The Utah Mammoth are being criminally underrated.
After narrowly missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, the consensus was that this team would be ready to take the next step and make the playoffs in 2025-26.
Related: Utah Mammoth’s 2025-26 Roster Projection 2.0: Post NHL Draft & Free Agency
However, throughout the summer, the typical ‘way too early’ power rankings and rankings of the Mammoth’s position groups do not match up with the public sentiment that they should be better this upcoming season.
Everything Went Wrong for Mammoth in 2024-25
Last season, the Mammoth finished as the 19th-best team in the NHL, marking this group’s fourth consecutive season of improvement in the standings since Andre Tourigny was hired to coach the Arizona Coyotes.
While a significant amount of improvement was expected last season, it was not easily come by with what the Mammoth had to battle through. To start, they began the season without John Marino, a key member of their top four defensemen. He did not play his first game of the season until mid-January. Next, they lost Sean Durzi, their other right-handed defenseman who plays in their top four, in the third game of the season. He did not return until late February. The Mammoth were also without Connor Ingram for the majority of the season, as he battled injuries and then entered the NHL’s Player Assistance Program following the death of his mother.
Andre Tourigny. Head Coach of the Utah Hockey Club (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
In addition to injuries, the Mammoth dealt with on-ice struggles as well from players they expected to be better. Lawson Crouse had one of the worst seasons of his career, adjusting to the presence of a newborn baby at home. Matias Maccelli struggled early and fell out of Tourigny’s rotation. Nick Schmaltz ultimately had a good season by his standards. However, he started the season by failing to score a goal in Utah’s first 24 games, and Barrett Hayton, despite some of the best quality scoring chance numbers in the NHL, dealt with some of the worst puck luck in the league and struggled to find the back of the net again.
Many of the rankings we will be examining will not account for these minor storylines that affected Utah’s performance in 2024-25. Truthfully, with the underperforming players they had and the injuries they dealt with, I was shocked the wheels did not fall off.
Where the Mammoth Rank Now
Going into Utah’s first season in Salt Lake City, there were mixed opinions around the league on what they would look like. For example, we hear that The Hockey Writers had Utah 13th in the Week 1 power rankings, whereas Sportsnet had them ranked 23rd heading into the 2024-25 season.
Now, following what I consider a successful season, given the team’s battles, the consensus is that the Mammoth have not improved at all.
Here’s a look at where they rank among various power rankings over the summer.
Note: The NHL’s Super 16 Rankings currently feature only 16 teams. However, they noted the Mammoth had the most points outside of those top 16 teams, making them 17th.
The consensus is a lot tighter this season, with analysts thinking they got a whole season to see how good this team really was after completely retooling their blue line last offseason, trading for Mikhail Sergachev and Marino, as well as Olli Maatta early in the season, and signing Ian Cole.
On paper, the rankings from the 17th through 19th make some sense. That is right around where this team finished last season, and not many teams got worse this offseason. However, if you examine recent rankings of NHL teams’ position groups, analysts could argue that this consensus is still somewhat too high.
Over the summer, several outlets, including us at The Hockey Writers, TSN, and The Athletic, have released rankings that rank each team based on its strength at each position.
SourcesForwardsDefenseGoaliesThe Hockey Writers232219TSN (Travis Yost)Center: 22 / Wing: 102028The AthleticCenter: 23 / Wing: 79N/AThe Athletic Rankings cited:
– (Which NHL teams need to upgrade at center? Ranking all 32 by current quality, The Athletic, June 23, 2025)
– (Which NHL teams need to upgrade at wing? Ranking all 32 by current quality, The Athletic, June 24, 2025)
– (Which NHL teams need to upgrade at defense? Ranking all 32 by current quality, The Athletic, June 25, 2025)
There are some positives to take away from these rankings, but it’s clear the Mammoth still have skeptics, despite being ranked as one of the most likely teams to win the Stanley Cup after missing the playoffs last season.
Where the Mammoth Are Underrated
Let’s start with the blue line, as there are mixed opinions on it. I am not going to argue exact rankings or where teams should sit, or who they should be, just why they should be ranked higher.
The Mammoth’s defensive core may lack a little star power. However, Sergachev is one of the better defensemen in the NHL, as evidenced by his 15th-best net rating among defensemen last season.
Behind Sergachev, the Mammoth’s blue line is deep. Durzi finished the season with a net rating of plus-6, Marino, plus-4, Maatta, plus-3, and their only player to finish with a negative net rating was Ian Cole at minus-1 (from ‘NHL Player Cards: Central Division,’ The Athletic, April 18, 2025).
The Mammoth arguably traded away their second-best defender last season, Michael Kesselring. They are not losing much with signing Nate Schmidt, who finished last season with a plus-5 net rating and was one of “nine defenders [that] had an expected goal rate below 2.0 per 60 last season” (via TSN).
The core of Sergachev, Durzi, Maatta, Marino, and Schmidt all ranked higher than 70th in net rating last season. That is well above average, considering more than 258 defensemen played at least 200 minutes. Add in Cole ranking 117th as well, and all six defensemen played about the league average (via Hockey Stat Cards). This is not a below-average defensive core.
The other position the Mammoth are being underrated at is center. It is definitely their weakest position group; Logan Cooley and Hayton are not getting the credit they deserve here.
Last season, Cooley finished 20th among centers in points per 60 minutes at five-on-five. Hayton finished averaging the third-most high-danger chances, fourth-most expected goals, and sixth-most scoring chances per 60 minutes among players who played 200 minutes. In addition to his production of quality scoring chances, Hayton ranked inside the top-35 centers in defensive net rating.
Sure, the Mammoth may like to have more production on the scoresheet than Hayton has offered. However, between Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther, J.J. Peterka, Cooley, and Schmaltz, the Mammoth have plenty of options in their top six for offense, and the way Hayton plays in front of the net and his strength on defense are precisely what they need. Their centers and forwards, in general, should not rank in the bottom 10 among NHL teams.
Mammoth Could Shock People in 2025-26
In net, the skepticism of the Mammoth’s goaltending group is valid. Karel Vejmelka just had his first stable season of his career in 2024-25; Ingram missed the majority of last season. He struggled while in the net, and Vitek Vanecek has been questionable at best over the previous few seasons.
However, before he was forced to start virtually every game last season after losing Ingram, Vejmelka was lights out for Utah. Despite his struggles, Ingram finished tied for the league lead in shutouts in 2023-24, and there is the possibility that Vanecek finds his old form. On paper, this group isn’t blowing anyone away, but if the Mammoth can get two of the three playing at their peak all season, they could have a sneaky good tandem.
While it is a real possibility that the Mammoth doesn’t improve much this season, their underlying numbers from last season still suggest they will improve. The Mammoth finished last season with the 13th-best expected goal differential in the NHL. If you look only at the games played in 2025, they had the seventh-best expected goal differential after the calendar changed to the new year (via Natural Stat Trick).
Last season, the Mammoth’s floor was 19th. Considering the numerous injuries, an extremely young core, and having only one reliable goaltender for most of the season, it was impressive they were able to stay in the playoff hunt as long as they did. However, this season, with more injury luck, the Mammoth will be an above-average team in the NHL, potentially pushing the top 10.
Regardless, this team is not getting the credit they deserve.
