Utah Mammoth GM is not willing to sacrifice their long-term future for the short-term
Daily Faceoff: Utah Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong won’t sacrifice their future to improve their team right now. Most big moves happen in the offseason or through the process of developing your own.
Irfaan Gaffar: “When we do these interviews with general managers, you know, you talk about wanting to improve your roster each and every day. But when you’re in the position that you’re in, as we turn the calendar year now well into 2026, what is improving the roster of the Utah Mammoth look like for you?
Armstrong: “Well, the first thing I have to tell you, is when, when we do, when we try improve the roster, it’s not messing up the future. And that’s the first thing about it. And we want to add. Every morning we wake up, we think about how to improve our team. But as long as it doesn’t crush us in the future, then that’s fine.
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But if you look at a lot of our deals that we’ve done to improve our team, the (Mikhail) Sergachev’s and the (JJ) Peterka’s and the (Nate) Schmidt’s, they’re all summertime moves.
And you know, when I was with St Louis and we went down the stretch to win, to win a Stanley Cup, I think we added Michael Del Zotto, and that was it. We didn’t make any catastrophic moves.
You know, your team is built. Your core is, is built, you know, during the summer, during the years together. It’s not a, ‘Hey, we’re going to make this incredible trade.’ Yes, that happens once at a time.
But, but for the most part, we’re building long-term. We’re interested in long-term success for the Mammoth, and that requires development, patience and bringing your guys along. And like we’ve done with (Logan) Cooley, like we’ve done with the (Dylan) Guenther’s of the world.
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We’ve had a slow process, and it’s painful at times because it takes some time. But you know, it pays off in the end, because you get homegrown talent that fights a little bit harder for you.”
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