When Utah Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong drafted Tij Iginla, he famously told him that Utah had enough 20-goal scorers — he needed someone who could score 50.
Iginla hasn’t arrived in the NHL yet, but it looks like the Utah Mammoth have already found their Rocket Richard Trophy candidate: Dylan Guenther.
Guenther scored his 40th goal of the season in Utah’s 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. With three games remaining on the schedule, it would take a small miracle for him to hit 50 this year, but he turned 23 on Friday. His best years are almost certainly ahead of him.
In his media day interview on the first day of training camp, Guenther mentioned that he wanted to diversify his goal scoring. Everyone knows he can score one-timers on the power play, but he wanted to be a threat from every area of the ice.
“I think I still have a little ways to go,” he said when asked to evaluate his progress on that front in Saturday’s postgame interview. “I feel like when you watch guys who score a lot, they they’re tipping pucks in and redirects and stuff. I haven’t really added that to my game yet.”
Mammoth head coach André Tourigny added some context to that statement.
“You need to check all the boxes,” he said. “... You need to be a good skater; You need to have good hands; You need to have good balance; You need good vision. You need more than one thing. You can be elite at one or two things, but it won’t make you an elite all-around player.
“Being a professional, I think Gunner, all around, on and off the ice, he’s way more well-rounded at this point.”
Mammoth defenseman Sean Durzi can see the progress Guenther has made in his young career.
“I remember the first time I met him, you see his release and then if you compare it to now, it gets better every day. He’s an awesome guy, awesome player. Couldn’t be more happy for him.
“... For him to get 40, it’s only a teaser of what’s to come.”
Guenther’s 40th goal ties him for 10th in the NHL and sets a new franchise record for the Mammoth.
Standing up to bullies
With a little more than five minutes to go in the third period Saturday, Hurricanes defenseman Charles-Alexis Legault laid a hit from behind on Mammoth rookie Dmitri Simashev. When the boarding call didn’t come, Simashev got up and handled the business himself.
It comes back to the code in hockey: If you make a bad hit, you have to answer for it.
Simashev is a big guy, but he has never really been a fighter. He was definitely outmatched in this instance, but it shows a lot of character to be willing to stand up for yourself.
“That passion side of it, the emotion, that’s a big part of the game, whether he drops the gloves (or) gets in his face,” Durzi said.
“But he gets buried from behind there, and for him to kind of stand up and use his size and show that guy that that’s not OK, the fight’s the fight, but it’s the message that it sends, is (that) nobody does that to us, nobody does that to him. I’m proud of the kid. ... It shows his teammates that he’s here to compete and to win.”
Simashev only saw 13:20 of ice time in the game, but he did earn some trust.
“He made a few good plays. He had a few good shots, one-timers and stuff,” Tourigny said. “We all know Sima will be a great player for us for a long time. He showed he’s capable of contributing at the NHL level.”
As the Mammoth venture toward and through the playoffs, the plan is for Simashev to play a support role, as he has since getting called up on April 4.
He won’t necessarily play big minutes, but he will be along for the ride, giving him chances to learn and grow as they go.
Next year, though, he expects to be a permanent fixture of the Mammoth’s blue line.
