Utah becomes first NHL team to ever do this — and here’s why that’s unfortunate

A few weeks ago, the Utah Mammoth were practicing shootouts to end a practice at the Mammoth Ice Center in Sandy. Nearly the entire team had shot before someone finally scored.

Walking past a couple of team executives on my way to the locker room, I commented that it was a good thing they hadn’t been to a shootout yet this season.

Hockey players are notoriously superstitious, and apparently management is, too. Their instant reaction — both of them — was that I’d just jinxed it.

I made sure to knock on wood as I walked away to reverse it, which seemed to work, as the Mammoth avoided a shootout for the 82nd time this season with a 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.

That marks the first time a team has gone an entire 82-game season without a shootout since its institution as the NHL’s secondary tiebreaker in 2005-06.

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As much as the team didn’t want to avoid the shootout, it’s an important part of hockey.

Lots of people disagree with me, but constantly watching Pavel Datsyuk’s shootout clips on YouTube as a kid was a major factor in my initial obsession with hockey.

With attention spans now shorter than ever before, TikTok-length clips are much more effective at capturing new fans than putting three-hour-long games on ESPN, and that’s exactly what the shootout is.

Is it the best way to decide the winner of a game? No, but shootouts grow the game, and that’s a top priority in Utah at this time.

The first that never was

On three separate occasions this year, Brandon Tanev scored his first goal of the season. Alas, he finished 2025-26 with zero goals.

Two of them were taken away due to coach’s challenges — including one in Game 82 on Thursday. The other was initially his deemed goal, but the credit was later changed to Daniil But.

His teammates felt terrible for him.

“I think when you watch that goal go in, if you pan in on our bench, you’ll see a lot of cheers and high fives,” said Mammoth associate captain Lawson Crouse.

“You feel horrible, you know, especially a guy that gives his all each and every night. Great teammate and really wants the best for the team and everyone involved.”

After Tanev’s goal came off the board on Tuesday, he seemed that much more motivated to get one that would count. He even tried to skate up the middle through a few guys at one point, and he almost pulled it off.

It has often been said that there are players who get you to the playoffs and others who get you through them. Tanev’s high-octane, physical playing style is exactly what teams need in the postseason, so he still has plenty left to give this season.

Ain’t no rest for the Mammoth

After clinching playoff spots this season, several teams have suddenly had all their key players stricken with “undisclosed” injuries. Translation: Load management heading into what they hope is a long playoff run.

In terms of playoff seeding, Thursday’s game was meaningless for the Mammoth. Regardless of the result, they will play the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round and they will not have home-ice advantage.

But the Mammoth chose to only rest Dylan Guenther — even with the option of giving Kevin Rooney his second game of the season. Karel Vejmelka even started the game, though he didn’t play in the third period.

Head coach André Tourigny specified two reasons for the decision:

• They only had one meaningless game, whereas some other teams had many;
• The players like the rhythm of playing every other day, more or less.

He said he asked the leadership group if the players wanted to rest, and they responded that it wasn’t a good idea.

“I think the guys wanted to play, and I think in our situation to keep the rhythm and to get ready, (everyone played),” Tourigny said.

Unspoken bonuses

Generally speaking, NHL players are pretty discreet about their money. They make more in a year than the average person makes in a decade or longer, but they tend not to flaunt it.

For that reason, you won’t see Logan Cooley cheering about the $500,000 bonus he secured on Thursday — nor will you hear him complain about the $250,000 his long-term injury cost him.

In the NHL, bonus money can only be given to two categories of players: those on entry-level contracts and those who are 35 years of age or older.

This is the final season of Cooley’s ELC, which, per PuckPedia, includes every bonus available to entry-level players.

Cooley had previously secured $250,000 for scoring his 20th goal of the season. On Thursday, it became official that he was among the team’s top six forwards in terms of playing time and that he was above 0.73 points per game.

Each of those markers are worth an additional $250,000, meaning he totaled $750,000 in bonus money this season. Not bad, considering his base salary is $950,000.

Had he played the full season, Cooley likely would have eclipsed the 35-assist and/or 60-point marks, either of which would have put him at the max of $1 million earned in A-level bonuses.

He’s also eligible for up to $2.5 million in B-level bonuses, but unless the award voters do something unexpected, he won’t capture it.

Of course, that money pales in comparison to the $10 million he’ll earn each of the next eight seasons, but even as a multi-millionaire, that’s an exciting bonus check to receive.

That money will have to be counted toward the salary cap. If the team has cap space available at the end of the season, it is taken from that. If not, it is applied to the following season.

In the Mammoth’s case, they owe Cooley $750,000 and Ian Cole $200,000 for his age 35+ bonuses, awarded for playing more than 65 games.

PuckPedia lists the Mammoth as having nearly $5.5 million in projected cap space, meaning they won’t have to carry any of it over to next season.

Utah Mammoth playoff schedule

The NHL announced the first portion of the Mammoth’s playoff schedule after Thursday’s games. It will go as follows, with all times listed in MT:

• Game 1: Sunday, April 19, 8 p.m. @ T-Mobile Arena.
• Game 2: Tuesday, April 21, 7:30 p.m. @ T-Mobile Arena.
• Game 3: Friday, April 24, 7:30 p.m. @ Delta Center.
• Game 4: Monday, April 27, Time TBD @ Delta Center.
• Game 5 (if necessary): Wednesday, April 29, Time TBD @ T-Mobile Arena.
• Game 6 (if necessary): Friday, May 1, Time TBD @ Delta Center .
• Game 7 (if necessary): Sunday, May 3, Time TBF, @ T-Mobile Arena.

For a preview of the series, see this recent Deseret News article.