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Kristen Shilton
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Greg Wyshynski
The NHL could use some new contenders, and not just because the Stanley Cup Final had the same participants for two straight seasons.
Fresh faces and burgeoning stars are intriguing. Teams on the rise bring renewed enthusiasm to the playoff races. Seeing teams that haven’t been postseason participants crashing the playoff party is a blast.
This season has a handful of teams seeking to break through into the playoffs. Two of them are in the Western Conference: the Utah Mammoth, in their second season in Salt Lake City; and the Anaheim Ducks, who’ve missed the playoffs for seven straight seasons. As of Tuesday, both of them were in playoff spots, with the Mammoth as a wild card and the Ducks leading the Pacific.
They’re new. They’re compelling. And above all, they’re fun to watch.
“Well, I guess it’s fun for you. It’s not fun for me,” joked Ducks GM Pat Verbeek, whose team has generated a lot of scoring chances but has also allowed its fair share. “Although sometimes chaos can go the right way.”
Can the Mammoth and Ducks sustain their early-season success? Here’s a look at how they became breakout teams this season and whether they’re destined for playoff berths or are just an early season tease that eventually fades from memory.
Are the Mammoth for real?
What has changed since last season?
Before there was a team called the Utah Mammoth, there was a Utah Hockey Club.
The former Arizona Coyotes swapped desert heat for snow-packed peaks in search of brighter days for a franchise that had made one playoff appearance in 12 years (during the COVID-19 shortened campaign) and was in desperate need of a new identity.
Utah would need time to develop that in their new digs (hence the generic Hockey Club moniker for Year 1). GM Bill Armstrong — who has been with the organization since 2020 — arrived with nine players selected in the first round of the NHL draft from 2021-25. With new ownership in place (the Smith Entertainment Group), Utah’s hockey team had the sort of support last season that it hadn’t in Arizona. And it led to one of its strongest seasons in over a decade.
At the Christmas break, Utah was 16-12-6. But the team ebbed and flowed from there, hovering around the .500 mark while continuing to establish some consistency in its game.
There would be another preview of Utah’s potential in the final stretch of last season, when the team took off on a 17-9-4 run to cap off an 89-point season — 12 points ahead of where it was in 2023-24. It didn’t get Utah into the playoff field — its 38-31-13 record left it seven points shy of the Western Conference’s final wild-card slot — but it suggested there were parts coming together that could take Utah’s claim to a spot sooner than anyone expected. And, well, here the Mammoth are, doing exactly that.
It’s still early enough in the NHL season to be skeptical of all 32 teams’ success — or failures — to this point. But Armstrong intended to give his group every chance of pushing past their previous ceiling. Defenseman Dmitri Simashev — the No. 6 pick by Arizona in 2023 — has landed on their blue line, and at just 20 years old, he is making a difference with some top-pairing looks. Veteran defender Nate Schmidt signed a three-year contract with Utah in the offseason.
And perhaps most importantly, Utah chose its permanent name in May, which signaled a new beginning. So it went that the Mammoth carried their momentum from last season into this one, opening the season with a 7-2-0 stretch that put them among the NHL’s top clubs.
There’s a long way to go, but there’s reason to believe the Mammoth aren’t far off from venturing back into the playoff picture.
Key factor No. 1: The stars are (really) scoring
The Mammoth offense is no one-trick pony; more like a multiheaded beast.
Utah has a one-two punch up front, featuring top-10 draft picks that are finally coming into their own. Logan Cooley — selected third in 2022, and the recent recipient of an eight-year, $80 million contract extension — has posted the team’s second-most goals (eight) and 13 points, sitting just behind Nick Schmaltz (a top-20 draftee by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2014) and his team-leading nine goals and 19 points.
Dylan Guenther (picked ninth overall by Arizona in 2021) and Clayton Keller (seventh overall in 2016) are tearing it up with 13 and 15 points, respectively. JJ Peterka — a trade addition from Buffalo in the offseason — is thriving too, with four goals and 10 points, while top-pairing defenseman Mikhail Sergachev is pitching in with 11 points from the back end.
All that to say, Utah has shown there is serious chemistry throughout its lineup and that’s only bred confidence. Through the Mammoth’s first 10 games, they ranked sixth in offense (3.70 goals per game) and they were one of the stingiest defensive clubs (ranking third overall with 2.40 goals against).
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Logan Cooley scores again for Utah after review
Logan Cooley gets his fifth goal in his last four periods of hockey with this effort that just about goes in vs. the Wild.
But it’s not just that the Mammoth can score; they’re opportunistic. Guenther shares the NHL lead in game-winning goals (four) and Keller kept the Mammoth perfect in overtime this season when he netted a marker in extra time over Buffalo earlier this month. Utah has found ways to be resilient no matter their circumstance.
Best of all, Utah’s core is signed for the long term. Cooley, Guenther, Peterka and forward Jack McBain are signed through 2029-30. Keller is inked through 2027-28.
Building that out on the ice, though, was no easy task for coach Andre Tourigny. Now in his fifth year with the organization, Tourigny endured the final rough years with his squad in Arizona before they moved to Salt Lake City in 2024. The then-Coyotes lost 40 or more games in each of their final three seasons in the desert, where the same skaters now lighting up the scoresheet with ease were floundering on the ice and off it, lacking the kind of infrastructure and resources now provided by SEG; think not playing out of a college arena and having access to state-of-the-art facilities.
“I think [Tourigny’s] had a great impact on them, raising them right and making sure that they play on both sides of the puck,” Armstrong told ESPN on Tuesday. “It’s not just all offense. I think sometimes when you have young, hungry, offensive guys, things can get swayed, and then you don’t teach the right things when they’re young about playing on the other side of the puck.
“And it’s also situational play of getting pucks deep at the right time and playing the clock and [managing] the score. And he’s done a good job with that.”
Like many young teams before them, the Mammoth had to take their lumps while becoming a competitive, 200-foot team. Over the first six weeks of last season, for example, they were averaging fewer than three goals per game while giving up the 12th most in the league (3.25). Tourigny’s patience with the Mammoth’s evolution is finally paying off, and it’s most obvious in the way their best players are, finally, their most impactful ones, too.
Key factor No. 2: Goal suppression buy-in
Karel Vejmelka took his time breaking into the NHL. Now, it looks like his moment to break out.
The 29-year-old goaltender had three seasons under his belt with the Coyotes when the franchise moved to Salt Lake City, and Utah wasted no time putting its weight behind Vejmelka as its No. 1. The 55 starts he made last season were not only a career high (by a significant margin), but tied for the fourth-most games played by any NHL goalie in 2024-25. Not only that, but Vejmelka made an eye-popping 22 consecutive starts as Utah made its postseason push.
While the team may have fallen short, there was no sleep lost in deciding that Vejmelka would enter this season on track to once again be Utah’s primary keeper of the crease.
Vejmelka started six of the Mammoth’s first eight games and was terrific over that stretch. He’s been identified as a calming presence by Utah teammates, and a backbone of their confidence every night. His numbers have dipped slightly since the Mammoth’s hot start cooled at the end of a long road trip, but there’s little doubt from Utah that he will bounce back and continue giving them the necessary goaltending to keep competing at the highest level.
If Utah’s forwards have been courting the headlines, then their defensive improvements deserve at least a few lines on the front page. Because it’s come together for Utah thanks to internal growth and some key additions.
There was Schmidt and Simashev coming in and filling roles to deepen the Mammoth blue line. Simashev has been a particular spark, and has skated with Sergachev on the club’s top pairing. But Utah’s gains in the defensive end are a product of their group effort. The Mammoth are allowing the fewest shots against in the league (24 per game) and their quick transition game can overwhelm opponents. While Utah can boast incredible offensive skaters, the way those same players pitch in without cheating for chances up the ice is a major reason why Utah has been in position to win so often this season.
Armstrong hasn’t been shy about discussing how painful the team’s rebuild has been. No GM hopes to be selecting at the top of the draft every year. This version of Utah is what Armstrong believed in all along — where’d they have the goaltending, the defensive buy-in and enough firepower to compete with any team.
What the analytics tell us
Rachel Kryshak, the data analyst behind Betalytics and a prospects writer for ESPN, had the Mammoth as her under-the-radar team headed into the season.
“My model had them finishing in the top wild-card spot, one point back of third in the Central,” she said.
Kryshak likes what she sees so far to back up the prediction.
“Thus far, the Mammoth are out chancing their opponents at even strength and they are among the league’s best at creating higher-danger scoring opportunities. On average, they outshoot their opponents by five shots per game and control the pace of play,” she said. “Their top six has done a fantastic job of utilizing their speed and skill to control the game. Their young talent is starting to mature in the NHL and develop chemistry together and when that is combined with high end speed, it becomes very difficult to defend.”
Micah Blake McCurdy, who does hockey data visualizations on Hockeyviz.com, has been most fascinated with the Mammoth in the defensive end.
“I’m most impressed by their team defense. They’ve been comfortably better at limiting chances against at 5-on-5 than last season, and a lot better limiting chances against on the penalty kill. The goaltending looks about like I expected it — a shade below average,” McCurdy said.
Offensively, the Mammoth haven’t been getting a large volume of shots, but that hasn’t been an issue with the way they’re converting chances. “If there’s a concern, it’ll be that the finishing touch is a shade high for the roster and might come down,” McCurdy said. “They’re also very score-affected: Chasing hard when losing and turtling when winning. Teams that go on deep playoff runs usually play more consistently across all score states.”
Vince Masi, a stats analyst for ESPN Research, wonders if regression is already starting for Utah, having gone through a stretch where they scored three or fewer goals in seven straight games.
“While they are controlling the 5-on-5 shot attempts at a good clip in the early going, they were dead last in 5-on-5 save percentage at .875,” said Masi, who suggests the Mammoth may be overworking Vejmelka.
“Since the return after the 4 Nations Face-Off in regular-season games, Vejmelka has played the most of any goalie in the league,” he said.
Is this sustainable?
In a word: probably.
Because the Mammoth are about to find out what they’re made of — one way or another.
Utah is riding its first extended losing streak of the season, having dropped three straight and five of its last six. Only one of those defeats was at home though, and the Mammoth are finally back in Salt Lake City for six of their next eight after almost three weeks on the road.
And it’s not like Utah has necessarily been bad. They just ran into typical early-season struggles, like going 0-for-13 on the power play when they were previously operating at 21.1% with the extra man. The Mammoth’s penalty kill, on the other hand, was a perfect 10-for-10 in the same stretch.
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Logan Cooley nets power-play goal
Logan Cooley nets power-play goal
Utah has all the talent it needs to be a contender this season. But there is still a learning curve that comes with winning, as the Mammoth have quickly discovered.
“When you go through as many road games as we played, I think you get worn down a little bit,” Armstrong said. “It’s kind of refreshing to come home, and it’s a little bit humbling to know that, hey, you won all those games in a row, but now you’re battling to get back on track. It’s a good league, and there’s a fine line between winning and losing, and we’ve got to find that line.”
First, there are things to fix, starting on special teams. While the Mammoth’s gaudy offensive stats from October were bound to level out as the league’s teams settled into November — and remembered how to play defense — there’s no reason Utah can’t adjust and be right back among the Central Division’s best clubs.
Vejmelka will be a significant part of the turnaround. He’s 1-3-0 of late, with an .831 SV% and 3.78 GAA. That’s not what Utah can expect from Vejmelka when he’s on point. As long as he’s able to steer out of the skid, it will keep Utah from wasting its solid defensive efforts (they were still averaging the fewest shots against in the league while racking up recent losses).
The famous American Thanksgiving deadline is looming. Teams in the playoff field at that point tend to still be in position at season’s end. This next run of games is Utah’s opportunity to prove itself. Their schedule features four teams not in the postseason picture now, and if the Mammoth can leverage their home-ice advantage (they are 4-1-0 this season at Delta Center) then Utah can show they were no flash in the pan.
Are the Anaheim Ducks for real?
What has changed since last season?
It has been seven seasons since the Ducks last waddled into the postseason, losing in the first round back in 2018. To timestamp this drought, that team had Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Kevin Bieksa and 37-year-old Ryan Miller on the roster.
Since then, the Ducks have been amassing young talent through the draft. Most of them — Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish, Jackson LaCombe, Olen Zellweger, Pavel Mintyukov, Beckett Sennecke, Lukas Dostal — are the foundation for Anaheim’s rebuild. Some of them were eventually traded, like when the Ducks traded defenseman Jamie Drysdale to the Philadelphia Flyers for forward Cutter Gauthier, now a burgeoning star.
Powered by that young core, Anaheim saw a remarkable 21-point improvement in the standings year over year in 2024-25, but that was only good enough to place 12th in the Western Conference. Coach Greg Cronin was dismissed after two seasons. GM Pat Verbeek lured coach Joel Quenneville to Anaheim, and that might turn out to be one of the NHL offseason’s most significant moves.
Quenneville, 67, hadn’t coached in the NHL since resigning from the Florida Panthers in 2021 after an independent review by a law firm detailed how the Blackhawks organization failed to properly address allegations by player Kyle Beach that he was sexually assaulted by video coach Brad Aldrich during the team’s 2010 Stanley Cup run. Quenneville, who coached that team, was ineligible to work for other NHL teams until commissioner Gary Bettman lifted a ban on the coach and two former Blackhawks executives in July 2024.
Verbeek said at the time that Anaheim had done its due diligence on Quenneville. “Our findings are consistent with Joel’s account that he was not fully aware of the severity of what transpired in 2010. It is clear that Joel deeply regrets not following up with more questions at the time, has demonstrated meaningful personal growth and accountability, and has earned the opportunity to return to coaching,” he said in a statement.
The arrival of a three-time Stanley Cup-winning head coach had a transformative effect on the Ducks.
“The thing that really resonated was that Joel’s got a great resumé. He’s a winner. He has won three times as a head coach, one as an assistant coach,” Verbeek told ESPN on Monday. “So I think the instant respect was there, not only from the older guys but from the younger guys. They’re all hungry to win. Bringing Joel in from just that aspect alone has made a huge difference.
If Quenneville’s arrival didn’t signal that the Ducks were ready to turn the corner back to playoff contention, the rest of Verbeek’s offseason certainly did. The Ducks signed center Mikael Granlund away from Dallas (three years, $21 million). They traded goalie John Gibson (Detroit) and forward Trevor Zegras (Philadelphia), ending long-standing trade speculation about both. Perhaps most significantly, they traded for longtime New York Rangers winger Chris Kreider.
Verbeek knew Kreider well from his days in Tampa Bay’s front office, as the Lightning battled Kreider’s Rangers. He wanted a winger with speed that could improve the Ducks’ special teams, but he also wanted Kreider’s singular abilities around the crease.
“I’m not sure there’s a better guy in front of the net than him over the last seven or eight years,” Verbeek said.
One player that Verbeek consulted about Kreider: Defenseman Jacob Trouba, who was Kreider’s friend and teammate with the Rangers. It’s not often that one team brings in multiple players from an opponents’ leadership group, but that’s exactly what Anaheim did in trading for Trouba, who captained the Rangers, and Kreider, a 13-season veteran with the franchise.
Trouba, Kreider, forward Alex Killorn and defenseman Radko Gudas are part of a veteran core that Verbeek designed based on his own experiences as a player. He recalled how important veteran players were to his development as a young star with the 1980s New Jersey Devils, relying on the advice of goaltender Chico Resch and forward Mel Bridgman, who passed away on Nov. 8.
“I told our [veterans] that you have a huge opportunity to make such a huge impact on these young players. You have no idea how much these players are going to respect you,” he said.
He’s seen that in Kreider already. “He’s been a great example for a bunch of our other guys seeing the success that he’s had,” Verbeek said. “Guys want to emulate that.”
Key factor No. 1: Ducks fly together
The most notable beneficiary from the Ducks’ offseason moves and the maturation of their young stars has been their offense. They’re not just winning games; they’re scoring touchdowns.
Last season, Anaheim ranked 30th in the NHL in goals per game (2.65). Through 15 games this season, the Ducks were first in the NHL in scoring with an average of 4.13 goals per game. They put up seven goals in wins against the San Jose Sharks, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars.
“We’re playing fast. We certainly have speed,” Verbeek said.
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Leo Carlsson scores power-play goal vs. Jets
Leo Carlsson scores power-play goal vs. Jets
The Ducks’ 5-on-5 play has improved across the board under Quenneville. They’re averaging 3.21 goals per 60 minutes, up from 2.36 last season. Their expected goals per 60 minutes (2.86), scoring chances percentage (48.4%) and high-danger shot attempts (46.7%) are all up from last season. Perhaps most importantly, their percentage of shot attempts has jumped from 45.9% last season to 50.9% this season so far.
“We’ve added speed and size. It’s made a difference in puck possession down in the offensive zone. Joel preaches it every single day to the younger guys: Puck possession, hang onto it and if we lose it, we’ve got to get it back fast. I think that has resonated well and the guys have taken to it,” Verbeek said. “They’ve been executing and they’ve been getting rewarded for that.”
Of course, it helps to have players that can execute. Carlsson was among the NHL’s top scorers through 15 games with 25 points (10 goals, 15 assists). Gauthier led the Ducks with 11 goals through 15 games. Kreider had a stretch of nine goals in 11 games, shooting a flabbergasting 32.1%. Veteran winger Troy Terry had 19 points through 15 games, while rookie Beckett Sennecke had 11 points.
Five of Kreider’s goals have come on the power play, which ranks in the NHL’s top 10 with a 23.7% conversion rate. Again, the word “improvement” doesn’t do the year-over-year jump for the Ducks justice: They were last in the NHL last season with a 11.8% power-play conversion rate.
The Ducks are dominating offensively. Defensively … well, it’s a work in progress.
Key factor No. 2: Lukas Dostal
Last season, the Ducks were 23rd in the NHL in goals against per game (3.18). That number could have been much worse. Anaheim was last in the league in expected goals against per 60 minutes (2.96) but were bailed out by the seventh best 5-on-5 goaltending last season, courtesy of Gibson and Dostal.
Quenneville immediately sought to improve the Ducks’ defensive structure this season. “He simplified our D-zone coverage. There’s a lot of support in how we defend,” Verbeek said.
The good news for the Ducks is that they’re able to score their way out of any problem so far this season. The bad news is that their 5-on-5 defense is that aforementioned problem. Anaheim has a 3.15 expected goals per 60 minutes through 15 games. Their scoring chances against is right around where it was last season.
The best news is that Dostal is now their primary goaltender, and he’s been nothing short of astounding in 12 games. He’s third in the NHL in goals saved above expected (9.6) and has a .908 save percentage. Dostal is facing over 28 shots per game on average. He has 1.6 wins above replacement so far, via Money Puck.
Dostal has been their last line of defense and, at times, the entirety of their defense. Anaheim is not near the top of their division without him.
What the analytics tell us
“They’ve been playing real chaos hockey,” McCurdy said.
McCurdy has seen the Ducks create a ton of scoring chances and give them up, too. But the results are better year over year.
“Last year at 5-on-5, they were the league’s worst defense and nearly the worst offense,” he said. “They’ve improved the two together for a net improvement of almost a goal per sixty minutes, just in chances.”
Kryshak, the data analyst behind Betalytics, sees Dostal’s Vezina Trophy-worthy play as the reason the Ducks can get away with “high-octane hockey” so far this season — to the benefit of their younger players.
“Their young players make mistakes but aren’t benched. They are given opportunities to learn and grow through them which is paying off for the likes of Beckett Sennecke and Olen Zelwegger,” she said.
She added that Anaheim’s core players are driving its offense.
“There is little doubt the Ducks have the ability to score. Leo Carlsson is tracking to be Sweden’s top center in Milan, Cutter Gauthier is generating shots at superstar levels, both Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba look rejuvenated. It’s all coming together,” she said. “The Ducks’ ability to generate offense ranks fifth in the NHL at even strength, and their pace of play ranks second to Columbus, largely because of their ability to generate rush chances as one of the fastest teams in the NHL.”
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Cutter Gauthier completes first career hat trick for Ducks
Cutter Gauthier scores his first career hat trick for the Ducks vs. the Panthers.
Masi says the Ducks are generating “just a ridiculous amount of offense” this season, with historic precedence:
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In the last 30 years, only the 1995-96 and 2019-20 Pittsburgh Penguins scored seven goals in a game at least four times in their first 13 games of the season.
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Carlsson and Gauthier are just the sixth pair of 21-and-under teammates with 20 points in their first 15 games of the season. The rest of that list includes players like Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey (Oilers) and Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (Penguins).
Entering this week, the Ducks were third in chances off the rush and off odd-man rushes, as well as high-danger chances.
So they can score. But is that enough?
“They are so much fun to watch, but you can’t be considered a true contender when you trade scoring chances at the level the Ducks do and are currently getting Vezina-level goaltending,” Kryshak said.
Is this sustainable?
McCurdy is perplexed.
It was clear that Quenneville would be an improvement behind the bench in terms of structure and that players like Carlsson were ready to level up. “I anticipated those things in the summer and they’re still outperforming even that,” McCurdy said. “It doesn’t seem like the kind of improvement that can last, just because of how unusual such a sudden improvement is historically. I don’t feel like I understand it very strongly.”
Masi is curious.
“Are they a PDO monster?” he asked, referencing the stat that combines a team’s shooting percentage with its save percentage and informally measures “luck” in the NHL.
“They have a 103.2 5-on-5 shot-plus-save percentage, which ranks third behind the Blackhawks and Canadiens,” he said.
Kryshak is skeptical.
“The Ducks are not a house of cards, but their reliance on Lukas Dostal is significant. Their play style is to trade chances, knowing that their goaltender is likely to be better than their opponents’ on any given night. If that is not the case, the Ducks will lose games 7-6 or 6-5 and so on,” she said.
But Verbeek is optimistic. The Ducks GM acknowledged that his team has some ground to make up defensively this season, but was confident they could.
“I think it’s about getting more comfortable. I expect this to be better in the next 15 to 20 games. And consequently taking another step in the last half of the season, the last 30 games,” he said. “When Joel and I talk, he’s super excited that he sees that every day is a process. Every day we’re getting better.”
“In some instances we’re very young. That’s why having the vets can kind of stabilize things when it gets a little Helter Skelter out,” the GM added. “Having a calming presence helps.”
The Ducks have shown enough improvement early in the season for this start not to be an aberration. But as noted several times here, their MVP is Lukas Dostal. They can outscore the defensive foibles of a young roster. They can’t outscore those issues without having Dostal as their elite safety net.
If he stays healthy and playing to his standards? There’s no reason the Ducks can fly into the postseason, perhaps a little ahead of their assumed schedule.
