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  "path": "/sports/2026/05/07/utah-mammoth-memorial-cup-preview/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-07T20:25:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.deseret.com",
  "tags": [
    "‘Come up, come ready’: GM’s message to Mammoth prospects",
    "Utah selected with its first-ever draft pick",
    "@monctonwildcats",
    "@utahmammoth",
    "TusksUp",
    "pic.twitter.com/QJDoAVK6cs",
    "January 10, 2026",
    "@CanadiensMTL",
    "@SpitsHockey",
    "NHLesp",
    "Hubs",
    "pic.twitter.com/JUnbahxdd3",
    "May 31, 2017",
    "How goal-setting made the Mammoth a playoff team",
    "Come up, come ready",
    "@QMJHL",
    "@Canadiens_VAVEL"
  ],
  "textContent": "Mammoth fans, if you’re looking for meaningful, Utah-related hockey to watch this spring, look no further than the Memorial Cup.\n\nSimply put, it’s the most important trophy in junior hockey. Think of it as an NCAA national championship, except teams can’t just grab a bunch of over-agers and dominate the way they do in college hockey.\n\nIn other words, the stars of these teams tend to become stars in the NHL — and the Utah Mammoth have plenty of prospects in the running.\n\n### What is the Memorial Cup?\n\nThe Memorial Cup is a tournament between the champions of the three leagues that comprise the Canadian Hockey League, with the fourth spot going to the host team.\n\nThey play each other in a round-robin format. The highest-placed team goes straight to the final, while teams two and three play each other in a semifinal game for the other final spot.\n\n‘Come up, come ready’: GM’s message to Mammoth prospects\n\n###\n\n\nSo, in order to win the Memorial Cup, a team that isn’t hosting the tournament must:\n\n  1. Make the playoffs in its own league\n  2. Win all four rounds of playoffs in that league\n  3. Beat out the other champions and the host team for the trophy\n\n\n\nThe Western Hockey League’s Kelowna Rockets are hosting this year. The finals are currently ongoing for each of the three CHL leagues, which will determine the other teams that will fight for the Memorial Cup.\n\n### Which Utah Mammoth prospects could compete for the Memorial Cup?\n\nTij Iginla, whom Utah selected with its first-ever draft pick — sixth overall in 2024 — plays for the Rockets. Even though they suffered a second-round elimination in the WHL playoffs, they get an automatic spot in the tournament.\n\nCole Beaudoin, Utah’s other first-round pick from the 2024 draft, plays for the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League. The Colts are in the OHL Final, where they’re currently down 1-0 to the Kitchener Rangers in a best-of-seven series.\n\nCaleb Desnoyers, the Mammoth’s fourth-overall pick in the 2025 draft, plays alongside Gabe Smith, a Utah fourth-rounder from 2024 with the Quebec-Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s Moncton Wildcats.\n\n> Another great one from the Cornforth-Mercier-Desnoyers connection! 🌟\n>\n> Caleb Desnoyers buries his 2nd of the game! @monctonwildcats @utahmammoth | #TusksUp pic.twitter.com/QJDoAVK6cs\n>\n> — QMJHL (@QMJHL) January 10, 2026\n\nThe Wildcats’ QMJHL Final series with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens begins Friday. Both teams swept their first- and second-round playoff series, so they’re undoubtedly the cream of the crop.\n\n### Utah’s history with the Memorial Cup\n\nMammoth GM Bill Armstrong seeks out players who have won championships. Those guys, he says, know how to win, and they’re hungry to do it again.\n\nMacKenzie Weegar and Mikhail Sergachev are the Mammoth’s resident Memorial Cup champions, having won it in 2013 and 2017, respectively. Four years after winning it, Sergachev became a two-time Stanley Cup champion.\n\n> La promesa de los @CanadiensMTL Mikhail Sergachev se ha proclamado campeón de la Memorial Cup 2017 con @SpitsHockey #NHLesp #Hubs pic.twitter.com/JUnbahxdd3\n>\n> — Montreal Canadiens (@Canadiens_VAVEL) May 31, 2017\n\nSean Durzi competed for the Memorial Cup in 2019, losing in the final. He tied then-teammate and current Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki for second in tournament scoring with seven points in four games.\n\nDylan Guenther, now a 40-goal-scorer in the NHL, made it to the Memorial Cup twice: with his hometown Edmonton Oil Kings in 2022 and with the Seattle Thunderbirds in 2023. He was injured in 2022, and his team placed fourth. He registered four assists in five games in 2023, ultimately losing in the final.\n\nIginla was teammates with Guenther on that 2023 Thunderbirds team, though he played a much lesser role at the time and did not suit up in any Memorial Cup games.\n\nIn 2025, Desnoyers and Smith played for the Memorial Cup, losing in the semifinal game.\n\n“I had a good experience. ... It’s a great event,” Desnoyers told the Deseret News in a December interview. “The best of the best of every league compete for the biggest trophy and maybe the hardest trophy to get in hockey history. Yes, (there’s) the Stanley Cup, but we have to win our own series before going there. ... To win that is pretty hard.”\n\nHow goal-setting made the Mammoth a playoff team\n\nDesnoyers also is eager to face off against his future Mammoth teammates.\n\n“It’d be great to be able to compete against them,” he said.\n\nArmstrong would like to see several of these guys push for NHL roster spots in training camp this fall. He included a message to his prospects in his exit interview Tuesday.\n\n“Come up, come ready. Be fighting for a job. There’s opportunity there,” he said.\n\n### Memorial Cup dates and where to watch\n\nThe tournament runs from May 22-31 at Prospera Place in Kelowna, British Columbia. Iginla’s Rockets kick things off with a game against the OHL champions — potentially Cole Beaudoin’s Barrie Colts — on the first day.\n\nU.S.-based fans can watch the entire tournament on NHL Network and Victory+.",
  "title": "Several Utah prospects gear up for Memorial Cup"
}