The two Utah Mammoth forwards will go head-to-head in Italy.<\/p>\n
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Mammoth right wing JJ Peterka (77) as the Utah Mammoth host the New York Islanders, NHL hockey in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.<\/p>\n
Utah Mammoth forward JJ Peterka was 12 years old the last time NHL players participated in the Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n
That same year, his German compatriot Leon Draisaitl was drafted third overall by the Edmonton Oilers, beginning a historic career as one of the best players in the NHL.<\/p>\n
Now, a dozen years later, Peterka gets the chance to skate side-by-side with Draisaitl for Germany, starting Feb. 12 in Milan, Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something I dreamed of, watching Germany all the time,\u201d Peterka said. \u201cI\u2019m super pumped and happy. I\u2019ll be with Draisaitl for the first time, so it will be exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
It won\u2019t be Peterka\u2019s first time donning the Germany jersey, though, with the Munich native helping the team defeat the U.S. at the 2023 IIHF World Championships, en route to a silver medal.<\/p>\n
Peterka has been a solid addition for Utah since being traded from Buffalo last summer, ranking third on the team in goals and fifth in points. He is also first on the team in shooting percentage among players to register at least 100 shots.<\/p>\n
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Mammoth right wing JJ Peterka (77) as the Utah Mammoth host the Los Angeles Kings, NHL hockey in Salt Lake City on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old right winger has put up near-identical numbers to the winger he was traded for, Josh Doan, with Peterka at 38 points and Doan at 39.<\/p>\n
Buffalo also received former Utah defenseman Michael Kesselring in the trade, but injuries have kept him out of more than half of the Sabres\u2019 games so far this season.<\/p>\n
Utah and Buffalo both sit in the first wild card spot in their respective conferences at the Olympic break.<\/p>\n
The Mammoth enter the break on a win streak, with impressive home wins over Vancouver and Detroit giving their departing players some momentum and confidence heading to Milan.<\/p>\n
Despite Peterka\u2019s experience playing for his country before, doing so at the Olympics is a different beast altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing only every four years makes it more special,\u201d Peterka said of the Olympics compared to other international competitions. \u201cAnd overall it\u2019s way more competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Mammoth right wing Clayton Keller (9) skates the puck during the game between the Utah Mammoth and the Philadelphia Flyers at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026.<\/p>\n
It will also create some Mammoth-on-Mammoth matchups.<\/p>\n
Peterka and Germany compete in the same group as Utah captain Clayton Keller and Team USA.<\/p>\n
Utah defenseman Nate Schmidt set the tone for how competitive Mammoth teammates will be with each other during the Olympic break, despite not traveling to Milan himself for the games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Team USA, baby,\u201d the Minnesota native said ahead of Utah\u2019s final game against Detroit. \u201cThe moment the buzzer goes off tonight, the rest of the guys can pound sand for the next three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team USA and Germany will be directly competing for the top spot in Group C and a guaranteed bye all the way to the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Germany begins group play against Denmark on Thursday, Feb. 12, at 1:10 p.m. MST on Peacock, while Team USA takes on Latvia at the same time on USA.<\/p>\n
Peterka and Keller face off in the final Group C game on Sunday, Feb. 15, at 1:10 p.m. MST on USA.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will add some spice to our Olympic break following those guys,\u201d Utah head coach Andre Tourigny said. \u201cI wish all the best to all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The two Utah Mammoth forwards will go head-to-head in Italy. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[1092,1093,1094,5,145,4,1095,413,51,5290,232,3154,5291,5289],"class_list":["post-452088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-utah-hockey-club","tag-1092","tag-catsp","tag-delta-center","tag-hockey","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-nhl","tag-salt-lake-city","tag-usa","tag-utah","tag-utah-hc","tag-utah-hockey-club","tag-utah-mammoth","tag-utahhc","tag-utahhockeyclub"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116040955564437114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}