Should The Utah Mammoth Make Another Move?

With training camp just a few weeks away, should the Utah Mammoth make any more off-season moves? Even with $6.68 million in available salary cap space, I don’t think the Mammoth need to be in a rush to make any more moves.

The off-season acquisitions of Nate Schmidt, Brandon Tanev, J.J. Peterka, and Vítek Vaněček, along with the signings of Kailer Yamamoto and prospects Dmitri Simashev and Daniil But, have given the Mammoth a roster of competitive players going into training camp. The competition for roster spots will be high for the Mammoth. Adding another player now would likely leave a deserving player or two off the opening-night lineup.

Utah Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong also has to consider the number of prospects that could be claiming an NHL roster spot over the next few years. Prospects like Caleb Desnoyers, Tij Iginla, But, Simashev, and Cole Beaudoin. As a former NHL scout, GM Armstrong knows that he must be patient with some of his prospects. He knows what he has and sees this crop of players as being the key pieces for the Mammoth’s long-term future.

That said, I don’t see Armstrong making a trade just for the sake of it. I genuinely believe that he likes this team as it is and will stick with the stars he has and the prospects in his system. The more likely outcome would be for Armstrong to hang on to the $6.68 million until the NHL trade deadline. The Mammoth has a fairly deep team, and if they can play well as a unit without needing to add much, having around $6 million at the deadline could help Armstrong land a player or two to help the Mammoth have a good playoff run.

The Mammoth don’t have any real needs to fill before the regular season begins in October. If something comes up during training camp or pre-season, I think they’ll look internally for solutions. Currently, I think they’d like to keep a few roster spots open for competition in training camp and see where it takes them.