- While the wrist surgery that Caleb Desnoyers underwent earlier this week ends any chance of him making the Mammoth’s roster out of training camp, there is still the matter of determining where he’ll play when he’s cleared to return. Belle Fraser of The Salt Lake Tribune notes that while there was speculation earlier that linked the center to Boston College, the expectation is now that he’ll return to QMJHL Moncton if he’s unable to secure a spot with Utah when he’s cleared to return. While he isn’t eligible to play regularly in the minors, he could actually get a few games there on a conditioning stint first before a decision is made on where to have Desnoyers suit up after that.
- Still with the Mammoth, Brogan Houston of the Deseret News examines their defensive situation. Notably, after a season that saw Utah deal with multiple injuries on the back end, GM Bill Armstrong has shored things up with the additions of Nate Schmidt and Scott Perunovich and the re-signing of Nick DeSimone. In doing so, they now have a bit more NHL-experienced depth at their disposal, assuming they’re able to get some of those players through waivers in training camp.
Mammoth Rumors
Players Who Could Start The Season On LTIR
While only a handful of teams project to need cap relief via long-term injured reserve to open the season, multiple candidates across the league might technically qualify for a placement. Doing so would bar the player from returning until Oct. 31 at the earliest – 24 days from the season start date of Oct. 7.
Avalanche: Logan O’Connor
O’Connor underwent hip surgery in early June. Given the five-to-six-month projected recovery window, he won’t be available until early November at best, putting him past the 10-game/24-day threshold required for LTIR. Colorado, which has $2.10MM in current cap space, will likely place O’Connor on standard IR if they don’t make any other cap-affecting moves between now and October. If they need the relief, though, they could create up to O’Connor’s $2.5MM cap hit in cushion for the first few weeks of the season if they need it.
Blues: Torey Krug
St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong announced in May that Krug’s career is done because of pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle that surgical intervention only slowly corrected. Since the Blues only have around $625K in cap space, Krug and his $6.5MM cap hit will be going on LTIR as soon as they need the flexibility for a call-up.
Canadiens: Carey Price
What’s certain is that Price won’t play this season or ever again. He’s entering the final season of his contract at a $10.5MM cap hit after confirming nearly two years ago that his knee injury would prohibit him from suiting up again. What’s uncertain is whether or not he’ll begin the season on LTIR. Montreal isn’t in a great position to optimize its LTIR relief, either by matching his cap hit in excess or getting down to $0 in space before placing him on the list. That’s made his contract a trade chip for teams who might need the relief more.
Devils: Johnathan Kovacevic
Kovacevic underwent knee surgery in early May and won’t be ready for training camp and likely opening night as well. Whether that stretches past Oct. 31 and makes him eligible for an LTIR placement if New Jersey needs cap relief early on remains to be seen.
Flyers: Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen
Ellis’ career is over after sustaining a wide-ranging muscular injury in his pelvis just four games into his Flyers tenure in 2021. Ristolainen underwent a procedure on his right triceps tendon on March 26 with a six-month recovery time, putting him right on the edge of potential LTIR eligibility. Philly will have a better idea of the latter’s LTIR deployment potential after he undergoes his training camp physical. With $370K in cap space, they’re in a good position for near-max LTIR capture and will almost certainly at least place Ellis there to begin the year to give them call-up flexibility.
Golden Knights: Alex Pietrangelo
Pietrangelo is already on offseason LTIR, meaning the Knights actually still have to add an additional $1.2MM to their roster before opening night to optimize his capture and unlock his full $8.8MM cap hit’s worth of relief for this season. The team confirmed he requires multiple undisclosed but significant surgeries that will likely mark the end of his playing career, but it’s unclear if he’s actually had them done yet.
Jets: Adam Lowry
Lowry underwent hip surgery in late May and won’t be available until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. Winnipeg likely won’t be formalizing an LTIR placement with nearly $4MM in cap space, though.
Mammoth: Juuso Välimäki
Välimäki underwent ACL surgery in early March. He likely won’t end up on LTIR given Utah’s current cap flexibility ($6.68MM), but he’ll be out until at least early November so he’ll be there as an early-season option in case they need relief for whatever reason.
Oilers: Zach Hyman
Hyman’s inclusion here is on the speculative side. The winger could very well be ready for the start of the season. However, there hasn’t been much clarity on how much recovery he still needs after undergoing surgery to repair a severe wrist injury that kept him out of the Stanley Cup Final. A report in early June indicated there was uncertainty about his status for training camp, with no meaningful updates since then.
Panthers: Matthew Tkachuk
Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski earlier this month that he’s still deciding whether he wants to undergo surgery to address the adductor issue that hampered him down the stretch and in the playoffs after sustaining it at the 4 Nations Face-Off. All signs point to him opting for it and spending the next two to three months on the shelf as a result, though. Placing him on LTIR is the only way the Panthers, who currently have a cap exceedance of $3.725MM, can be compliant to start the season without shedding a significant contract, something they aren’t keen to do.
Wild: Jonas Brodin
Minnesota has $9.41MM in cap space, but that number will shrink once they re-sign restricted free agent Marco Rossi (or add salary while trading his signing rights). Neither scenario will likely push them into a situation where they need to use LTIR relief, but they might have Brodin and his $6MM cap hit as an option for some short-term flexibility if required. He underwent an upper-body procedure in early June and is questionable for the beginning of the season, so it’s not yet clear if he’ll miss enough time to qualify.
Caleb Desnoyers Only Had Surgery On One Wrist
- Earlier today, it was announced that Caleb Desnoyers, the recent fourth overall pick of the Utah Mammoth, had undergone wrist surgery and would miss the next three months of action. In somewhat of a silver lining, despite dealing with injuries to both of his wrists throughout last season, Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake City Tribune reports that Desnoyers only underwent surgery on one of his wrists. This likely shortened the recovery timeline and is a good vote of confidence that the medical team he’s working with believes rehabbing it will be enough.
[SOURCE LINK]
- Earlier today, it was announced that Caleb Desnoyers, the recent fourth overall pick of the Utah Mammoth, had undergone wrist surgery and would miss the next three months of action. In somewhat of a silver lining, despite dealing with injuries to both of his wrists throughout last season, Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake City Tribune reports that Desnoyers only underwent surgery on one of his wrists. This likely shortened the recovery timeline and is a good vote of confidence that the medical team he’s working with believes rehabbing it will be enough.
Mammoth’s Caleb Desnoyers Has Wrist Surgery, Out Three Months
Mammoth center Caleb Desnoyers, whom they selected fourth overall in this year’s draft, has undergone successful wrist surgery, the team announced Thursday. He’ll be sidelined for approximately 12 weeks while recovering, keeping him out of training camp and delaying his season debut until early November.
Whether that debut comes in the NHL with Utah or back with the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats remains to be seen, but it’ll likely be the latter. Desnoyers wasn’t viewed as a likely selection to make the jump to the NHL in his post-draft season anyway, and a lack of training camp time to show he can hang with the big guns definitely won’t help his case.
Desnoyers has been dealing with wrist issues for nearly a year. He declined to participate in pre-draft combine testing after playing through injuries to both of his wrists since November, he told Scott Wheeler of The Athletic back in June.
While his initial MRI indicated he would be able to rehab his wrist issues without surgery – an assessment Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong concurred with, per Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune – something’s changed in the last several weeks. If his subsequent recovery goes to plan, though, it won’t take too big a bite out of a pivotal point in his development.
More of a cerebral-type center with decent size and some room still to grow into his 6’2″ frame, Desnoyers was among the most decorated players in the QMJHL last season. After recording 84 points and a +51 rating in 56 games for the Wildcats, he was named the league’s Best Professional Prospect, their Personality of the Year, and was included on the league-wide First All-Star Team at season’s end. The St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, native also added 30 points in 19 postseason games en route to a league championship, leading the playoffs with 21 assists and earning MVP honors.
Desnoyers is the highest-drafted player out of the QMJHL since the Rangers took Alexis Lafrenière first overall in 2020. While he may need an additional year of runway, the Mammoth are likely anticipating him joining them full-time for the 2026-27 season to complement an expertly constructed young center corps already headlined by Logan Cooley.
Should Cooley Hold Off On Signing Extension?
With max-term contracts for re-signings set to shrink from eight years to seven next year, some feel teams will look to push to get their players signed this summer to guarantee that eighth season. Among those eligible to sign now is Mammoth center Logan Cooley, a player Utah would undoubtedly like to lock up, especially with GM Bill Armstrong favoring long-term deals for core pieces as soon as possible. However, Brogan Houston of the Deseret News recently argued that it’s not in Cooley’s best interest for him to extend now. Given his stature as a young potential top-line center, he’d have to have a disastrous season to really tank his value compared to what it might be now while with the rising cap, it might be better for him to wait until next summer when the maximum term drops, allowing him to reach unrestricted free agency a year sooner. AFP Analytics pegged a potential long-term extension for Cooley this summer to come in around seven years at around $9.5MM.
Arbitration Schedule For Remaining Cases Finalized
The arbitration hearing dates for the few remaining unsettled cases have been finalized, PuckPedia reports:
F Kaapo Kakko, Kraken: July 25
G Arvid Soderblom, Blackhawks: July 28
F Maxim Tsyplakov, Islanders: July 29
D Dylan Samberg, Jets: July 30
D Conor Timmins, Sabres: Aug. 2
F Nicholas Robertson, Maple Leafs: Aug. 3
D Jayden Struble, Canadiens: Aug. 3
There are only seven out of this year’s initial 11 player-elected arbitration cases still without a resolution as the hearings approach. Winnipeg had three of the players on that list and has settled with two of them, reaching a two-year, $3.7MM settlement with Morgan Barron and a substantial six-year, $45MM deal for Gabriel Vilardi.
The Ducks also had two arbitration cases on that list, but settled with both of them in the past few days. Depth defenseman Drew Helleson got a two-year, $2.2MM contract, while emerging star goaltender Lukas Dostal signed a five-year, $32.5MM deal.
There were two team-elected arbitration cases this year, the Sabres’ Bowen Byram and the Mammoth’s Jack McBain, but both have been settled.
As for the seven players above, they can continue talks with their clubs on a new deal until the hearing begins. After that, they’re bound to the arbitrator’s decision.
Players who reach an arbitration hearing are only eligible to sign a one or two-year contract. Since the player filed for arbitration in all seven cases above, the team gets to choose the contract length after receiving the arbitrator’s decision on the AAV. However, only Robertson, Soderblom, and Struble would be eligible for two-year contracts. Everyone else is one year away from being eligible for unrestricted free agency status, so they can’t receive a multi-year arbitration award.
If the arbitration award exceeds $4.85MM in any case, the team can decline it and allow the player to become an unrestricted free agent.
Mammoth Sign Cameron Hebig To Two-Way Contract
July 17: The Mammoth confirmed Hebig’s deal along with his adjusted $812.5K cap hit.
July 16: The Mammoth have re-signed unrestricted free agent Cameron Hebig to a two-way contract, according to PuckPedia. It’s a two-year agreement that pays him $775K in the NHL each season, although the cap hit of the deal will be adjusted for 2026-27 as the league minimum salary rises to $850K. He’ll earn a $175K minors salary this season and a $200K minors salary with a $225K guarantee next season.
Hebig has spent most of the last five seasons in the Coyotes and Mammoth organizations with their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. All of that was on AHL-only contracts until Utah gave him an NHL contract last season in the days leading up to the trade deadline. It was his second NHL contract after the Oilers signed the undrafted free agent to an entry-level deal out of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades in 2017.
In 67 games for Tucson in 2024-25, the 5’10” Canadian forward scored a career-high 26 goals, 21 assists, and 47 points with a plus-six rating in 67 games. The 28-year-old has 169 points in 384 career AHL games dating back to his professional debut in 2018, but has yet to make his NHL debut.
Utah has filled 47 of its 50 contract slots for next season after re-upping Hebig. They have no remaining RFAs to re-sign, so aside from trades, their offseason business throughout the organization is pretty much wrapped up.
Mammoth Sign Michael Carcone To One-Year Contract
4:03 p.m.: Carcone’s deal is now official and carries a league-minimum cap hit of $775K, according to KSL Sports’ Cole Bagley.
10:23 a.m.: The Mammoth are bringing back unrestricted free agent winger Michael Carcone on a one-year contract, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.
The move is one of the more surprising of the offseason, considering Carcone was one of the first players in the league to declare he would be testing free agency after the regular season ended. Evidently, there wasn’t considerable interest in him on the open market, and the Mammoth still wanted him around as offensive insurance for their bottom-six forward group.
Carcone, 29, was a longtime AHL fixture but burst onto the scene with the Coyotes in 2023-24, scoring 21 goals in 74 games despite averaging just 11:16 of ice time per contest. The move to Utah wasn’t kind to him, though.
Utah made Carcone a healthy scratch for a larger portion of the campaign, only playing him in 53 games. When he dressed, his shooting percentage had dropped by half from the prior season. He scored only seven goals and 19 points, despite seeing a slight increase in average ice time of 10 seconds when he was in the lineup. Things came to a head late in the season, as Utah chased down a playoff spot, and Carcone only appeared in one of their final 10 games.
There’s no guarantee that Carcone will slot into the opening night lineup in the fall. The Mammoth have acquired and sent away an equal amount of impact forwards, leading to a refreshed but still full-looking group. The 5’9″ winger will be competing with names like the similarly undersized Kailer Yamamoto and enforcer Liam O’Brien for the 12th and final spot in the forward lineup, presumably as their fourth-line left wing, assuming there are no pressing injuries.
Utah will have 46 out of the maximum 50 contracts on the books for next season after registering Carcone’s deal.
Image courtesy of Brad Penner-Imagn Images.
Mammoth Sign Forward Jack McBain to Five-Year Contract
The Utah Mammoth have signed forward Jack McBain to a five-year contract with an annual AAV of $4.25MM, per a team release.
The 25-year-old McBain appeared in all 82 games for Utah last year, scoring 13 goals and 27 points. Selected by the Minnesota Wild in the third round (63rd overall) in the 2018 draft, McBain’s rights were traded to the then-Arizona Coyotes in 2022, and he has gone on to appear in 241 games for Arizona/Utah, producing 82 points.
The physical McBain posted 291 hits last season, just shy of his career-high of 304 during the 2022-23 season. The 6’4″, 220-pound center added 50 blocked shots and a career-high 49.8 success rate in the faceoff circle. Through parts of four NHL seasons, McBain currently averages 3.45 hits per game. His 832 hits since entering the league rank third among all players.
In the release, president of hockey operations Chris Armstrong noted McBain’s versatility and willingness to win at all costs as key factors in the deal. GM Bill Armstrong echoed those sentiments.
“He is a big, strong, physical player who competes hard on a nightly basis and brings a gritty toughness to our group. Jack is an important part of the championship-caliber team we are building, and we look forward to having him back on our roster for the foreseeable future,” Armstrong said.
Prior to being drafted, McBain spent four seasons at Boston College, where he produced 33 points in 24 games his senior year. McBain made the jump straight to the NHL after being traded to Arizona and has never appeared in an AHL game. On the international stage, the Ontario native represented Team Canada in the 2022 Olympics.
Sabres, Mammoth Elect Salary Arbitration With Bowen Byram, Jack McBain
The Sabres and Mammoth will pursue team-elected salary arbitration with defenseman Bowen Byram and center Jack McBain, respectively, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
That brings the total number of players with potential arbitration hearings this summer to 13, along with the 11 players who elected arbitration before yesterday’s deadline. As with player-elected arbitration, team-elected arbitration removes the threat of an offer sheet. The Sabres and Byram – and the Mammoth and McBain – are now locked into short-term contracts with each other if they don’t come to an agreement before their hearing.
Unlike with player-elected arbitration, a team cannot walk away from an arbitration award if the AAV is above $4.85MM since they’re the ones who pursued the hearing. They’ll be at the mercy of whatever AAV the arbitrator awards if their negotiations reach a hearing, and the player can select whether it’ll be a one or two-year contract. Both Byram and McBain could walk themselves to unrestricted free agency in 2027 by opting for two-year deals; they would still be RFAs next summer if they opted for one-year commitments.
While the tea leaves still point toward a positive outcome between McBain and Utah, the Sabres and Byram are likely going to need to take advantage of the hearing. Byram opted not to elect arbitration yesterday as he looks to cash in following a career season, something Buffalo is reluctant to do with two other left-shot defenders, Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, already among their highest-paid players. He could have been offer-sheeted as late as today at 4:00 p.m. CT when team filings were due, but no other team decided to force the Sabres’ hand.
If things between the Sabres and Byram do need a hearing to settle, it won’t be prohibitive for Buffalo. The club still has $13.64MM in cap space remaining, per PuckPedia. That should be more than enough to handle new deals for Byram and fellow RFA defenseman Conor Timmins, who filed for player-elected arbitration.
In the meantime, Buffalo is still free to pursue a trade for Byram, although with the threat of a hearing looming, it’ll need to be a sign-and-trade unless they wait until after his arbitration award to do so.
If Byram and McBain opt for one-year deals, Buffalo and Utah cannot pursue team-elected arbitration with them again in 2026. Players can only receive one team-elected arbitration in their career, regardless of whether the situation reaches a hearing or not.