The Utah Mammoth lost their first game after the Olympic break on Wednesday, falling to the Colorado Avalanche 4-2. They are hanging onto the top Western Conference Wild Card spot as March approaches. The Mammoth are in a good spot now, but David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period says they almost replaced coach Andre Tourigny with Pete DeBoer earlier this season.
“Before Utah went on a heater earlier in the season, there was chatter over a potential coaching change that might’ve seen Pete DeBoer take over. That’s a moot point now, as the Mammoth try to secure a wildcard spot,” Pagnotta reported.
The Mammoth got off to a blazing start to the season, winning seven in a row in October. But some struggles after that had them at 18-19-3 when the calendar flipped to 2026. But once the ball dropped on the new year, the Mammoth have been a new team. They are 12-5-1 since New Year's Day.
Tourigny has been the coach for every game in Mammoth history, as his tenure dates back to the Arizona Coyotes era of the franchise. He took over a dreadful team from Rick Tocchet ahead of the 2021-22 season and has never been to the playoffs. But Tourigny's leash is uniquely long in Utah, given the move and the rebuild the team was in when he took over.
DeBoer went to three consecutive Western Conference Finals as the coach of the Dallas Stars in each of the last three years. But pulling Jake Oettinger in the playoffs last year did not go over well, and Dallas moved on from the veteran coach. In 18 seasons as an NHL head coach, DeBoer has two Stanley Cup Final appearances and 662 regular-season wins.
The Mammoth have worked their way into a playoff spot, partly thanks to Tourigny's development of their best players throughout the years.
