Do the Mammoth have the blueline to contend for the Stanley Cup?
The cast of Stanley Cup contenders in the Western Conference remains pretty familiar, with the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Vegas Golden Knights, and Edmonton Oilers each thinking this could be their year to win it all. There are, however, a few up and coming teams that could potentially insert themselves in that company.
In the Pacific Division, the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks have the high-end young talent requisite for that kind of jump. In the Central, the Utah Mammoth are the team looking to compete with the big boys this season. Coming off a first-round playoff loss to Vegas, Utah has the talent up front to play with anyone, but there are question marks with their blueline, especially after number-one defenseman Mikhail Sergachev suffered an injury on Tuesday.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton were joined by Colby Cohen to discuss whether the Mammoth have the defense to contend out west.
Carter Hutton: Is their back end going to be good enough, or is this something that (Utah general manager) Bill Armstrong probably tweaks down the stretch?
Colby Cohen: I think Sergachev and (MacKenzie) Weegar is a legitimate top-four pair. I think you have two guys that can do a lot for you. I think John Marino is one of the more underrated repeatable players in the National Hockey League, meaning that guy goes out and makes the right play most of the time. I think Marino would be a guy, if you’re a goaltender, that you appreciate because you can just rely on him. I actually compared him to the prime years of Trevor van Riemsdyk, flies under the radar, makes every right pass. I remember Craig Anderson telling me Trevor van Riemsdyk was one of his favorite players that ever played in front of him, because he just said that he’s so reliable in his reads that it makes it makes it easier to stop pucks.
Do I think with (Dmitri) Simashev and Andrew Peeke, do you need a little bit more help on the back end? Yeah, I think you’re absolutely spot on to think that. But I also think, you look at Mikhail Sergachev, what kind of steps is he going to continue to take? I don’t think we’ve seen his ceiling. I agree with you, if I was going to point at a weak spot, you probably want to add to their defense. Nate Schmidt has been around a long time, he’s moved around quite a bit. So yeah, I think that’s a reasonably fair call out, Hutts, for that team.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Thursday’s episode here…
