The Utah Mammoth shuffled their roster on Wednesday, recalling defenseman Artem Duda from the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners while placing forward Michael Carcone on injured reserve with an upper-body injury.
Duda, 22, was taken by Utah with the 36th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. Before turning pro in North America, he spent time with the MHL’s Krasnaya Armiya Moskva, where he put up 14 goals and 41 points in 52 games and finished with a +21 rating. A year later, he moved up to the KHL’s CSKA Moskva and recorded three assists in 14 games, then spent a season at Toronto Metropolitan University before beginning his professional career in 2024-25.
So far, that pro career has stayed in the minors. Duda has played only for Tucson, and that is not expected to change right away. Utah is dealing with an upper-body injury to defenseman John Marino, but the club is expected to lean on its current depth instead of handing Duda his NHL debut.
Even with those injury concerns, Duda’s AHL numbers have been solid. Since going pro, the Russian defenseman has logged nine goals and 45 points in 103 games, along with a +28 rating, which fits the profile of the kind of two-way blueliner he could become at the NHL level.
Carcone’s move to IR was expected. The six-year veteran has not played since October 8 and had already been given a week-to-week timeline.
He was coming off what may have been the best season of his career, finishing the 2025-26 campaign with 16 goals and 31 points in 79 games. This season, before the upper-body injury, he had one goal and one assist in five games.
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Former Coyotes Pick Is Finally Getting The Chance Arizona Never Could
The latest bit of movement involving Tucson has a familiar name at the center of it. Utah recalled defenseman Artem Duda from the Roadrunners, giving the blue-liner a chance to make his NHL debut after carving out a solid run in the AHL. For those who followed the Coyotes final drafts before the franchise relocation, Duda is one of the prospects who once passed through Arizonas pipeline and kept developing after the organization moved on.
There is a particular kind of what-if attached to players like Duda, especially when they start getting real traction elsewhere. Arizona selected him in the second round of the 2022 NHL Draft, but the first NHL call-up of his career is happening under a different banner, with Utah and Tucson now connected in a new way. It also arrives as the first recall of a Roadrunner to the NHL this season, a small but meaningful marker for a prospect whose path has taken a long time to reach this point. [Read more 🡒]
Coyotes Draft Pick Suddenly Has A Chance To Change His Outlook
Artem Dudas strong stretch with Tucson has earned him a real opening at the NHL level, and the timing could hardly be better for a defenseman still working his way back from a knee injury. Utah called him up from its AHL affiliate, giving the young blueliner his first taste of NHL camp life after he has steadily settled in with the Roadrunners.
The recall comes with the Mammoth dealing with a rash of injuries, so the move has the feel of added depth as much as added opportunity. Whether Duda gets into the upcoming game is still unsettled, but for a player trying to shift the conversation around his development, even being part of the conversation is a meaningful step. [Read more 🡒]
Coyotes Could Get Pulled Into A Much Bigger Goalie Shakeup
A run of goaltender injuries has left the Rangers scrambling, with Joonas Korpisalo and Igor Shesterkin both sidelined and Dylan Garand suddenly pushed into the starting job. As New York looks for help, the market around it has started to widen, and teams with established netminders are getting dragged into the conversation whether they asked to or not.
Karel Vejmelka is among the names being mentioned as a possible fit, which is enough to make this a storyline worth watching from Arizonas side. The ripple effect gets even more interesting because the Rangers are not just searching for a stopgap, they are being linked to a much bigger goalie shakeup that could involve several clubs, and the Coyotes could wind up in the middle of it if those talks gain real traction. [Read more 🡒]