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The Utah Mammoth are making moves as they look to treat fans in Salt Lake City to playoff hockey for the first time in 2025-26. The Mammoth have signed Stanley Cup champion defenseman Nate Schmidt, along with depth forward Brandon Tanev in NHL Free Agency, the team announced.
Schmidt, who reportedly wanted to stay with the Florida Panthers but couldn't make the money work, gets a three-year contract worth $3.5 million per season. That's significantly more than he would have earned if he had re-upped with the Cats this summer.
Meanwhile, Tanev — who spent last season split between the Seattle Kraken and Winnipeg Jets — earned a three-year deal that will pay the Toronto, Ontario native $2.5 million each year of the pact.
It's a tidy piece of business for the Mammoth, who are shoring up their defensive core and strengthening their bottom-six forward group, just as general manager Bill Armstrong did last offseason.
It's also great work for Schmidt, who parlayed a one-year league minimum agreement with the Panthers in 2024-25 into a three-year deal that will pay him over $10 million.
The 33-year-old has bounced around a couple of teams after going undrafted, most notably advancing to the Stanley Cup Final along with the Vegas Golden Knights in their inaugural campaign in 2017-18. While that ended in defeat at the hands of Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, Schmidt would get his championship seven years later.
Now, he'll look to mentor a young Utah team that is looking to take the next step in 2025-26. He looks to be well-deserving of the pact after scoring 19 points in 80 games, adding a plus-four rating and seeing over 16 minutes of ice time per game.
Brandon Tanev brings much-needed grit to Mammoth
Tanev will play a similar role on this roster; the 33-year-old managed 22 points in 79 games with the Kraken and Jets last year, but disappeared in the playoffs. He didn't manage a single point in 13 games as the Jets bowed out to the Dallas Stars in the second round.
Still, he's been a quality physical winger over the last few years, managing 33 goals and 73 points in 227 games, along with 506 hits. That's something Utah badly needs; only five players recorded more than 100 hits last year, including Nick Bjugstad, who left the team in free agency on Tuesday.
Neither Schmidt or Tanev will be expected to carry too much of a load; Schmidt is likely to play on the third pairing alongside fellow veteran Ian Cole, while Tanev should see fourth line minutes, probably with Liam O'Brien and Kevin Stenlund.
It'll be interesting to see how the two veterans fare in Salt Lake City in 2025-26 and beyond, and whether they'll be able to help the team take the next step.
Every free agent signing is being documented and analyzed in ClutchPoints' 2025 NHL Free Agency tracker.
