The Utah Mammoth kept the momentum rolling Monday, putting together another productive day that included a trade and a re-signing. After a draft weekend that already left the roster looking stronger, the front office went back to work and added two more moves that fit the direction of the offseason so far.
The trade sent defenseman Maksymilian Szuber to the Montreal Canadians in exchange for right-winger Joshua Roy. It’s not the kind of deal that grabs headlines across the league, but it does give Utah another young player with some upside.
Szuber, 23, had a solid season with the Tucson Roadrunners, flashing offensive skill with 11 goals and 16 assists. He has just one NHL game to his name, which came in the 2023-24 season with the Arizona Coyotes.
Roy brings a different resume. The 22-year-old has already gotten a taste of the NHL, appearing in three games in the 2025-26 season and going scoreless, but his AHL numbers last season stand out: 23 goals, 22 assists and 45 points in 57 games.
Across his NHL career, Roy has played 38 games, with 6 goals and 5 assists. Utah clearly saw enough there to make the move.
The other bit of business Monday was keeping Kailer Yamamoto in the fold. The forward was set to hit free agency, but the Mammoth chose not to let him walk.
Yamamoto became a bigger part of the lineup in the second half of last season, finishing with 13 goals and 10 assists in 59 games. He also chipped in during the playoffs, scoring a couple of goals and finishing with five points in Utah’s 4-2 first-round loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Utah locked him up on a 2-year, $3.5M deal, a contract that gives the club cost control while giving Yamamoto a chance to prove he deserves an even bigger payday down the line. At 27, he’s still in that spot where he can turn a useful role into something more.
Taken together, the Mammoth’s offseason work has checked off several boxes. The backup goalie situation has been addressed, the salary cap picture got some help with the JJ Peterka trade, and now Utah has retained the most valuable player it was about to lose in free agency. For Mammoth fans, the early returns have been hard to argue with.
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The arbitration filing does not shut every door, either. Hayton remains eligible to sign an offer sheet until the player filing deadline passes, which keeps a separate layer of uncertainty attached to his future while the Mammoth try to manage the process on their terms. For a player whose next contract has been one of the more closely watched items around the former Coyotes core, the calendar now matters as much as the back-and-forth. [Read more 🡒]