Goaltending and experience big factors in considering Mammoth as Cup contenders
After making the playoffs last season for the first time since 2020 (going back to their time as the Arizona Coyotes), the Utah Mammoth were hoping to make the leap into legitimate Stanley Cup contention this year. Just over a month into this season, it appears they could be doing just that.
Utah sits second in the competitive Central Division with 20 points through 16 games. Their top players, including forwards Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Logan Cooley, and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, are all producing at over a point-per-game clip. While not a perfect team (they rank 23rd in the NHL with 3.37 goals allowed per game), the Mammoth have a chance to join the upper crust of the Western Conference if they continue to improve throughout the year.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton were joined by KSL Sports‘ Cole Bagley to discuss Utah’s potential status as a Cup contender.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Make the case for why Utah deserves to be in that (Stanley Cup) conversation.
Cole Bagley: No, I can’t right now, to be honest. I think that you guys both had them pegged perfectly in your outer circles. I think that’s an astute observation. Don’t get me wrong, this team is playing great hockey right now at 10-6-0, but I think there’s a couple factors that you have to weigh in. First of all, the goaltending has not been very good. I think Sebastian Cossa has kind of started to figure out his game a little bit. His save percentage over the last two is I think .919. He’s got two victories and I think overall he’s 4-1, so he’s kind of started to find his stride. Karel Vejmelka has just struggled. His save percentage is at .872. Vejmelka has just not put his team in opportunities to win hockey games as of late, and I think that’s why we’ve started to see this shift. We’ll see how long Cossa’s able to hang on to that net. I would expect him to probably start tonight just based on how he’s played over the last two. I think he’s got the hot hand right now and it would make a lot of sense to continue to ride that, especially going up against a team like Montreal, you want to have all the confidence that you can going against a team like that.
The other thing as well is they’re still fairly inexperienced. They’ve only played six playoff games as a collective group. I do think they showed a lot against Vegas last year. They made the right additions with guys like Vincent Trocheck and Anders Lee, you’re starting to see the impact that those guys are having on this team, and it’s in the ways that they wanted them to. When games get tight, when shifts start to get away from them, when the ice tilts in the other team’s direction, those guys are able to calm everybody down. They’re experienced enough, they’ve been through enough of those moments, and that’s why this team right now, despite how difficult the goaltending has been, they’re still 10-6-0. They’re the fourth-best team in the West. I think they’re the ninth-best record in the NHL. I think that outer circle is the perfect spot for them to be.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…