Sept. 16 marks the official start of the 2026-27 NHL season. Congratulations, hockey fans. You made it through the summer.
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The Utah Mammoth held their annual media day to kick things off at the Mammoth Ice Center Wednesday morning — and boy, was there a lot to take away from it.
To save you from having to sit through nearly two hours of interview audio, here are the most important points discussed by players, management and the coach.
Injury update
The Mammoth are starting the year off on the right foot: There are no injuries to begin camp, per GM Bill Armstrong.
Armstrong did not specifically mention whether that applies to Tij Iginla or Caleb Desnoyers, who both missed all on-ice aspects of the Mammoth’s rookie camp from Friday to Tuesday with “nagging, day-to-day” injuries. At the time, Armstrong did say that he expected both to be available “at some point” during main camp.
Logan Cooley, who missed 28 games after crashing into the post at high speed last season, said his main goal for the year is to play every game.
The line blender
As Armstrong visited his players in their hometowns throughout the summer, the No. 1 question he got was, “What are the lines?”
Fans have been wondering the same thing. André Tourigny, who holds the ultimate responsibility of determining who will play with whom, gave an answer — but the only thing the answer did was cause less certainty.
“You will see lines today, tomorrow and the next day. That will change,” he said.
He went on to explain that although in previous years his lines on the first day of training camp were usually the ones with which he planned to begin the season, he wants to try some different things this time.
“I want to (get) to know certain guys. I want to give opportunities to other guys. There’s a lot more to watch this year, a lot more to gain,” he said. “It’s not just in making the team. It’s, ‘OK, what, what will make work better? How do we build a heavy top-six, a shutdown third line, an identity fourth line? Do we spread the wealth and build three offensive lines, or what are we doing?’
“We know what we want to do, but we will give them an opportunity to show us if we were right or wrong and then we will figure it out from there.”
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Center depth
Speaking of trying guys in different spots, a lot of natural centers will get booted to the wing this season — and that’s exactly how Tourigny wants it to be.
“I believe if you want to have success, you need six centers who can play center,” he said.
Nick Schmaltz, who popped off for his best offensive season after making the move to center last season, agrees. He pointed to the divisional-rival Dallas Stars, who he said seem to have two centers on each line.
“It’s nice to have another guy that’s comfortable down low,” Schmaltz said. “And guys that can play wing and center is huge, so I think that’s a big key for us going into the season and should be good.”
Between Schmaltz, Cooley, Vincent Trocheck and Barrett Hayton, the Mammoth have four guys who have played first-line center in the NHL at points in the last few years. On top of that, they have Kevin Stenlund, one of the most effective shutdown centers in the world, and Jack McBain, who is than capable of handling his own line as well.
Expectations for 2026-27
Armstrong maintains that the goal for Year 3 in Utah is simply to make the playoffs again — it takes a significant amount of growth and pain to build a contender, as he has previously said.
The players, though, won’t be satisfied if that’s all they accomplish.
“Our expectations inside the dressing room are to exceed what we did last year,” said MacKenzie Weegar, who waived his trade protection to join the Mammoth at the trade deadline. “It was a great year, but I think that’s in the past.”
“I spoke about it at the end of the exit interviews with all of you that the belief’s got to be, you know, win the Stanley Cup. I don’t think (Trocheck, who also altered his trade protection to allow for a trade to Utah) or myself came here to just make the playoffs every year. We want to hoist the Stanley Cup, and that’s the belief this year.”
Dylan Guenther sleeping on the floor
Even 40-goal scorers in the National Hockey League aren’t immune to the inconveniences of daily life. Dylan Guenther began his interview with a bone to pick.
“I mean, guys come in early, get settled in their new place. I mean, I got the mattress firm here not bringing my mattress, so it’s been a rough morning for me, sleeping on the floor yesterday,” he said to a chorus of laughter. “If they don’t bring it today, I might have to go look elsewhere.”
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