Not every new team can be the Vegas Golden Knights, who got all the way the Stanley Cup final in 2017-2018, their very first year of existence. In the debut season of the Utah Hockey Club, the team formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes held its own, winning 38 games against 31 regulation losses and 13 overtime losses for 89 points, good enough for sixth place in the eight-team Central Division.
Not surprisingly, change is coming to Utah. The first big change was announced on Wednesday, when the Hockey Club finally settled on an actual name. Henceforth, the Salt Lake City-based franchise will be known as the Utah Mammoth.
The name change came after multiple rounds of fan voting with a reported 850,000 ballots cast. The region that is now the state of Utah was once — 10,000 years ago and earlier — home to thousands of mammoths, whose fossils have been discovered throughout the state.
The team settled on the singular term “Mammoth” rather than going with the plural “Mammoths” because “it symbolizes one team, all-in and all of Utah,” according to a Mammoth press release.
More Than Team Name Will Change in Utah
But there will be other changes as well. According to an analysis by hockey writer Brogan Houston of the Salt Lake City newspaper Deseret News, the Mammoth are likely to trade left winger Matias Maccelli, who appeared to fall out of favor with Utah coach André Tourigny during the 2024-2025 season.
After 82 games for Arizona in 2023-2024 and 64 in his first full season when he was named to the NHL’s All-Rookie team, the 24-year-old from Turku, Finland, saw action in only 55 in Utah’s first season, scoring just eight goals after 17 the previous year.
At one point through late February to mid-March, Maccelli was listed as a healthy scratch in 13 straight games.
It was a strange fate for a player whose standout rookie season landed him a three-year, $10.275 million contract extension, with a cap hit of $3.43 million.
According to Houston, Maccelli would fit the needs of the Minnesota Wild, a team looking for help after being eliminated in six games in the first round this year by the Golden Knights.
In Houston’s trade proposal, the Wild would send back center Marco Rossi, an All-Rookie selection in 2023-2024. Rossi amassed 60 points this season, including 24 goals scored. Rossi, coming off his three-year, $5.3 million entry-level contract, will be a restricted free agent expected to receive a substantial raise — one that Minnesota may not want to pay.
Rossi Would Reunite With OHL Coach
“Maccelli is a proven top-tier playmaker who didn’t have a good fit this season. Rossi is an excellent player who has struggled to gain trust,” Houston wrote on Sunday. “A fresh start may be exactly what both players need.”
The Wild seemed to lose faith in Rossi this season, restricting him to only 66.8 total minutes of ice time in the Wild’s six playoff games.
“But you know who does trust him? Utah head coach André Tourigny and assistant coach Mario Duhamel,” wrote Houston. “The trio of Rossi, Tourigny and Duhamel represented the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s from 2018-2020, during which time Rossi accomplished a 120-point season (despite only playing 56 games) and the team made a trip to the Ross Robertson Cup Final.”
In his trade outline, Houston realizes that Maccelli alone will not be enough to bring Rossi from Minnesota to Utah.
“It’s well-documented that Utah HC has too many young prospects to possibly be able to sign them all,” Houston suggested. “Shipping one of them out with Maccelli wouldn’t make a dent in their cupboards and it might be enough to get the deal done.”
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Mammoth Trade Pitch Lands $5.3 Million Center For Winger Who Fell Out of Favor