JJ Peterka is with Utah Mammoth, and people are taking notice.

Selected by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round (No. 34) of the 2020 NHL Draft, Peterka has 150 points (67 goals, 83 assists) in 238 regular-season games. But those are the last games he will have played with Buffalo for now. Peterka was officially traded to Utah on Thursday in exchange for defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan.

Utah Mammoth Owner Ryan Smith’s Comments on JJ Peterka Trade

Peterka was slated to become a restricted free agent in less than a week, but as part of the trade has agreed to a five-year, $38.5 million contract ($7.7 million AAV) with the Mammoth.

“JJ [Peterka] is a highly skilled, creative, young forward with extremely high upside,” Mammoth General Manager Bill Armstrong said to NHL.com. “He will help solidify our scoring and add to what is already a great young core of forwards on the roster. Signing JJ to a long-term extension is another positive step towards building a sustainable contender here in Utah, and today is an exciting day for our entire organization.”

On the June 26 edition of the Pat McAfee Show, Utah Jazz and Mammoth Owner Ryan Smith followed up Armstrong’s comments on Peterka with some thoughts of his own on the left-handed forward.

“This is a bittersweet trade for us..

Kesselring and Doan are amazing humans..

Getting JJ Peterka was a move that we had to make and we’re very excited about him” @RyanQualtrics #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/yPz6Zg1Ep6

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 26, 2025

“First of all, this is bittersweet because [Michael] Kesselring and [Josh] Doan are amazing humans, and they’re both young. And it’s obviously what Buffalo wanted. I think to take a next step for us, we need a little bit more scoring on that front line. We got a left winger, and now we have four guys on our team under the age of 26 that are 60-point guys, and hopefully it gets better. Three of them are under 23,” Smith said.

Smith added, “I think that’s really encouraging if I look out for the Mammoth. But once again, Kass and Donor were huge in our first season. They handled the transition, the move, they rallied. There’s a lot of leaders on these teams. So it’s a little bittersweet, but it’s a move we got to make.”

“And when it was brought to me with the recommendation, it was something that we were pretty excited about just because of the potential and the upside of feeling that. That was one of our big offseason desires. And to have it come, I don’t think we saw it coming this way, but I think it’s good news for Mammoth fans. I’ve looked into it a little bit,” Smith concluded.

So, Smith felt that acquiring Peterka was an absolute must, and the 23-year-old’s future with not only Utah but the entire league is bright.