2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Golden Knights vs. Mammoth series preview
Vegas Golden Knights: 1st in Pacific Division, 95 points
Utah Mammoth: Western Conference Wild Card No. 1, 92 points*
*One game remaining.
Schedule (ET)
| Game | Time (ET) | |
| Sunday, April 19 | 1. Utah at Vegas | TBD |
| TBD | 2. Utah at Vegas | TBD |
| TBD | 3. Vegas at Utah | TBD |
| TBD | 4. Vegas at Utah | TBD |
| *TBD | 5. Utah at Vegas | TBD |
| *TBD | 6. Vegas at Utah | TBD |
| *TBD | 7. Utah at Vegas | TBD |
*If Necessary
The Skinny
The Golden Knights took quite the circuitous route to the postseason. Having swung big on star right winger Mitch Marner via sign-and-trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs last June, the Golden Knights seemed poised to re-establish themselves as the Western Conference’s Evil Empire. They struggled to find consistency in the first half of the season, but a seven-game January winning streak slotted them among the best teams in the NHL, and they jazzed up their roster even more by acquiring defenseman Rasmus Andersson from the Calgary Flames.
Still, the chemistry wasn’t quite there. From late January through late March, Vegas endured five separate losing streaks of three or more games. It struggled horribly to get competent goaltending from Adin Hill or Carter Hart and both missed time with injuries. A playoff berth was no longer assured. Captain Mark Stone suggested the dressing room had grown “stale,” and the forever-ruthless Vegas front office axed its 2023 Stanley Cup winning coach, Bruce Cassidy, at the 74-game mark. They brought in the fiery John Tortorella to inject the club with energy, and it worked. They finished the season on a 7-0-1 heater and seized the Pacific Division crown, becoming the 10th NHL team to win a division title after an in-season coach firing. So are the Golden Knights completely fixed and ready for a Stanley Cup run? Or will the Torts Bump have a shelf life as it always has in his rollercoaster career?
The Mammoth will test a Vegas team whose “division-winning” 95 points wouldn’t have even been enough for a playoff spot in the East. After improving from 77 to 89 points a year ago in their first season since relocating from Arizona, the Mammoth continued building on their success this season. As hoped, young forwards Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther levelled up for a second consecutive campaign and bridged the talent gap behind stalwart forwards Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. The Mammoth’s offseason additions of JJ Peterka and Brandon Tanev up front and Nate Schmidt on defense proved fruitful, as they boasted one of the deeper teams in the league in 2025-26. They played conscientious team defense, received strong goaltending from Karel Vejmelka and got a Trade Deadline reward for their play from GM Bill Armstrong in the form of workhorse defenseman MacKenzie Weegar.
The well-rounded Mammoth checked the right boxes to book the state of Utah’s first NHL playoff contests. Delta Center will pulse with energy. Are the Mammoth really an underdog, or will they push the Golden Knights to the brink?
Head to Head
Vegas: 1-2-0
Utah: 2-1-0
The clubs didn’t play a single close game in 2025-26. Jack Eichel scored twice to help Vegas best Utah 4-1 in a November meeting; Cooley exploded for four goals four days later as Utah returned the favor with a 5-1 pummelling; and the Mammoth beat an absolutely lost Hill on their first three shots of the game in a 4-0 shutout win in mid March that probably accelerated Cassidy’s ousting. The Mammoth came out ahead in the series – but Vegas had the 5-on-5 expected goals edge in all three meetings.
Top Five Scorers
Vegas
Jack Eichel, 90 pts
Mitch Marner, 80 pts
Mark Stone, 73 pts
Pavel Dorofeyev, 64 pts
Ivan Barbashev, 61 pts
Utah
Clayton Keller, 86 pts
Nick Schmaltz, 74 pts
Dylan Guenther, 73 pts
Mikhail Sergachev, 59 pts
JJ Peterka, 46 pts
Offense
Vegas sits a respectable 13th in goals per game and boasts the NHL’s No. 6 power play. As one would expect from a team with Stone, Marner and Eichel driving the play, they rate in the NHL’s top half in generating 5-on-5 scoring chances and high-danger chances. They aren’t a dominant offensive club, but they’re an above-average one – and they became an elite one after Tortorella arrived, leading the league in expected goal share once he took over the bench.
With Eichel, Marner and Tomas Hertl each centering a line, the Golden Knights generate a variety of dangerous offensive looks. Stone scored at the best pace of his career, racking up 73 points in just 60 games. Dorofeyev buried 37 goals and remains one of the NHL’s most underrated snipers. Shea Theodore creates offense from the back end, and Andersson found his touch late in the campaign, putting up a 5-5-10 stat line in his final 11 games. The Golden Knights are a veteran team full of proven playoff scorers, including additional championship squad holdovers such as Ivan Barbashev and Reilly Smith.
But the younger Mammoth arguably look more dynamic. They sit 10th in goals per game and rank in the top quarter of the NHL at creating scoring chances, high-danger chances and expected goals at 5-on-5. Guenther is fresh off his first 40-goal season, while Cooley, carrying more of a playmaker profile, surprised with 24 goals in 53 games, and they are 23 and 21 years old, respectively. Keller remains as consistent as any upper-tier scorer in the game year to year, producing as a point-per-game player, while Schmaltz exploded for his first 30-goal campaign in his UFA walk year and earned himself a shiny eight-year extension. The Mammoth are deep enough that they’ve been able to play Peterka, their marquee offseason addition, on the third line. Like Vegas, Utah can beat you in multiple ways. The Mammoth haven’t been able to figure out their power play, however, sitting a mediocre 18th, though they were much better with the man advantage over the final couple weeks of the season.
Defense
Other NHL teams can learn from how well these two clubs defend. The Golden Knights allow the 12th-fewest goals per game this season but deserve a much higher rank. They are tops in the NHL in 5-on-5 expected goals against per 60, grading out as the best overall defensive team in the NHL, right there with the Ottawa Senators. That isn’t a huge surprise when you have arguably the two best defensive wingers of this generation in Stone and Marner assisting from the forward corps, with Eichel continuing his evolution into a great 200-foot center. Even under Cassidy, the Golden Knights got steady defensive play; it was the goaltending that failed him. Their top pair of Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore rate as defensively elite despite facing top-end qualify of competition, while reunited ex-Flames Hanifin and Andersson have rekindled their rapport on the second pair as the season has progressed.
The Mammoth defend well, too, not rating quite as highly as the Golden Knights but nevertheless ranking among the better teams in the league at 5-on-5 scoring chance prevention. They’re incredibly deep on defense; Weegar and Sergachev are built to weather lots of minutes, bute Nate Schmidt and John Marino are matchup wizards, too – a trait Schmidt showcased last year with the Cup-champ Florida Panthers. Schmidt and Marino crush their minutes; Utah has outscored opponents 62-33 and gotten 56.94 percent of the scoring chances with them out there at 5-on-5 this season. They get strong support up front from Schmaltz in particular; he was borderline Selke-worthy this season, with only two NHL forwards averaging more takeaways per 60 at 5-on-5.
But whereas the Golden Knights have the No. 7 penalty-kill unit, the Mammoth are below average at 19th. Vegas has the clear special-teams edge in this series.
Goaltending
What kind of goaltending will Vegas get? It’s anyone’s guess. Hill was dominant during the 2022-23 playoff run but looks like a shell of that masked man now. He hasn’t had a single good month this season, his .870 save percentage is a career worst and, among goalies with 25 or more games played, he has the second-worst goals saved above expected per 60 in the entire NHL. Enter Hart. He wasn’t a popular signing anywhere other than Sin City – acquittal or not, the evidence in his sexual assault trial didn’t show strong character, and I won’t budge on that take – but he has righted the ship on the ice after some shaky play earlier in the season. He went 6-0-0 with a .930 SV% in April and was as responsible as any Golden Knight for the Pacific title win. It would be an upset if Hart didn’t open Round 1 as Vegas’ starter. But is Hart really back or simply enjoying a hot streak in a small sample size?
Speaking of sample sizes: Vejmelka’s is BIG, and it’s good. No goalie has started more games than his 62 this season, his 38 wins lead the Western Conference, and his 0.140 goals saved above expected per 60 rate him above average – which is extra impactful when you start more than 75 percent of your team’s games.
Even if Hart is hotter, Vejmelka has been the more reliable puck-stopper wire to wire and gives Utah the slight advantage.
Injuries
The Golden Knights won’t have two-way center and 2023 Stanley Cup winner William Karlsson for this series. He’s still working his way back from a lower-body injury. It’s possible he can rejoin the lineup if Vegas advances deeper on the playoffs. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo also appears on the injury report, of course, but he’s on season-ending LTIR dealing with a hip injury that is more likely than not to end his career.
As for Utah, forwards Jack McBain and Barrett Hayton are shelved. McBain (lower body) has a week-to-week timeline. Hayton (upper body) is practising but doubtful to open the series. It’s possible both don’t return at all in Round 1.
Intangibles
Even three weeks ago, the Mammoth would’ve been the easy pick to win this series. The Golden Knights were a mess. But they literally haven’t lost a game in regulation since Tortorella arrived. He grates on his players over time, just as ‘Iron’ Mike Keenan did in his heyday, but Torts’ teams are motivated, hardworking and fit. Has the New Coach Bump transformed Vegas into an entirely different team?
Speaking of new, it doesn’t get any newer than Utah playing its inaugural postseason games at Delta Center. If you follow Utah sports lore, you’ll remember Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson wearing ear plugs during the NBA Finals matchups vs. the Jazz in the late 1990s. That building can get loud, whether it’s hosting basketball or hockey. The Mammoth can feed off the energy, especially if they return home with a split after Games 1 and 2.
X-Factor
Mitch Marner’s career points per game: 1.11. Marner’s career playoff points per game: 0.90. Marner’s career playoff points per game from Game 5 onward: 0.41. Not a typo. Marner, then, can be an X-Factor for or against Vegas. He notoriously vanished when the going got tough with the Leafs, but he’s surrounded by Stanley Cup champions in Vegas. Will the extra support lift the weight off his shoulders and help him find playoff consistency?
Lawson Crouse will be an interesting player to watch on Utah’s end. His only postseason experience came in the COVID bubble in 2019-20 when he was 23. He’s a veteran now, part of Utah’s top line alongside Keller and Schmaltz, and Crouse in theory is built for playoff hockey. He’s a load to stop at 6-foot-4 and 214 pounds, and he’s one of just six players to register 20 goals and 200 hits this season.
Series Prediction
This series is such a coin flip. Both teams do many similar things well as consistent drivers of the play at both ends of the ice. When a series feels this evenly matched, goaltending breaks the tie. Yes, Hart has been hot, but Vejmelka has been reliable all year, and the Mammoth also feel like a slightly deeper team. This series could end in a next-goal-wins scenario.
Mammoth in seven games.
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POST SPONSORED BY bet365
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