Although the Mammoth were looking to add, Armstrong and the organization were focused on adding without sacrificing the future. The Mammoth listened to multiple offers but didn’t make a trade that wouldn’t serve both their short-term and long-term goals.
“You have to look at everything while you’re out there,” Armstrong said. “There were some high names being put out there and into the deadline this year. We wanted to explore them. We wanted to make sure that we were in on them. At the same time, there’s a little bit of patience with this and there’s a little bit of discipline as you go down the stretch, no different than free agency. We’ve always tried to do smart things with the club and make sure that it all lines up together, and that’s not always easy.”
At the same time, Utah was careful to keep the majority of its main roster intact to avoid disrupting the team’s success. The current roster is a tight knit group with a strong brotherhood. Every game, the team is fighting for a common goal. With 20 games left in the regular season it would be hard to insert multiple players and achieve the same success.
“It’s hard with 20 games left to put elite players into your team and say ‘ok, well here you go, perfect our team,’” Armstrong shared. “There’s 20 games left, so you have to be really smart about who you put in and how you put into your team. Every time I’ve watched (someone’s) put this all-star team together right at the deadline, there’s not enough games to bond (with) each other to be able to get that synergy to actually win against the team that’s been bonded the whole year, or maybe for three, four years.”
Despite the difficulty of these tasks, the Mammoth were able to keep the future stars of the organization and not disrupt the main roster. The organization has been clear about their intentions to not only make the playoffs, but to one day win the Stanley Cup. If the Mammoth had made the wrong move or overpaid, they would have lost the players that are contributing to the team’s success now or the future stars that will wear the Mammoth sweater one day. As the deadline has come and gone, Utah is happy with the moves they made, and didn’t make, this year.
“I always say our best team is not here yet,” Armstrong explained. “We had to make sure at the same time that we didn’t give away the future with some of our elite prospects that we’ve drafted over the years, along with some high-end picks that we still have as an organization. So, I think we tried to accomplish two things and protect the future, and at the same time, get better as a team, as an organization, I think we accomplished that.”
