The Mammoth made good use of their stockpiled assets acquiring Peterka
The Utah Mammoth are trying to build their status as a competitive team, and they’ve started doing so thanks to their effective use of assets within their own system.
On Thursday night, the Mammoth acquired forward JJ Peterka from the Buffalo Sabres. In return, Utah had to give up defenseman Michael Kesserling and forward Josh Doan. Peterka, who would’ve become a restricted free agent on July 1, then went on to sign a five-year contract with the Mammoth, with an AAV of $7.7 million carrying through the 2029-30 season.
Trade discussions around Peterka had been swirling for the past couple of weeks, as it was clear he and the Sabres were not going to get an extension done. Several teams seemed to be interested in the German winger, but the Mammoth was the team that had what Buffalo general manager Kevyn Adams clearly wanted in return.
While getting Peterka is a mammoth-sized deal for a Utah team that is looking to continue to bolster its roster this summer, this particular trade shows the smart decision making by general manager Bill Armstrong in using the players he had in his back pocket to go out and get high-end talent to hopefully make the second-year team in Salt Lake City a tough one to play against.
On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk explain how Utah’s management worked to get the deal with the Sabres completed.
Frank Seravalli: This is sort of the ultimate win, and this is one of those situations where, when you stockpile assets, a great example of how Bill Armstrong was able to leverage them. Michael Kesserling, big, right-shot defenseman, who’s on a great contract that will ultimately need to be paid. Josh Doan, a guy who played half the year last year in the American [Hockey] League, has a high ceiling, but is already the same age as Peterka, and Peterka’s a couple of 20-goal seasons into his career, nearly 30-goal seasons into his career.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…