^{Utah heads to Philadelphia after a major move, signaling a firm commitment to make the playoffs}

The Utah Mammoth made a big splash in the trade market yesterday, bringing in MacKenzie Weegar to shore up the blue line, by adding toughness and a scoring touch to Team Tusk. Weegar will not be joining the Mammoth for a few games, but no worries – he’ll be here soon.

Fun fact – watching the Islanders play the Ducks last night, the Islanders broadcast mentioned Matthew Schaefer’s 20 goal season. In doing so, they highlighted all active defensemen that have hit 20 goal seasons. Only a handful of players have done this. Weegar is one of those handful of players.

Excitingly, Weegar is a great two-way player, which should be a boon for Utah’s blue line for some time to come. Despite his age, and terms of the contract, the overall deal was solid. Utah gave up Olli Maatta, who helped the team by waiving his no-trade clause, as well as a college prospect and all their second round picks in this draft. No first rounder, no big name prospects. The cap hit is 3M more than Maatta, so a little extra cap is eaten up, but Utah is in a good cap position, so this trade is exciting for several reasons, and should provide Utah good returns for a few seasons.

Tonight is Utah’s final game before the NHL Trade Deadline. Will there be big moves before Friday at 1 PM?

Game news – Utah takes on the Philadelphia Flyers at the Xfinity Mobile Arena out in Philly. Side-note, naming your arena after a portion of your company is certainly a choice.

Regardless, Utah’s done well against Philadelphia over the past two seasons. Winning in Salt Lake back in January. That game featured the Mammoth’s first ever 6 on 5 goal, along with eventual game-winner in overtime. Utah stunned the Flyers after an absolute legendary gaffe by Garnet Hathaway, or legendary defensive play by Nick Schmaltz depending on your perspective. That followed yet another electric win last year, with less than a second to go in overtime, thanks to Dylan Guenther. To say Utah likes taking Philadelphia to extra time for extra points would be accurate.

It’s not sunny in Philadelphia
For a time, in a crowded East playoff race, the Philadelphia Flyers were right in the thick of things. Even now, they’re close on paper, just 6 points out from the WC2 position, and 8 from third in the Metro. Overall, Philadelphia could make a push – any team can have a miracle run at any time after all – but it’s looking like Philadelphia may best be served by punting this season and stocking up next year.

What’s gone wrong for the Flyers? Well, scoring for one. Philadelphia has the 10th fewest goals scored in the league, with just 2.85 scored per game. For perspective, Utah ranks just over the mid-point at 3.16. However, the teams sitting above them include the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins, as WC1 and WC2 respectively, as well as Columbus, Ottawa, and Washington.

Montreal, third best in the league, with 3.52 goals a game, and Boston with 3.33, don’t have the scoring problem that Philadelphia does. While Montreal does have a massive defensive issue (bottom 10 goals against), even they – like all the teams above the Flyers – have a positive goal differential. Philadelphia, for the year, is at -11. Only 2 teams in playoff contention are remotely close, with Detroit sitting at -2 and anyone really in the Pacific Division.

Since the start of 2026, their scoring has actually been worse than the first part of the year, and the defense hasn’t kept up. To make matters worse, their goal differential cratered with the flip of the calendar, as their goals against skyrocketed from 2.85 to 3.52. Not only are they losing a lot more games, they’re losing them by more and more.

As I mentioned when the Flyers visited the Delta Center in January, Trevor Zegras went from a point per game player to half that. Since that article, Zegras has not improved, and has remained on the half point per game trajectory. Once their leading goal scorer and top assist driver, he’s fallen below Travis Konecny in both categories. Zegras has just 6 goals in the 21 games in 2026.

Don’t let that fool you, though, as Zegras is still a 20+ goal scorer for the Flyers. The other, Travis Konecny, has been solid all year for the orange and white. Konecny has consistently been about a point per game, with 23 goals to show for it. He’s even improved after January 1st, with 10 goals and 11 apples in 19 games. He leads the team in points by a large margin, as the team’s top goal and assist machine.

With Travis Konecny out, Utah has a massive advantage when it comes to firepower. Offensively, the team flows through Konecny’s line, which will be without their team leader. Defensively, though, the team has struggled with most of their defensive pairings. Struggling on the PK as well as 5 on 5, the Flyers top pairing of Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen have fallen off lately. Expected goals for – a measure of how many goals your team is expected to score with you on the ice, versus goals you give up – has dropped for the pair to under 50% each. In fact, no defensive pairing for Philadelphia is posting a positive goal for percentage.

Goaltending has recently been shored up quite a bit for Philly, as Dan Vladar finally returned after injury. Since coming back late January, Vladar is a modest 3-2-2 but has been posting a fantastic save percentage (.920) and just 2.17 goals against. Unfortunately for him, he’s not getting the run support to back up his solid games. Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s defense has been forcing him to be good – giving up close to 27 shots a game on him since he’s returned. That’s about a shot more per game than they had when he was gone.

Key points to secure a victory today:
Darth Vladar As I mentioned a moment ago, Dan Vladar is doing quite well for the Flyers. He’s had quality starts – a game of .900+ save percentage – in 24 of his 35 starts. This includes every start he’s made since returning from injury.

It may be a case of too little, too late for the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean that Philadelphia’s just going to roll over. While they can’t score well, lately, Vladar has been good enough to help fuel the Flyers to a 3 game win streak. Granted, that streak was an overtime win against the hapless Rangers, and a shootout win over the flailing Maple Leafs, but Vladar made 26 saves to end the Boston Bruins’ eight-game point streak just a few days ago.

In order to take control of this game, Utah needs to get the initial goal. When playing from behind, Vladar’s just 1-2-2. In the last 5 games that opponents have scored first against the Flyers, they obtained 9 of 10 possible points.

Getting the first goal, and forcing Philadelphia to play catch up neutralizes Philadelphia’s one strength at this point in the season and forces them to play from a position of weakness.

One Up Special teams for Philadelphia is not doing great, and Utah should be primed to take advantage. Suddenly hot, the Utah power play should be able to eat from a penalty kill that’s in the bottom 10 in the league this calendar year. Philadelphia is just a shade over 75% success on the penalty kill, and Utah’s power play has surged to 33% (!) since the Olympic break.

With renewed vigor, the top power play unit has done fantastic lately, with Clayton Keller and Mikhail Sergachev leading the charge with 3 points in the last 4 games on the power play. With top line goals from Dylan Guenther, Sergachev, and Barrett Hayton, the top line has certainly been clicking.

If Utah can be disciplined enough to draw an early man advantage, coupled with the need to score first above, Utah puts themselves in a really good situation to take two critical points from the Flyers.

One Down The flip, however, is that the penalty kill for Utah has been worse than the power play has been through most of the year. In the 4 games since the break, Utah’s killed just over half their penalties, giving up 5 goals in 11 kills. That’s tied for most in the league, but the two teams tied with Utah – Colorado with 20 kills, and Anaheim with 16 – have far, far better kill percentages.

Ian Cole has particularly struggled on the penalty kill, on the ice for almost every goal against. Alexander Kerfoot, one of my key players that I saw shoring up the unit, has been doing the opposite.

The only defenseman not struggling on the PK at this point is John Marino, who hasn’t been on the ice for any goals against. In fact, Marino and Jack McBain both have anchored the PK fairly well. They both are actually positive, as both were on the ice contributing to the Logan Cooley short-handed goal the other night.

The problem with McBain being good on the kill, however, is that he’s been about 20% of the reason we’ve been shorthanded. McBain, Kerfoot, and Schmaltz have all been responsible for multiple penalties over the past few games.

Philadelphia’s power play isn’t fantastic, but the way the penalty kill has been going, it may be a rough time if Utah gets undisciplined. Those three, in particular, need to mind their P’s and Q’s if Utah wants W’s.

Projected Lineups:
As of 11 AM according to the NHL app:

Clayton Keller — Nick Schmaltz — Dylan Guenther
JJ Peterka — Logan Cooley — Lawson Crouse
Jack McBain — Barrett Hayton — Kailer Yamamoto
Alexander Kerfoot — Kevin Stenlund — Michael Carcone

Mikhail Sergachev — Sean Durzi
Nate Schmidt — John Marino
Ian Cole — Nick DeSimone

Karel Vejmelka
Vitek Vanecek

Game start 5 PM local.

TUSKS UP!