The Utah Mammoth’s Path to the Stanley Cup Playoffs
For the first time since 2020, when they were known as the Arizona Coyotes, the Utah Mammoth are heading to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This marks a historic moment for Salt Lake City, as the Delta Center will host Stanley Cup Playoff hockey for the first time. The venue has long been a hub for thrilling NBA postseason games for the Utah Jazz, but now it’s set to welcome a new era of hockey excitement.
The Mammoth, who were initially known as the Utah Hockey Club for the 2024-25 season and missed the playoffs, made a strong impression in the 2025-26 season with an official new name. Their impressive 43-33-6 record earned them the fourth overall spot in the NHL’s Central Division, and the club is excited to begin postseason play.
“It’s awesome,” said center Logan Cooley via NHL.com. “There’s a ton of energy, a ton of excitement. That’s what we’ve been working for all season, to be in this position, and you know the real work is just getting started. The excitement in the room, we’re all excited to get going, and I expect a great game from us tonight.”
Head coach Jean-Gabriel Pageau added, “We work hard to be here, and it’s time to enjoy it and put our best foot forward. It’s exciting for our franchise, for our fans, for our players, for our front office, for everybody. We’re proud of that. At the same time, puck drops at 7:22, something like that, we’ll be there.”
Facing the Vegas Golden Knights
The Mammoth will take on the Vegas Golden Knights, who finished first overall in the Pacific Division with 95 points and are back in the playoffs for the eighth time in their nine-year existence. The series, which officially begins on Sunday evening in Sin City, promises to be a challenging test for the young and inexperienced Mammoth team.
The Major Flaw: Inexperience
While the Mammoth have been a great story in Salt Lake City this season, one major flaw stands out: their inexperience compared to the Golden Knights. The Golden Knights still boast many of the players that helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2023, including Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Adin Hill, Shea Theodore, Reilly Smith, and the injured William Karlsson.
Sunday evening will mark the postseason debuts of players like Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, JJ Peterka, Karel Vejmelka, Liam O’Brien, and Michael Carcone. Nick Schmaltz has four total games of playoff experience, while Clayton Keller and Lawson Crouse have 18 total combined games of playoff experience between them.
Having already appeared in the playoffs goes a long way, as the Mammoth will soon discover. In tight games, even small mistakes can end up in the back of your net, while in-series adjustments can be more difficult. That’s why teams with playoff experience often have the upper hand – they’ve already been through it and know what it takes.
That being said, Utah is not without playoff experience. In fact, three of their players have already won the Stanley Cup. They’ll be leaning on Nate Schmidt (2025 with Florida), Mikhail Sergachev (2020, 2021 with Tampa Bay) and Ian Cole (2017, 2018 with Pittsburgh) for their valuable experience to help shorten the learning curve.
“It’s important to not just be overwhelmed by the moment,” Guenther said. “We deserve to be here, and we’ve earned that. We’ve obviously been through a little bit more adversity, just not making it in a while, but I think that we earned the spot, and it’s just exciting to go out there and try to show it.”
Preparing for the Challenge
The Mammoth are already well aware that they’re going to face a daunting environment once the postseason begins from T-Mobile Arena in Vegas.
“Stay present for the moment,” veteran defenseman Ian Cole explained. “It will be hectic; it will be chaotic out there especially to start. We have to understand that and kind of accept that and play right through it. It’s not going to be perfect, it’s going to be chaotic probably the best way to describe it, especially here with how loud this place is. It will be a fun atmosphere but one I think we are going to embrace it.”
Utah may have gotten the upper hand in two of the three regular-season matchups against the Golden Knights, but as they’re about to find out, the Stanley Cup Playoffs are a completely different animal and level of intensity. Will the Mammoth be able to hold on and create what would be considered one of the true first-round upsets?
