No NHL team sent more players to the 2025 IIHF World Championship than the Utah Mammoth.
Every bit of competitive experience is a positive, especially for young players. Whether Utah’s guys come back with medals around their necks or not, they’ll have experience in their back pockets to draw upon in future NHL situations.
Will the Americans finally win?
Utah’s Americans have done great things for their team. Clayton Keller ranks eighth in tournament scoring: two goals and nine points in seven games. Logan Cooley has four goals and eight points in seven games.
The two have combined with Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson on a line that seems to have the puck on a string at all times in the offensive zone.
Michael Kesselring’s four points are tied for the most among American defensemen, while Josh Doan managed his first point of the tournament with a goal against Czechia on Tuesday.
Team USA as a whole has underperformed, relative to expectations. They got shut out by Switzerland, a team with just six current NHL players. They also went to overtime with Norway, whose only NHL player is Emil Lilleberg, whom Utah’s management drafted but never signed.
The Americans haven’t made it to the gold medal game since 1956, and they haven’t taken home the top prize since before World War II.
Thursday’s single-game elimination match with Finland is crucial in their attempt to establish a history at the tournament.
Veggie doing Veggie things
Though he added a gold medal to his trophy case at last year’s World Championship, Karel Vejmelka didn’t get to play a single game. This year, he’s Team Czechia’s starting goalie — and he has a real chance at earning another.
His numbers are slightly better than those he produced in the NHL this year: a .917 save percentage and a 2.45 goals-against average. He has a 3-1-0 record with his only loss coming against Team USA, where Mammoth teammates Josh Doan and Logan Cooley each scored on him.
But, like any good goalie, Vejmelka’s play is evident beyond the numbers. He makes big saves at key moments.
In the game against the Americans, for example, he had big saves in the final few minutes of both the first and second periods — first on Matty Beniers, then on Zeev Buium and another on Zach Werenski.
The only non-Mammoth goals he allowed were a pair of deflections by Frank Nazar.
Hayton, Canada cruising along
Barrett Hayton sat out of Canada’s final game in the group stage, making way for draft-eligible forward Porter Martone.
Hayton’s role hasn’t been as big as the one he’s used to, seeing how deep Team Canada is, but he’s still managed to make a mark with a goal and two points through six games. While he plays center in the NHL, he has spent the entire tournament on the right wing.
Ideally at a tournament like this, a young player like Hayton would take the opportunity to learn as much as possible from the likes of Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Ryan O’Reilly and the other champions he’s spending time with.
The prospects
Mammoth prospects Maksymilian Szuber, Gregor Biber and Patrik Koch have all been left off the scoresheet. All three play for countries with relatively few NHL players and they often get badly outperformed at international tournaments like these.
Nevertheless, it’s good experience for the three defensemen to experience tough competition. You don’t learn if you never go through adversity.
What’s next?
The World Championship picks back up on Thursday with all four quarterfinal games. Fans in the United States can watch the games on NHL Network.
See the IIHF website for the full schedule.