When the Utah Mammoth signed Brandon Tanev on Tuesday, his agent, Wade Arnott, told GM Bill Armstrong that he’d quickly become a cult hero in Utah.
It’s easy to see why. In a game where players tend to be serious at all times, Tanev likes to keep things light — as evidenced by his deer-in-headlights headshots each year.
“I didn’t see the picture until it happened afterwards, but it caught so much traction, so it’s nice to do it every year and have some fun with it,” he said of his first wacky headshot in a press conference with the local Utah media Wednesday afternoon.
That’s indicative of the type of person Tanev is off the ice. He can be as mean as anyone during games, but away from the rink, he likes to have fun.
“I’m an energetic guy,” he said. “I’m very personal. I like to chat with the boys and keep things light when the time is right.”
Armstrong mentioned in his press conference Tuesday that although he was primarily looking for good hockey players, it was also important to get guys who’d contribute positively within the locker room. Tanev, along with fellow free agent signing Nate Schmidt, will do exactly that.
Throughout his various stops in the NHL, Tanev has served as a mental health advocate — and he plans to continue doing so in Utah.
“Life is not an easy thing,” he said. “There’s many ups and downs and adversity. When you have great people around you — friends, family, teammates, whomever — you can’t be shy to reach out and ask for help.”
Utah connections
As soon as news broke that Tanev had signed with Utah, team captain Clayton Keller got in contact with him to welcome him into the fold. He also spoke to John Marino, whom he played with in Pittsburgh from 2019 to 2021.
Tanev trains with Mammoth defenseman Sean Durzi at Gary Roberts’ gym in the Toronto area in the summers, so he said he got a text from Durzi when he signed, followed by a hug at the gym the next day.
Other former teammates of his who now play for the Mammoth include Kailer Yamamoto from their days in Seattle and both Jack McBain and André Tourigny from the 2024 World Championship.
Brandon Tanev, the hockey player
On the ice, Tanev is a Swiss army knife. He’ll kill penalties, throw big hits, drop the gloves and chip in as a secondary scorer. It’s that type of versatility that made him a hot commodity at the trade deadline last season, where the Seattle Kraken sent him to the Winnipeg Jets for a second-round pick.
Think of him as a more physical version of Alexander Kerfoot.
Like his older brother, Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev, Brandon went undrafted in the NHL. Both brothers took several years off from hockey as late teenagers, meaning they weren’t on any professional team’s radar.
Brandon explained on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast in 2021 that he’d stepped away from the game because he was a late bloomer. During that time, he worked after-school jobs at a grocery store and then at a golf shop.
“My freshman year in high school, I might have been, like, 4-foot-10,” he said on the podcast. “(When) my backpack was filled with all my books, it was probably half the size of me.”
Once he hit a major growth spurt — about a foot in his senior year of high school, by his estimation — he got back into the game. He played Junior A in the OJHL and the BCHL before committing to Providence College.
In 2015, he scored the game-winning goal to bring Providence its first-ever national championship title. Once his NCAA season concluded, the Jets signed him as a free agent and he was playing in the NHL in no time.
Through 552 NHL games, Tanev has 83 goals and 180 points to his name.
