SALT LAKE CITY – The 82‑game NHL season is a marathon, not a sprint—and for the Utah Mammoth, enduring the lows has been essential to positioning themselves to peak when it matters most.
It’s a difficult needle for even the best front offices to thread, balancing short‑term success with the long‑term goal of building a contender in an ever‑changing league.
“Sometimes you have to go through some pain during the course of the season, it kind of builds up the character in the guys,” Utah Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong said in an exclusive interview with KSL Sports Zone.
From the grind of a relentless schedule to managing prideful players in an ego-driven sport, the adversity that splinters some locker rooms has been a catalyst for a Utah team with established leadership.
Captain and leading scorer Clayton Keller, goals leader Dylan Guenther, and Wasatch Wall goaltender Karel Vejmelka helped the club stay afloat during a 6-8 December and into a January turnaround.
Utah won 10 of its first 13 games in 2026, leaping multiple teams to claim the top spot in the Western Conference Wild Card chase.
The Mammoth entered the three-week Olympic break with back-to-back statement wins over Vancouver and Detroit.
“When you get stung by a hard loss, you have to go through it, learn from it, and let that pain fuel you,” Armstrong stated.
Follow the Utah Mammoth with KSL Sports
The NHL schedule heads into a three-week break with the Milan Cortina Winter Games kicking off this week. Utah returns to the ice when the Colorado Avalanche come to town on Wednesday, February 25.
Follow the entire 2025-26 Utah Mammoth schedule here.
The Smith Entertainment Group’s (SEG) streaming platform will also continue to carry all Mammoth games on SEG+ in 2025-26.
Cole Bagley is the Utah Mammoth insider for KSL Sports. Follow him on X. You can hear Cole break down the team on KSL Sports Zone and KSL 5 TV.
All Mammoth games will be broadcast live on the KSL Sports Zone (97.5 FM/1280 AM). Occasionally, KSL NewsRadio (102.7 FM / 1160 AM) also airs Jazz games.
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Brian Preece is a KSLSports.com insider covering Locals in MLB and the Salt Lake Bees. Follow Brian’s Bees and Beehive baseball here. Find Brian on X, Instagram, and BlueSky at @bpreece24.