The young guns have been producing in Utah

Take a look at the Central Division standings, and you might see an unexpected name near the top.

A division dominated by the Colorado Avalanche, Winnipeg Jets, and Dallas Stars in recent years is having a young interloper crash the party. The Utah Mammoth, in their second season after relocating from Arizona, sit just one point behind Colorado for second in the division. Their 12 points puts them in a tie for the second-best total in the NHL.

Veterans Nick Schmaltz and Clayton Keller are leading the way for Utah, with 13 and 12 points, respectively. But just behind them are a group of under-25 talents that are promising a bright future for the Mammoth. Dylan Guenther, drafted ninth overall in 2021, has nine points in eigth games. JJ Peterka, drafted 34th overall in 2020, and Logan Cooley, drafted third overall in 2022, have seven points each.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton were joined by Mammoth analyst Nick Olczyk to discuss how Utah’s young guns have been fueling their hot start.

Olczyk: “It’s been special. Offensively for this group right now, not just the youth, but the strides and steps that some of these young guns have taken has blown the doors off of what the expectations were coming into this year. The numbers are what they are, the numbers really do jump off the page. If we look back to last year, the expectations from the hockey operations staff was for this team to be playing competitive games, meaningful games by the end of the year. But you go out, you make some acquisitions via free agency, via trade in the offseason, along with the young guys taking some steps this year, and now all of a sudden the expectations are ‘we want to make the playoffs’.

Clayton Keller’s gotten off to an unbelievable start, same with Nick Schmaltz. Dylan Guenther seemingly continues to just score one thing, that being big goals for this team, whether it be game winners or overtime goals. Six wins, four comeback wins in those six as well, so showing some relentlessness while down. This group right now, they are humming and buzzing because offensively, with all the ways that they know how to score, it’s been difficult to defend them.”

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…