Utah Mammoth players tend to fly under the radar — and for the most part, that’s how they like it.
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A few years ago, when one current Mammoth player was playing for a Canadian team, a fan once stopped him in public asking him to relay a particular tidbit of power play advice to the team’s star player.
By contrast, one of Utah’s best players told the Deseret News he “almost never” gets stopped by fans in the NHL’s newest city.
That doesn’t mean they don’t want attention on the ice, but Mammoth players’ relative anonymity on the league-wide scale leads Utah’s stars to go underrated.
How do you draw international attention? Putting on a show against the league’s most-watched team is a good start. That’s exactly what the Mammoth did in their 5-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Delta Center Tuesday.
Logan Cooley, a budding star who’s still pushing for the reputation as a top forward in the league, kicked it off by intercepting a pass on the penalty kill and taking off with a burst of speed. He began to dangle Darren Raddysh, Toronto’s biggest free agency addition this summer, but the latter opted to take a holding penalty rather than getting fully embarrassed.
Here’s the replay of this one:https://t.co/91ZkK8bi5U
— Brogan Houston (@houston_brogan) October 14, 2026
Daniil But followed it up shortly thereafter by walking Morgan Rielly — a well-established top-pair defenseman — and beating the goalie clean for just the fifth goal of his young NHL career.
“He made a good play,” Rielly said after the game. “Obviously that’s on me.”
But put up historic stats as a teenager in the KHL (one of the best leagues in the world) and he feels he’s on the precipice of a breakout at the NHL level.
“If I did that today, I think I can do that (consistently),” the young Russian said after the game in his steadily improving English. “Maybe not in every game.”
Here’s the replay. What a move.https://t.co/JBXrl17O4V
— Brogan Houston (@houston_brogan) October 14, 2026
To Mammoth head coach André Tourigny, pretty goals matter much less than playing a solid all-around game, but he was impressed at But’s ability to do both on Tuesday.
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“He was really good,” Tourigny said. “He was on the body; He was heavy down low; He reloads right; He was on the right side of the puck; Made good plays with the puck; Scored a big goal.”
Not long into the second period, Cooley made his second highlight-reel play of the night — this time resulting in a goal.
He accepted a drop pass from Vincent Trocheck, got around the sprawling defenseman and found Trocheck with a backdoor pass for a tap-in.
*Whistling noises*https://t.co/AfWKC2lyhN
— Brogan Houston (@houston_brogan) October 14, 2026
“Great play by him,” Trocheck said after the game. “I told him afterwards I did not expect the puck there. I thought he was going to shoot it. Guy took away the lane and (Cooley) made a great pass.”
Trocheck and Cooley both hail from Pittsburgh and they’ve been skating together every summer for years.
“It’s actually awesome,” Trocheck said. “I mean, it’s a blast. I have so much fun. It doesn’t seem real at times. Sometimes it just feels like we’re playing shinny hockey in the summer when we’re out there.”
Cooley is still searching for his first goal of the 2026-27 season, but don’t take that as an indication of struggle. Six assists in seven games is nothing to be ashamed of, and he also plays a key defensive role for the Mammoth.
A young, budding star on the other side of the ice made a statement on Tuesday, too: Gavin McKenna, the 2026 No. 1 overall pick, scored the second goal and fifth point of his seven-game career.
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