Recently, we talked about how Karel Vejmelka not starting for Team Czechia at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics was a significant benefit to the Utah Mammoth, giving him a somewhat unexpected three-week break while he is on pace to lead, or tie for the NHL’s league lead in games played.
My argument is that this extended break gives Vejmelka a long, well-deserved rest, which should help him avoid burning out toward the end of the season, as he did in Utah’s inaugural season.
However, a sure-fire way for the Mammoth to avoid that this season is to go out and get some help in the crease to take some of the workload off Vejmelka’s shoulders and give the Mammoth a second option they can trust.
Related: NHL Trade Bait List for 2026 Trade Deadline
With several names being thrown around in rumors ahead of the trade deadline, let’s go through some of the top options and see if any of these guys can fit the Mammoth’s needs.
The Mammoth Don’t Need a Drastic Change in the Crease
During an outstanding first season in Salt Lake City, Vejmelka signed a five-year contract extension, underscoring the team’s trust in him as their starting goalie going forward. While I had some concerns before this season that he could replicate last season’s performance after a rocky start to his NHL career, Vejmelka has shown there is little reason to doubt him now, sitting with a .902 save percentage (SV%) and 6.3 goals saved above expected.
The issue has been, he can’t get a break, with Vitek Vanecek nearly unplayable, posting an .884 SV%, allowing 4.3 goals above expected, and a 3-9-2 record to his name.
While I don’t think the Mammoth need to be too aggressive looking for someone who will challenge Vejmelka for a starting spot, several teams around the league are opting for more of a 1A/1B tandem in net. This is a path they should consider, with several goaltenders’ names being floated around in the rumor mill, and them going on two full seasons without a reliable second goaltender.
However, the Mammoth still have Michael Hrabel, a 6-foot-6, 21-year-old goaltender, still in the pipeline, which throws a wrinkle in any of their future plans in net.
Either way, the Mammoth need a guy they can rely on to come in and just give them chances to win the occasional game for the rest of this season and potentially next. Let’s look at a couple of names that could give the Mammoth one of the better tandems in the league.
Jesper Wallstedt – Minnesota Wild
Jesper Wallstedt’s name has been floated around since the Minnesota Wild landed Quinn Hughes in a blockbuster trade with the Vancouver Canucks. The Wild have shown they are willing to go all in, and with 27-year-old Filip Gustavsson already starting a bulk of their games and having signed a five-year extension, it makes sense they could want to use their 23-year-old netminder to fetch a package that rounds out their roster for a push for the Stanley Cup.
This is definitely more than a backup goalie that I suggested the Mammoth need, but Wallstedt has the potential to be a franchise netminder, sitting ninth in the NHL with 12.38 goals saved above expected, and eighth in SV% among goalies to play 10 games this season, as a rookie.
It will be a difficult deal for the Mammoth to pull off, given that both teams are considered buyers. The Wild will be looking for players that can help them win now, while the value in the Mammoth’s assets is more in their prospects and futures.
However, this could be general manager Bill Armstrong’s one chance to take a swing at a young kid who has proven over the course of this season that he has the potential to be one of the top goalies in the NHL.
Anthony Stolarz – Toronto Maple Leafs
It’s been a tale of two seasons for Anthony Stolarz with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Last season, he finished fifth in Vezina Trophy voting and was having an exceptional playoff run until it was ended by an elbow to the head from Sam Bennett and a puck off the mask.
This season, Stolarz has not been the same, battling injuries and playing on a Maple Leafs team that has been a mess defensively, allowing the third-most scoring chances and the eighth-most high-danger chances per game. The struggles can easily be justified.
In the two seasons prior, Stolarz had the second-best SV% and the second-most goals saved above expected among goaltenders who played 1,000 minutes over those seasons.
Stolarz is in the second year of a two-year contract; however, the interesting part is that he has a four-year contract extension kicking in after this season, worth $3.75 million annually. If acquired, Vejmelka and Stolarz’s contracts would be set to expire in the same season at the ages of 33 and 36.
I think this would be a competitive tandem, considered one of the best duos in the NHL, that can split the workload more evenly. Again, maybe more than just a backup goalie, which I argued the Mammoth need to sit behind Vejmelka, but the Maple Leafs are a team desperate for draft capital, which the Mammoth have tons of.
Mammoth Longterm Goaltending Outlook
The biggest wrinkle around the Mammoth’s entire goaltending situation for the future is when Hrabel will sign his pro contract and be ready for NHL action.
Hrabel was selected by the Arizona Coyotes in the second round of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. The 21-year-old, 6-foot-7 monster, Czech netminder, was selected after a great rookie season in the United States Hockey League (USHL) with the Omaha Lancers.
Since then, Hrabel has been at the University of Massachusetts, where he has a .924 SV% in 76 career NCAA games as a junior. Following his sophomore campaign in Amherst, it was rumored that the Mammoth were looking to get Hrabel to sign his entry-level contract, but ultimately, he chose to stay in college for his own development.
Is this a decision he will make again? He does have one more season of NCAA eligibility. The uncertainty around when Hrabel will make the leap to professional hockey and, more specifically, the NHL, is why I am hesitant to even believe in the multi-year deals and contracts I have suggested the Mammoth get involved with above.
However, regardless of whether it’s Wallstedt, Stolarz, or some rental for the remainder of this season, the Mammoth need a second guy they can trust to take some pressure off of Vejmelka, because Vanecek has not been the answer.
It’s time for them to go find a guy who will give them a chance to win games when called upon.
