
strength just you’re playing against men they can knock you they can whack you with a backhand and you go flying into the boards it’s strength
and speed of skating I would assume is also part of that like you just people are at a different level skaters don’t they don’t miss in this league
and you’re playing against the best of the best of the best and they’ve got experience and they’ve got more patience than you’re used to so you think yeah it’s it’s going to be super fast but then these guys pull patient moves that you don’t see in juniors and then yeah you’re you’re playing you’re 18 and you’re you’re you’re dominating at juniors and then the next year you’re in the NHL and you’re 30 pounds lighter than everybody else and it’s getting whacked
it’s a whole Bernard he had a rough go this year
this kid’s bigger though
the the more they talk about you before you get drafted the more the more the guys want to welcome you to the NHL well and we were talking about how you know these these initial contracts that they get as rookies this is not NBA or NFL money that this is a max $950,000 salary uh and then some bonuses that come that come with that as well and so these guys are coming in and all these teams are rolling the dice even on on a pick in a draft like this you’re rolling the dice on on a guy like like him because you don’t know what Schaefer is going to look like in five years i don’t know when the peak is what’s like a peak age uh for what you see in the league this year is it 22 is it 24 what’s like when guys when GMs look and go that’s when you should be if you come into the league and you start playing when you’re 19 or 20 what’s the peak is that what it is
27 is what most GMs look at i know that’s what Bill Armstrong looks at um Kevin
you could be eight years in the league by then if you start at 18 this kid will be 26 it’ be his eighth year in the league
yeah look at Keller i mean it’s
And that’s kind of where he’s at that’s what I was going to ask is that that’s his age group and is so are we seeing kind of where he’s at and obviously a 90point year for him uh in in the development that he’s had this team obviously looks at him he’s got the C on the on the sweater there’s a reason for that
i was sitting at the Air Force Academy last weekend with a guy named Doug Schmail same birth year as me 19
I forgot I forgot that we talk about everything in birth years with Kevin 1957 played about 1100 games in the NHL and we talked about when does a player we talk about when do they peak when do they start to decline he felt in his career he started to decline at 29 and he played 16 years
has that changed in the 2025 2026
travel air air travel food training but still
it’s tough like to be 35 36 to keep up with the speed against you know the McDavids of the world in their peak as Jay said
uh as we’re looking at it
cool yeah I’m watching the uh the draft right now and Schaefer just went up they have the way the draft set up is is the the teams remotely and so they’re up on the screen and the the front office is talking to Schaefer right now and he’s just balling
like he’s just in tears
that kid’s been through a lot of challenges lately three deaths in his family
oh you got to be kidding his mom
died of cancer and then his billet mom died of cancer right after I saw
his billet mom died first his mom died two months later and he went back like a month later and the owner of the eerie otter died
oh my goodness
so that kid he and he said all along Jay and I know you’ve been reading a lot up on on on the Schaefer kit here but he said he knows his mom’s with him and it’s going to be a really emotional deal when they call his name
it sure was i mean he’s just he just he’s balling it’s pretty cool to see you realize just how important this is um moving forward now um the Sharks are on the clock and now we begin a run of possibly six straight centers kevin why is the center position so valued at the top of the draft
well it’s the middle of the ice right i think if you’re big on the back end I like 6’5 that they’re going to move into the lineup and you’re big down the middle like look at Barov barov blocks shots he’s 6’2 63 he’s a big man big down the middle and big on the back end and obviously big goalies is a big deal Jay
yeah yeah yeah like if you’re not a 6’5 goalender they’re not even looking at you anymore even if you’re even if you’re phenomenal 5’11 go like the the Avalanche have a kid in their system that was here Trent Miner phenomenal goalender set
undersized
yeah he’s undersized that’s what everybody says about him
dustin Wolf though Calgary i was going to say the Calgary kid’s a little bit shorter right undersized goalie but one of the best goalies in the league and one of the best athletes in the league
his skating ability is
Anaheim’s got a goalie in Docsel
oh yeah
that that kid can play and he’s six feet
speaking of goalies I know that the that the Mammoth the qu one of the big question marks is is who’s that backup goalie going to be for this team next year you have to wonder about what the what the situation is with Connor Ingram but also the team has to look toward either the road runners obviously or where they or they have to start looking around what does that look like in terms of development do they draft and how high do people draft uh goalenders who are who are really really good goalenders
goenders don’t typically go very high in the draft mark Andre Flurry you know was was an exception goalies take a little longer to develop um it’s it’s such a mental game as well it takes longer for them to mature and you you see goalies you know you’ll see second round but you’ll see fourthly fourth round goalies and the craziest thing this craziest statistic about goalenders is how many of them get drafted that actually play for the team that drafted them
it’s it’s like below 50% way below 50% it’s around 35%
so you you draft a kid you bring him in you you let him play in your minors you let him finish his junior career
and then you trade him for somebody else before you really get a look at him in your system look at uh the trade they got uh Seth Jones for they they gave up uh who’s their backup this year they sent first round pick been in the system for four or five years
knight
spencer Knight spencer Knight yeah
off to Chicago what’s his birth year uh Kevin is a 99 spencer is a 98
uh I always love it now we haven’t talked about how I mean the lottery itself ended up breaking so well for this Mammoth Club because you had the and for the Islanders frankly at that point too you had the Islanders picking first and they shouldn’t have been there they’re the uh they’re the they’re the Mavericks version of the NHL and imagine if they can trade up and get Hagens here in a minute
right and then here’s the thing too is this is what they’re trying to do
you’ve got San Jose and Chicago who have been your number one picks the last two seasons san Jose last year Chicago the year before that uh and then Utah picks fourth
in terms of value what did they win on that lottery night in terms of value uh being in the fourth pick because even if people say “Well it’s not the it’s not the heavy draft that we’ve seen in years past regardless the fourth pick is very very valuable.” And they and they they ping pong ball their way right into it and that’s a that’s a massive uh bit of value for for Bill Armstrong to be able to uh for to be able to for him to be able to get i know we’re a couple of moments away from the from the San Jose Sharks to get their pick but uh what does that value at four look like for this Utah Mammoth club
the 39th pick in this draft is going to be in the Hall of Fame they just don’t know where these kids are going to prod that’s my point a little sarcasm you just don’t know how it works you know yeah
so I think it’s valuable more than 14 by a country mile but you just don’t know with these kids it’s so hard
i think anytime you’re drafting top five you’re you’re expecting that kid to really compete to make the roster that year
and when you’re drafting past that you’re expecting that kid to go back to juniors and then play in the A like you you know that he’s going to be part of your team just like what they did with Trevor like he was just talking about on on the show a second ago is they drafted him and then you you he was with the Buccaneers but then they sent him to the Owen Sound if you want to the or the Owen the Owens Sound attack if you want to get another cool hat
and uh
I’m taking a list right now
it’s a small rink
yeah so anyway that’s the difference is you expect you expect a top five pick to really potentially make your roster this year especially if you bring in a big body like we’re hoping the Mammoth do uh you’re looking for uh this San Jose Sharks team who are next up on the board and their pick is in they’re going to be walking to the podium boy these nervous 18year-olds it’s just so hard to watch
i think we already know who this is going to be
i and and and I think that for the for the most part Misa is like the is the odds on favorite right there what’s interesting is is that all the experts at three and four they have Deno Denoy Dino
and uh and then Fondell i think those are the two names that you’re wondering who’s going to be there for this uh for this Utah club but
Kevin and I were just arguing about this
i love Fondell i saw him play six weeks ago in Dallas at the U8 Worlds and that kid’s a player
he plays in all he’s a 200oot player he’s strong he’s big he hits he finishes checks i’m hoping he falls to four and then we’ll see if Bill agrees with me
uh my uh my Everett Silver tips out of the WHL they’ve they’ve got a guy in there and his last name is Bear i think that might be a good fit somewhere now he’s a little further down the draft order but a football player
i know listen
get him in the second round
any bear ties we have we’ll uh we’ll always kind of go to those is uh so you’ve got San Jose at two you’ve got Chicago at three and then Utah waiting for that first uh pick of the of the first round for them which is going to be pick number four what do they do with it everybody talks about how many trades happen on on draft day itself i never know what it’s going to be there’s a lot of smoke uh that that that GMs throw out there and a lot of rumors
buying season right it’s always more rumors than it is actual like pulling off of what we see they do this in all the drafts the NFL guys do it the NHL guys do it the NBA guys do it
um I I thought I’ve had a pretty good read on most NHL drafts i usually I’m not really surprised bill Armstrong surprises me every time he does anything and it’s always for the better like I He just seems to be a master of finding stuff i I’m still interested to see what how Agenda pans out but it’s hard to say anything negative about what he does we’re going to go to the podium right now the San Jose Sharks have their second pick in the NHL draft as they walk up in Los Angeles let’s take a listen [Applause] it It’s time for the second pick in the NHL entry draft making the selection for the San Jose Sharks is someone born and raised in San Jose she’s a WWE superstar and twotime WWE Smackdown champion i give you Bailey [Applause] thank you so much thank you hello Los Angeles hockey fans it is a huge honor to be here tonight and a huge honor to represent my San Jose Sharks [Music] hey you better watch them booze all right so without further ado with the second overall selection in the 2025 NHL draft the San Jose Sharks are proud to select from the Sagena spirit Michael Misa no shock there misa going second uh it starts to get interesting after this second pick uh another centerman but like we said guys who can uh who can who can make it happen on both sides of the ice obviously uh when you look at guys every person you’ve talked about so far Kevin has been that’s a big that’s a big human and that’s a big body
that does not look like an 18-year-old
and this this is a these are these guys are are born out we talked about what what it takes now these guys get in there and they and they they are big bodies and they and they do a lot 61182 he’s uh he’s he’s going to be a player but he’s also one of these guys that they say could actually probably come in and maybe make an impact pretty quickly for this Sharks team
i I think Yeah I think he plays right away and one of my favorite things and there’s a couple other people we’ll talk about when a scouting report says imposes his will that’s the guy you want and there’s three guys that go top and he’s one Misa is obviously one of them he imposes his will on the other team that he makes them do what he wants them to do and he just bullies everybody out of his way so phenomenal player and we have a few of those left uh handful of them we’re going to take a quick break speaking of uh breaks as we’re uh going to see Chicago on the clock here and then Utah with the pick right after Chicago so anticipating in the next 20 minutes you’re going to get that uh either a first pick in the draft for the for the Mammoth or some movement that makes it to where another team is there and then uh I always love I always love the prospect of some trades right before this thing let’s get it going uh we’ll take that break here we’ll come back our NHL round table uh this hour brought to you by the good folks at Trade and Wealth t R A Jalth that’s tradealth.com for all your trusted local needs and retirement we’ll take that break more to go right here our NHL round table continues on 975 BKS Sports Zone with complete coverage of the NHL in the Utah Mammoth this is your NHL draft night roundtable show on 975 the KSL sports zone
welcome back it is our draft coverage for the NHL this evening our round table continues uh Alex Cury here jeremiah Jensen of course to my right as usual uh we’ve got with us in studio Kevin McCloskkey he’s the GM of the Utah Outliers uh he knows all that there is to know about how to get good in the NHL in 2025 you gota you gota start young you got to drive the big bodies you got to be 18 years old and be a big body just can’t you just can’t be pushed around by these big guys and then of course Utah Puck Report host Jay Stevens joining us in studio you had a conversation with Trevor Lewis right before we did it’s been impressive i speaking of guys who are I mean he’s 38 is uh I don’t know what is left in the tank in terms of what teams want i think he signed another one-year deal with the uh with the Kings last season and I don’t know if he’s in that same spot this year if they were going to want to sign him again but uh that’s a guy who’s had an 18 19 year career and you know we’re talking about how how hard it is to have a long long long career but that’s what all these franchises are hoping is that these guys will work out to be 20 year deals for them if not for them that maybe that they could get to that spot at 25 26 years old and really start producing but that’s what they’re betting on right now on on a draft night like this
i’ll tell you one of the good things about Trevor is how amazing his parents were how amazing his dad was and it’s the same i I I was around Zach Perezy when he got drafted as well and both of their parents said the same thing this is where it starts now the work actually starts now you have some money in the bank so that you can be this is all you do so Kevin should we be upset if Anton Fondell goes here how disappointing would that be for Utah
well I don’t know that Bill would take them number one but I I like Fondell i’ve seen him play live and that helps a lot seeing a kid live i just think the kid’s a workhorse
all right Chicago got their pick in they’re going to be right there at the podium the commissioner walking up and here’s what we have for the third pick of the draft you You can raise it a little more on my bet announcing the selection for the Chicago Blackhawks is one of the most iconic players in franchise history as well as a recent inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame Jeremy Ronic what’s up LA hello to all my Chicago Blackhawk fans and a special shout yeah I know go Hawks and a special shout out to all you who are watching with us black back at the official Blackhawks draft party in Chicago want to give a thanks to the LA Kings and the city of LA for hosting this incredible event also like to give a great shout out to all the firefighters and first responders who’ve done such heroic work here in LA you guys are truly all the heroes as we enter a 100red years of Blackhawks hockey and celebrate the franchise’s centennial upcoming season I am honored to be here representing the incredible Blackhawks alumni and welcoming a new player to our storied hockey legacy and heritage with the third pick of the 2025 NHL draft the Chicago Blackhawks select from Jorgen Antonell this kid’s a two-way stud he was here come the Boobirds from JJ uh the Swedish kid ends up going Anton Fondell that’s a name that I think that everybody people were saying if he was still available at four man that’d be a great pickup uh I don’t think a lot of people look and say there’s there’s there’s a bunch of bad talent uh in this draft before that fifth pick but regardless you said you saw him in person what is it what is it about guys uh that you watch in person that you look for obviously big bodies he’s another one of these guys kind of cut from the same cloth at 61 200 lb but what is it that makes them different what What is it that makes guys different at 18 that are able to make that impact and make teams want to take them this early in the draft
well they can think number one number two is the compete level at that level is is very very good but I like to look at a kid and see how many shifts he takes off when the puck’s not around him the puck’s so across the ice what’s he doing to support the puck you only have the puck on your stick 80 or 90 seconds a game if you’re really good so you better support the puck the other you know 19 minutes that you’re on the ice and uh I think he does that very well finishes checks and that’s why I was real high on him and and he’s obviously good offensive he’s played against men team he played on last year the average age was 26 years old really in the all fencing league which is their it’s their American Hockey League yeah
he’ll play in the top league this year in the SHL and um I just thought the kid competed really hard in all areas of the ice so that’s why I liked him so much
okay fondell’s off the board so Utah is now on the clock porter Martone Caleb Denoway and James Hagens are all on the board who you taking Kevin that’s who they get to choose from the noise on like everybody’s mock draft is the easiest for one team and it’s not the mammoth but uh I I don’t know it’s going to be interesting to see i I don’t have any inkling as to who they’ll take let me ask you this what are those three what are what are their skill sets what what makes them valuable
well they can all score you got to be scor at this if you’re going this high you can score yeah
and and you know Denoi is goodsized kid he’s out of the Quebec League in Monton they had a big year this year he puts up a lot of points and uh I guess the question is with all of them how will they play and how will they move to the next level
i don’t think he’s ready to play in the NHL yet so if they pick him he goes back to junior in my estimation
there you go
well and that’s that’s
because I think there was some hope maybe that this guy could contribute earlier than later but
but maybe you end up and maybe we’re at the cut off now of guys who we’re going to see get shipped off to the other leagues that they’re going to get developed into right i don’t know uh if Utah whomever Utah takes at four that person’s going to get developed for a while right isn’t that the
Well it’s like a GIA last year goes back and sadly got hurt with his hip but
it’s a hard league to play in at 18
it really is there was one player this year played in San Jose that played in the NHL this year I believe from last year
how did Celibbrini uh kind What’s the consensus on how his year went as an 18-year-old
he was terrific he’s 18 he’s playing against guys that are a lot bigger and stronger than him what do you have 20 How many goals he have 22 maybe yeah well he had Will Smith too right will Smith was also an 18-year-old playing for
But he was a year older he was in the previous draft
yeah so you had an 18 and a 19-year-old both playing in the NHL
both doing really well both putting up points
um
on a team that’s in last place
but he as good as he was guys he was not the rookie of the year
no that came out of nowhere and that kid’s 155 pounds in Montreal
lane Hudson was the uh memorial trophy winner when did Hudson get picked uh in his in his draft class then i mean like I’m trying to think of when of when that happened because in my mind he was a three years ago guy and yeah you’re exactly right that
he’s an 04 birth year 2022 NHL in draft second round 62 overall
how cool is that like how cool is that
i and see when you and it does make a difference maybe it’s not like everything else as the mammoth are on the clock now they’ve got three minutes to make their selection i would anticipate i mean maybe they get it in a little bit earlier tony Fen now by the way supposed to be making the pick down in LA they’re having people walk up and representing uh and by the way this is our first time to see the logos officially
looks really nice
up in the uh up in the rafters uh at these at these big arenas right now as uh as the the Mammoth are now on the clock officially as the Mammoth and not just the hockey club first time this is a this is a big deal but but as you see these names pop up and as you see these names come across i I I think that the I think that the Mammoth are in in a good spot here would we have already heard if there was going to be a trade or would they go to the podium and say there’s been a trade
right then yeah
he’s good when he walks up we have a trade to announce
okay
they don’t do the NBA thing
where they make the poor guy go up there put the hat on them we all know we all know you’re not playing for the I hate that
that has happened though the NHL has done that are they going to make are they going to make Fenow make the announcement utah’s made a trade that would be that would be quite interesting for them
back to back to Lane Hudson my joke a few minutes ago about Utah picking fourth and I said the 39th pick is going to be in the Hall of Fame if this kid keeps going he’s 62nd
he’s on track
he hangs up 12 years like that he’s probably in the Hall of Fame as a 62nd pick
point and you know we’ve seen the same type of thing the fourth rounders the fifth rounders there’s it’s just like every other pro league where you go
you couldn’t predict but the situations that that teams get in that’s what I was going to bring up is that we talk about it in other leagues you’ve got to be in the right situation there is always talk about how deep the developmental pool is here for the for the Utah Mammoth and maybe you can speak to some of that Jay too because this is a this is a a front office that is has a very very deep uh scouting pool but they also have a a lot of young guys up that are up and coming that’s kind of the strength of this team is how much their development program is is very very good yeah and I just wanted to say one thing too is Pabl Datuk one of the greatest players of all time in the NHL sixth round
sixth rounder there you go
sixth round nobody knew anything about him and and with Boot and Simichev the reasons they were even not the first and second pick overall in the draft is because nobody could see them play that year because of COVID sure and the the Russian wars but yeah you’ve got so much depth and we also have a
Oh boy we have a ton of uh ton of depth and we have a ton of picks coming up in future drafts too so we have talent and we can get more talent
the Utah Mammoth have their pick in so it’s just moments until we’re going to see uh the commissioner come up and then introduce Tony Fen now who will then take three or four minutes to thank all of his family and then knowing Tony he’s going to get to the point
then they’re going to announce Porter Martone uh you think that’s what it’s going to be
that’s who I’ve been saying for like two months now
okay
we’ll stick with it don’t move
i’m trying i’m trying
i guess Denoy is the
Denoy Martone we’ve seen those names
all the mocks recently updated all have Denoy being the guy let’s see uh the commissioner heading to the podium the pick is in for the Utah Mammoth the fourth pick overall in the first round let’s hear it from the podium in Los Angeles there’s a bit of a pun in this so bear with me staying on course the next pick is for the Utah Mammoth joining us from Utah is one of the PGA Tours longest hitters and most decorated athletes Salt Lake City native Tony Fen thank you guys tony Fen out here coming to you from Salt Lake City Utah super stoked to be here to make this pick on behalf of Utah and the Utah Mammoth being a Utah native myself having a NHL team in Utah has been absolutely incredible our inaugural season I thought was incredible uh it was great and uh I’m so forward uh so looking forward to seeing the team grow with this incredible player now I got to be honest with you guys when we changed the name to mammoth I’m like thinking to myself what kind of noise does a mammoth make well I don’t know what type of noise a mammoth makes but I know what type of noise we make right here in Utah can I get a one more time for those in the back [Music] with the fourth overall selection in the 2025 NHL draft the Utah Mammoth are proud to select from the Mongune Wildcats Caleb Deon caleb Deno
there you go caleb Denoy
you got some of the pronunci apparently
well I don’t think
and and he’s never had to read uh French names either i spent a month there one night isn’t that uh Isn’t that what Kramer said about El Paso
hey who knows on the lower tours maybe he did spend a night in Monton
all right so what do you get with Denoy versus uh any other options that could have been out there bigger guy 6’2 180 again he’s one of those centermen you’re seeing this kind of as a theme right here what are they getting with Caleb Denoy then as you look at the draft board here and uh a guy who he’s obviously a scorer he’s done a lot he’s very very young but uh he’s he’s a guy that was already already has like some family obviously his brother was picked by the by the Flyers a couple of years ago um like many others he’s a in a hockey family but uh what are the Utah Mammoth getting in Caleb Denoier they’re getting a big kid which is what they wanted and they’re getting like we were talking about before when you we one of the things I really liked about in the scouting reports is he’s he’s got the ability to impose his will he’s got great shot selection um he’s not afraid to take on defense either and one of the things we’re talking about when you want to look at somebody you know what do you look at out of a forward when you’re trying to pick somebody up you want to look at somebody that’s not afraid to go right at the defenseman and be able to take him he has a confidence to take him he also has the confidence to enter the zone and set up in the zone he He’s just He’s got a lot of tools he wins 62% of his face offs
that’s important
that’s ridiculous
no it’s in junior right um the other thing John I know I’m on a a program called Instat Hat looking at film he’s got two minutes and 30 seconds of shot blocking so we like that and u so he’ll play in the defensive end of the ice obviously he’s very offensively gifted he had
when you talk about a guy being a a shot blocker that That’s the kind of stuff that Bill Armstrong loves right where you have to Florida Panthers
yeah dive in front of a puck and don’t care throw it out there for your team let’s get bloody hockeyy’s not a an easy sport um uh as he’s sporting by the way that’s the first time officially in the flesh we’ve seen a a uh
a player in a Utah mammoth jersey
a player in a Utah Mammoth jersey it’s got the Denoier number 25 on that uh we’ve got uh right now the interview with Denoy Bill Armstrong and the brass of Utah interviewing their newest draft pick let’s take a listen excited to hear
said it’s unbelievable how excited are you to be here in this moment
so excited can’t wait to get things started thanks a lot for your trust and belief
trust and belief
yeah you’ve been our guy since the moment uh uh we we we we jumped into four we can’t tell you how impressed we were watching you down the stretch driving your team into the championship it’s been impressive to get to know you and your family and uh we’re so excited it’s it’s an incredible opportunity for us to pick at four and even a more incredible opportunity to to get get you in our selection
thanks a lot can’t wait to be in Utah
thanks a lot can’t wait to be Bill not too long ago you said that having this number four overall pick would be a game changer for your organization how do you anticipate him changing the game for you guys game for you guys
well we do believe he’s a game changer it’s uh he he can do everything he’s a he’s a two-way center that can provide offense and he can he can play defense and he just watching him down the stretch he put his team on his back as a 17-year-old and and he led him down the road to a championship and coming out of the Quebec League and uh it’s hard to get centerman he he’s one of the good ones and we’re really looking forward to him coming into Utah what’s that like to hear
oh it’s incredible incredible especially coming from great organization uh like Utah can’t wait to to be there
we’ll soak this in enjoy every moment congratulations everybody caleb Deno yay thank you Caleb Denoy heard him for the first time and you got to hear Bill Armstrong uh tell him how excited they are to have that kid coming this way to Salt Lake City denoier uh you pointed it out JJ 49 assists 35 goals but in that’s 84 points in 56 games this is a guy and you heard Bill Armstrong talk about it too he took his own his own young team on his on his back and they uh and they were able to get a lot out of him and so this is a guy I think people are pretty pretty darn excited about but but more importantly the thing that he just dropped in there and maybe you say this cuz you’re a GM of an NHL team but what was the uh as we’re watching the the the full mammoth brass there at the draft room at Delta Center what is that 58 people that are on the DES there that are all clapping and now they’re on to their next draft pick right there as Bill Armstrong and Chris Armstrong stand up and presumably to uh to go out and get a breath of fresh air and go “Okay that’s in the books at least.”
They make some surprise trades and create drama right well hopefully it’s nerve-wracking though right and then they finally get their guy but when they say their guy that’s what they said is that from the beginning of since they got number four they had their eyes on Caleb Denoi that’s really good to hear
yep also to your point in the points nine and 21 in the playoffs so 30 points in 19 playoff games so that’s to Bill’s point like he put the team on his back they won the the Quebec Major Junior Championship they did not farewell in the Memorial Cup but to me it’s far more impressive to win your league than to go win a you know an 8-day tournament so that’s just a bonus um but he looks like as I say any guy that’ll block shots like this kid does right now is terrific
uh yeah you can see why they took him he’s got the size they talked about size this team needs to get bigger right
he’s light he’s got weight to gain that’s 18 but he’s got the frame that’s exactly you know from a scouting perspective you can’t add the height let’s do it
you can you can add the weight one more point I want to make real Oh he’s going to go to Let’s hear the interview
let’s take a listen cuz ESPN’s interviewing right now sweet Mammoth gear on let’s take a listen to Caleb Denoy
push back there
i don’t know did she cry honestly even me kind of tried to soak it in but uh went by fast
one of the things you say is when asked why a team should draft you said because I win where does that confidence come from
well it’s it’s experience to uh everywhere I’ve been so far in my young career I’ve had the chance to to win and it’s values uh that my parents kind of gave us to to me and my brothers that whatever you do you do it to win and uh hopefully and looking forward to bring Cubs to to Utah absolutely and I know they’re looking forward to it thanks so much Caleb
thank you thanks a lot
good luck
caleb Denoy his uh first interview with ESPN there after he chatted with the team as well let’s take our our next break here we’ll come back uh the pres are on the board and we’ll likely have a pick for you before we uh after we get back from this break so the NHL draft round table continues right here 975 ESL Sports Zone the Utah Mammoth push to the playoffs begins tonight you’re locked on the Utah Mammoth NHL Draft Night Roundtable Show on 975 the KSL Sports Zone
with the fifth overall selection the Nashville Predators in the 2025 NHL entry draft select from the Sous Staint Marie Greyhounds Brady Martin brady Martin you knew that name because he was the kid who has been working on the farm decided not to go to the draft there in Los Angeles h hanging out with his family uh but he gets picked fifth a lot of mock drafts had Brady Martin in that 8 n 10 range gets taken fifth by the Predators a team by the way guys that underperformed massively compared to what they had done the year before they thought maybe they’re going to take another step they took a step big time in the wrong direction winning only twothirds of the amount of games that they had won the year before and I think that was the biggest shock of teams of massive disappointments across
they won the offse they didn’t win much during the season they won the age in the off season marsha show
mid30s coast mid30s what made them think that going old was going to help them it’s just
don’t know i mean you know
look at the Panthers they’re not old old i mean now outside of going against Marshon right those they’ve built that thing they got a nice Then it’s 28 he just resigned today right you looking at late 20s your core guys like you don’t win big in this league with 35 40 year old guys when they’re pime your primary dudes welcome to our uh our round table here as we uh keep you going here of the NHL draft he’s uh Kevin McCloskey across from me uh Alex Cury here JJ to my right as always and then of course Jay Stevens from the Utah Puck Report as we get this uh get the coverage going the Utah Mammoth have taken their fourth pick overall in the first round of the draft uh their first pick being number four Caleb Denoy uh Montcon uh place that uh you don’t really necessarily M I don’t know you said you’ve been to that uh tiny rink out there i feel like you’ve probably been in a lot of these different
I’ve been to Owen Sound not Monton okay
monton’s actually got a big rink they’ve got like 8,000 Sound’s got about three
people total or 3,000
seats yeah
they literally play in a barn
three 3,000 and three people in the town
hey I had a little bit of a windorse moment there while I was watching are you saying what’s going on in Utah or this one
what was going on in Utah maybe I’m wrong maybe I’m wrong but I’m watching the draft room and Okay you know I’m going to share this after the Flyers pick go
the commissioner walking up to the podium as the Philadelphia Flyers have the next election in the draft
election for the Flyers a legend in Philly probably next to Rocky their most famous athlete an NBA analyst a great friend to the NHL and a great friend of mine coming to us from Chicago Sir Charles Barkley hey Gary how you doing
man i’m doing great i’m doing great thanks for having me tonight
great to have you with us so tell everybody what you love about our game well there’s no BS that goes on in hockey uh they don’t have load management they just want to get their name on the Stanley Cup i admire these guys i respect them they just want to win the Stanley Cup and at the end of the day that’s all sports should be and we’re all trying to win the championship but if you give it your best that’s all you can do that’s why I love the hockey their mindset
we love that you’re a fan of the game we have some business to do why don’t you make the pick well Gary number one I want to thank you for being a friend you’ve been a friend a long time and I want to say welcome back to Philadelphia Rick Tocket and with the six kick my Flyers picked Porter Martone from the Griffin Steelhead porter Martone
martone the sixth overall pick in the first round and that was your guy what did you like so much about Porter Martone out of Bmpton in the OHL jay that was the guy you thought maybe that Utah would pick you were kind of crossing your fingers for what did you like about this kid so much
he is absolute sandpaper man with the way he plays he’s in your face he’s just he’s exactly what you want i And it makes so much sense that he goes to Philly too like he’s just the games I got to see him play the tape that I saw of him he’s got he he’s got a good sense of when to get open but he’s also not afraid to get right in front of the net and he’ll take the puck you know I I talked about challenging defense and try to beat defense i’ve seen a few of the the films on him where he just tries to go through the defense he’s not trying to deak around him or anything he just has he’s got that sandpaper he’s going to agitate you he’s going to throw you off your game in about five different ways and he’s going to beat you with skill i I was really excited about him
i’ll tell you an interesting story if we have a sec so Porter Martone during uh co he’s from Peterbor Ontario and he has a family friend call up the the um Toronto Canadians U16 coach says “You’ve got to take this kid i’ve never heard of the kid.” He says “You’ve got to take this kid.” He brings him down for a skate watches him for five minutes says “You’re coming to play for me in Toronto.” Porter Martone starts texting with Michael Hegy who plays in the NHL with I think Montreal they start texting this kid’s 14 years old they’re texting faceoff plays in the summertime so the kid’s mind is very good and you don’t see many 14 year olds that go to a new team you know 90 miles away from home live with a family and they’re texting faceoff plays and really getting after it in the summertime prior to the season
you also see a lot of prospects at 18 that are 6’3 215
63 215 not a bad body that’s the body that uh that we were talking about
we talked earlier in the draft about
Utah looking for size that’s we all thought Mark Tome was going to be the guy at four obviously that wasn’t the case but you can see why he a lot of people thought he’d be a good fit for Utah that kid is he’s big
he’s really big especially for a left winger
uh man the Phil the Flyers I know they’re kind of down right now but they have some of the best kit they have some of the best sweaters in all of uh in all of hockey
they do it and they’re in good hands danny Brerier is a great GM he’s kind of starting over
um he had to go in there and kind of shake things up a little bit i may be a little biased since he’s been on my show in this building a few times
like before anybody knew about the NHL in here I had walk through here
let me ask you this JJ i’m not going to let you Yeah you’ve totally never heard this hockey way before you guys
uh I’m not going to let you uh we’re not going to go to break until I hear your uh your Brian Winhorse m your windy moment what’s going on in Utah here
so I’m watching that and you know they do their whole thing that they’re supposed to do the second they sign off they stayed on the camera and Bill and Chris Armstrong
they ran out of the room
they ran out of the room they don’t have another pick tonight guys right or do they
what was the urgency why were they in such a rush to get out of that room
i like it
they just took their pick they get back and they light their cigar if they’re into that thing and they celebrate the first round pick and then you know in an hour or two maybe they get ready for round two right for a cigar for those who celebrate why were they running out of the room
okay Duncan is going throwing it out there there’s a reason to continue to pay attention to the draft tonight
uh the Boston Bruins are on the clock and we’re hoping to maybe get that seventh pick over on the first round when we return to our NHL round table here uh draft coverage continues right here 975 the KSL Sport Zone stay with us
with complete coverage of the NHL in the Utah Mammoth this is your NHL draft night roundtable show on 975 the KSL sports zone
nhl draft the Boston Bruins select from Boston College how cool is that
oh wow how about Sandman making the pick for you
pretty sure that was Happy Gilmore
oh sorry that was I was happy making the pick in his Bruins gear uh but James Hagen’s next name off the board there boston Bruins Boston College kid that’s a pretty fun thing to be able to have welcome back it’s our NHL draft round table that happened live just now sandman making the pick uh for the Boston Bruins and they get James Hagens that was a name that was also thrown out there maybe that’s a guy who would still be around uh you know you could have had him at that between that four and seven spot the uh hockey club get Caleb or the hockey club excuse me the Mammoth get Caleb Denoy and then uh you see these picks come in and Boston gets uh gets James Hagens 51 5’11 186 uh and this is a this is an interesting moment here too because now that you’re getting into that number eight pick with Seattle but this this is one of those American uh Team USA junior guys that has made an impact we were talking about how far Team USA has come and uh he’s one of those names and uh you know I would assume he’d be heading back to Boston College right after this uh to develop or how does it work now
he’ll go back to Boston College for at least a year
so Boston’s rebuilding so he’ll probably get there sooner than later but I don’t think he’s strengthwise ready okay it made a lot of sense he was projected to go so much higher at the beginning of the year and it’s not it’s not that he slid necessarily as much as other people just really were performing well um I’m surprised that he slid down but it makes perfect sense to see him go to Boston uh as you uh as we try to figure out a little bit more about what’s going on there in the uh the draft coverage of course Cole Bagley our Utah Mammoth insider for kslports.com is going to join us here momentarily uh the pick was in for this Mammoth club caleb Denoy ends up being the pick cole Bagley joins us on the program here on our round table cole what’s the vibe with the brass there at the at the Utah Mammoth you were able to see them make the pick and they were very excited about getting him they said this was their guy from the beginning what’s it been like as you see the reaction of everybody with the program or with the uh the franchise i’m just glad it’s over i’m just glad that this I’m just glad that the pick is in and and we don’t have to worry about it anymore but uh no Utah got a good one um you know as we talked about earlier you know the needs that they needed to address were to add another center and and some more size and that’s exactly what Denoier offers um you know he he’s been kind of a consensus top five selection for the last month or so and it doesn’t surprise me at all that he was high on their high on their radar um you know I think what he does best is is you know be an offensive threat from anywhere in the zone you know he’s able to consistently you know place the puck in dangerous areas for himself or his teammates you know whether that’s driving at the net surveying the zone or or getting you know uh getting uh in the dirty areas and in the crease um you know this is a great player that that Utah is adding
he wasn’t the only big guy that may they that that we thought they might be targeting uh Brady Martin ends up going fifth and we just saw Porter Martone go to the the Flyers what separated Doy from those others i think you know Denoy’s ability to step up when it really matters um you know he was just the uh the QMJHL playoff MVP with 30 points in 19 playoff games and led his team to a championship um you know guys to to have similar stat lines in in recent years and and I think you know recent might be gracious but guys like Sydney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon uh you know did that in the same setting so you know to to be in any conversation with those two is is definitely good enough to I think set you apart to go above Mark and Mark
uh you talked about how you’re glad just that the pick is in they made the pick and now they can kind of have that that sigh of relief or is there more work to be done for this uh for this Mammoth club in this draft do you think they still have the ability to be able to kind of move around at this time last year we started to hear some of the movement that was happening they got they got aggressive during the draft and made some moves so uh or do you feel like the vibe there is right now that their draft is over for this evening yeah I I get the impression that the draft is probably over for them for this evening they got their guy like Bill was talking about and you know those are the money maker picks as Bill has said many times over the last week or so you know they got the fourth overall you saw his reaction when it originally happened and now they’ve got their guy cole Bagley he’s our Utah Mammoth insider for kslports.com and he’s uh across the street here from us and and watching this thing go down so now with the with what the team has guys it looks like looks like we might be getting Bill Armstrong all right uh
All right we’ll let you later
all right cole’s going to uh hit hit the podium there with with Bill Armstrong the general manager of the of the Mammoth and then we’ll uh we’ll check in with him in just a little while we appreciate it we’ll take that uh we’ll we’ll let him get to it so there you go uh let me see here was he saying we’re going to get Bill Arn was he just going to hand the phone over to him that would have been nice yeah right
say “Hey hand the phone over to him.” Hey who’s this ah just the the local radio
bill’s going to speak to the media we can probably hear about about that later
yeah we’ll probably get to some some of that audio a little later jay you were saying you had some thoughts on why Denoy might have been the guy i just asked Cole why but I want to get your thoughts so I’m gonna add on to all the things Cole just said is that the search for a true second line center and Denoy really fits that bill he’s not the size we were looking for and I mean he’s got he’s got good size right just 61
6’2 sure
okay almost 6’2 and 180 right now he He’s going to get the get the size i think this is a kid in the next I think he goes back to juniors this year and I think in the next two or three years this becomes our true second line center which you know Logan tried really hard to be a second line center this year a second line center’s job is really a lot about shutdown and when you hear Bill talk about this def this you know defensive offenseman you know like it’s hard to have somebody that’s going to play that role cuz it’s the hardest it’s it’s next to goending i think second line center is the hardest job in the NHL because your job is to shut down Conor McDavid or Sydney Crosby or whoever the the top center is the top line guy on the other team this our second line sitter is gonna get him
gary Bman hitting the podium right now as the Seattle Kraken make the next pick they’re the eighth overall pick in the first round uh here’s Gary Bman introducing whoever is going to introduce the selection for the Kraken please welcome Jerry Brookheimimer to make the next selection [Applause] hello LA it’s a pleasure to be here it’s a thrill to be a part of this fantastic draft so our selection is from the Brford Bulldogs jake O’Brien another center Berkeley Kton Seattle starting to get
Jake O’Brien he’s uh one of another centerman taken by the uh Seattle Kraken eighth overall pick buffalo’s on the clock now and uh Jake O’Brien that’s a name we also saw i mean it’s funny when you see these names now and they’re coming up in a few months ago maybe they were at that fourth and fifth slot in some of these mock drafts and O’Brien was one of those guys who was between about five and seven a month and a half ago and how it’s crazy how a month changes things right
forget Jake O’Brien shortest intro oh yeah hey you know what thanks we want who’s known for epic movies to just get to the point
he didn’t you know what he didn’t have
Get out of here 10 minutes earlier now
Brookimer Brookimer couldn’t play he couldn’t explode anything on the stage that was that would have been his signature explode something on the stage make the pick and walk off
there’s a reason why he’s a director and producer he’s not much for words
i’m like what’s going on with Brock making the pick he’s the co-owner he’s one of the co-owners of the of the Kraken so uh that’s a pretty cool pretty cool uh minority ownership for the uh for the Seattle Kraken jake O’Brien goes another big man another centerman another guy who is uh likely going to be uh headed over into and to uh boy in 66 games 33 goal or 32 goals 66 assists
that’s an active person on the ice that’s what you want to see out of a kid and who’s by the way uh our producer Christian actually pointed it out too he goes “Look how big some of these cats look compared to these guys they’re skating against in their different in their different leagues that they’re coming out of.” And O’Brien is one of those guys 6’3ish and 18 years old knows how to score the OHL is not a not a league that messes around and if you’re able to have that kind of success 98 points in 66 games that’s quite productive
yeah I think the OHL and the Western League are are a step above the Quebec league and the USHL here in the United States so they they put out more players uh than the Q and they get a lot of high draft picks that is for sure
that’s six centers and eight picks uh has that changed for Have you seen that shift over the years or does always has it always been center the pre or the premium in the draft
it’s year to year yeah and if you’ve got like a pure score they’re like that guy
give me that give me that left wing that scores a million best available
yeah whoever’s there talent-wise then that’s what you’ve got there uh you were going to you were going to ask uh Jay a question
i was going to ask Jay a question he was talking about the second line center i think one of the reasons why the Panthers are so bloody good is Bararkov who was a top center
okay there was a stat going into the Stanley Cup finals in 41 playoff games for this year and last year
hit when he played five on five against uh I’m sorry 40 41 goals against there was six five players they named he had given he had been on for four goals against five on five in 41 games yeah I’ve been singing his praises for years he’s unbelievable
22 points in the playoffs this year
one of the most complete players in the NHL with
phenomenal
and their third line center is Kachchuck what’s a projected line line look like for this uh Utah Mammoth team next year i mean obviously if if things kind of stay pat as they are kind of where they’re at but where does Peter Techch kind of uh work into that all of this and and and where do you see these lines kind of i I guess a lot of it has to do with how they how they mesh you know when they get with one another on the ice and you try to figure out what these groups look like
without Oh sorry
no go ahead
i was going to say without seeing where Boot’s going to fit in because I I’m pretty sure Boot makes the roster this year i was really surprised like I know there were some deals
why else would they come over right
yeah don’t you expect them to be on the roster this year
yeah but they do know there there is the they do know there is the chance of going back down to the AHL
typically sorry in the NBA if you bring someone over from Europe in the past at least
to Jay’s point they’re up they can go to Tucson if needed okay
without having to clear waiverss
that makes sense tucson makes sense
yeah which is the big deal so you can bring them over they don’t make the roster they go down they make 10% of what they were going to make in the NHL
they get they still get decent money
don’t forget about the signing bonus oneird and the and the signing bonus is what really entices people to come over although the KHL pays a lot too but I’m not sure where boot fits in yet but I’ve got Keller Gunther on line one and I’ve got Schmaltz Hatton and Purka on line two but that’s different with our power play um the power play unit gets really exciting with uh I I want Gunther and and Prurka on each side with Keller up top and Sergeev back quarterbacking everything sergeev is a slow patient quarterback on D and then maybe you throw Ian Cole back there as your as your D guy but that first power play unit for us with Purka just became I think 50% more potent than it was before i think that really gives us the that well we’ve got shots on both sides gunther and Purka can both just shoot at will
and then you add you add Kulie and Keller in there and it’s just it’s just nasty
let me throw this out there and I’ll let you two debate this okay you just said all those names the Utah Mammoths still have some money to spend this off season
if they’re going to go what do they need to add i’m not talking about a name you can throw an out there if you want but maybe positions or what do they what specific need do they need to throw into that mix when they’re out there looking for free agents
one position goalie
oh
okay
they need a goalie yeah a starting goalie
they need a guy that’s going to push Vamela
i agree maybe they need a guy that’s going to push Vamela but I think Vamela came out of a shell last year and started becoming an elite level NHL goalender uh I do I’ve I’ve heard rumors of Gorgiev being available and there are some other goalies that we could
well some UFAs you know I’m not big on older players jake Allen’s been very good in in that role he’s too old I think but uh
I think goalending is going to be a big deal
it it definitely can be i I’m still going to be singing the second line center thing
i think we just really have an answer
right
what’s that
hayden should probably be a three
bar yeah exactly
but I don’t know
i want second line center out there where do you go well I the guy I was singing forever and ever and ever came through and just had this unbelievable playoff run and ended up getting the Con Smite and and then signed himself a nice Your your Sam Bennett pipe dream is now officially
like you can’t Yeah you hang your hat on one of the best one of the most soughtafter guys out there
what’s the state income tax in Utah or anywhere else eight or 10%
no I know why he’s staying in Florida
florida yeah that’s right
he just saved himself three or4 million dollars but um
look um yeah now Bennett’s off the table was what’s out there so
there’s nobody famous from Buffalo buffalo keeps uh Well look maybe they’re maybe they’re really hanging their hat on whatever their gonna be
ta Thompson does keep coming up though right like Tae Thompson keeps coming up and people keep talking about him and now if you’re saying Buffalo is blowing it up and they’re going to go into a rebuild and if they’re willing to get rid of Purka are they willing to get rid of Tage Thompson
let’s uh head to the podium here i think one of those I think the lead singer Goooo Dolls is making the pick here for us
he’s still with us
sure i guess he is because he’s out there on the stage let’s take a look
buffalo all right with the ninth overall selection in the 2025 NHL draft the Buffalo Sabres are proud to select from the Seattle Thunderbirds ready Murka this is the kind of
not a lot of vowels murka gives you it looks like the short hand ready Murka out of the uh WHL Seattle Thunderbirds that’s the team I grew up watching a little bit out there in the although what were they in the 80s i’m trying to think what what is what was the Thunderbirds old uh old team name back in the day they’ve been the Thunderbirds since like the 80s but they totems before the Totems in the old Western yeah so um yeah talk about big bodies 66220 on Redeem Murka and uh he has
and he’s our first Dman taken off the board I think out of all the guys that have been picked outside of shape he’s very good he was also at the 18 Worlds for the Checks he’s outstanding
uh man that guy look at him on the skates right there he’s 610 on the stage
he’s a monster
he’s huge
seattle got upset in the playoffs early that’s And he jumped on a plane and went to Dallas to play for for the Czech Republic okay
so they were lucky to get him at that tournament well um when you’re when you’re looking at how big these bodies are on D how big of a deal is it to have those big bodies on defense and why is this such a premium now
wow big boys knock people over they can move pucks you just look at how many big defensemen are in the league now you know and we’ve got one of the best young ones coming is it boot who’s who’s the or is it but we also have Mav Lamaru who’s who’s got the size he’s 67
he’s got he’s got the mindset
65 with the Simf too
yeah can you imagine the towers back there but it’s important because one you need that guy to clear the path for your goalender you know it’s it’s it’s all those things can they block shots can they body guys in the corner can they win pucks in the corner and mainly can they clear a path in front of your goalender so if if some annoying little center wants to come and stand right in front of your goalender if you got Marawn or you got Kachchuck standing in front of your goalender you need some size to push that guy out
size and patience too
well blocking out is so important i mean even as a smaller defense I my preference is big big strong and fast will always kill little strong and fast
in my in my opinion but u size right but you um but technique is so important in blocking out and getting ahead of the uh of the forward coming from the corner getting to the crease getting to the front of the net so there’s a lot of technique to that but it helps to be 66
we’ll uh take another break here our NHL draft round table uh continues here around the corner you’ve got myself Alex Cury Jeremiah Jensen we’re going to take you all the way up till 7 o’clock and Jay Hatch is going to walk in but our our round table continues on uh Kevin McCloskkey GM of the Utah Outliers uh and uh pretty much as good of a breakdown as you can get of some of these young talents across the board and then Jay Stevens of course host of the Utah Puck Report joins us right here on our round table let’s take that break we’ll come back more to go the picks are still coming in and uh we’re almost to that 10th pick anaheim is going to have that 10th pick uh we’ll probably get it during the break so stay here stay dialed in more to go 975 ESL Sports Zone
the Utah Mammoth push to the playoffs begins tonight you’re locked on the Utah Mammoth NHL draft night roundtable show on 975 the KSL sports zone
welcome back JJ and Alex guiding you through here on our NHL draft round table alex Cury Jeremiah Jensen we’ve got Kevin McClosky in studio here with us and Jay Stevens of course also walking you through here are anticipating the Utah Mammoth first pick of the draft the fourth overall pick Caleb Denoy uh going to join us here in just a few minutes the uh freshly minted member of the Utah Mammoth he’s going to join us on the program but this is a a young kid um and he’s got a lot in front of him he’s going to hit the developmentals it looks like the Anaheim Ducks are going to get their pick at number 10 as Gary Bman walks up to the podium here and introduces whoever is going to be making the pick for Anaheim let’s take a listen in Los Angeles
jackson and Margarite Marorrow that’s it quack quack let’s go
thank you yeah how we feeling tonight hockey fans all right we love to hear it with duct tape gear no coach and zero chance of winning until we got a lawyer with community service hours and a limo i think what we’re talking about is 33 years ago Disney made a movie about a scrappy pee-wee hockey team from District 5 and then somehow
somehow
somehow it turned into flying bees and knuckle pucks and maybe even a very special triple D thank you man man it’s good to be here with you guys tonight all right Ducks fans let’s do this with the 10th overall selection in the 2025 NHL draft the Anaheim Ducks are proud to select from the Brandon Wheat Kings Roger McQueen there you go one of the uh better names of the uh draft as well out of the out of the WHL Roger McQueen out of the Brandon Wheat Kings oh you got to love a you got to love a Wheat King wheat King sounds like a cereal like something in the 40s that my grandparents had uh had eaten or something but Roger McQueen he’s a centerman he gets picked by the Anaheim Ducks and uh the next pick in the draft is going to be Pittsburgh and we’re also anticipating Caleb Doy uh coming in as well i don’t know where these WHL and OHL teams uh stack up you had talked about how some of these uh you know some leagues are better than others but where’s the best place to develop guys and where does like the college game in the US stand compared to some of the other uh developmental leagues that are out there really good question
it’s a changing landscape right now
it changes all the time really good question
it doesn’t change all the time but it’s changing right now with the new NCAA guys are getting the hockey the hockey world’s getting hit with NIL questions and transfer portal questions too
oh for sure for sure so here’s what I would say in the Western League the Ontario League and the Q you play to win the Memorial Cup or to win your league championship you’ve got to play 90 plus games in college you play 36 games and then if you make it to the regionals and what have you so you play half the games you train more you lift more you have to have better time manager because you do have to show up in class once in a while so I think there’s a there’s a trend going towards the college game right now because you play less and train more which is better for the NHL teams in development i’ve read that uh James Hagen’s playing less than 30 games this year may have caused his stock to drop not because of what he did but because the other guys played so many more games and accomplished so much more it helped their stock rise uh one thing I want to note we’re at pick 10 no trades
what about some crazy drama we’re a third of the way through and we’ll probably get out of here at about 11:30 the way it’s going
maybe we don’t want
Bring the guy back from Seattle
there you go uh I’m telling you boy that made me feel old too the uh the two stars of the original Mighty Ducks it’s a 33y old movie now
jj you’re old man sorry about that
yeah margarite Maro is 48 years old no way
yeah so it’s 33 years ago she’s She was 14 in the movie so she’s probably had a birthday this year that adds up to 48 right
yeah yeah yeah yeah i’m surprised that she was only 14 when they did normally they’re like she’s 14 years old in the movie but she’s really you know 24 yeah yeah whatever it is now uh you
the uh Anaheim Ducks are the Anaheim Ducks have been a one of these one of these franchises that’s just just seems to not be able to get out of their own way although they did make some improvements this year it felt like they they took a couple steps in the right direction didn’t they
they did they’re you know their zegous experiment they really expected him to be one of the most prolific scorers in the NHL and he’s he’s amazing with highlight reel goals he just lost some of his consistency he never grew into that body we keep talking about you draft him at 18 they’re in the league the next year and they get banged around quite a bit and he just kind of didn’t turn into the player they thought he was going to turn into and now he’s a flyer so kind of a surprise uh special place in my heart for the Ducks cuz the game I played for the Grizzlies happened to be in the Ducks organization and they all reached out to me like the coaching staff I think it was Bruce Budau at the time called me and like it was a big deal they they seem to be a really good organization um yeah it just hasn’t worked out from a lot of you know what was it 15 years ago they won the cup yeah it was a long it was a long time ago the Ducks Anaheim Yeah uh it it seems crazy because they’ve had one of the they’ve been one of the more disastrous franchises though for a while i mean San Jose and and uh and Anaheim there in California have had a real struggle to be able to kind of build back up from times that they’ve had some success but when you talk about the West I always look at these teams in the West and the Pacific division is not as as uh as crazy of a of a division as the um as as you see like in the Central the Central is just absolutely stacked and they’re going to keep getting better but the Ducks ended up last year with 80 points the year before that they were they only had 60 so they’ve improved on the win totals and it’s a team also that if they’re going to make some improvements they might be one of those teams that that the uh that the that the Mammoth are going to have to be ahead of in the standings to be able to maybe steal a wild card or or go a little bit higher in that in that in that playoff process and they had Joel Quinnville who went to Chicago with four young star players that were be coming into their own games anaheim has the same thing and Joel produced there with three cups
he’s a big addition to that organization
and they have great goalending and great goalending depth and I do think they I do think they lose Gibson this year i think they trade Gibson pretty quick here
i don’t think they’re too worried about it let’s stay in the West for a minute here because there are teams that that uh are are problems for the possibility for this team for this Utah Mammoth team to go to the playoffs the Conucks the Flames those are both teams that scored over 90 points last year uh and did not make the playoffs and you’ve got teams like uh the Blues the Wild who are going to be back again the ABS are a a uh a 100 plus point team from last year so were the Stars obviously the Jets had the most wins in all of hockey but and the most points in all of hockey but I I I wonder where these teams go who’s the rising team uh from the bottom of the of some of these divisions in the Western Conference and who are some of these teams that might fall off that some of the uh some of the talent window starts to close a little bit for these teams who who does who do the Mammoth have to be able to to jump over to be able to get in the spot to where they can actually make the playoffs next year well just where we ended it the end of last season you know we were chasing Colorado St louis and Minnesota and we kind of left we didn’t worry about the Predators and the Blackhawks because they kind of did themselves in i think I think it’s going to be the same case this year winnipeg just got better like I I know it’s an experiment right now to bring in Jonathan Taves who hasn’t played a game in two years and was just recovering from long CO but Winnipeg got better they should have been a lot better and gone i I think everybody was surprised that they weren’t in the Stanley Cup finals this year but uh the Avalanche are at that part right they gota they’ve got to hit now their guys are at their peak ages so you think they they’ve got to hit now i think they got better so we’re going to be chasing St louis and Minnesota for that final spot in our in our division so in the central division um Kevin what do you think am I It’s interesting with the coaching change and we don’t know who’s going to take over Dallas they’ve got a heck of a team there so that’s going to be really fascinating to to see how that unfolds winnipeg terrific regular season they just can’t seem to get over the hump in the playoffs conor Hellbuk fantastic goalie best regular season goalie of the last few years
but you know he’s like Mitch Mner he’s the Mitch Mner of goalending to me i you know
I dare you you’re right though i mean you’re you’re right but
Mitch Mner of goending
yeah i mean he he got to the he got to the playoff for six or over for seven in game sevens and he’s a he’ll get you to the playoffs ended up with like an 85 and a half% like percent
consecutive years it’s so and and if that’s a cruel thing to say I don’t know the the stats don’t lie yeah so
Pittsburgh is the next one on the clock here and their selection is in gary Bman the commissioner hits the podium and introduces who is going to introduce their selection the number 11 overall pick in the draft let’s take a listen
the 11th pick in the NHL draft please welcome one of Pittsburgh’s all-time greats Chris Latang and his son Alex good evening LA uh it’s pretty special never had a chance to be drafted so uh I guess the Penguins uh sent me here to announce it and it’s a great experience for my son so without without further ado uh the Pittsburgh Penguins are proud to select
from the Calgary Hitman benjamin
Benjamin Kendall another center right-handed shot reads the play really well just one of those smart hockey players that Kyle Dubis is going to try to accumulate megan
and a comparable player is an Eers for Kindle puck carrying comfortable with a puck on his stick he was ranked six in the CHL in shot assist for 60 among forwards over 20 meaning he’s creating a lot of passes out of
Benjamin Kindle uh centerman out of the Calgary uh Western Hockey League uh team and this is a kid who’s a native of uh British Columbia and uh you know at this point you start picking all these 18-year-olds and you hold by the way the Calgary Hitman another one of the best uh mascots out there just an a like an actual murderer is your uh is your uh is your is your mascot Caleb Denoy we’re anticipating a a conversation with the newest pick for the Utah Mammoth uh and we’re hoping to get him on the horn here live uh while we do that we’re watching also because uh Pittsburgh has got the 12th pick in the draft and we’ve got ourselves uh you know obviously if you’ve got the 11th and 12th pick if you’re Pittsburgh do they move something around here uh is Utah part of that conversation let’s go uh for a quick conversation with the newest member of the Utah Mammoth he was picked this evening the fourth overall pick in the NHL 2025 draft he’s Caleb Denoy welcome to the program and welcome uh not to Utah yet but when you’re going to get out here you’re going to see the beauty of it out here caleb Denoy how do you how does it feel to be a member of the Utah Mammoth oh it feels uh feels great honestly uh being drafted by such such a great organization and such a good place as Utah it’s it’s a surreal feeling
before I ask a question I want to confirm we’re saying your last name correctly doy yeah exactly illinois
sweet
but
uh what conversations did you have with Utah prior to the draft oh had the chance to to meet Demi a few times and uh go over to to Utah a few days ago so already had the chance to to visit the city and obviously uh for me uh relationship and connection are really important and uh you know really saw a great fit with the with the staff and the organization so uh really happy and looking forward to get started there didn’t know you already made the trip out here what are your first impressions of Utah and the organization gorgeous gorgeous honestly uh Quebec Quebec where I’m from is pretty beautiful but uh but the mountains and everything over uh over in Utah was uh was unbelievable so uh really like it
uh we had the opportunity to have on uh every week here with us on our program uh the coach uh what are your impressions of Bear and what are the conversations you had with him about what an impact you could have with this team going forward into the future
we’re talking about Andre
and yeah Bear Tori yeah we love the coach
you guys have the same accent yeah I love it
yeah Andre exactly but uh no uh never had the chance to to meet him yet but uh but obviously heard a lot of great stuff about him uh know people really have some some good words about him in Quebec so uh really looking forward to meet him how do you think about the fit here uh with this organization um I’m sure you had those kind of conversations and you still got plenty of development left to go they’re not going to rush you into anything but uh what are your thoughts on your fit with this organization oh well it’s uh it’s great for the fit on Nice uh we’ll see uh we’ll see as things uh go on but obviously for me as I said uh the fit mentally is uh is there you know we we have the same mindset uh I saw that they no I see that they love to win and I love to win too so uh it’ll be exciting for the future caleb Kevin McCloskey here i have a couple couple questions for you one is everyone talks about your offense and you’re a winner i noticed you win 62% of your faceoffs and you block a lot of shots how does that fit into your game
yeah well it’s the uh the intangibles in my game uh since uh since I started skating uh you know it’s uh it’s values that my parents uh taught me and uh my brothers and I so uh no take a lot of pride in on being a good person a good teammate and also all these intangibles of uh you know working hard and starting on the on the faceoff dot caleb you you’ve got such potential offensively on scoring goals but you’re also known as a a great shutdown forward what uh what what’s more exciting to you do you like shutting guys down more or do you like scoring goals more uh what’s your favorite part of your game
oh I love setting up some plays uh you know I love I love defending obviously uh think that you know good uh good deal leads to good offense but uh but obviously I’d love to to make some plays and score uh score some some goals and make the players around me better caleb Doy he’s the newest member of the Utah Mammoth picked fourth overall in the NHL 2025 draft in Los Angeles and he’ll be here in Park City taking swings on the ice in the next few days we’re looking forward to it Caleb and uh welcome to Utah man thanks for being on the program thank you guys appreciate it
there you go yeah i thought that accent sounded familiar
oh yeah french Canadian
got the old uh got the Oh you mean And that was awesome
that was awesome
well spoken
you know what and not only that like is excited like you can’t you you earn so much more of like that fan the fans will will absolutely attract themselves to you when you are just like you know honest and open and unfortunately as fans we end up getting to know these guys maybe a couple years down the line but uh
how about the stealth mode that he was already here that was an interesting nugget i saw Oh wait
yeah I was there a couple days ago i was there a couple days ago oh really yeah i’ve already got a car uh I’m actually right outside your studio door right now oh
I had a swig i have I’m getting the whole Utah spirit on my swig card yeah I want to thank my friends at Swig for everything that Yeah you asked if he’s talked to Bear yet and you know he’s uncertain about the nickname but I would say one thing that obviously it’s English second language French first language probably helps him a little bit when Bear’s trying to communicate with him and also Mario Damel is also French Canadian so
you know he he’ll learn and most of it’s in English but if there’s ever one-on-one I’ll bet you those conversations are in uh Parlay France yeah the c the cuss words especially
we’re going to need Russian French and German translators this year
i love it uh let’s uh take another break here we’ll come back and uh we’ll we’ll uh hopefully we did see a trade mid this conversation but now we thought maybe it would involve Utah but the uh the Pittsburgh Penguins have traded their 12th overall pick they picked 11th and they had a 12th pick and they traded it to Philadelphia i saw the big trade uh you know uh sounder come up on the screen and I I was like “Oh no we’re gonna we’re gonna be talking with Doy and then guess what you’re going to see a trade.” Nope utah not involved
our guys ran out of the room right after the pick
oh to make another trade maybe that’s what it was for all right we’ll take another break here we’ll come back our NHL round table continues right here 975 ESL Sports Zone
with complete coverage of the NHL in the Utah Mammoth this is your NHL draft night roundtable show on 975 the KSL sports zone
with the 12th pick in the NHL draft the Philadelphia Flyers select Jack Nesbbit all right so Philadelphia gets their second pick of the first round they uh ended up getting that 12th pick traded to them from the Pittsburgh Penguins and they take Jack Nesbbit you just heard the uh the call right there um we’re seeing a theme here big bodies centermen in some in a lot of cases you brought it up though too uh Kevin you said “Yeah but a lot of these guys are wingers.” Um where’s the difference where’s the delineation there of guys who are are centerman versus uh versus wingers and and who who’s going to tell them what their reality is on that role when they come to the team that they get to
well let’s go back to last year’s AIA
he played center in Seattle got traded to Colona they moved him to the wing and he scored a lot of goals and when we asked him he said “No I want to move back to center this year and I don’t think you get a true you know uh read on that because he got hurt.”
Right
so and I was like we were all looking at each other like “That kid played on the wing and scored 50 goals and he’s going to demand to go back to center.”
That’s exactly right
why would Why would somebody want to make that move though because they want to look like the more versatile kind of passing facilitator what is it it’s a different position okay um there’s a lot more defensive responsibility when you’re playing the the pivot the middle the center you’ve got a lot more zone coverage to to cover some teams play man-on-man but uh it’s just a lot more defensive responsibility and some kids are cut out for it and I like I love Conor McDavid okay he’s got to learn how to play in his own end of the ice he’ll never I say never he’s going to be challenged to win until he he sucks it up and learns how to play in his own end of the ice
little bit of a little bit of defense
there were a couple glaring mistakes in
the Stanley Cup championship that Conor McDavid made on on getting back and taking the wrong guy
and and costing them goals two two for sure that were his
He’s eight years into this he doesn’t know who to pick up like the the goal that uh
Kachchuck scored
yep that’s
was his guy he dove to the He dove to the puck area kachchuck was wide open it was a freebie
he can’t make those mistakes and until you commit to that
it’s challenging to win in this league in the playoffs you the video game guys get to the playoffs
tough to win
especially against that Florida team my goodness
uh Florida’s interesting they just extended Sam Bennett eight years uh 8 million per 64 million to keep him there does that make it to where there are some extra guys who might be not really part of that uh of that championship roster who may be available would Utah want to put their hat in the ring for a possible uh piece that might be dangling out there from a team who might not have all the money to be able to sign every person back again yeah that’s the hope when you have uh you know you have money to go out and chase free agents you’re looking for winners everybody wants to bring in a winner right and if you look at at Florida’s roster and uh and look at who are free agents on their roster then you start really looking at you know potential well Florida Edmonton you could go even Winnipeg um you look at these teams that are that are winning and they can’t afford to keep all those guys for all those years and as guys come out of their their first and second contracts they’re looking for more and more money so yeah you you you start looking at guys and if you know if you want to look at Eblad and pick pick up Eblad now that’s that’s not who everybody thought was going to be available and
well he’s available now because they just spent a pot full of money they robbed the bank with Bennett or Bennett robbed the bank
well his name’s getting tied to the Columbus Blue Jackets too right i mean that’s another team that’s in a similar
also up to reupted with the uh uh Toronto Maple Leafs too another free
look again when you get that money that’s spent on these big clubs that already have maybe kind of right they’re bumping up against the cap and that’s how you get championship teams is is being able to kind of play in that territory being right up against it equat will be expensive and long so you can give him seven up to seven he’s 29 years old and
do you roll the dice on 30 taking a guy till he plays 35 36 years old
and I wouldn’t I I know I know it makes sense right now but it also the reason we have so much draft uh caps you know like so many draftable players we have so many draft picks coming up we have so many prospects and we also have cap space is because they’ve been playing the slow patient game and I you know I didn’t know at first if that was because Bill had been handcuffed by being in Arizona and not being able to go out and be like “All right now’s the time now we punch now we now we go.” But man the way it’s built it’s like you know you’re making your brisket and you’ve been working on it and working on it working on it you see the whole thing coming together you don’t want to just turn up the heat too early right you want to let it keep cooking so I I’d like I like the way they’re going i’m fine if we try to make the playoffs this year i I the moves we’ve already made i think we make the playoffs this year
but I I don’t want to see him jump and jump the gun and and screw up everything they’ve already done
right
the Detroit Red Wings are making their first pick of the draft gary Bman the commissioner hitting the podium and he introduces the guest picker for the Detroit Red Wings fight of his life battling nonhodkins lymphoma we are happy to report that as of late March he was declared cancer-free and he and he joins us from Detroit dave great to see you hey thank you i’m excited i wish I was there with you but I’m here live in Detroit at Little Caesars Arena and I am so honored to be chosen by the Detroit Red Wings organization to announce their 2025 NHL draft pick here on ESPN i go way back with the Red Wings when I was a kid my dad and I would go to the old Olympia Stadium to watch Gordy Hell and the Red Wings play and we were always proud Red Wings fans many years later of course I would wear my Red Wings jersey on my TV show Full House well this year we have the 13th pick and we’ve had some incredible players wear number 13 for the Red Wings most notably the magician Pavle Datsu so let’s hope that the number 13 brings us some great luck this season now let’s get down to business and the Oscar goes to with the 13th pick in the 2025 NHL draft the Detroit Red Wings are proud to select Carter Bear from the Everett Silver Tips hey Carter Bear out of the out of the WHL’s Everett Silver Tips if you’re wondering what that is it’s a it’s a bear also okay all right so there you go uh yeah there you go dave Koulier the ex-boyfriend of Atlantis Morset that’s how I was going to introduce him but uh good to see awkward good to see him on the screen and good to see that he’s uh was able to uh defeat cancer this year awesome deal carter Bear uh out of Winnipeg man out of Winnipeg Manitoba uh he’s another guy 6 foot 180 pounds i feel like they’re just printing guys out that are 18 6 foot 180 that’s what we’re seeing these guys coming up to the uh coming up to the the stage to be introduced as so there you go there’s your uh there’s your 13th pick of the draft it’s Carter Bear out of uh Manitoba playing for the uh Everett Silver Tips in the WHL so look I I mean at this point these guys are interesting because it’s like now look he’s he’s 17 years old or just turned 18 he scored 40 plus goals this season as a as a 17-year-old most of the year that’s what we’re seeing these guys are they’re they’re brought up to score goals and he’s a left winger and he’s uh they’re going to bring him in to to to hopefully develop and then you ask these guys to get that stick quick in the uh in the in the league and I would imagine he’d go back I don’t know do you go straight back to your team then in the WHL is that how it works
well he’ll go to camp and everything but uh he’ll be at development camp this week and then he’ll be at their main camp but he’ll go back to junior so he’s improved every year he had 25 last year 40 this year wow so he’s trending upward but um you know these kids are all for the future now
real quick before we go to break and we’re we’re going to be heading out of here i wanted to bring it up because it’s the elephant in the room the Mitch Marner situation
does Utah have any interest in getting in that should they get in on that
i if it turns out because who out there is going to pay him as much as he’s asking for
anaheim
you think the Ducks go all in
no I think the Ducks go You know who who’s really been linked to mostly uh is cuz he gets the pick and Anaheim wants to pay him but there’s also a lot of talk and I’ve been talking about this for two months now I think is that the Vegas Golden Knights want them
and that they’re willing to move a player to make it happen
uh don’t you think with the Paterk trade too that they kind of go look we’ll add some young scoring and we’ll we’ll roll the dice on that and we’ll pay uh you know less than half of what Mitch Mner was going to be asking for whatever it might be
so I would just ask this question from a Utah perspective how much is he going to get 12 13 highest played player on the team is SergeF 8 and a half highest forward is 77 now
they just got pertur
right okay so why would you bring in a guy that’s 28 years old it’ be one of your older forwards who’s never won anything
okay and he’s 0 for seven in in or 0 for six in game sevens he can’t win in the playoffs
you can’t win so how does he come in and become how does he come in and become a leader
that’s a great point and I mean I I I think that I I don’t know with the move that they made with Perture not that it’s you know it’s totally that they that they would stay in that direction i think that that just signaled that they’re like “Hey we’re we’re not going that direction.” That’s what it feels like they spent almost 8 million a year on Patre to be able to get him in they extend five years and it’s it’s a great deal on a on a young scorer and I just don’t think I just don’t know if you just say “Hey oh and plus we’ll try to get Mitch Mner onto the onto the roster.” It just seems like it’s a bad deal whoever takes him doesn’t need leadership i think they’re going they just they’re hiring a gun they’re like “I’m bringing you in to score 100 points bring us 100 points put us over the hump.” We
has leadership they’ll teach him because they taught Jack Eel cuz he wasn’t very good when he got there either
interesting back to Buffalo you
I was going to say Eel coming out of Buffalo you know another guy left Buffalo
these two guys got out of purgatory but the rumor is Eel is the one that’s going that they’re getting rid of
i don’t know that would be interesting but you talked about Buffalo maybe tearing it down with Tage Thompson what have you they haven’t forget tearing it down they haven’t built up they’ve missed the playoffs 14 consecutive seasons so
it’s the longest streak in the NHL
oh my gosh all right so
we’ll take the break here and we’re going to pass the uh the golden microphone over to uh Jay Catch who’s going to run the rest of the round table the rest of the evening stay here dialed in jay Stevens Kevin McCloskkey for Jeremiah Jensen i’m Alex Kiri we’ll be back again on Monday uh but stay dialed in right here more movement on the clock as the NHL draft continues they’re at pick 14 now of round one stay right here 975 DKSL Sports Zone
the Utah Mammoth push to the playoffs begins tonight you’re locked on the Utah Mammoth NHL draft night roundtable show on 975 the KSL Sports Zone with the 14th overall selection in the 2025 NHL draft the Columbus Blue Jackets are proud to select from the Tri City Americans Jackson Smith welcome in to our NHL draft round table i’m Jay Catch sitting in now we’ve also got our good friends Jay Stevens and Kevin McCloskey along for the ride for the rest of the evening guys 14 picks in and obviously Oh excuse me should have mentioned hans Olsson’s also with us he’s joining the show as well hansy what’s up h not to mention me you know you don’t even need me man you got the big Kev and you got the ultimate J
oh come on
he’s like
come on
no nobody nobody needs stinky feet hands over here like all I do is fall in the ice and cut cut myself with my own blades
you did not cut yourself with your own blades you looked absolutely spectacular jake can attest to this
he’s on the ice playing pro hockey like he was out there with the pros you looked amazing uh we didn’t even invite Kevin because I didn’t want to embarrass myself like yeah I don’t beat I don’t beat people down the ice these days
hans I don’t know if you saw the the the big breaking news today that mattered to me the most is that in the new collective bargaining agreement for the NHL they’re going to have a paid full-time ebug spot so
Oh I didn’t know that okay
I’ll I’ll order you some new gear hands that is money is that because they’re going to go to 84 games is that like gives you just a little extra help
Jake gets two starts
yeah give the ebug now it still has to be a guy that doesn’t really count against your salary cap that can’t be Has to be probably just some local fireman i think that’s
I was going to say Stevens
yeah I think it’s an I’m telling you I think the Ebug is one of the coolest things of all of hockey they need to do like an Ebug for kicking for the NFL and you just roll in and ebug kicker in case you missing on a kicker or something or or just don’t even hire kickers and just have a random guy out there
to boot a kicker to but thanks for having me guys kevin you’ve sounded great jay as always you’ve knocked the coverage out of the park it’s been fun to listen to and I just out of the gates guys I just want to start with this give me your thoughts i I want to know about Caleb Doy and about coming from Quebec and where he was the Maritimes Junior Hockey League kind of catch me up as if I’m just finding out about the Utah Mammoth four pick
well for me I’ll tell you what it it it made a lot of sense and I I got a text message telling me I needed to move on from Marone for as soon as that trade was made that they had kind of already addressed what they what Marone would have brought
sure
and that I should be looking at Dmore but and talking to him on the on the phone just a second ago like what an amazing kid you can tell I I just like listening to young NHL draft picks be so well spoken and you know I asked him about well Kevin asked him about his role i asked him about some of the hard parts of his game and he’s excited about the hard parts of his game he’s excited like Kevin asked him about his role in blocking shots and he’s like yeah I like blocking shots i understand it’s it’s something we have to do and I asked him about you know is it more fun to score goals or is it more fun to be you know that defensive forward and he’s like I like both he’s like “It’s because you know your offense comes from good defense.” And like he just sounds like a perfect fit for what Utah’s going for and and Hans you know I’ve been preaching and preaching and preaching about Utah needs a new like a solid second line center to take that pressure off Logan Culie and let him be a good first line center or third line center wherever he’s going to I truly believe he’s going to be our first line center but I I just think this kid I don’t I’d like to see him make the team this year i saw him play one game last year only because I was trying to watch the Utah kid play and
Okay so you stumbled upon seeing him when you’re trying to track it
yeah yeah
okay so Hance I want to ask you this because obviously you have experience with the NFL draft and the the comments and I’m seeing this come across social media from Cole Bagley etc says that as they stuck with the best player available mentality and you heard if you watch the draft when they had uh Denoy step up to talk with Bill Armstrong said you’ve been our guy since we got found out we had the fourth pick so so it’s obviously something to to track but I want your thought on this hands that should always be the mentality right is just take the best player you can find right
well certainly a four I say certainly it’s top side of the top 10 but
this is a a very curious pick you Now this kid was born April 11th 2007 he is younger than my son Rock like he is a very young kid if I’ve got my dates right and if anybody out there is is saying “Wait a second what?” April 11th 2007
all right hands
we’re going to throw it to the podium the Vancouver Conucks they have the 15th selection we’ll hear the announcement right now strong on his skates two-way winger male Samuelson all [Applause] right male Samuelson taken there uh we’ve So that one Yeah that that they wasted no time on that announcement it was like
I believe that’s all Samuelson’s kid i I need to double check that but
Oh so Mel Samson oh so throw it back out Christian looks like they’re having the announcement right now go ahead
back in Vancouver thank you for your support also want to say congrats to the Florida Panthers back-to-back Stanley Cups very well done [Applause] all right with the 15th selection in the 2025 NHL draft the Vancouver Conucks are proud to select from the Seattle Thunderbirds Braden Coats wrestling league player six of the
There we go oh so finally that announcement we I I screwed up thinking Samuelson was coming out to make the epic but Braden Coots Coats or Coots i didn’t hear the Coots the defenseman i saw he was at the 18 Worlds
was he at the 18 World Kevin okay you seen him then yeah
what’s your What were your thoughts on seeing him excellent gets up the ice defends well he’s a nice pickup for for Vancouver very very good so
I want to go back to uh Jay we were talking about earlier before uh before the break
yeah and the college the junior kids in college so the previous pick um was uh where do he go to columbus maybe you’re talking about Oh you’re talking about pick 14 let me double check
who do we have in the for Jackson Smith
yeah Smith yes
played in the Western Hockey League he’s going to Penn State next year
mhm
yeah and Penn State
and he’s going to get paid nil isn’t that where that McKinn isn’t Gavin McKenna going McKenna is supposed to be going the same place i’ve heard Michigan State and Penn State but uh Terry Pagoula who is 0 for 14 with the Buffalo Sabres and making the playoffs spends a lot of money with the Penn State Nitney Lions in hockey he built their arena at 70 million he funds both the boys and the girls program at the D1 level but this kid’s going to Penn State so you look for him after next season to be jumping into his first pro deal and will be eligible to go to the American Hockey League
yeah so that’s what we’re talking about that talking about the difference that this this is going to make and I I don’t know i I wonder if the if the if the CHL is going to have to look at this and change their plans a little bit because if they’ve got if they truly do have to compete with the NCAA Steeling players and letting them be eligible now which we kind of think they they do because in the past if you’re playing in the CHL you get drafted you can’t play more than nine games in the NHL and you can’t you can’t be assigned to the AHL you have to be assigned back to correct playing with kids
and that’s essentially what it is you’re an 18-year-old drafted you’ve maybe you played nine games in the NHL and then you go back and play with kids and that I think that hampers the development of the kid i think it’s it’s not good for anybody except for the CHL so follow the money chl teams get for first round draft picks get a lot of money from the NHL the team gets it each CHL team gets about 40,000 a year for development money but based on production or performance where kids get drafted they get
just follow the money
well and and there is no junior hockey team correct that can out compete an NIL deal
well that’s what I was going to bring up so Hans and I come from more of a college football background hans and I obviously do a lot of stuff when it comes to covering BYU and the like nil has completely changed the game in college football but I’ve been reading enough on the college hockey front yeah
it’s completely changed the equation in hands i don’t know how much how aware you are of this but I have so a guy that I know that covers Penn State and he talk Penn State actually might in his words be good for once that was his
Well Pagula writes a lot of checks they have Ryan Smith at BYU you got Terry Pagula there i will say one thing though
this year’s NCAA champion Western Michigan did not spend five cents on NIL money that will be the last time on the history of God’s green earth that will ever happen
okay well they didn’t spend a nickel
okay so but we’re going to there’s going to be there’s going to be a changing
oh it it No there’s a lot of guys getting paid now
yeah so
so hands your thoughts on that well I got to imagine that the new NCAA caps and the where they’re going to be structuring their revenue distribution will probably play a part in that i mean look if it comes down to revenue distribution and they put in these protocols where you’ve got to actually go through a committee to doublech checkck all your NIL deals and they all have to be on the up and up and be quote unquote money allotted for your performance it’s going to be a lot more strict to be able to divvy this money out and I can’t imagine that you know your college hockey is going to take like especially at Penn State is going to take a high percentage of that $21 million that you’ve got in total to distribute so I think a lot of that’s going to change over the next two years
but to the point Kevin’s making here think about like a Boston University they don’t have football where they can take their NIL money and they may not have the full 20.5 million aotment that the NCA is going to allow but they can take whatever money they have and they can invest more into hockey thereby potentially getting better and more and better players on their rosters allowing them to chase college cup like
so people in the hockey business in the college hockey world they don’t even know about the 20.5
i was just going to I don’t know whether I don’t know what you’re talking about we’re like two years behind so okay let me So let me So the House settlement just went into is going into effect on July 1
it’s It goes into effect formally this coming week on July 1st right
it is going to put a cap on each university in the NCAA unless they opt out of this that they can all lot up to $20.5 million to pay directly to athletes called revenue share
total over all sports
all sports now most highlevel college football programs we’re talking the BYU and Utah ut% of that to the football programs the other 20% will go to the other sports but I’m thinking from the nonfoot playing schools the Boston universities the North Dakota Northakota
don’t don’t forget North Dakota
but I’m just saying they can they may take a little bit more money away from potentially their football programs even if they have one yeah
and invest it maybe more into hockey here thereby giving them a better opportunity to bring in top shelf talent so St thomas University in St paul Minnesota
well and I was just going to talk about like St cloud too but North Dakota’s already a powerhouse
but they don’t they they’re D3 and everything
st thomas
D2 sorry so they’re not they’re paying all their money to hockey guys st thomas coaching staff I’ve known for years are really good friends of mine
he said 20,500,000 forget the 20 we don’t have the 500
but anything they can get though I think would be aotted more heavily towards a sport like a hockey because they know that they can make a more of an imprint for their community because they’re more inclined to watch hockey at a higher level but to to the Pagoula comment if Pagoula wants to invest in it go right on ahead
yeah it’s Oh we got another trade
here now this is the Dobson deal from earlier 16 and 17
oh it just got formally approved okay so yeah so Noah Dobson going to the Montreal Canadians big deal eight years 9.5 million annually
okay think Aaron Ecklad
with Utah that’s a lot of money that they’re going to have to cough up if they want to get in the EPlad sweep stakes now the other thing is you already mentioned the fact the new CBA comes into effect
that’s maybe one of the last times you’ll see an eight-year deal because this is the last year
yeah because it’s going to be a seven-year cap correct going
26 is when that goes into effect
and no deferment too
which has been a it’s been one of those tricks that I mean they’re still paying uh Rick Dietro is still getting paid you’ve got guys that are deferred over 20 years barry Bonds get paid to like 20 40 or something oh that’s um a baseball guy from the Mets um
he’s getting paid for like 25 years
he’s getting paid through the middle of the 2030s show Otani obviously the star for the Los Angeles Dodgers he’s making I think it’s like hundreds of millions of dollars in deferrals after he retires so
there’s deferrals are a crazy
Yeah the agent gets paid for a long time
correct yeah no doubt about that
we have Do we have that at KSL do we get some uh
I wish it’d be great
i don’t even have a contract i don’t even think I get paid hey
I got to look into this
settle down Jay the Crown Burger is terrific
must get I did get free food
that’s one thing Hans you’re you’re working remotely tonight you missed out on the Crown Burger my friend
oh my gosh well more for you guys hopefully you’re able to scarf it down
we were we were
so Hans where were you at on this pick the the Mammoth dude what were you expecting and what are your thoughts now i I haven’t got to talk to you
yeah sure that’s good yeah
i I’ll tell you I’m Jay i was hoping that they would move it i wanted to unpackage it and possibly pull in any type of veteran that could give them a dominant presence somebody that was just aggressive i know that you talk about those guys
yeah a lot of it’s Purka but I wanted another one like I I wanted more reinforcement and
I I look at Denoy and I think okay it’s going to be a bit i mean he just turned 18 for instance I look at his brother Elliot Denoy elliott was drafted in 2020 and it took him a couple of years to find his way to the NHL ended up with the Philadelphia Flyers for a bit so obviously this is a family of hockey players they are extremely dominant tough guys and and and it wasn’t just his brother but his dad played in juniors and he’s got a long family history of hockey so I know eventually he’s going to be great but you know I go back to last year this time Jay when you and me and Kevin were sitting around and we’re like man this T again and I’m just so excited and it’s like man T may not even be on the lineup this year and it might not be next year and it’s it’s like I I I want this to be a playoff team and I’m getting kind of antsy because you watch Florida play and it’s so nasty and you know you even watch Toronto play and get through the postseason push Florida to seven and it’s like oh man they did it mitch Mner hates him and I want Mitch and he’s got a chip but I I heard I heard you talking about Mitch mitch is headed to There’s no doubt Mitch is headed to Vegas that that’s my my understanding of it that he’s going to head to Vegas and he’s going to look to for redemption to prove everybody wrong and shove it down Toronto’s throat but I’m just getting a little antsy and I if it was up to me I wanted to see that beautiful number four pick packaged and moved for a another moving piece and something that could be an immediate help but to your point Jay we we did have a we did have an NHL insider on the show today and I asked him I said “All right so you’ve seen some of the moves you know that they’ve got the fourth pick they picked up JJ Purka you know you you know what the lineup is.” And he said “Yeah I think with all of that included I think they’re still short of the playoffs.” He said “Who’s going to fall out winnipeg no dallas no colorado no.” He said “You know Minnesota and St lewis maybe those are two teams that take a step back but they’ve they’ve had some good movement vegas no los Angeles no edmonton no you know maybe Calgary maybe maybe Calgary um Calgary was right there on the footstep and probably you know probably trying to edge their way into playoffs but I look at it Jay and and Kevin I’m like geez man i I know that this this is exciting and Caleb Denoy is a great prospect and definitely the best pick but are we looking at what two years for this kid that just turned 18 before we even get a peek at him on on NHL ice that really depends and you know these your top five picks in any NHL draft really do have the potential to make a team but that is typically because the first five teams picking had a horrible season
i was going to say
and have a bunch of openings we didn’t have to pay the price we didn’t have to live and suffer through that horrible season
this was a 14th hold on how long’s San Jose been suffering sure yeah
well it’s Buffalo oh I guess we got a pick coming through the podium
you got the first of the So New York Lions have backto-back picks as part of this trade we have the first of the two so here you go
vic and the 16th overall selection in the 2020 25 NHL draft the New York Islanders are proud to select from Jorgen Victor Uckland there you go victor Ecklund out of Sweden uh so right winger on that now uh we will have a second pick coming from the Islanders quickly because ours says the pick is in because they had the back toback so they probably didn’t need to take much more than the three minutes allotted for
I don’t understand why they made it so so much drama this year i remember last year they had you know we had a couple people introduce picks i think it’s because you heard Gary at the outset because it’s a remote draft they’re trying they’re spicing it up i guess it’s probably the best term to use with it they’re bringing in celebrities tony Fee now announcing for the Utah Mammoth for example uh the kid the guy who just announced for uh the Islanders I forget his name he’s part of Entourage if you ever watch that show on HBO oh it’s E from Entourage i forget his actual name
but yeah so it’s one of those things all right we are going to take a time out here we will come back on the other side we will have the other New York Islanders pick coming in more with Hans Olsson as well coming up this is your NHL draft round table right here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone with complete coverage of the NHL in the Utah Mammoth this is your NHL draft night roundtable show on 975 the KSL Sports Zone
oh okay with the 17th overall selection in the two 2025 NHL draft the New York Islanders are proud to select from the Barry Colts kahan Hes there you go 17th pick Kahan Herson that’s the back-to-back picks for the New York Islanders uh welcome back to the NHL draft round table here on 975D KSL Sports Zone jay Catch Kevin McCloskey Jay Stevens and our good friend Hans Olsen hanging out uh now Hans you were mentioning before the break that you would have liked to have seen the Utah Mammoth uh make a deal to maybe bring in a veteran uh player for that fourth overall selection uh looking at going I guess going forward now free agency wise i’ll get your thought on this Kevin and Jay as well what are the targets for the Utah Mammoth now as they look forward because they’ve brought in JJ Purka who’s a highlevel wing player the NOA we’ll see if he’s able to make the leap maybe to the NHL as soon as this season what what are the needs where where where you guys staking needs in terms of free agency going forward here for the Mammoth i I still say I still say goending
they need to have a that they need to have a 1A 1B jay
yeah I I he uh he’s not wrong like we I like Vamela i like who we have in the in the system and I like who we have coming up even more and Michael Brael i think that kid’s ceiling is just so high and he’s one of the big goalies that everybody wants everybody’s so in love with big goalenders but this guy this is a big goalender with amazing movement and amazing movement down low and that’s where you lose a lot of the big goalies is once they once they’re in the butterfly how good are they at getting left to right right and more and more goalies are getting better at it but Prab’s got just next level talent and he’s showing it in the NCAA right now and if you start looking at like what goalenders are out there it’s you know you
that’s what I keep hearing is that the goalender market in terms of free agency it’s there’s not much out there so Jay who who you’ve got Vamela tied up for what five years yeah who’s Who’s your Who’s your 1B your 1A your number two
i think I pull I think I pull up Stber i I think he had a good enough season that we bring him in to back up to back up Veggie
and and let him give a try i don’t think we’re in a spot where we have to go out and pick somebody up and and block it up a little bit give if if Veggie’s going you get Stalers some games you get Matt Volalt some games he’s definitely earned it the last couple years in the AHL he’s proven that he’s there he did well when he was here so I I think between those three options that gets you through this season and and again I I think Veggie came out of his shell a lot and I the only thing I knew about him before and I I’ve tried to be pretty honest about this is that I did not pay attention to Arizona the years before but when I
Neither did anybody else
yeah I know i know but when I mean I was watching the Vegas Knights and I was watching I was watching the LA Kings and I you know I go home and I watch hockey that’s all I do nhl AHL or whatever i just watch hockey and the games that I saw the teams I like play against Arizona beat him and I was like who is this kid and how do you say that last name so like he was really good and then this year he got better i was surprised at the beginning of the year and I might get blasted for this i was surprised at the beginning of the year that Ingram was the starter because
well he but he won but they were outscoring their goalending issues and they were outscoring their defending issues early on they went east early they won they swept the East I believe it was
and they’d also paid
but they were scoring five goals a game
the five goals tales off I think to Han’s point okay he wants to win now he wants to move the number four pick he He’s a an instant gratification guy he’s ready to go um but but I still think your kids are not ready somebody’s going to have to fill the void for Vamela you can’t afford to go into a season and listen one of these kids could like you’re talking about Jay could come in and do what Vamela did this year that’s not out of the question but I just look at Edmonton it hasn’t worked out very very well for them and uh there’s a lot of teams in the NHL that have average or below average goalending it doesn’t work out i think for me is great
but you need a number two you’ve got to have a second guy there there’s no doubt in my mind that goalending is the most important
sure spot in the in in any organization and and I know that you need to be built too deep three deep because of injuries and o over the course of the season and and you’re right but I still think we’re in a spot where Veggie’s veggie can play four games sit one we get these other kids a shot and see how it goes
and we go with a real starter and a backups and we’re we’re you know Ingram could come back
we can’t count him out yet
yeah that’s the thing he He is still pending out there now hands uh you guys had Steven Ellis on with you guys earlier today if I’m not mistaken is that correct you had him on from the Daily Face Off uh I heard him on a another podcast actually earlier today he brought up a very interesting point regarding goalending in the NHL and Jay I think you’ll get a kick out of this he said his philosophy when it comes to the NHL draft is you take a goalkeeper every draft regardless you take a swing on one of them and hope that one or two of them emerges as your backs stops and he says it doesn’t matter when you take it take somebody to h hand you’ll get you’ll kind of get this uh rationale because you you and I both hear when it comes to college football recruiting every recruiting class you take a quarterback you just take it it’s it’s just part of the deal because you always want to have guys in the pipeline
yeah that makes perfect sense to me and we do I like we’re going to have some room in the pipeline I just pulled up all the free agent it took me forever to find all the like actual free agent goalenders for this upcoming season and Robin Liner’s still up there talk about deferred payments uh Kell Peterson uh Jake Allen that you brought up uh Vitec Vanisk is up there though with Vanichek he’s Wait didn’t he just Isn’t he the one that got traded i thought Vanich’s the one that got traded
he got traded from Columbus to Florida yesterday
so the the one that was the most interesting to me that I brought up earlier was Gorgia from from San Jose um or Vladar from from Calgary cuz Vladar’s realized now he’s he’s hit his ceiling with Calgary calgary has a a true starting goalender here that they’re going to ride so if LAR comes on the market making 2 million so you could pick him up for you know sign him for three years for 2 million and let him push veggie for the start with the swing yeah sound off from Vegas 118 and 48 for his career
okay so
same percentage in 90s that’s not uh that’s not great at 277 he’s got 200 games in the NHL he’s a in a UFA
okay
you probably buy him for a million and a half dollars
and he’s got a he’s got a proven track record particularly in the in the 1B role
so yeah so and he’s 29
go ahead Hans i know you want to weigh in on this
well I Yeah i do i want to talk to Jay about this a little bit because I I’ve got a a real issue with goalending right now and it has to do with regular season as opposed to postseason play you know I watch a guy like Connor Hellbuck who in regular season is giving me 92.5% save rate and then Connor shows up in the postseason and he gives me 86% save rate on the flip I will just just give me a minute on the flip side of this you got Sergey Babroski well the podium can wait yeah you got Sergey Babroski yeah and and Sergey is is giving me right around 90% through the regular season yeah
as a save rate the postseason Sergey Baboski shows up at nearly 92% and goes and wins me a championship so what I want to find Jay I want to find a goalender that’s got the guts that’s got the intestinal fortitude that’s going to show up in postseason and say “Hey this is a totally different world.” Because I’ve watched two years in a row now I’ve watched Broski change everybody’s stars by the way he sits between the irons and and it’s not just about his savory it’s about his presence his overall presence and yeah I I like Vamela but I want that presence that I know when I get to the postseason everybody surrounds him
well and to Hans to your point uh you talk about Hella Buck Jordan Bennington from the St louis Blues had almost the inverse where he came alive to your point in the playoffs in the playoffs and he’s proven that time and time again where Hellabuk seems to have shrunk when it comes to the postseason he’s been almost unstoppable during the regular season postseason comes around he seems to shrink a little bit whereas guys like Bennington Babroki they step up when the moment’s the biggest
yeah he single-handedly won the gold medal or the the championship game in the four nations
yeah for sure and I I think we’re hanging a lot of uh Winnipeg’s breakdowns on and I know that I’m a goalie sympathizer
but I I think we’re hanging a lot of of Winnipeg’s breakdowns do we need to look at this i Lanny Lanny McDonald looks amazing up there by the way
that mustache the mustache i got I got mustache in me when he gets on stage okay so who
Cole is it Rashny is it Cole Rashny from Victoria
all right so Calgary just picked another center um but yeah so I I think Winnipeg had way more problems than goalending and I think if if it got broken down into not just save percentage but high percentage save opportunities or saves beyond expectation is the is the way the NHL is phrasing it now um you’re still getting those in Winnipeg
but you’re just I I think Winnipeg left him out to dry so many times and at some point you do break a goalie’s confidence and I I think we saw that in the one game where he got pulled when Hel got pulled but he he came back i thought he looked good the next game i He’s a phenomenal goalender and yeah the pressure changes during playoffs and
but you know he doesn’t get to where he was without winning playoff games and winning championships his whole life growing up and I know it’s different in the NHL sure
but I think he got hung out to dry and I think he takes all the blame
and little credit
three straight games in St louis
yeah I know and if you if you look at the games if you go back and look at those games though he’s getting lit up he’s giving up threeon ones
but to Han’s point
Bob wins
and Connor doesn’t
i get it and you can’t argue that that’s 100% right
well either way
and I’m sure I I did watch and it’s not it’s just not it’s not just Winnipeg you know we watched Dallas do the same thing
sure yeah
where where Dallas couldn’t settle and they keep rotating into Smith when Oddinger is the future like Oddinger is the man and I I want to say Dallas fired their coach because of his terrible man
his comments about his goalkeeper got him fired
it was all of it he lost the room you and I got an argument online about it kevin and I got in an argument online about it he still gets the paycheck every two weeks though yeah peter Dvau got he he essentially threw Oddinger under the bus lost his job a few days later as a result but yeah he’s got a buyout out out of the but to your point Hans yeah there are there are guys who stepped to the forefront and goalkeeping it’s at a premium obviously because it can make the a big difference if you want to win at a high level
peter Dbor handled it really poorly aer obviously walked in in his postgame uh exit meeting and said “Get rid of this guy.” And he was gone
i don’t think even had to i think everybody else in the room I think everybody else in the room said heard the comments is our guy if you’re going to go after him like that if you’re going to pull him first off for the way he pulled him and then you’re going to throw him under the bus in front of the media
then you don’t have our backs yeah and that’s modern day leadership the stuff you and I live through and that you probably coached through with getting yelled at and screamed at and thrown i remember a game playing at juniors where I got pulled my coach yelled at me and then he put me back in i was rattled i was 17 years old and I’m supposed to know how to handle that and go back in and play a junior game
so yeah that stuff’s done and when you lose the room you lose your job
sure
back well you lose the superstar and you got 12 minutes 12 months you’re on the clock back to the draft for a second the last pick here Cole Rashnney Victoria in the Western Hockey League 99 points last year guess where he’s going next year
penn State
north Dakota
oh there we go he’s getting part of that 20 million
i had two i like Penn State or North Dakota it’s one of these
there you go 92 points last year 25 points in 11 playoff games victoria had a big run they lost to Spokane in the uh in the Western Finals
he produced obviously posted
but he’s going to North Dakota next year and he’s going to get a big chunk of that $20 million
well the thing is it’s it’s a cap of 20 million you don’t have to go all the way
i understand they have a guy
at some level that they’re going to invest in they have a guy in North Dakota Ralph Engle who built the building it’s 11,000 seats and he’s his picture’s on the wall it’s the Englestat Center or whatever and
so he pays
okay there you go
so that kid’s going there again he’ll be one and done he’ll be
Yeah
I’m still proud of the two semesters I spent at North Dakota so you know what
good to good to see the program getting put together here
which did you get you’re gonna you’re going to be you’re going to be uh putting a a invoice in for back pay right yeah I did i got a cafeteria card like I could I could go eat for free in the cafeteria does that count
feels like that counted
that counts that counts
oh man all right we’ll hit a break here we’ll come back as I get some more thoughts we’ll continue to update you as picks roll in uh we have made it to pick 19 oh okay and Lloyd just informed me we’ll have Bill Armstrong audio coming shortly as well so more to come uh this is your NHL draft round table right here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone the Utah Mammoth push to the playoffs begins tonight you’re locked on the Utah Mammoth NHL Draft Night Roundtable show on 975 the KSL Sports Zone welcome back to your NHL draft round table here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone that is Kevin McCloskkey he is Jay Stevens my name is Jay Catch hanging out here breaking things down justin Carbono the latest off the board going to the St louis Blues uh he’s coming out of I’m having a hard time seeing that kevin can you Oh
Blaineville and the Quebec League
okay
suburb of Montreal
yeah so there you go so uh more uh prospects coming off the board here we’re obviously tracking things and we’ll keep you updated throughout the rest of the first round here as all these picks continue to roll in uh we are going to have uh the comments from Utah Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong momentarily uh Hans Olsen uh is he stepped aside but I wanted to get your thought on this Jay as we look forward here for the Utah Mammoth we talk about goalkeeping
there’s a lot of people who believe that their obviously their selection of Denoi tonight answers the question at center at some point down the line right
do they do they need to bring in a center
in the immediiacy does that make sense bring somebody in maybe for a short term while Denoi gets up to speed
yeah I mean that would be your solution right if you want to go deep in the playoffs or if you want a legitimate shot at being a playoff contender early and I’m I’m not saying a Stanley Cup
but making the playoffs
if you want to make the playoffs and be decent in the playoffs I think you have to really take a look at that second line center i I know I sound like a broken record because a lot of money
i say it all the time but if you do
they have cap space though if you do a lot of money up like just sign a guy we’re talking about older guys Ecklad or whatever say “Hey we’ll give you your what seven eight million a year for two years three years.” Some of the guys are willing to take that now not
I’m guessing Aaron Eggblad’s taken seven years and about nine yeah and he’s 29 years old
he’s 29 years old yeah so I think first of all isn’t McBain an RFA
mcbain I believe he’s an RFA he’s RFA right now so you’ve got to get him resigned i don’t think that’s a problem and you’re going to need to find somebody that can play in the middle
to uh to fill as Han says you know he wants to to be competitive now
and that’s Jay’s point it’s the second line center spot and
obviously centers that for what they do they cost a lot and could could you find somebody I guess your thought on this Kevin to Jay’s point could you find maybe an older more established player tell them “Hey we’ll give you two or three years high level money and you’re back on the market and you can get another deal beyond that.” Does that make sense
well Brandon Tav Tanv’s out there
look who’s that
brandon Tanv’s out there he’s unrestricted this year he’s a good center
so look at Florida who’s the best Florida uh defenseman in Florida prior to You got Forsling
forsling okay yeah good point
that kid came out of nowhere by the way picked up off waivers and now he’s one of the best in the world
well okay and so that’s my point and Jay very good catch there forcing off of waiverss there’s guys out there that you can get
for relatively inexpensive a couple of million dollars and will will produce and play well
and the mammoth rehabilitated Omada’s career by bringing him in when they brought him in
great example because he was thought to be absolutely expendable the Red Wings put him on they put him on waiverss right
yeah they third round draft pick
yeah okay so but you bring them in and you give them an opportunity to break through and Alim to his credit he did show well and he got himself a new deal after that
yes yeah but there’s guys out there
that you’ve got to find and you’ve got to comb through the rocks and the pebbles on the beach and you can find guys that while this youth is developing you can be very serviceable and win well and that’s I think that’s the name of the game because we heard in the the open it says the push towards the playoff begins tonight because they came oh so close last year they were in the mix all the way down the stretch there till the kind of the final two weeks of the season when St louis and Calgary kind of pulled away and separated themselves in terms of the playoff race Jay but you got to reel that back in and that’s going to require I think a couple players to kind of fill some of these holes here
yeah and you know we kept talking about at at the end of the year when everybody’s kind of neck and neck we’re like a team’s going to go on a 10-ame tear and
St louis and that and that’s going to separate it and then you look at like
you know when they picked up D Simone and he comes in off waiverss like you’re talking about and he actually fit right in he did
and he did exactly what we needed exactly when we needed it and that just that just clues you into how good our scouting team is and they’ve got the finger on the pulse so I wouldn’t be surprised if they brought in somebody that you had to look up because maybe you haven’t noticed them as much on on the roster
they’re out there yeah they’re Yeah
you talked about the 10ame winning streak everyone talks about the 10ame winning streak at the end of the year to get in mhm
how about the 10ame winning streak from game three to 13 that puts you well ahead of the pack that you can fall back to the pack and still make it those games at in in October the same two points as they do in March and April
and Utah was on that streak until we we lost Jersey and then we changed our we changed our whole structure
yeah yeah and that that jersey injury in retrospect it crippled them for a for a good stretch there we went from playing offensive to playing defensive
yeah it was a tough one all right let’s throw it out to Bill Armstrong Utah Mammoth GM answering questions obviously about the Caleb Denoa uh uh draft and also thoughts as they move forward here looking towards free agency and the like
bill congrats your first pick of the 2025 draft
yes what made Caleb the correct choice for the Utah Mammoth this year well he he’s someone that you know when you sit in that room and you listen to the scouts you know and you listen to their passion about players um he was a pretty consistent uh passion for the for the scouts from the midterms all the way through um you know he was he was a big deal in that room the whole time we just never thought we’ we’d get to him and and we were blessed to or get lucky I guess to to get the fourth overall pick and then you wonder if he’s going to be there um so we got to know him and you know as a centerman you win by building through the middle of the ice it’s one of the keys and uh you know we we had a chance to draft him and and and you know he’s got a little bit of everything that we want he’s got the skill he’s got the high hockey IQ um and and he’s someone that led his team down the stretch to a championship as a 17-year-old that’s that’s hard to do so he’s got all the great components we look for in a player and he he really fits our identity for the mammoth hey Bill um Caleb mentioned that he got to come out to Salt Lake before the draft visit what was what did that mean to you guys and what did you learn what did he learn
um well I I just like sometimes to sit with the player um and and get to feel a little bit of their presence and who they are and and uh he’s he’s a great kid um we got to spend some time with him out here on his way out to LA and he came to see us and have a little bit of dinner and get to know him even better um and I think it’s it’s when you spend time with him you realize you know there’s there’s two things he’s the player is a great player but the person’s also a great person and um we’re fortunate we spend a lot of time that’s a valuable pick for us so to be able to sit and spend some extra time with him and get to know him um that means a lot and uh you know I I think he was a he’s a very confident young man uh so getting to know him only enhanced the fact that we were going to take him
was it important to get a center or was this just strictly best player available or a little bit of both
it it’s really best player available but it’s really nice that we get a a guy that’s projected in the top two lines you know and then you heard me during the course you know as a you know you sweat behind the scenes it’s it’s one of those things and been doing it for 20 some odd years where you you get to know the list and it comes in and out of your body and you do more video and you go home and you have video parties with with the scouts they come in and you watch and you watch and you do all this stuff and then it just you keep battling about the list and then it sits with you for a while and and you get comfortable with that and then you then the next emotion is you get really excited the fact that you’re going to have an opportunity to to add this young man to your to the lineup if he’s available which he was
playoff MVP in the juniors with 30 points what do you like about that
well you know we like players that play in the big moments um you know as I’ve always said and you’ll hear me say you don’t teach a baby shark how to bite they know how to bite and uh he’s got a little winning pedigree in him and he’s had that for a long time and you know he it’s it’s not often that you see somebody at 17 years old drive their team into that position you you see a lot of kids that are complimentary at that age that help their team win championships but it’s very rare that you you know you’re drafting a number one center out of Monton that’s 17 years old that was their their guy that that that led their team and he was an MVP so will he need surgery this summer and if not what’s kind of the recovery timeline for the wrist injuries
yeah he’s he’s he’s fine there’s no surgery um at all so he’ll he’ll just need some you know time to recover i think that uh that drive down the playoffs took a lot out of him so he just needs some time to recover and he can continue training and doing what he needs to do will he participate in dev camp or
um you know we’ll let our trainers look at him and they’ll make that progress but I’m sure at some point he will yeah
when it comes to him he also played with Gabe Smith on Monton another draft pick of this organization how did you talk to Gabe at all about it and how much do you expect Gabe to kind of be a mentor over this process over this next year
um well we did talk to Gabe about that i mean our our local scout stays in touch with Gabe and you know and and knows the whole Monton coaching staff and also the the the management there and uh it really helps when you have a player there and and and you’re always you know our development staff had had input too because the simple fact they were going to watch Gabe so much and and here is this this young man playing they they they knew him well i I think they were all in the hallway high-fiving us so excited to get him because they had seen him all year because Gabe was there do you have an opinion on um the new NCAA rule where CHL players can go there and if so would you recommend sending a player like Caleb there
well on a personal note I think it’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in hockey uh to be able to play in junior hockey in Canada and then go get an education at Boston College or or BEu and uh my son went through the process um of of playing in the USL and then going and be a D1 player and I always thought you know if that was ever available to the Canadian kids it’s a gamecher um it helps develop kids longer uh you know lets them give the chance that they can be 23 24 i I think it’s I don’t think it’s all quite perfect the system because the you know there’s a lot of kids moving uh but it is a great opportunity for a lot of kids to continue their career and and and play at high levels of hockey you know at the best one of the best levels so there’s a lot of moving pieces where you’re you’re concerned about junior hockey because I don’t think it knows where it sits with with the kids leaving that early but it’ll all work out in the end and and it’ll really benefit the kids
you were open about maybe trading the pick were there a lot of talks back and forth to the final minute or once Caleb was there that kind of cleared things up
it’s a it’s a great question um we we you can you always explore it right you’re always looking at it it’s very rare in hockey that that any of the picks in that range are traded it’s just the way it is and uh once you get locked on to your guy you don’t really want to give them up so um we were pretty locked in that to the fact that we thought we had a chance to get him and we were staying with the pick
obviously happy to get a center where do you see him slotting into this lineup in the next few years in you know your dream scenario
well you know it’s we’ll see how he does come into camp we’ll see where he’s at um you know he reminds me of uh back in the day when you know I was part of drafting you know Peter Angelo and he he he was really thin when he came in you know and every year you’d kind of see him get a little bit bigger a little bit bigger a little bit bigger and so you know he’s got some work to do in that area he’s he’s got to put on some weight and he’s got to become hockey strong at the the NHL level it’ll be um a great challenge for him and the way that he attacks it um you never know how quick he can get there logan Culie wasn’t that far off you know after going played one college one season of college hockey so you you just I think it’s a year-to-year um you know kind of evaluation and and we’ll see how he does in training camp and go from there
how do you balance uh the direction of the team trying to make the playoffs this next year but also having such a deep and highly competitive prospect pool
well as I say we’re buying time you know you’re you’re buying time to allow the the the Aglas and and the Boots and and the Simichevs and and you know the the Cobodws and then you know and obviously our Caleb time to to get in there um I think what we’ve done a good job is is is signing guys and and and making our team highly competitive with the Burkas and the Sergeevs and the Marinos and the trades that we’ve made um it it’s been a blessing that we’ve been able to get them uh to kind of get us over the hump and and push so we can be a playoff team um we’re young um and we’re going to continue to be young but that’s not an excuse it’s just we’re going to be young and we’re going to need to find a way to win at the same time and I think sometimes um you know we’ve we’ve drafted well and I love where we are as a culture and that culture is going to continue to drive us we we you know this is an exciting times for us i think I don’t know if there’s many teams out there that has the prospect pool that we have at the same time as being a a pretty darn good NHL team that’s trying to make a step to get into the playoffs in the toughest division in hockey which we love where did you take Caleb to dinner in Utah and were you worried at all of keeping that undercover
oh when you’re in your backyard it’s it’s pretty undercover in Yalerest um there’s not too many people that were videoing over the bushes uh so it was pretty secure yeah we brought him into the garage and got him into the backyard and uh Yeah
so your house
yes yes
bill the first time
I didn’t cook that meal either
the first time you get to see the Mammoth logo on the jersey on a draft stage what are your initial reactions to that
tony did an incredible job at bringing it in he was so natural on the mic it was just it’s it’s awesome you know homegrown uh you know talent such as him making the first pick and he’s a big fan of ours so I it was kind of great just to kind of see him because I I saw him after the game one time and he was so obsessed i think he had Coolie’s stick you know and he was such a little kid with the stick he was so happy and he he just loves hockey so it was awesome to have him in here he’s he’s just a great human being um you know and so that was he was the perfect guy to announce the pick and now I think he’s he’s always going to have that special bond with Caleb you know sorry to harp on dinner but
what was for dinner and who cooked it uh well we don’t cook at our house um but Nomad Pizza uh was really good it’s just in the outrest it’s one of my favorites so um we brought it in for the for them and the scouts
any more questions
i think there you go
we found out that
Holy crap i love Bill Armstrong man
we don’t cook at our house but we brought No man
yeah we don’t cook yeah so I might have to talk to Paul Taylor a little bit my hockey partner and he’s the head coach of the Outliers we don’t allow pizza to be served to the Outliers so maybe that’s got to change uh
oh it’s it’s one of the two food groups
right
pizza and steak yeah that’s awesome
yeah where’s the bars ranch fillets today come on Lloyd that would actually that’s a great idea all right we’ll continue to break this down we’re going to take a time out we’ll come back on the other side uh we did have a trade just go down the Ottawa Senators trading out of the 21st pick giving it to the Nashville Predators they traded back uh two spots to 23 also picked up the 67th overall selection as part of that deal we’ll have more for you momentarily right here on the NHL Draft Roundtable right here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone with complete coverage of the NHL in the Utah Mammoth this is your NHL draft night roundtable show on 975 the KSL Sports Zone where did you take Caleb to dinner in Utah and were you worried at all of keeping that undercover
when you’re in your backyard it’s it’s pretty undercover in Yalerest um there’s not too many people that were videoing over the bushes uh so it was pretty secure yeah we brought them into the garage and got them into the backyard and uh yeah I’m still dying that’s the best way to make sure that nobody sees you is hey do it in your own backyard
i’m assuming you didn’t make them take an Uber to the hotel probably not little humble brag that he lives in Yelrest too
yelrest we brought him in through the garage and hung out in my backyard hey welcome back to the NHL draft round table i’m Jay Catch joined once again by the line of the night
oh for sure
jay Stevens uh number 21 pick is in Cameron Reed out of Kitchener the OHL uh now that was a trade the Pred moved up two spots uh in a trade to get to make that pick there so uh kind of cruising here through the first round here now i love Bill Armstrong go ahead Jay i was gonna
No I was just going to say something on the It’s funny because like I said I’m checking everybody’s work all these experts that did their
like to match up how they’re doing in terms of the predictions
yeah all the mock drafts and so the other mock draft just had So they obviously didn’t have the trade but they had that Cameron Reed going to Philly 22 overall so I And then Nashville picking out i wonder if Nashville’s looking going like “Hey this is this is tracking we better get our Nashville wanted their guy they jumped in front of Philadelphia.” Yeah
so what you’re telling us Jay is there’s no Shador Sanders in this draft i wish I knew what you were talking about the guy who’s projected to be a first round pick that falls all the way to the fifth round
oh every time I come in this building and step in this I come in to talk about hockey and then somebody says something about basketball and I actually though
yeah I I got that part you go from like the
Dion’s kid
yeah Dion’s kid first over ranked quarterback I guess guy or second behind Cam Ward
he was supposed to be a top five pick
and he went to the fifth round
all right
i I watched some football one time it was one time
it was all right
you watched your second time at some point
it was a lot slower than hockey
well I watch football like I watch
no I get it uh now I just love the way that Bill Armstrong addresses stuff like
he’s got his colloquialisms he likes to use like you can’t teach a baby shark to bite is one of the things he used in there but I appreciate the way he kind of he just he he laid out exactly why they they fell in love with Denoy he said we saw him two-way player and he fits exactly what we’re looking for
a second line center second second line center
i know i have a solution to this conversation you you’ve talked about your second line center
but then I’ll have to come up with something else to talk about but go ahead
let’s just have Denoy play here this year and let him break in as a fourthline center and he moves up to the second line center
i’m all for that there’s no better teacher than the game like if you’re going to have an NHL player bring him in let him have take the pressure off him let him be a fourthline center make the full NHL money
and to your point Jay is you’ve talked about the fact that this is a club that obviously didn’t have to go through the pain of getting to that fourth pick by the fact that they had an awful season they were knocking on the door of the playoffs you have really really good young talent on that forward line that can really kind of shoulder the load whereas maybe you put them on that fourth line and let them kind of grow up alongside this young core the pro the only problem with putting them on the fourth line is Kevin what does your fourth line usually do
they grind they’re your They’re your bangers man you got to put
Isn’t this kid fit for a role like that it feels like
in juniors now a junior he’s got to score but you know something it’s interesting a lot of these kids that are getting drafted today score a lot of points
yes
and they’re going to end up as third and fourth liners
they’re not going to be
a top six guy uh the the big trade the other day he comes in he’s slotted as a top six guy
you’re talking about JJ Purka
yeah Purka um Doan who left I don’t know that he he’s not going to be a top six kid in Buffalo I don’t think well that’s the projection he’s probably a third or fourth liner
yeah there you go so they traded a number six D and a third or fourth liner for a top six guy that’s a win
yeah and they got him on and they paid him like it’s a win too
38 $38 half million it’s an average what was the average just north of five I think but still that
I want that guy in my ear all the time like every time I forget a name I want somebody to jump
christian okay christian Espars is producing for us tonight uh Christian is absolutely awesome at what he does so
that was awesome
yeah so seven but that seven seven figure it doesn’t
It’s the highest paid forward
yeah but it doesn’t take up a massive chunk of the the salary cap and you’re getting as you mentioned a top six guy
yep so
and just just a little bit to harp on that a little bit more when you talk about a kid coming out of juniors what they did in juniors isn’t what they’re going to do in the NHL trevor Lewis went 17th overall la moved up for him they pick him because he had 108 points or something his last year in the US and I think he had 108 points total in in his 17 year 18 year NHL career right he wasn’t they didn’t bring him in to be a scorer or maybe they thought he would but they realized this guy is going to be a perfect grinder an amazing PK guy he was on PK-1 for over 12 years for two cups
so the brilliance of his career is he could adapt
yeah 100%
that’s it
there’s a whole lot
a lot of guys that you’re seeing today even in the first round are going to have to adapt their games to play in the National Hockey
League that’s why the point I to the point of could Donier come in and be that fourth or third liner and kind of find his way and adapt to playing a different style than he’s been used to in the junior level
i I think he’s too light you heard Bill reference he’s got to put on he’s got he’s
most guys do it feels like
I mean it doesn’t matter what line you’re on in the NHL you’re going to get hit but when you’re on the fourth line you’re expected to just hit
yeah you’re expected to absolutely wreck guys now another pick in the Pittsburgh Penguins taking Bill Zanan out of uh Montreal is that Runen Niranda uh
Ruen okay so
you can’t find a search
i wouldn’t be able to tell you big kid
yeah as I say 6’2 187 but uh to the point a lot of these guys you look kind of the weight for these guys you can tell they’re skinny they’re coming out of juniors they and they’re going to have to get to 205 lb 210 lbs before they really make the impact at the NHL level put that kid in a like Kevin keeps saying and I’m 100% on board now and I I didn’t put this all together yet you take that kid out of the of the CHL put him in the NCAA let him get that freshman 15 cuz he’s going to have the cafeteria card like I had and he’s going to have nutritionists and he’s going to get he’s going to gain weight right away be in the gym more because he’s going to need less time to recover because he’s only playing on the weekends
friday Saturday league you work out you get Sunday off you work out Monday to Thursday yeah
and train
yeah and then you you’re gone after the first year and you sign and then you’ve got options with minor league hockey so uh so Ryan Norandanda is in Northern Quebec
okay and it’s actually where Mario Duham coached with Bear
oh
Bear coached in Ren Oranda
uh in Quebec Major Junior League see this is why we have you around Kevin it’s a long way north here
you know you can drive to Vegas and you got another three hours to go to get there from Montreal but you’re going north
okay
towards the north towards San so we’re talking you’re like driving to like Bosezeman Montana from If you’re coming
it’s six hours from here
okay got it okay well yeah
it’s like probably driving to Great Falls
go to Great Falls basically
but everybody’s yelling at you in French while you’re driving
you’re going to Glacier you’re going to Glacier National Park I guess is
Yeah there you go so and then you get to ruin Orenda but it’s quite a drive then obviously so there you go all right so yeah you you were right
so hey couple things we we’ve touched on it throughout the evening prior to you coming on Jay the the CBA collective bargaining has they had a nice press conference earlier today with uh with Batman and and Marty Walsh who took over the
took over the the PA couple years ago uh we have touched on the the ebug goalending to me that’s at the top of my list okay because I knew Jay’s in here there there is age discrimination in that new contract though
yeah ages part of
you can’t be over 35 and be a bug in the in the NHL
i’ve got a driver’s license for you
perfect i was hoping somebody knew
um this deal came together very quickly they really started talking early April um
and both sides are motivated by the way to get this locked in
yeah they’re going to go to an 84 game regular season they’re going to cut the uh preseason back from six to four um the max contract now will be six years going to another team seven years if you stay with your own team
for instance Bennett got today 8 time 8 that would have been seven times whatever you fill in the number uh no deferred salary we talked about that um another thing that I thought was interesting they put out there there is no more dress code allowed
that
players get to wear what they want to and from the game this was the interesting part about this cuz there there was a whole thought I saw this uh percolate online that suits bye-bye like out
but it’s so weird so I put it I I don’t mean to interrupt you i wanted to get everything down but I put that on my Utah Puck report stuff yeah and I have a lot of the Doners the the girls that love Don Josh Don and I and I have a lot of the newer followers of the team and that’s the only part they saw and they’re extremely distraught over it because they love that with a mini camera or the mini microphone and seeing the guys come in and Yeah they look the catwalk they love it and they they’re like and they show it every game yes
and you know and it’s
they’ll still continue to dress how they choose to dress hendrick Lungquist of course on TNT
he’s probably throwing up over this
well you can dress up easy top he’s a sharp dressed man
he is but I do think there will be some guys who are going to continue to wear suits just because they will
but other guys are going to be like I don’t have to wear a suit every time great i’m I’m good
there so I bet your older veteran leaders are going to be like “Hey we’re still professionals we’re coming to dress like professionals.” And that’ll carry on for like five years until all those old guys are gone and then the new kids coming up because if you get rid of it in the NHL because you still you have it in juniors you have it in college you have in the minors and if you get rid of it I think the younger generation is going to be like “Yeah I’m just going to throw like Well I’m telling you the Utah Outliers are wearing suits
okay we won’t change look look let’s look at Ryan Smith for a sec i bet he just buys everybody Lululemon pants
and a hoodie and a and a hat well and we have seen we’ve seen a generational shift in the NBA in particular coaches but I’m just saying they had their own dress code for a while under David Stern that when it was done away with to your point it took four or five years
but eventually came out coaches are now wearing pullovers players are wearing
outlandish outfits in the NBA i’ll just say that
so they have their own dress code
so the biggest thing to come out of this new CBA and it hasn’t been ratified there’s a ways to go essentially they they’ve agreed to terms on this the playoff game rosters must be cap compliant
yes
so there’ll be no more of this long-term IR stuff where you sit the season
you’re making 10 million you get to come in and you’re over budget
so that will kill the long-term IR for the playoffs that’s I think the biggest uh and a lot of clubs are pushing for that LTI to be done to this this workaround with LTI they wanted it done away with
yeah all the clubs did it work just want to throw out that Tom Green is picking for
hey
for the Ottawa Senators what the
Where did they pull Tom Green from i have not seen him in I don’t know a decade
it’s good that he brought his dog
the arena looks empty too
um the long-term IR is done for the playoffs so that that’s a
that’s really huge because Tampa
uh everybody’s tried and they tried it with Kane everybody everybody says it was a loophole and that’s bull feathers it was collectively bargained signed off by the league signed off by the players so all the fans out there that were saying “Oh this is wrong.” It was collectively bargained by both sides
yeah it was it was part of the deal
and this is collectively bargain now where it’s going away so
it goes without saying like if don’t hate the player hate the game but if you want to be a player you better get in the game so if you’re not if you’re not using the LTIR
Sure
that’s on you yeah it was it was a it was a method to the madness
i had to chuckle about the guy that hurt his leg his Achilles heel in game seven
oh
and they’re saying he’s going to miss the whole next season
um Carlson the defenseman in Pittsburgh
he was back in playing in six months
y
that means he had to train y
So
well and there’s been talk with Vegas that they may use LTI with some of their players to work around stuff it it’s going to change now with this collective bargaining agreement it’s they’re doing away with it
yeah not till the 26th
yeah not till the 26th but it’s going to go away and it’s going to the supposed loophole and I use air quotes with it cuz you’re right it was collectively bargain it was collectively bargained yeah it was part of the deal uh pick is in the auto taken Logan Hensler out of Wisconsin so there you go
badgers
uh all Big 10 freshman so hey Kevin to your point there’s a kid one year in in in college and
and he’ll go back probably for another
year yeah I could see that but the thing is you’re we talking about this earlier nil money is kind of changing the whole dynamic here when it comes to college hockey because you can make a significant amount of money compared to what you might make in other junior leagues etc you can take top NCAA teams with older 23 24 year old players and you would beat some lowerend American League teams now
just because of the physicality difference
i can see that
and the strength can you imagine being 18 years old big man on campus with $2 million in your bank account pretty awesome
i mean that’s Yeah I guess I’m going to I’ll probably go to sleep thinking about that tonight that’s And you still have to show up to class yeah come on no I’m just kidding yeah I know yeah they were strict on class i I played a year in junior college and then I was in North Dakota for for a minute two semesters to be exact but they’re very strict on your grades they they really are and you have you have somebody follow I I I’d heard all this stuff about football players getting away with stuff and basketball players getting away with stuff or and then I was kind of under the impression the hockey players got away with that stuff too but it was not the case i actually had to pass classes and I had to go to classes and I mean I got degrees so I guess it turned out
you did your part hensler out of the national development program
okay
uh he’s a a late ‘ 06 that’s why he spent a year in college already a couple of goals 10 assists so didn’t blow up big numbers he’s 6’2 right shot D and uh he’ll go back and continue to develop i would see him probably there maybe even another couple of years
well they just said they listed the 62 i think he was a buck 98 in terms of his weight so he’s going to go back through that college program and he may emerge on the other side
at 210 215 once he finally hits the AHL or makes it to the NHL as well like that’s kind of the big thing with a lot of these guys they’ve got as you heard Bill Armstrong earlier say got to add weight and a lot of these guys coming out of juniors they’ve got weight that can succeed a level they’re playing at but as they make the leap up they’re gonna have to gain weight
it’s easier to gain muscle mass in college than it is playing junior hockey because of the schedule differences
to your point because you said you’re practicing Monday through Thursday it’s kind of like a college football schedule in many respects because college football you practice Monday through Thursday you take Friday off you play a game Saturday Sunday you recover and then you’re back at it and that’s what it’s hockey it’s Friday Saturday you play two games but you still have all week to train your body for
and lift and correct you know do all work on pio and speed and footwork and Yeah it’s one of those things all right um so let’s take another timeout here we’ll come back on the other side we need to break this down uh we got LA Kings on the clock right now with the 24th overall selection here in the first round uh just a reminder tonight is just the first round of this entry draft tomorrow will be rounds 2 through 7 starting at 10:00 a.m mountain time i am always interested in pick number 61
why i was number 61 in 1977 i knew it was coming all right so we’ll get uh more in a moment this is your NHL draft round table right here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone the Utah Mammoth push to the playoffs begins tonight you’re locked on the Utah Mammoth NHL draft night roundtable show on 975 the KSL Sports Zone welcome back to your NHL round NHL draft round table here on 975 the KSL sports and we got another trade uh that just went down the LA Kings trading out of the 24th selection giving it to the Pittsburgh Penguins uh the Kings move back to the 31st pick and I Kevin I think you saw did they pick up one or two extra picks as two 60 there was two other ones I think listed I
late 50s and 70s maybe so they they move back and allow Pittsburgh to come back in to the first round here with another pick because they
Kyle Dub is active
they’re 31 and 59 thank you Christian christian
there you go
this is why Christian he’s on this TV that’s why he’s on this thing but like he he Here’s the thing he’s able to just kind of bam here you go so they pick 31 and they got 59 picked to drop back and allow Pittsburgh to jump up this is kind of the interesting part of the draft here is you’re seeing these teams kind of maneuver the board because I think they see guys on the board and they’re jumping back in to grab guys before before another team might snap them up or team jumping out because their guy’s gone
exactly so they’re like “Hey you know what we don’t mind dropping back here.”
You know Utah did that last year to pick up Coin
correct yeah they jumped back up and picked him up
is another player that we I talk about all the time i I you know I did play with his dad when his dad was a Utah Grizzly uh back in the AHL days and just a phenomenal family and this kid is also a bigbodied kid with a lot of sandpaper to his game and also
he play in the middle
yeah he does
there you go two in a row
it’s not It’s not that I just salivate over centers or anything either though but I think actually I think he moved to wing i know he was a center when got drafted but I thought
I wanted to say he might be a wing now i think they may have made the positional switch with him but uh we got the pick coming in here with uh Pittsburgh got a young buck making the announcement here i don’t even know who that is but I don’t know who half these people are my wife makes fun of me all the time like she’s like “You may be the oldest like 38-year-old I’ve ever met in my entire life because I don’t do well with like pop culture stuff.”
Is that Al is that uh Alex Latang is that Chris Latang’s son
oh it’s got to be
okay that Yeah that would make sense 24th overall selection what are they going with will Horov out of Michigan so another NCAA kid there you go yeah so former National Development Program kid
now uh you know more about this national development program i think Kevin Jay you probably have a thought on this as well how how impactful has that been and h how different do you think it’ll be going forward as we’ve already talked about with the NIL impact in college hockey it’s going to decimate it
i’m probably the wrong guy to ask okay because I’ve never been a fan of this program okay this program exists for two reasons first round draft picks and win the U8 Worlds
okay
so last year I think they won the U8 Worlds but they had gone six years five or six years without winning it and there’s been years where they don’t get any first round draft picks i have I have no problem with that being a goal of it of
you know like I I want us to win those
the World Juniors
but but it’s it’s interesting they put together an all-star team from you fill in the blank Sweden
and they’ll come and knock them off a team that’s played 70 games together so that’s not a great
Not anymore
so
we got the gold we’re ready to go
it’s it’s an interesting thing i think that the program is going to get hurt like uh you had uh Schaefer Gordon Carol on what last month with plays he’s an 08 medicine hat he turned the national uh development program down to go play Canadian Junior
he opted for junior high he opted for the Canadian Junior League before all this hit the fan last October or Yeah october November
he had already walked from the national development team and was offered a spot went to Canadian Junior already so he’s going uh by the way the ’08s are going to Buffalo next week Amherst New York for their for the USA Hockey development camp and they choose the Ivan Helena team out of that i would
strongly speculate he’ll be a part of the Ivan Helena team uh this coming summer
so that would be nice for us yeah get a Utah kid out there
sure yeah and I think this is some of the stuff when we we talk about
these programs and we were we had Trevor Lewis on the show when we when all this started and we talked about how he had to leave home so early and you we keep talking about the the they keep talking about him going to Brighton High he he he played the summer league Brighton uh the Brighton summer league for Brighton High i don’t think he actually went to Brighton High i’ll have to double check with him i swear he said he didn’t but um and double checking Coin is still playing center oh he is still center still hasn’t just I I I saw something a while ago that had him listed as a center left wing or just a forward but yeah he still played center but I think these there’s so many changes going on right now with the NIL and you’re seeing junior leagues fall and all of us this is when Utah finally gets to be involved in some stuff where we thought we knew the road map before and a road map was always to get our kids over into Colorado or you know LA or for a while it was even Arizona when uh Claude Lemieux was out there running his stuff he was putting a lot of kids out there and some of our kids went out and grew up and played with Austin Matthews and that we thought we had this road map
of how we get to the pros and it just seems like every time we get it figured out it gets shaken up quite a bit so I hope what happens here in Utah is we’re going to get more ranks we’re going to get more development we’re going to figure stuff out and then hopefully all this NIL stuff rattles out because if we it’s it’s screwing up major juniors it’s it’s going to change everything hopefully we still have the USHL hopefully we still have the development
ushl is not going away it’s just diminished
i was going to say it’s probably just going to get it’s going to drop in terms of importance if Yeah
so by the way Will Horcraftoft played for the national development team and left at Christmas time
oh
this year and went to Michigan
okay
so his dad Sean Horcraftoft finished his career in Anaheim played a little over a thousand games in the NHL so
so he’s got good bloodlines there you go he followed in dad’s footsteps that hey Seth Jones had great bloodlines but dad was a basketball player and
fair enough yeah
and uh and he chose hockey
one of my favorite things about like professional sports is you see crossover of different sports when I like I think I’m a kid of the 90s so Ken Griffy was my favorite baseball player growing up none of his kids played baseball they played football he’s got two sons who were wide receivers of University of Arizona and one I think they ended up going to Miami at some point or something like that so it’s always funny to me how the you Yeah there you go yeah flash in the U but the the thing is I love Seth Jones dad’s a basketball player he ends up hockey it’s just it’s
Yeah caleb Jones as well plays for the Blackhawks
exactly all right got a man in studio who has been on this all night long Mr cole Bagley cole how are you sir
good how are you guys
doing all right thanks for stopping by
yeah of course
uh now I know we had you on earlier uh but I didn’t get a chance to talk to you about this and I think we got a new audience obviously cycling through here uh give us your initial impressions on the Denoi selection by the Utah Mammoth here yeah he was a guy that um you know as I jumped into this whole process and was studying highlights and film and um you know trying to to speak with sources and whatnot he was a guy that um caught my eye early on um you know when I did my final rankings I actually had him at number two
um just beneath Porto Martone and I said you know it’s it’s close between these two players um and obviously they they really liked um what do offers which is um a complete 200 foot game from a centerman um you know he’s 6’2 he doesn’t shy away from his game physically um he’s very um I think he’s very talented offensively as well um you know his ability to create um to score to to find his teammates to open space um obviously one of the the premier players in the draft to be selected at four um and I think what stands out the most about Denoier is his performance in the the QMJHL playoffs 30 points in 19 games um for a while there he was uh averaging similar stat lines to um Sydney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon guys you know who had competed in that tournament in years past and and had excelled so you know playoff MVP uh you know and Utah you know was able to take care of their needs size and scoring caleb Caleb Denoier yeah I I agree cole good to see you by the way
yeah good to see you too Jay it’s uh I don’t I I think you and I have a lot of talks about who we thought they were going to draft and and why and you know I think you and I were both higher on you were high on Porter as well
for the just for the grit part I I thought you know there were other good choices and Dino fits the mold better as a as a second line center and that’s what I I’ve probably said it way too many times on this show but I
the phrase of the night tonight from everybody’s listening to the show second line center go ahead J
but it’s what we’re missing it truly is what we’re missing and
you know when when you start building a team you have to have so many different personalities and so many different specialties and uh JP Perez used to always compare it to building a house and I’m not going to fake a French accent but JP used to always tell us like you you need an electrician you need a carpenter you need all these different you know people to come in with their specialties and build a house well when you’re filling out those roster spots and you look at who we have like we put Logan Culie who’s a really solid you know scoring forward i don’t think Logan Culie really loves the the the pressure not just the pressure like the the responsibility and the physicalness of having to get back and mark the number one guy on the other team he wants to be on line one and he wants to be scoring with line one that’s what Logan Coulie is built to do and that’s what he wants
so I’m going to ask you a question
okay
how’s Alexander Barov do
as a second line center he gets as a f topline center
yeah he’s like I said he’s probably the most
Chuck do how does Bennett do they all buy in to the team concept and we’re going to defend we’re going to block shots but we have a lot of offensive K they scored 4.8 goals a game in the playoffs I believe
but it’s not like all four lines are doing the same job they’re they’re all in the same system
the top three were
they’re all in the same system but you know exactly what you’re going to get with like I said Barkov’s always going to be like the way the way Florida built their team and I’ve been saying this for four years now three four years the way they built their team and to have the coahones to trade
good job
it took That took a long time i was at the fire is that allowed i
Oh I No that one’s okay i can see the gears moving in his head i’m like how do I get this you got it okay look I’m not even out of uniform yet i was running late i’ve been at the firehouse for the last
He still did you unified fire authority gear
well I switched out of my duty shirt at least but yeah to to get rid of Hubo who was you know you to make that move and to bring in Kachchuck that that just took so much vision let’s go with that it took so much vision to bring in Kachchuck for Hubo and if you go back and look at all the media after that everybody wanted the GM’s head what’s it not Zo what’s his uh
Bill Oh Dale Talon everybody wanted him
dale Talon made that trade
yeah so everybody everybody in Florida was like “We need a new GM.” And now who’s GM of the year every year right you have to have guys that fill the spot you can have equally talented people and they can all somewhat buy in but you have to have somebody there’s there’s an X factor to playing each position where you you just have maybe a little bit bit more of a read on where a guy’s going to go if you’re going to be defendative or where where you can beat a guy if you’re going to take him offensively like there’s that’s what’s the difference between a first line and a second line center to me and that’s the way I’ve always been taught it and I think I’ve had some of the greatest coaches in the history of the game so I I feel pretty pretty lucky to to had the experience I’ve had and I’ve just tried to absorb it and steal it if you will for my own benefit coaching or whatever don’t ever underestimate the power of having Rick Dudley on your hockey staff he is a senior executive to Bill Zitto
okay he built the Blackhawks and didn’t get the credit stan Bowman got the credit yeah
he’s the He’s the talent evaluator
for the Blackhawks when they won the three cups he’s the talent evaluator now for the Panthers as well and And Rick Dudley he’s quiet he’s behind the scenes he’s 74 years old now 75 years old but uh they do have the coahones to make deals so
and obviously so does Utah well and I think if you look at what Utah’s done since the summer started with players going out the door and players coming in the door right you look at the players going out Buchstead Bortuzo Caronei Don Kessle Ring players coming in um you know Peturka Bo Simichev and now Denoy they are assessing their needs they’re adding size they’re adding scoring they’re getting bigger they’re getting younger at the same time and they’re taking it more seriously and I think they’re trying to you know replicate in a sense what’s working right now which is Florida which is size which is you know brute force and past hockey and and that type of style obviously they need to get a little bit bigger because now you look at their top six six guys it’s it’s Logan Culie Clayton Keller Dylan Gunther Purka Schmal Tatton they need to be a little bit bigger but I think that’s why you saw them keep the fourth overall pick and make their fourth overall pick by selecting a centerman that can bring that size that can bring that grit is Buestad gone for sure he’s UFA are they gonna
I anticipate he’s he’s gonna leave
he’s a big strong fan his comments when the exit interviews essentially made it sound like he’s like it’s made it sound like he was on his way to find another team i’ll just put it that way now Cole I want to get your thought on this because you talk about how uh Florida big physical team but I think the other thing that gets underrated about Florida their adaptability now they like to impose their style on teams but if another team is going to impose their Florida can play any which way it feels like any team wants to play them
does that make sense
well Florida’s a forch check team they are
they’re not a zone entry team but they they they rim pucks and pound the other team defense
they will That’s the rim
they can it can adapt to it though at the same time like they’ve been able to absorb when other teams have been able to kind of get after them they’ve absorbed that pressure it feels like more better than almost any team out there because obviously with backto-back cups now
well I think Utah did a pretty good job of that this last season
and that’s kind of my point i like Do you feel like Utah’s building that ability
yeah for sure i mean if you look at how many one-goal games they were in last season how many overtime games they were in unfortunately a lot of those you know were were you know chocked up as overtime losses which was a big difference in them not making the playoffs right they finished like what eight points out from that final wild card spot so yeah I think they’re trying to build that adaptability um in terms of their roster and again you have to consider and I think that Bill’s vision is really kind of coming into fruition now people are trying are starting to catch on to what he’s doing um which is you know consider the Purka deal rather than you know trying to enter the sweep stakes of Marner or Eers or Besser you go out and you make a trade for a guy that’s 23 that fits your timeline right this team’s not trying to win a Stanley Cup next season or even the season after that or in three years from now it’s probably like Bill has said multiple times over the last couple of weeks you’re winning cups when your top guys are 26 27 28 29 so give this team another four five six seasons when you know Kulie and Gunnar and and Purka and Agla and Bodwan and now Denoy are all coming into their stepping into that prime you know time of their careers that’s when there’s going to be sustainability and adaptability I think to what’s going on around them
and they’ve kept the flexibility alive as well
yeah that’s the other part about it if these kids all hit and they can play this team could be really good for a long time and that remains to be seen by the way
that does yeah that that’s kind of the next question that needs to be answered is okay
consistency
you know they just paid uh Purka 7.7 you know he’s 23 years old he scored 20 what seven goals this year 28
he had 68 points he had 41 assists and 27 goals
27 goals
does he step up into the mid-30s and can he do it year after year after year
that’s the question that remains all right we’ll continue to break this down you’ll get to hang around for another segment here Cole all right we’ll have more in a moment nhl draft round table uh Washington Capitals on the clock here 27th overall pick we’ll have more for you in a moment right here 975 the KSL Sports Zone with complete coverage of the NHL in the Utah Mammoth this is your NHL draft night roundtable show on 975 the KSL Sports Zone welcome in back well welcome back in I should say to the NHL draft round table here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone jake Hatch Cole Bagley Kevin McCloskey and Jay Stevens along for the ride here breaking things down uh Washington Capitals uh making an announcement here lynon is Lakovich from Mooja there you go mooja is one of the best city names in all of Canada
i’m no comment i’m just saying namewise jay you probably have an other thought on
I was with you i was with you
come on
i you know I watch a lot of Shoresy um there are other like draft picks in the last few years that still have the potential of making the team though like
Yeah
so there’s there’s a lot of stuff going on with the Mammoth i know we’re supposed to be talking about the draft but
No but you’re This is all draft related stuff because the thing about it is TJ Gilman last year the very first pick of the Utah was then hockey club now Utah Mammoth
well there’s a lot of people excited to see him finally now do we know what his status is Cole anybody any you guys know
uh I know he’s supposed to be ready to go by um training camp
okay i don’t know if I don’t know if we’re going to see him next week at I mean I would anticipate he’s here for dev camp but I don’t know if he’s taking the ice and I don’t know if he’s gonna take the ice for uh rookie camp and in the rookie showcase either that’s that’s to be to be seen because this is a kid coming off hip surgery yes like 18
you want to be really careful with that
yeah well but he’s one guy cole Budwis who I’ve already talked about uh we’ve got Maverick Lamaroo like
the prospects list for the Yeah
competitive
correct
and and you’re a young team too that
Logan Dylan Gunther Purka like wow this team is is incredibly deep and competitive and you know I was able to ask Bill Armstrong about that and he’s like look we’re we’re trying to make it competitive that’s good for us right because
iron sharpens iron
yeah exactly and you know I wouldn’t necessarily want to be one of those guys because you know you’re you’re getting top prospects you know top 10 top five picks over the last couple of seasons and you’re already starting to see some of those those those uh
those draft picks hit in Gunther and and and now you’re going well I got to find a way onto this team right so uh but I I think as as competitive as it as it is it’s very talented you know I think Kobo Dwan is was you know Jay and I were were watching him during training camp last season going “Is this kid going to make the roster this year?” Because he just um he elevated his game you know he played to those around him i think he has a very complete 200 foot game and you know he’s again it’s going into that that bigger bully style hockey um that’s that’s working and and producing championships and then again just a pure goal scorer
yeah i mean if you watched his highlights before he got injured every single night it was just something of individual brilliance where he’s lighting the lamp so
was he on the wing at the start of this season or back in the middle
i think he was I think he was on the wing
yeah he was on the wing
but he could end up being a center
so
it’s funny we last year we interviewed him at the draft he said “Oh I much rather play center.” And like we’re JJ and Alex and I are looking at each other like why he scored 50 goals on the wing why would you go back in the m middle
go where you’re going to get paid
right so interesting yeah
so I just pulled up a list of the last six years of of draft picks and there’s just so many good picks that should be ready to come off the vine right um we’re seeing we’re seeing boot and Michev getting a chance but you’ve still got Lamaru and uh that Maximillan Zuber that they’re still high on that’s you know and well Rabble who’s
Krabble yeah my rival just turned down a contract i know and I don’t I don’t know
he’s expected to sign he The plan was always to go back to UMass is what I’ve been told to play another year and he’s expected to sign next season
so I I wonder how does that impact like they need to find another goalie cuz I don’t know
that’s I I was going to ask you about that we’ve already discussed this earlier
you guys sit over there well I just you know obviously you you can’t you can’t just plan on Ingram being healthy and and ready to play you got to plan for the worst case scenario what I’ve been told is they’re going to look for a goalender
okay
it’s been all over the all over the media that they’re going to look for another goalender
i don’t think they’re looking for a starter though
i I I hope they’re not and I and I know that we I would like to see this is this is the only reason I was saying that you weren’t in here before cuz we’ve been talking about it for a while and I’m a go I’m a goalie sympathizer
right
but I want I want to see Matty V get a chance and I want to see Stalber get a chance
i don’t think they’re going to
be a backup and we still have Thalen in the ECHL who’s been down there plugging away for a chance to get pulled up
so you can look we looked at it you can go out and get another backup for 2 million a year you can do it right now there there are several really good UFAs out there
jake Allen
i don’t want Jake Allen
but Kevin’s like “Yes
but he could bridge the gap
could he not?” You You have Kevin’s so happy to have you here now okay you You just locked in you got Har You got Rael coming up and what I’ve been told is that they they’re pretty high on this kid
everybody’s phenomenal
he could be the goalie of the future for the Mammoth and so I think you need a backup and a backup to bridge the gap between now and when Rel’s ready to go
so how many years do you want two or three
two or three
okay so So yes you could get Jake Allen how old is he 52 like me
34
okay
samson off
samson off vladar those are names I’m fine with this is hilarious hold on this is like listening all night
kevin
I’m just smart like you are
this is This is awesome cuz this like these are the names Kevin pulled out of his throat
i was in that seat jay was here in order to like JJ and Alex what do they need they need a goalie
and the names you were throwing out are the exact names you’ve thrown out here this is awesome
but I I like Gorgio i think that’s I think that’s a good check i I think Vanichek could come in and be good i think there’s a lot of other
What about an offer sheet for the Ducks uh
Gibson
no um the check
do they’re not they’re not going to come up that’s that’s their future
they’re not getting Docsel
zero chance if you paid him $82 million a year the Ducks are matching it
gibson’s
and that’s over the cap
sure
gibson’s up like they’re ready to trade or deal with Gibson and I think somebody like Edmonton would take a chance on Gibson
um that’s the only place I could see him going really right now i know there’s some other teams talking about looking for goalenders i
I heard Toronto maybe possibly be looking for them gibson is the first place people look right now yeah for goalenders that might be available but Vladar you could get for two million for a couple years you could get uh
Yeah that’s I’m going to just stay with that because James Rhyr’s out there Optimus Rhyme but he’s again he’s in that same category with Allen they’re older
right
but
I think you look for a bridge contract two three years that gets you through it you know Veggie obviously going to take most of the starts anyways
sure but then you you add Rabbel at at the point that hopefully you’re starting to be you know a a contender not maybe not serious in two or three years but you’re starting to maybe get into that second third round so I think it could make a lot of sense i you know
the pick is in
oh we have one for the Jets
yes
i’m not even I this one that’s why I said that i
Sasha Bumadian bumadian
that’s way better than I would have done
there you go
and I watched that just had to throw that out christian had I know you were listening to it in there oh you don’t even hear it either okay
bumadian but he’s a defenseman out of BEu but he is from I think I saw
I think he’s Finland
finland yeah so
but yeah
so I just wanted to throw that out the pick was in i wanted to see how you take a shot at that one that’s the 28th pick going to Winnipeg to the
So Cole we’ve had this ongoing discussion all night
okay
okay the discussion is about for me they’re all looking for I’m looking for a 1A and a 1B yeah
you got Veggie at a 1A i think you need a 1B
i don’t think Veggie’s resume is long enough and deep enough that you’d put all your eggs in one basket with him they’ve paid him i agree i still think you need a 1A and a 1B to get to that three-year mark and we’ll we’ll see what how it unfolds i do would get matched
probably
by the Ducks 100% uh well I don’t know anything actually every time I think I know something Billar pulls and I played together our draft year
okay
and he he coached he’s the winningest all-time American Hockey League head coach he took over the Ducks for one year after he got finally lost his job in San Jose and he said the only prospect he had there was Dostel
okay their whole American League team they had nobody this is about three years ago okay well have you guys Sorry to switch subjects on you
have you guys talked about the whole Brad Marshian interest going on supposedly i kind of want to bring this up as well cuz Marshian’s 37 years old so he’s looking at two or three years could he be a guy that you bring in to be to be that veteran leader for a young squad
i would
I would never bring him in as a leader
on this team i I would bring him in for his experience i’d bring him in I would like him to play the same role he played in Florida yep the same role that he played for team Canada
i would like him to come in and be like an accessory and I I’m sure you’ve all seen that thing he’s like “You guys are fun to watch.”
Yeah
he wasn’t playing like he played in Boston he wasn’t playing even this last year where he grew up a ton and he acted like a more mature hockey player finally towards the end of his career he stopped licking guys and stuff i I wouldn’t bring him in and want him to lead cuz I like the culture that the Mammoth have right now and I
But they need more GL
he would help that but they need more grit I guess to your to Jay’s point he doesn’t have to be the the leader but he comes in and adds to your point the great the the fight the tenacity that you’re looking for
cuz he he’s a smaller guy
he is
who better to come in and teach your smaller top six
how to succeed
how to succeed and be obnoxious like Yeah do I think he needs to be licking guys out there no no but he gets under other teams skin and Utah needs that they didn’t do that enough this last season
yeah they didn’t do it at all they had McBain that was really all they had
yes come and teach Culie and and Keller and um you know Gunther and Purka how to be annoying
and with the capace that Utah has they could have they could pay him because he’s a guy who didn’t start making money till later on i think he was 27 before he really kind of broke out with the Bruins so there’s been some talk that he’s trying to cash in one more time to catch up in terms of the career earnings
compared to other guys who probably made a lot more money earlier on in their career right could Utah pay out
out outbid
outbid anybody to pay him for two or three years where he gets that money he’s looking for does that make
it starts to get tough with entering free agency this next week because I think they have like 15 million after the Purka deal you got you got to pay Logan Kley now obviously that doesn’t kick in until next season but it’s going to
but it’s going to be I think somewhere between eight and nine but McBain still is paid too
yeah and they got to bring back McBain
i don’t think you can pay Marshott 8 or $9 million i don’t know that you can either and I don’t think you can go more than two years when you fall off at a 37 year old when you fall off the table
you drop like a rock in terms of of conditioning and and uh
but with the goalkeeper we’re talking about like a bridge
that could be Marshall he’s a bridge to where these guys get to where they’re starting to really kind of emerge he steps away but he’s put his imprint on this
i mean Bennett Sam Bennett just got what eight by eight
eight by eight yes
marian doesn’t deserve eight
no no
maybe five five sam Bennett’s careerhigh is in points
i don’t I
this year 15 it was okay
51 points
he just hit his career high then okay
well he had a career playoff too
correct
15 goals winner yeah
won two cups so he got paid on that
could have been so beautiful
um so I It’s interesting the Marshian things I’ve been thinking about that for quite some time
i like it
i’d be intrigued
i like it all the other media outlets seem to be saying that Marian’s standing here right now with a contract in his hand offered from Utah Boston
and Toronto
edmonton Toronto and Florida so and Edmonton just don’t care
right i think I think it more so is probably you know if Utah does put a contract in his hand I think it more so would come down to
is that the role Marshian wants to finish out with like
that’s why he won’t go to Boston
yeah like Boston’s going to full rebuild
i wouldn’t touch Toronto either
i agree
the the whole thought with the Toronto thing as I understand it is well if you can’t beat him sign him because that’s thing Toronto has been knocked out by Marian’s
for Marian but they just gave Tavvar four years he’s 3 well they got to pay nice they got to pay Matthew nice
that’s that that’s the concern
that’s going to be hard because he’s up for offer sheets too
i ultimately think Marshon stays in Florida i think he gets two years
four years will be gone he pays no state income tax he saves a you know saves a million bucks a year in state income tax and and I think he stays there
well that’s the funny thing about the NHLPA they they were saying we can’t do anything about the income tax still and that’s just it
well I liked uh everybody’s response to it and you know where were you guys where were you guys when Florida sucked and where Tampa sucked you had the same tax
h how’s Seattle doing how’s that working out they have income tax
exactly yeah if that were such a big deal the crack could be rolling right
you know why it’s good now for Florida cuz they’re winning and they can keep guys because of
Bingo yeah exactly all right let’s take a time out here we’ll come back uh getting near the end we’re at the 28th pick carolina’s on the clock their clock actually just ran out so I’m assuming the pick will be coming soon more in a moment nhl draft round table here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone the Utah Mammoth push to the playoffs begins tonight you’re locked on the Utah Mammoth NHL draft night roundtable show on 975 the KSL Sports Zone welcome back to the NHL draft round table here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone jay Stevens Kevin McCloskey Cole Bagley Jake Hatch breaking things down here uh Utah Mammoth picking Caleb Deada with the fourth overall selection we kind of been monitoring stuff there’s been some trades coming in and out but Utah’s not been involved in any of them so far uh Chicago just traded back into the first round and Kevin you saw the details on this was it was they swapped is that what it was
well I don’t I didn’t see the second part of it i know that Carolina traded the 29th pick to Chicago i didn’t see them pop the
Yeah so Chicago got the 29th overall while Carolina gets 3462nd in a 2027 fifth rounder
okay so three picks
three picks for one
all right there you go so uh there’s been and there’s been a handful of these here in this kind of final 10ish picks because there’s a lot of these teams maybe seeing a guy and to your point Kevin some of them may their guy may be off the board so they’re willing to trade back as a result so there’s a lot of machinations going back and forth here all right uh Cole while we still have you and you brought up in the break I want to ask you this question as we look forward here because Utah the Mammoth the goal now is to make the playoffs you’ve been a broken record on this they got so close in that first year it would have been awesome to see him break through but now the goal is this year is to break through and make it into the playoff field now the West looks like it’s got a lot of good teams who aren’t keen on
going anywhere
yeah so you’re going to have to claw your way into that discussion so what’s it going to take
well I think as we were talking about earlier you you’re you’re starting to see what Bill is is building and I think based on even what he’s done at this point we haven’t even stepped into free agency yet i think what he’s done at this point Utah might be good enough to clinch a wild card spot you know a season from now and you know that obviously that’s going to take some work on their end that’s going to take some more jumps sure but I anticipate that you’re probably gonna see you know a jump from Logan Coulie of 10 to 15 points maybe he gets over 80 same with Dylan Gunther you know can Purka take another you know 10 to 12 jump and get to that 80 point benchmark and then does does Kulie or excuse me does does Keller you know do the same thing where he’s between 90 and 100 if nothing else they get those jumps and and also by adding Simichev and and boot
Utah very well could be a playoff team as of right now they could be so they miss the playoffs by seven points if your goalending holds up and they to your point Cole they get a second goalie that can contribute the goalending could win you the seven points
yeah it could but that’s if the number is 96 right
could be 94 could be 98 the I think the goalending if you got to you got to continue to progress but the goalending is going to be the key and defending better
yes
they must defend better be curious to see how Simiche does and he’s a big boy he’s got 150 games in the KHL which is just as good as the American League in many cases so he’s probably NHL ready
and you know how does he step in and compete so if they defend better and they get goalending I think the playoffs are very attainable
wonder if they can stay healthy i mean the defensive issue was losing Jersey for twothirds of the year and Marino for more than half like that did not help him now injuries are always going to happen but if you can stay a little bit more healthy than you were a season ago
you know that’s like we’re talking about I think they’ve made the steps they need to and you know just a few more polishes around the around the edges adding another goalender and and maybe another signing or two in free agency you know because it to me they’re starting to really cut off you know all of the the players that underperformed you know if Bstead really is out he underperformed if Carone is out he underperformed you know if they do end up moving Machelli he underperformed correct so so you’re getting rid of that kind of the the dead weight if you will and adding you know guys that that had great seasons and and are are showing a lot of promise
i think this team is going to be even closer than they were to making the playoffs
if you look back to where we were at this time last year well let’s go back a week from where we were like a week from this right and we everybody was like our our needs for the team everybody was talking about the Utah Mammoths or let’s go back to Utah hockey
the Utah hockey club
the Utah hockey club needs defense defense was the big deal the year before and they went out and they addressed it way more than anybody expected it blew everybody away and the defense was there and then the first few games you saw the potential of what the team could have been and then you had injuries to you know Marino and Jersey completely changed the way the team had to play they they went from that that run and gun fun offense that we were seeing the first few games to more of a defensive style game
and so that hurt but the thing that we just did that bringing in Purka the other the other major problem we had was our power play just fizzled out right how long what we went like 14 straight without a without a power play goal 14 straight power plays without a power play goal
but then towards the end of the season they figured it out
i don’t I wouldn’t say they figured it out i I’d say they were getting some goals but I’d still say we weren’t deceptive we weren’t scoring the goals we should be
i think they were 15th or 16th by the end of the year
yeah and now now that you have threats on both sides yes goalending is if we have better goalending that’s going to help if we if our power play and our goalending and we don’t have to switch to a defensive system like we’ve talked about so like Hans was talking earlier that he had a a guest on that’s like “No Utah’s not going to make it because St louis isn’t going to be worse and and Calgary is not going to be worse.” Well I think we got I think we got better enough to pick up those points that we’re going to go on a few runs and I I don’t I don’t think we’re looking for a wild card i think we’re holding on to a spot
like I I really truly do and I know that I I famously thought we were going to make it last year too and I and uh you know we didn’t so but I really truly believe with the moves they’ve already made in the growth that our players have had Gunnar’s got another year experience koulie’s got another year experience right we’re we’re maturing in the right ways and now we’re going to get I really think we see more production off the power play with Purka on the right and and Gunnar on the left
yeah the
Do you put him on the top or do you
who
Purka or do you spread that out into the second because the second power play in it was atrocious
no I definitely put him on I I definitely put him on power play one on the right side i I think and I I’m a coach as long as as Kevin has but when you have if your power play one is solid enough and you still have pieces for power play two but if your power play one is solid enough like that and is more of a threat and you’re in that 20 to 30 or 25% range you don’t your power play two should not be seeing the ice very much
yeah you believe fullheartedly in power play one i think you have your Keller is your main quarterback of power play one you have those two gunners on the side keller stops with the fake slap shot so when they get tired after 50 seconds who goes on
i’ve got power play through for you hold on
so playing devil’s advocate though a little bit where where does Keller operate from because he likes to operate from that right side
i know he likes to be on the right side and that’s where Purka sets up his shop i know and you’ve got gun enough suit on the left side
so where does Keller go keller goes right in the middle it has to be the bumper
okay
actually I’d have Keller back as D have sir have Sergev and Keller back on
running the show back there and and down low interesting
or in front of the net
cuz Kulie would go behind the net most of the time
he would yes
and Keller would feed him down low and they try to then feed somebody in the slot or go out to the wings
assuming we stick with the bumper power play like we had all last year like every NHL team seemed to want to run last year i think that’s the way it works best and yeah I know your your power play unit gets tired
27th of June yes
Peter has been in the fold for three days
i’ve got a lot of water to go under the bridge before we’re determining who’s on the top power play the second power play
our MVP okay so back to the draft for a second you want to talk about this too i was going to talk about this so Mason West just went and he is a 6’6 centerman out of Adina High School he’s already won a state championship in hockey
and he by the way he’s a three-star quarterback
no so hold on he’s actually going to He last year he played for the Fargo Force in the USL
he left the Force to go back and play high school hockey and to play quarterback on the team he threw 37 touchdowns four interceptions he’s doing the same thing this year
this kid’s a first round pick
to come back and try and win a state football champion Dina which is the big powerhouse by the way there’s an acronym for Adina every day I need attention
well he looks like he’s in middle school i was going to say but that’s
this is the new This is the next pick
ravensburg
so he’s 66 but he uh he’s won a state championship in hockey he’s going back to try and win a state championship in football
you want to see his offer list from from college football i run down
i need I need that give me that
he’s a three-star prospect cal Illinois Iowa Minnesota Penn State Syracuse Wisconsin and some MAC schools along well if hockey doesn’t work out he’s got options
he’s got options
well he’s committed to go to Michigan State michigan State for
offer him in football no no michigan State dual threat athlete correct give me the first NHL NFL player oo that’d be fun that’d be And he’s got the Oh he’s baseball
that’s baseball then you had Drury and a bunch of
Drury was drafted
did you say NFL
nfl and NHL that’d be fun give me the combo sounds like Yeah exactly this kid this
photos hockey
he’s list I saw him listed 66 he’s listed 6’5 here 218 lbs like you’re talking like
if you’re He’s a big kid
he’s a big boy
if you’re driving down the 15 now and you’re about 22 years old and you don’t know who Bo Jackson is go home and look him up
yes look him up yeah well Deion Sanders you want to get even closer to here Danny A obviously Utah Jazz CEO he played for the Toronto Blue Jays while he was still playing college basketball for
making a million bucks a year and then playing basketball for BYU on the side and oh by the way had a nice layup in the end
yeah exactly elite 8 run and whatnot
yeah no big deal anyways but I just saw that story i’m like man quarterback and a center
all right give Jay G so yeah give Jay just took a goalie out of Prince George in the Western Hockey League
oh is that the first the Ravensburg goalie taken yep who took him
ravensburg and he went to Kings or No Sharks took him
so
Sharks Sharks go through goalies like crazy
i have a question I want to pose for you
okay
who is going to have a bigger impact on their organization ace Bailey or Caleb Denoier um okay impact meaning what
whatever you want it to mean
ace Bailey
i was going to say Ace Bailey that’s where the jaws dropped no no Ace Bailey is the first round pick ace Bailey is a hockey player that died on a 911 playing so Ace Bailey was he was the number five overall pick in the NBA draft for the Utah Jazz
i will say Ace Bailey simply for this fact he’s actually going to be on the Jazz roster whereas Denoier we don’t know what he’s going to do so that that in of itself is going to
Isn’t it interesting though like
and I think it’s be I think Utah fans are just having to really like become accustomed to this NHL thing absolutely it’s way more like the Major League Baseball where you take a kid you don’t see him for a couple years whereas yeah Ace is going to come in and he might be your franchise player in October
two or three years
i think even October
yeah I I could see that by the way did you see this by the way Cole roger McQueen taking 10th overall by the Anaheim Ducks they put him on a helicopter helicopter to Disneyland
yeah so he’s at Disneyland right now like taking pictures and doing the meet and greet thing jeez
it was funny to see how many Agenda jerseys were you know purchased right away and in the stands and even available like some of the first jerseys available on like the knockoff
but that that’s the thing i think we’re it’s a we are an NBA city is it was for so long that they were so used to guys get drafted in the NBA they’re on the senior like they’re on the roster whereas hockey it’s more you mentioned baseball where they’re they go away for one two three years before you ultimately see them emerge but to Jay’s point people were like “Oh a ginla first round pick where is he
get his jersey let’s go.”
Well it’s funny they had to stop so when they when they got the jerseys here Yeah people people you know you could customize them so people started doing a ginla and the people doing the customizations didn’t know that you couldn’t put his name on on the back of that sweater you have to make an appearance for that team to have to be able to sell it so they had to put a stop there’s a couple people that got There some contraband jerseys out there there are some Yeah there were a couple i saw one like I I we had just done the whole media thing and I’m walking out and I see the guy at the front of the line he and he puts the the the lady writes a note and it says a ginlon i was like “Okay you’re getting away with one.” But I’m like “What number are you putting on there
you don’t know what he’s going to wear.”
That’s a good point yeah you don’t
24
oh what does dad wear because Gunther wears 11
24
yeah maybe 2024 drive
yeah yeah sure
what’s funny the firefighter at my station ordered uh an Agenda jersey and it came out came up short it’s iglina
iguana of course it is that’s so good
that’s that’s a T-bu special right there
exactly what it was yeah
it’s awesome it’s even funnier because he’s such a he’s he’s from Cal the firefighters are from Calgary
yeah so we getting obviously
he was pretty pumped he was all excited about it and then ordered it and it’s like nope who do we got to announce in the pick here
you know what one thing I’ve noticed there’s a lot of empty seats in that building
yeah well the the even when they started cuz I saw the crowd shot at one point i’m like that’s not
I don’t like this format
well they were telling everybody not to come too
were you at the sphere last year
what was that like
amazing
this is terrible
yeah it was packed it was fun they knew that they knew they were going to have people there they weren’t after having fun here this they were just trying to cut everybody’s travel budgets and all that stuff but last year I’m telling you that that was one of my favorite
should be in this sphere every year
hey hey we’re bringing the NHL team hey you’re part of it hey go to Vegas and hang out with all the
Vegas is a destination city
do the first round in Vegas and then if you want to continue to cut the cost just don’t invite any of the second round through seven you know or or just do this for the second through seven round i just wonder if they can’t go back to Vegas because there’s some kind of statute of limitations thing for all this all the fun things that happened last year at the draft
oh that’s fair cuz it was a good time
everybody had a good time
but this is just this is just weird like this is just like they put them in that they put them in that room to talk to the front office all the guys like don’t know how to act
well Caleb Caleb was like “What did they say?”
Yeah well cuz Well I don’t know if you noticed on the TV broadcast when I was sitting outside the sound was off does that make sense like there was the the the and there was also lag time with the communications as you would expect cuz you know you’re dealing with IP lines and the like but
I think you got to go back to more of an
in well most most the media except for national guys didn’t travel and and thinking back to last year like watching the KSL sports because I wasn’t on board yet so watching the KSL sports coverage it looked like you know you guys were getting incredible interviews with Tigin Bill Armstrong and I think Marshon Lynch had like a little interaction with
Tee my phone you want to see it
yeah Like that’s what you miss out on now
yeah that’s that that’s the difference and so it’s it’s I don’t know i
It’s a one-year trial they’re going to assess like it feels like this will be changed going forward like
it sounded to me like it was going to be changed back
yeah it well here’s the thing is you had uh Gary Bman get up there right at the start says
we’re going to try we’re trying something new and you could tell it was like almost damage control like we know this is not going to go the way we kind of
I have a buddy there that’s that’s there though and he he met like it’s just free range he was talking to Porter Martone and he was talking to Misa and Schaefer he met uh James Hagen’s parents like so like that was cool for him but for the most part I think he’s kind of a dud how does it how does it work for the NFL they’re happy with this
nhl or NFL
nfl isn’t this how they do it
no the NFL is in person
mostly
Mostly NFL they they’re they they’re there in like they had in Green Bay this year and it was absolutely electric
i thought this is what they patterned it up or was it that they kind of patterned it after the maybe the NFL’s uh during the
the co during Yeah that’s how the NHL But the NFL’s gone back to fully in person oh okay thousands of people
i was told this was because this is how the NFL does it and it saves so much money with travel budgets
nfl is traveling everybody all of a sudden anymore because I’m telling you they were all in Green Bay and there were I think they I think they tripled the population of Green Bay for that weekend alone this year with the NFL draft
the 300,000 plus I think people showed up and so we’re coming on our last pick here so um Henry Brashevitz I don’t know it’s
pretty good he was the latest pick going to the Kings there uh so final uh pick of the first round final pick of the night we’ll go to the Calgary Flames and I I will say this though this has kind of been a cool thing that ESPN had family members show up something with the NBA draft the last two nights as well where you have the family members sit down with these guys as well to talk about the journey
schaers was really cool
yeah I agree um you know he got really emotional stepping into that room talking to the front office i love that they put the breast cancer awareness patch on his jersey for his mom
he’s crying his dad’s crying you get to hear from his brother like that that was really cool that was really cool
that stuff’s cool but yeah I just feel like the the front office personnel they need to be there
you need to be there it’s really weird that Bill Armstrong and Chris Armstrong are not shaking the hand of Deno and handing him the jersey
it sounds like they pretty much took care of that in his backyard though
it does they had him they had him for pizza or something like that on his way
they brought Nomad to the house they said walked him through the garage into the backyard
as we approach the final pick right now Calgary’s on the clock 10 years ago tonight
okay
in Sunrise Florida which is probably bitter for Conor McDavid conor McDavid was selected first overall
it’s been 10 years man that city just torments him doesn’t it and Jack Eel went second i was at the draft with my kids okay and uh they were I don’t know 13 and 12 or 11 but uh it was pretty cool having everybody there with McDavid running around they set up pods all the way around they’re doing autographs him and Jack were running around and uh
Connor’s over for two and Jack’s one and0
well Buffalo just keeps trading away players that win Stanley Cups
that’s why they get all these guys are getting out of purgatory we said that earlier so just to give you an idea of 2023 the the 2023 draft for the Arizona Coyotes just to let you know what’s still in the pipeline that everybody forgets but like we know who was drafted in 2024
but Simichev sixth overall boot 12 12th overall prable 38th overall nol Nord somebody they’re still high on uh 70th overall tatter Ludkkey Ter Terrell Goldsmith Melker Thalen the goalender um like there’s still a lot of players jonathan Castania from
and last year don’t forget about Gabe Smith
who just signed a two-way with with Utah well and
he was Caleb’s teammate
yeah one of my favorite players we’ve got we’ve got the last pick coming up but anyway I still think Owen Allard is a even though he was he was a late pick he blew my mind in that camp and he didn’t just and I’m I’m one that goes “Okay he blew my mind that’s just my mind sometimes I see the wrong stuff.” But I’m sitting next to two other NH former NHL players and we both saw him on the ice we both saw him do some stuff and we both we all looked at each other and we went that kid’s amazing
yeah he had a really good showcase
yeah like he’s phenomenal and I I think that’s a kid that could make the team
at some point yeah
all right let’s throw it out lanny McDonald Calgary Flames legend making the announcement of the final pick of the first round the final pick tonight look at that stash family you cannot get here without them with the 32nd overall pick in the 2025 NHL draft the Calgary Flames are proud to select from the Arizona State University Colin Potter there you go colen Potter fell from like the mid teens about two months ago to the last pick in the first round not as bad as Shador Sanders but
we talked about that earlier going from like maybe a top five to a fifth round pick but really like my favorite part of the NFL draft of this year
yeah there’s mom Jenny well just Jenny was just there but uh
now he’s a center 5’10 he’s not the tallest guy out there but uh
he played college hockey as a freshman
did he play with Josh
did he play with Don no he just went in this year
oh just this year yeah I think he just
and hit 13 goals I at the World Junior or at the World 18s last month that I saw him a lot
plays really well with the puck and a stick but man he’s got a lot to learn away from the puck
okay well
so doesn’t support the puck very well and there you go
must have a lot of upside to still go in the first round
sure and that’s the thing about this is like all these guys that first first round picks doesn’t matter if you’re first you’re still a first round pick same contract you’ll always have that on your resume that’s the nice part about All right well that is going to do it so I want to get final thoughts from all three of you real quick before we wrap things up so whatever you got what whatever you got off the chest before we wrap it up here let’s start with you Jay
i think the Mammoth made a great pick it wasn’t exactly the pick that I thought they were going to make i did have I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite but they did they did pick one of the two guys I thought they were going to pick and I was happy with both of them i can’t wait to see this kid i hope we get to see him Cole i hope you and I get to see him on Monday i hope he’s skating um I I think the Mammoth have made the moves they need to make i have a feeling we’re going to on July 1st something else is going to happen that we’re all going to be either shocked about or just really happy about i’ve learned to to trust what they do and I can’t wait to see the product that’s on the ice this year i can’t wait to see the the new revamped Delta Center and the practice facility i just this is all amazing and a lot of fun to see the NHL in Utah and it’s uh I think it’s just going to grow the sport it’s going to make your job easier and it’s going to make you know now now we have a job yep thank you thank you Ryan Smith for
Yeah so that’s my take
all right Kevin what do you got
i think Bill Armstrong is a rock star he is right
for bringing his first round pick in driving him into his garage rolling him into the backyard having pizza and not getting caught
only for what
i think that was the the line of the night well we’re not going to get caught he went in my garage
how many people are peeking over my bushes
when you’re in your backyard it’s it’s pretty undercover in Yalerest um there’s not too many people that were videoing over the bushes uh so it was pretty secure yeah we brought him into the garage and got him into the backyard and uh Yeah that must that must have been the day I wasn’t over
there’s nobody in any draft central around this league 32 teams
that had a story like that this year
yeah and it makes me chuckle because so I I cover a lot of college football byu down at their practice their practice for football have this hedro that’s uh along the I be the eastern no western side they have a crew of men who literally patrol it to make sure nobody’s peeking over that hedge so that just makes me chuckle because I I’ve se and I’ve seen people trying to peek over that hedge so I just it makes me chuckle cuz I can totally envision a scenario like that but it’s his backyard so it’s a little different story all right Cole what do you got for us
uh as I’ve said a couple times the vision’s clear um you know I was told going into this offseason they needed size and they needed scoring and they’re doing that purka you know and now Caleb Denoier now we’re probably not going to see this kid for a couple years but I like the pick um he adds size he adds scoring um he is uh I think one of the better playmakers in the draft and he’s got a lot of individual brilliance i’m excited to see what the future holds for him um you know is this a kid that’s going to go back to the juniors is he going to go play college hockey um and how long is it going to be before we see him on the ice uh looking forward like Jay said can’t wait to see you know how this kid performs um you know in in that NHL setting now I’m the neophite of the of the four of us here when it comes to hockey because you guys know I I come from more of a football background but I love this line from ESPN’s breakdown of Caleb Denoy it’s the final the final lines here as noted above there’s a lot of Jonathan Taves in Denoi’s game
that’s funny because he said that’s who he looks up to
if they get Jonathan Taves Oh yeah
i’m on board and Taves is an all-time legend
oh yeah like
well these kids don’t work like these kids work out and perform better the way they train their tight space games all the stuff they do so if you look up to Jonathan Taves and you put that in your game and then you go on the ice all the time with the new style of training you’re going to be the Jonathan Taves 2.0
sweet
well I posted a highlight of him tonight Caleb
and it I think it was the first goal of the of the final in the in the in the queue uh he dees one guy goes right up the slot deaks another almost loses the puck but keeps it on his stick and finds a guy right on the doorstep for a goal that is what you’re getting sweet i’m all for it i think it’ll be exciting time so yeah there will be a period before you finally see him but it just adds to an incredibly deep pipeline of talent that’s headed towards this squad which oh by the way is very young and already very talented in and of itself all right gentlemen thank you honestly it’s been fun i’ve Thank you for letting me kind of hang out with you i’ve learned a lot tonight just say that thanks for keeping us all in line
at 10:00 a.m tomorrow morning nhl Network rounds two through seven
two through seven yes
now Cole you know that I know this how many more picks do the Mammoth have is it five more i was like five two three four five six
one in each round yeah I’ve got
I don’t think they have a seventh
they don’t have a seventh round i thought they said one in each round they pick 14th through the rest of the rounds
i’ve got the picks here
they’ve got the 46 78th 110 142 and 174
so five more picks and now that could change obviously with trades and the like but that that’s what we’re looking at right now and uh Christian who’s producing for us tonight he and Alex uh will have they’ll be on the Saturday show tomorrow when this is going on the first little bit they’ll be able to react live to second round third round action as well we’ll have Cole check in too
cole’s going to check in with us there you go all right well for Jay Al Kevin and of course Cole and thank you to Christian i know that Alex has been hanging out all night thank you everybody for tuning in it’s been a ton of fun i have rounds two through seven tomorrow but uh Denoy number one
first mammoth ever
first mammoth ever i guess because you have Tisha Gimma who’s the first hockey club first ever pick now first ever Utah Mammoth pick caleb didn’t know
he he said he likes it he he was holding up with a big smile and grin on his face so first well there was two first round picks last year first and only Sure
utah Hockey Club first round picks last year one and done
there you go
there you go all right thank you to everybody for tuning in once again this has been your NHL hockey round table a big thank you to everybody for being involved right here on 975 the KSL Sports Zone
Alex Kirry, Jeremiah Jensen, Jay Stevens, Kevin McCloskey, Jake Hatch & Hans Olsen bring you the KSL Sports Zone NHL Draft Roundtable Show.
Listen in for analysis of the 2025 NHL Draft including the Utah Mammoth selection of Caleb Desnoyers 4th Overall. Also catch an exclusive interview with Caleb Desnoyers and hear Genral Manager Bill Armstrong’s thoughts on the selection.
2 comments
Drafting 18 year olds is a crap shoot. You never know what you'll get
JJ Peterka should thrive in Utah