The Utah Mammoth have gotten off to an excellent start that many may not have seen coming. They are legitimate so far with an 8-3-0 record and have scored plenty of goals. The problem is their bottom-6, where not much has been contributed.
On 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Freidman suggested that “some forwards who might need a change of scenery because their runway is shortening in Motown.” The Mammoth can take advantage of this situation and bring in some help for the bottom two lines.
Identifying the Red Wings Moving Towards Being Traded
The Detroit Red Wings are a good team this season, or at least they started well. The goaltending is solid, even if John Gibson had a very poor first impression. The team has also injected youth into the lineup to push out some of the other crop that has gone stale.
The most obvious player that will be dealt by the Red Wings next is Jonatan Berggren, who started the season out of the lineup and has gotten into some action because Patrick Kane’s injury and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard is now in the AHL.
Berggren has two goals and four points in his last four games while playing 11-15 minutes per game. He is lining up on the third line and has shown a lot of skill in the past when opportunities have come. The 25-year-old is in the final year of his deal at $1.825 million AAV and is an RFA after the season, adding to his value slightly.
Berggren was passed over by Emmitt Finnie, and Brandsegg-Nygard impressed in preseason enough to get into more games in the NHL this season than Berggren as well. While the 25-year-old needs an opportunity, which would most likely only come on a different team, there are a couple of veterans in the bottom-6 of Detroit’s lineup that wouldn’t hurt the team to move either.
According to Joshua Deeds of Red Wings Insider, Andrew Copp and J.T. Compher are also identified as potential players who could be on the move. They are overpaid and the Red Wings are looking to get young with a strong group of prospects and players in the AHL.
Difference in Mammoth’s Top-6 and Bottom-6 is Large
The Mammoth have been carried offensively by the top two lines and nothing is going to change with those six players anytime soon. Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Logan Cooley, and Dylan Guenther are all over a point-per-game, JJ Peterka had four goals and 10 points in 11 games, and Barrett Hayton is doing well as the glue on the top line.
Schmaltz is second in the NHL in points with 17, tied for eighth in assists with 10, and Cooley is one behind the league leader in goals with eight. The bottom-6, consisting of seven players, have combined for six goals and 11 points.
While the better players should be contributing more offensively, this split is very wide compared to the average around the league. This is also not the only indication that something has to change. While the six players in the top-6 have an expected goals for % of 56-66%, the players in the bottom-6 are all between 37-56%, and that doesn’t even tell the whole story.
Only Peterka has a sub-60% xGF%, and in the bottom-6, only Michael Carcone has an xGF% above 50%. The top-6 is greatly outplaying opponents and the bottom-6 is getting manhandled.
Cap space isn’t tight in Utah, while the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks broke the ice for in-season trading this season. Something could and absolutely should be in the works before the bottom of the lineup starts hurting results even more than they have for the Mammoth.
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