Mammoth are in a position to shake up the 2025 NHL Draft

The newly minted Utah Mammoth are entering their second season in franchise history with a major opportunity to set their franchise up for success in the years to come.

Some fortuitous ping-pong ball luck allowed them to move all the way up to the fourth overall pick in the 2025 NHL entry draft, and now general manager Bill Armstrong can either add a blue-chip prospect to his cupboard or move the pick to add an impact player to a roster full of young, talented contributors.

After that, he’ll have $20 million in cap space to make further acquisitions either via trade or free agency, for which the market opens July 1.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and Insider and President of Hockey Content Frank Seravalli and prospect analyst Steven Ellis discussed what sort of fireworks Utah could bring to get the off-season started.

Tyler Yaremchuk: There was a clip of Bill Armstrong doing his media availability, and he was asked “Do you feel like you guys kick off the draft at that No. 4 position,” and he kind of pushed back and was like, “Whoa whoa whoa, is the top three really set?” What do you make of that? Is the top three set? Does the draft start with Utah?

Steven Ellis: Yeah, it looks like that. You look at Matthew Schaefer probably going to the New York Islanders, Michael Misa going to the San Jose Sharks, and all signs pointing toward Anton Frondell becoming a Blackhawk as I wrote in my story this morning. That’s where things get interesting. Does Utah trade their pick? I know that’s been a huge talking point, and a lot of teams seem to think that’s going to be the case. If they don’t, do they take a guy like Brady Martin? Do they take a guy like Caleb Desnoyers and get a bit more size at center? Utah’s definitely the team to watch in this draft.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…