2 years ago today, Utah HC played its first game. The Mammoth have come a long way since then

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Ashley Smith speaks while joined by her husband, Ryan, both co-owners of the Utah Mammoth and Smith Entertainment Group, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman during a press conference announcing the Utah Hockey Club is changing their name to Utah Mammoth held at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. | Photo courtesy of Isaac Hale

After a last-minute sale in the spring of 2024, the former Arizona Coyotes suddenly found themselves planning a move to Salt Lake City.

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Years’ worth of coordination typically goes into this type of transaction, but time was not afforded to Smith Entertainment Group. Ready or not, the team would begin playing on Oct. 8, 2024 — two years ago today.

The rushed nature of the situation led to a number of temporary fixes: a borrowed practice facility; an arena with obstructed-view seats; an NBA mascot; a placeholder name and logo.

What was not rushed, however, was the development of the team. GM Bill Armstrong had a plan, and he was sticking to it.

“Out of all the teams, we might be in the best shape as an organization,” he said at his inaugural pre-training camp press conference that year. “We don’t really have any bad contracts, we’ve got cap room to add, we’ve got a boatload of picks and a boatload of prospects that are knocking on the door to become NHL players.”

Armstrong has since leveraged his picks, prospects and cap space into a group that looks capable of making a decent playoff run. He essentially has two first lines while his defense corps and goaltending department consist of some of the best value contracts in the league. That’s without mentioning the legion of blue-chip prospects pushing for NHL roster spots.

And just think: Travis Boyd was the group’s second-line center just a few seasons ago.

Here’s what the Utah Mammoth have accomplished in the last two years, both on the ice and off it.

Utah Mammoth General Manager Bill Armstrong, center, attends Day 1 of the 2026 training camp at the Utah Mammoth Ice Center in Sandy on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Introduced a name and brand

The “Utah HC” name had its charm. “Utah Yeti” would have been neat, too. But after seeing how the state has latched onto the “Utah Mammoth” name, it’s hard to imagine the team being called anything else.

From the slogan, “Tusks Up,” to the mascot, “Tusky,” to the ride-on Zamboni, the “Zammoth,” there’s a lot for fans to latch onto.

The jerseys — especially the home set — have been well received both in the community and around the league. They covered every base: an angry animal to invoke ferocity; the Wasatch Mountains to nod to the local area; a few Easter eggs to make it clever.

Built a state-of-the-art practice facility

The “Select Health Ice Center,” as SEG just renamed the former “Utah Mammoth Ice Center,” rose out of the ground faster than Jack’s magic beanstalk.

It has everything a pro hockey player needs, and virtually everything he could want.

  • Pristine ice
  • A massive workout room
  • Top-tier recovery equipment
  • Pool, hot tubs, cold tubs, saunas
  • A team-only restaurant with a mobile ordering service
  • A private barber

One of the most useful features is the ability to always have fresh ice. With upward of 30 people on the ice at any given time, it doesn’t take long for the ice to get choppy. Rather than enduring it — or worse, waiting in the locker room for the ice staff to resurface it — they simply pause practice, walk a few steps to the other surface and carry on.

It’s also available for community use after hours, creating much-needed ice time for local hockey leagues, learn-to-skate programs, and other grassroots endeavors.

Retrofitted most of the Delta Center for hockey

Perhaps the most daunting task in the entire process was figuring out how to fit an ice surface inside a basketball arena. It took creativity and capital, but the Delta Center is well on its way to having full-ice views for every hockey fan.

For the 2026-27 season, the only partial-view seats that remain are in the upper bowl behind the opponent’s net.

While many expected the Delta Center to eventually have acceptable views for hockey, few anticipated that those would be some of the best views in the NHL. All of the recently renovated areas can be described as “extremely steep,” which means fans in those sections are right above the ice.

Made the playoffs

It’s more difficult than ever before to make the playoffs in the NHL. For much of the league’s existence, two-thirds of the teams qualified. Now, it’s merely half.

To be a playoff team, you have to be pretty good.

The Mammoth did not escape the first round, losing to the eventual Western Conference champions, the Vegas Golden Knights. It was, however, a step in the right direction.

Armstrong has stated on a number of occasions that it takes “growth and pain” to build players into winners. Losing in the first round was painful for those guys, and the expectation is that they’ll grow from that experience.

Utah Mammoth center Logan Cooley (92) protects the puck from Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Noah Hanifin (15) during the third period of Game 3 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff series at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 24, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News

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