2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Mammoth vs. Golden Knights Western 1st Round preview

The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs features 16 teams in eight best-of-7 series, which start Saturday. Today, NHL.com previews the Western Conference First Round between the Utah Mammoth and Vegas Golden Knights.

The Utah Mammoth will debut in the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Vegas Golden Knights, who have set the standard for new NHL teams and are shooting for their second Stanley Cup championship.

The Mammoth made the playoffs for the first time since the NHL Board of Governors approved a new franchise in Utah on April 18, 2024. The team bought the hockey assets of the Arizona Coyotes, who had missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

General manager Bill Armstrong, coach Andre Tourigny and 12 players are among those who moved from Arizona and have been part of a transformation. The team was known as the Utah Hockey Club and skated in a temporary facility last season; it was rebranded as the Utah Mammoth and moved into a new practice facility this season. Delta Center is two phases into an ongoing renovation and has steep stands in the end zones, which should help make it loud for the playoffs.

“It’s an outstanding feeling,” Tourigny said. “… Everywhere we go in the city with the fans and everybody, it’s been so magical, so I think the story is unbelievable.”

Utah earned the first wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference.

“It was a lot of ups and downs,” center Nick Schmaltz said. “We started off hot and then kind of cooled off after that. But I think overall, I think pretty good year from a lot of guys, a lot of guys stepping up. It’s awesome to see the hard work kind of pay off a little bit, but now the real fun starts.”

The Golden Knights made the playoffs for the eighth time in nine seasons since joining the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18.

They have won 62 games and 12 series in the playoffs, one behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for most in the NHL in each category since 2018. They won the Cup in 2023, made the Cup Final in 2018 and advanced as far as the third round in 2020 and 2021.

“I think we have high expectations, and we try to live that every day,” forward Reilly Smith said. “I think through the organization, the players, everyone tries to live up to that level every day you’re at the rink. We don’t accept losing, and I think the last couple weeks is a good testament to that.”

Vegas replaced Bruce Cassidy, the Cup-winning coach in 2023, with John Tortorella on March 29, when they were in an 8-15-4 funk and had slipped from first to third in the Pacific Division. They finished the regular season on a 7-0-1 run and won the Pacific.

“We’ve got a lot of great players, and when we’re playing together as five in all three zones, we’re a tough team to beat,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “It kind of showed the last few games, so it was great for the confidence. We’ve got a belief in here now, and that’s a huge thing. That’s the No. 1 thing you’ve got to have. So, anything can happen in the playoffs. It’s the best time of year, fun time of year for us, so we’re excited to get going.”

Game breakers

Mammoth: Clayton Keller led Utah with 88 points (26 goals, 62 assists) in 82 games. Schmaltz had 74 points (33 goals, 41 assists) in 82 games, and Dylan Guenther had 73 points (40 goals, 33 assists) in 79 games, leading the Mammoth in goals. Logan Cooley had 43 points (24 goals, 19 assists) in 54 games.

Golden Knights: Jack Eichel led the Golden Knights with 26 points (six goals, 20 assists) in 22 games when they won the Cup in 2023, and he led them with 90 points (27 goals, 63 assists) in 74 games this season. Mitch Marner had 80 points (24 goals, 56 assists) in 81 games, and Mark Stone had 73 points (28 goals, 45 assists) in 60 games. Pavel Dorofeyev led Vegas with 37 goals in 82 games.

Goaltending

Mammoth: Karel Vejmelka carried the load for Utah this season, going 38-20-3 with a 2.75 goals-against average, .897 save percentage and two shutouts in 64 games (63 starts). He led NHL goalies in games and starts, and he was second in wins to Andrei Vasilevskiy (39) of the Lightning. The 29-year-old has no NHL playoff experience. Backup Vitek Vanecek went 5-13-3 with a 2.93 GAA, .883 save percentage and one shutout in 22 games (19 starts) this season. The 30-year-old won the Cup as a backup with the Florida Panthers last season.

Golden Knights: Carter Hart took over the net for Vegas down the stretch after returning from a lower-body injury, going 6-0-0 with a 1.66 goals-against average and .930 save percentage. The 27-year-old hasn’t appeared in the playoffs since 2020, when he went 9-5 with a 2.23 GAA, .926 save percentage and two shutouts in 14 games (all starts) for the Philadelphia Flyers. Adin Hill went 11-4 with a .217 GAA, .932 save percentage and two shutouts in 16 games (14 starts) when Vegas won the Cup in 2023. He went 10-9-6 with a 3.04 GAA, .871 save percentage and one shoutout in 27 games (all starts) this season.

Numbers to know

Mammoth: Utah can score at 5-on-5. The Mammoth had 185 5-on-5 goals, fifth in the NHL. The Golden Knights had 174, tied with the Edmonton Oilers and Columbus Blue Jackets for 11th.

Golden Knights: The Golden Knights took 226 minor penalties in the regular season, tied with the New Jersey Devils for the fewest in the NHL. That discipline should limit opportunities for the Mammoth power play, which ranked 18th (20.0 percent). Utah took 276 minor penalties, which ranked eighth. Vegas ranked sixth on the power play (24.6 percent).

They said it

“It’s certainly nothing elaborate. It’s just about playing fast, and it’s about playing forward. We want to be aggressive. We want to be up the ice. We want to take time and space in all three zones. So, it’s not a crazy formula by any means. It’s a mindset, and it’s hard. It’s a lot of hard work. But I think they’ve grabbed ahold of it, and I think we have found some consistency. I think they feel more and more comfortable with it.” -- Tortorella on the change he has made

“I think resilience is a big key word here for us. I think the way we approach games, if we go down, we don’t care. We stay with it, we play hard, and that’s what I like most about the team.” -- Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev

Will win if …

Mammoth: They need to use their skill and speed against a team that doesn’t always handle that well. The young players need to embrace the experience and play without fear, while the veterans, five of whom have won the Cup elsewhere, must be a calming influence. All the pressure is on Vegas. If Utah can take advantage of it, it could pull off an upset.

Golden Knights: They need to keep doing what they’ve been doing under Tortorella, playing hard and aggressively up the ice, with Hart excelling in net. Vegas has a lot of star power and playoff experience that should pay off against a younger, more inexperienced team.

How they look

Golden Knights projected lineup

Ivan Barbashev -- Jack Eichel -- Mark Stone

Brett Howden -- Mitch Marner -- Pavel Dorofeyev

Reilly Smith -- Tomas Hertl -- Keegan Kolesar

Cole Smith -- Nic Dowd -- Colton Sissons

Brayden McNabb -- Shea Theodore

Noah Hanifin -- Rasmus Andersson

Jeremy Lauzon -- Kaedan Korczak

Carter Hart

Adin Hill

Scratched: Ben Hutton, Brandon Saad, Akira Schmid

Injured: William Karlsson (lower body), Jonas Rondbjerg (lower body)

Mammoth projected lineup

Clayton Keller -- Nick Schmaltz -- Lawson Crouse

Kailer Yamamoto -- Logan Cooley -- Dylan Guenther

JJ Peterka -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Michael Carcone

Liam O’Brien -- Kevin Stenlund -- Brandon Tanev

Mikhail Sergachev -- MacKenzie Weegar

Nate Schmidt -- Dmitri Simashev

Ian Cole -- Sean Durzi

Karel Vejmelka

Vitek Vanecek

Scratched: Nick DeSimone

Injured: Barrett Hayton (upper body), Jack McBain (lower body), John Marino (upper body)