Forever and ever, JJ Peterka and Josh Doan will draw comparisons to one another. That’s what happens when you get traded: Everyone wants to know which team won the deal.

Buffalo Sabres fans, who had a love-hate relationship with Peterka throughout his time there, have declared themselves the winners as the first post-trade season nears its end. Josh Doan has really broken out this season, and he has already been rewarded with a life-changing contract — and there’s still a chance that the other player in the deal, Michael Kesselring, could find his stride too.

While Doan deserves all the recognition (and money) coming his way, those Sabres fans don’t realize how much Peterka has evolved.

The tricky thing about evaluating hockey players is that defensive metrics aren’t as complete as offensive ones. It’s obvious that a player is having a good season if his goals and assists are higher than normal, but there’s no singular statistic that measures the magnitude of a player’s defensive game.

So, seeing that Peterka is on pace for three fewer goals and 21 fewer points than last year gives Buffalonians something to point at. But in reality, Peterka is a much more complete player than he was in the East.

Mammoth defenseman Ian Cole said much of the change, both offensively and defensively, comes from the difference in systems. After all, the Sabres were eighth in the league in goals-for in Peterka’s final season there, while being fourth-worst in goals against.

“Our team game and our structure and how we want to do things, if you buy in inside of that structure (and) play really well individually, those numbers can for sure go up,” he said.

Within the Sabres’ system, Peterka was on the ice for 83 goals against through 77 games in 2024-25. Through 74 games with the Mammoth so far, he has allowed just 43.

To put that into context, his on-ice goals-against at even strength are better than all but one player currently penciled in for my Selke ballot.

Does matchup strength have to do with that? Of course. He won’t get Selke votes because he doesn’t always face opponents’ top players and the team doesn’t deploy him in key defensive situations.

But in an area where Peterka was a liability in Buffalo, he excels in Utah.

Mammoth coach André Tourigny mentioned Peterka’s effort as a reason for the change, and he denied that coaching has much to do with it.

“Believe it or not, I’m not talking to JJ much about his defense,” Tourigny said. “It’s not a topic of conversation between him and I. It’s more about all the grind of the game, you know? The forecheck part, the puck protection part, the winning loose-puck battles, the net presence.”

Peterka sees it as a combination of awareness, experience and structure.

“We’re a super good team in the D zone. I think we’re, like, top in the league, so I think that helps,” he told the Deseret News. “But I think (it’s) just awareness. I mean, I’m trying to get better and grow every year, and that was a big aspect for me, going into this year’s season, to just focus a little bit more in the D zone and play on the right side of the puck.”

“... “I think stick-wise, I got way better. I think I was committed last year as well. I think it’s just, maybe, like, the reps, maybe just getting more experienced.”

As much as fans want to declare the winner and loser of the trade, Peterka is glad to see the Sabres succeeding after suffering through so many years of playoff-less hockey.

“Obviously, I have so many buddies still there — so many great people. So, I’m always cheering for them, talking to them a lot," he said. “All of them are super hyped, and also for the fan base and stuff, it’s super to see them succeed and to be in such a good spot. I’m excited for them.”

With eight games to go in their sophomore season, things are looking good for the Utah Mammoth — even with the games-played finally evening out this week.

The league’s newest team has a firm grasp on the first wild card spot in the Western Conference. For an odd reason, that’s one of the most coveted positions in the NHL this year. More on that in a minute.

As of Tuesday evening, MoneyPuck gives the Mammoth a 94.7% chance at qualifying for the playoffs, while Hockey Stats gives them 95% odds. Both of those numbers are up several percentage points from the last playoff odds article the Deseret News published on March 17.

A recent hot streak from the Nashville Predators, combined with a few lost games on the Mammoth’s part, gave Utah cause for some concern. But with the Predators now on a three-game losing streak and the Mammoth dominating the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, the sky has stopped falling.

Schmaltz wins it in overtime!!! 🤯🔥 pic.twitter.com/H27BzcYY0P

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) March 23, 2026

Who might the Utah Mammoth play in the first round of the playoffs?

If the Mammoth do hold on to play in the postseason, their most likely opponent is the Anaheim Ducks. And they couldn’t ask for a more favorable matchup.

Look, there’s no such thing as an easy playoff series. The days of bad teams making the Stanley Cup playoffs are long gone. But some opponents are more intimidating than others.

Connor McDavid famously called the Pacific Division a “pillow fight” earlier this month to characterize the lack of dangerous teams in the running. Earning the first wild card spot would mean the Mammoth get to face Pacific teams in the first two rounds (if they make it that far), avoiding the likes of the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild.

The Ducks are at the same point in their rebuild as the Mammoth. They haven’t been to the playoffs since 2018, and the high draft picks in their organization are really starting to break out as stars.

The two teams have met six times over the Mammoth’s two seasons of existence, and they’ve split the wins 3-3.

Most recently, the Ducks added two empty-netters to turn a 2-1 lead into a 4-1 win. In the contest before that, the Mammoth pulled out a 7-0 win, albeit with three of those goals coming against a goalie playing his first (and to this point, only) NHL game.

One thing that could separate the two teams in the playoffs, though, is the coaches.

Behind Anaheim’s bench is Joel Quenneville, whose name is on the Stanley Cup four times (once as an assistant coach, three times as a head coach). His 121 playoff wins are the third-most by any coach in NHL history.

By contrast, Utah’s André Tourigny has more than 400 regular season games under his belt as an NHL head coach, but his only playoff experience came as an assistant in 2014. He does have an expansive collection of medals from various international tournaments, but even including his 14 seasons coaching in the CHL, he has yet to win a league championship of any kind.

Obviously, coaching history isn’t everything. The Mammoth have the edge in team save percentage, and their net goals is 30 higher than that of the Ducks. Countless other factors weigh into the outcome of a playoff series, so time is the only way to tell.

After suffering three three-goal losses in a four-game home stand, the Utah Mammoth needed a win in more ways than one on Saturday.

They got it against the Los Angeles Kings, finishing with a 6-2 victory. Logan Cooley and Alexander Kerfoot led the charge with two goals each, while Mikhail Sergachev ended the game with four assists.

The Kings had been sneaking up on the Mammoth in the standings, so the Mammoth needed L.A. to lose almost as much as they themselves needed to win.

“It was kind of a four-point game for us,” Sergachev said. “It was huge.”

Trends for the Utah Mammoth

Goaltending

In back-to-back games previous to this one, the Mammoth had to replace their starting goalie with the backup due to poor performance, and the most problematic part is that it was Karel Vejmelka one night and Vítek Vaněček the other.

When neither one of your goalies is playing well, you have a 6’x4′ problem.

But Vejmelka bounced back on Saturday, making 29 saves on 31 shots.

“I think he was in danger tonight, and he made some key stops and he played unbelievable,” Sergachev said of Vejmelka. “Pulling or not pulling (the goalie) the previous game, it doesn’t matter. We’re all for Veggie and (Vaněček) and they’re all for us. We do our jobs and they do their jobs.

“... Most of the time, if they keep playing like that, we’re going to win more than we’re going to lose. We have a lot of trust in our goalies. They’re amazing.”

After Thursday’s 7-4 loss to the Washington Capitals, Mammoth head coach André Tourigny stood up for his goalies, saying the entire team was at fault rather than just the netminders. On Saturday, he doubled down.

“The problem was everybody and the success is everybody,” he said. “We helped Vej today by not giving (up) a ton of quality (chances), but Vej was rock-solid when we did give (up) quality.”

Power play

Last season, Utah finished 10th in the NHL in power play efficiency. This year, the Mammoth have been a bottom-five team in that regard.

But over the last three games, that’s been trending in the opposite direction.

Against the Kings on Saturday, they went 2 for 3. Against the Capitals on Thursday, they were 2 for 4, and against the Oilers on Tuesday, they went 1 for 2.

The common denominator between those three games has been Cooley.

Cooley moved up to the first power play unit after Barrett Hayton got injured 17 seconds into the Oilers game. It was the second unit that scored that day, but Cooley and his new peers have scored all four since then — including two off of No. 92’s stick.

That begs the question: Why wasn’t Cooley always on the first power play unit?

Top shelf where mom keeps the cookies! 🍪 pic.twitter.com/SpUzRAK2BY

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) March 29, 2026

The answer stems from last year, when Cooley did center the first group at times. He usually played fine, but the team always had better results when Hayton was in that spot.

This year began the same way, but Cooley is still developing. He might now be at the point where he’s ready to take on that role full-time.

Sergachev mentioned, too, that part of the sudden excellence has been from a shift in mindset.

“We had a shot mentality,” he said. “Everything started with the shot and then it opened up and our elite players made some elite plays, and it paid off. Simplicity is the key, I think.”

That said, the Mammoth were dominant Saturday with the man advantage even when they didn’t shoot. During their last power play — the only one that didn’t result in a goal — they zipped the puck around the offensive zone for what seemed like the full two minutes.

Tourigny and the rest of the team was just as impressed.

“The second unit said, ‘Wow, they’re fun to watch. They should stay (out) there,’” Tourigny laughed after the game.

Confidence seems to be just as big of a factor as the things Sergachev mentioned.

The playoff picture

Most of Saturday’s games went the ideal way for Utah:

• The Mammoth beat the Kings.
• The Canadiens beat the Predators.
• The Sabres beat the Kraken (though it went to a shootout).

That pushes the Mammoth’s lead to five points over the red-hot Predators and six points over the best non-playoff teams, the Kings and the Kraken.

It probably would have been advantageous to the Mammoth if the Ducks had beaten the Oilers, as most teams would rather face a team without much playoff experience than one that has been to two straight Stanley Cup Finals.

Tankathon puts Utah’s remaining schedule strength as the sixth-easiest in the league, and MoneyPuck gives the Mammoth a 94.2% chance to make the postseason.

The Mammoth now head into a four-day break, after which they hope to come back ready to go in Seattle on Thursday.

“We need to take it really seriously in terms of making sure we manage it right,” Tourigny said of the break, pointing out that the Kraken are close in the standings.

Gotta see it

If you don’t know the story of Henrik and Daniel Sedin, it’s well worth learning about. Identical twins drafted second- and third-overall to the same NHL team who both became first-ballot Hall of Famers.

They had a twin instinct that helped them find each other with impossible passes game after game. One of their highest-IQ plays — a pass off the end boards — was recreated by Sergachev and Cooley on Saturday.

Calm and Cooley 👀

2-0, Utah. pic.twitter.com/1DhmUrn5u2

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) March 29, 2026

In the NHL, icing is negated if an attacking player arrives at the top of the face-off circles before a defending player. In a case like this, where Cooley and Kings defenseman Cody Ceci got there at the same time, the call goes in the favor of the player in the best position to get the puck.

This is an unbelievable goal.