PHILADELPHIA — As the Utah Mammoth’s entire hockey operations staff filed down the elevator of the team’s hotel minutes after Friday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline, general manager Bill Armstrong remained in the conference-room-turned-war-room to address the media.
The setup was conducive to every bit of analysis an NHL team would need in order to make a big trade: three giant TV screens and a whiteboard surrounding the square table, with the remnants of snacks all over it.
But it didn’t result in a single deadline day move for the team.
“There was a lot of ask out there that wasn’t in our possibility of doing,” Armstrong told the media. “It just didn’t make sense for the club.”
Like the opening day of free agency, the trade deadline is crucial for every team. There’s the potential to add the final pieces you need for a Stanley Cup run, but there’s also the risk of ruining the franchise’s future.
At this point in the Mammoth’s build, Armstrong is not giving up the future for shorter term gains.
“Our best team is not here yet,” he said. “We had to make sure, at the same time, that we didn’t give away the future with some of the elite prospects that we’ve drafted over the years, along with some high-end picks that we still have as an organization, so we tried to accomplish two things: protect the future, and at the same time, get better as a team, as an organization. I think we accomplished that.”
As widely reported as it was that the Mammoth were in on St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas and other big-name players, the price wasn’t right, but that doesn’t mean the Mammoth are in a bad position.
When Armstrong won the Stanley Cup as an assistant general manager with the Blues in 2019, his team added just one player at the deadline: Michael Del Zotto, who, at that point in his career, watched far more games from the press box than he played.
“Every time I’ve watched (teams) put this all-star team together right at the trade deadline, there’s not enough games to bond each other to be able to get that synergy to actually win against a team that’s been bonded the whole year, or maybe for three, four years. It’s hard to beat those teams,” Armstrong said.
“I think there’s a little bit of a myth where people get all excited about these huge, massive trades that happen at the deadline, but rarely do they ever accumulate and come together to win a championship.”
Already the team with the best record in the NHL, the on-paper trade deadline winner this year is the Colorado Avalanche — one of the Mammoth’s more likely playoff opponents if they qualify.
The Avalanche acquired Nazem Kadri, Nic Roy, Brett Kulak and Nick Blankenburg, subtracting just Victor Olofsson and Sam Girard from the current roster.
But the Central Division is a gauntlet. With three of the league’s top four teams, nothing is guaranteed.
“I think everybody kind of got a little bit better,” Armstrong said. “Everybody addressed their needs, which, it’s competitive. It’s the best division in hockey, for me, so it’s a punch-in-the-face competition — not only on the ice, but off the ice, of our division getting better all the time.
“It’s only going to make us better, and it’s going to be great hockey for the fans to watch.”
The Mammoth did make one acquisition earlier in the week, getting defenseman MacKenzie Weegar from the Calgary Flames in exchange for Olli Määttä, Jonathan Castagna and three second-round draft picks.
The 32-year-old Weegar is having a down season, but if teams learned anything from last year’s Seth Jones trade, it’s that good defensemen can look helpless when they play for bad teams.
Adding Weegar ideally strengthens the Mammoth off the ice just as much as it does on it.
“Just a great guy, I think that’s an easy way to sum it up,” said Barrett Hayton, who played with Weegar at the World Championship last spring. “He’s fun to be around. ... He’s just a great teammate.”
Added Utah head coach André Tourigny, who coached Weegar at the 2023 World Championship: “You won’t find anybody who says a bad thing about this guy. He’s a warrior every day.”
Nick Schmaltz contract update
Although nothing is official yet, the Mammoth still have one big order of business in the works: A potential contract for Nick Schmaltz.
Schmaltz’s value cannot be understated. With 20 games left in the regular season, he has already surpassed his career-best goals total, and he’s six points away from a personal best.
His chemistry with Clayton Keller is incredible, so sticking around is probably in the best interest of both Schmaltz and the Mammoth, and his seamless transition from wing to center this year makes him an even greater asset, too.
Armstrong confirmed that negotiations are trending positively.
“I feel comfortable and confident that Nick’s going to be a Mammoth,” Armstrong said. “... We have a way that we negotiate with the players. Like I always talked about, there’s the soul of the player that I don’t want to cross, and I feel comfortable and confident that we’re going to make progress.”
The Mammoth have $32,757,125 in unspoken-for 2026-27 cap space with nine pending free agents.
