A new chapter in the history of ice hockey in the Beehive State will be written this fall, as the Utah Mammoth (formerly the Utah Hockey Club) are set to play their first NHL season under a new brand and nickname. Their first regular-season game of the 2025-26 campaign is set for Oct. 9 against the Colorado Avalanche.
The organization will have to wait a little longer before one of its up-and-coming talents makes his professional hockey debut.
Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong said on Thursday that forward/center Caleb Desnoyers will miss approximately 12 weeks after undergoing wrist surgery, according to a statement from the team’s public relations account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Mammoth selected Desnoyers with the fourth overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. Only Matthew Schaefer (No. 1 to the New York Islanders), Michael Misa (No. 2, San Jose Sharks) and Anton Frondell (No. 3, Chicago Blackhawks) were taken ahead of him.
Prior to being selected by the Mammoth, Desnoyers starred in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, where he landed on the league’s All-Rookie Team after the 2023-24 season and was on its All-Star First Team one year later. This past season, he finished fifth in the league with 84 points (35 goals and 49 assists) and first in game-winning goals (11).
“Desnoyers established himself as the No. 1 center on the No. 1 team in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League in 2024-25, quite an accomplishment for an 18-year-old looking to make an impression in his NHL Draft-eligible season,” Desnoyers’ official biography on NHL.com reads. “He won the 2025 Paul-Dumont Trophy as the QMJHL’s personality of the year and the Guy Lafleur Trophy as the most valuable player of the QMJHL playoffs after he had 30 points (nine goals, 21 assists) in 19 games to help Moncton win its third Gilles-Courteau Trophy as league champion. He then had two points (one goal, one assist) in four games in the Memorial Cup.”
