Oh boy has it been a weird offseason in the NHL. After the end of the season when the Carolina Hurricanes hoisted Lord Stanley as the champs. Many around the league were wondering what type of offseason there would be. The free agent market was practically dry. The biggest name on the market at the time was Alex Tuch. Teams had money to spend and not many impact players to spend it on.
This offseason has seen a flurry of trades, a few offer sheets, and some massive extensions. The biggest domino was Leo Carlsson signing an offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers for 5 years at 18 million annually. Connor Bedard followed that up with a deal with a deal for 5 years at 15 million. Fast forward to today. Macklin Celebrini has raised that bar with a whopping 5-year, 18.8 million dollar deal that will start in the 2026-2027 season. This makes him the highest-paid player in league history.
#sjsharks announce Macklin Celebrini contract extension: 5 years x $18.8 million.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) July 29, 2026
This is a page dedicated to the Utah Mammoth. Why would we care what other teams do with their salaries and their money? There are two different trains of thought when it comes to the Mammoth.
The Brilliance of the Front Office.
General manager Bill Armstrong has been with the Mammoth since its inception. He was in Arizona working to build a championship team. Trading off players for draft picks. Taking on bad contracts for assets that he could use later in the rebuild. Two of those players are Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley. Both in the early stages of their careers and both looking to be the franchise players going forward.
Dylan Guenther signed with the Mammoth, then Utah Hockey Club, for 8 years at 7.1 million per year. He signed this before the puck was even dropped in Utah. This contract will be a bargain of a deal for the whole term of the contract. 40-goal scorers are rare to come by, even more so with a cap hit like he is receiving.
Logan Cooley was signed this past season to an 8-year, $10 million deal. Some people outside of the market were thinking that was too steep a price to pay for a guy this early in his career and that it should have been somewhere in the 8-9 million range. However, now, coming in at 10 million and having Cooley on the team through 2034 is a masterpiece by the front office.
Now, we look around the league. The Anaheim Ducks are now, and will be, in a world of hurt. They are already short on cash, trying to shed salaries after the Leo Carlsson offer sheet was matched. His AAV is almost 19% of the cap this year. Cutter Gauthier is still unsigned and wants something around 15-16 million a year. If, and when, he signs that deal, the two players will account for 34% of the cap, with many young players still left in the pipeline and a defense that looks like you would find them at your local beer league.
San Jose is now in the same issue. While Celebrini's contract doesn't start until the 2027 - 2028 year, his cap hit will be a chunk of the team's total cap percentage. He will account for 21% of the cap when his deal starts. While I think he deserves a big contract. The Sharks will have to start to be smart with their signings and cap going forward. They have players like Will Smith, Sam Dickinson, and Michael Misa, to name a few, who need to be signed going forward.
Looking at the deals that Cooley and Guenther signed it going to help the Mammoth for years to come. The top two players on a team taking less than one player is a massive coup for the Mammoth.
Does This Make The West Easier to Get Through?
It has been said many times that the Stanley Cup is the hardest to win. It takes a lot. Skill, coaching, injuries, and luck to win it. Teams go through waves of mediocrity before they have a chance at playing for the cup again. The Florida Panthers have been a powerhouse the past few years. They weren't always this good and this stacked. Carolina went 20 years between championships. It takes a special setup to get to that point, and you need all parts working to get there.
The news of this offseason and those contracts we talked about are going to help the Mammoth in their pursuit of the Cup. Like I mentioned, the Ducks are already huriting to retain guys that helped them win a series this past playoffs. The Sharks will be looking to pinch pennies in a few years when their pipeline starts to hit and wanting their share of the cap. Chicago's pipeline is growing and Bedard's contract, while not as big as the others, will have that front office looking at ways to improve the team.
Per Scott Wheeler of The Athletic, He has the Blackhawks and Sharks 1 and 2 on his prospect pool rankings. This should be a recipe to move the needle in the West once some of the powerhouses start to age out. Signing players to a smaller amount might be hard for them. The Mammoth are currently ranked 6th on his rankings.
Do I think that players shouldn't get paid for putting in a ton of hard work, long nights, and grinding days in juniors or AHL? No. But in all sports, too much of one position is hard to win. Hockey is a team game, and one player can't win it all. You need to have the right mixture of players and different levels of skills to win. Drafting, developing, and hitting on players is the best way to win.
The pipeline is strong in Utah. Bill Armstrong has set this team up to be contenders in the next few years. Once those players start to make the jump, the Mammoth will be playing deep into May and June. While I don't think they knew it would happen at the time. The signings of Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther may have both saved and helped the Mammoth get to where they want to be, hoisting the Stanley Cup.
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