The Utah Mammoth will open their home schedule on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. against the Chicago Blackhawks at Delta Center, the club announced Wednesday as part of the NHL’s league-wide home-opener release. The complete 84-game schedule, expanded by two divisional games per team, arrives Thursday at 1 p.m. ET.
Chicago as the home-opener guest is becoming a tradition: this is the second time in three seasons the Blackhawks have filled that role, and they were also the opponent for the first game this franchise ever played — a 5-2 Utah win at Delta Center on Oct. 8, 2024. The rematch is a convenient yardstick for how much has changed since. That first team was the hastily assembled Utah Hockey Club, playing in a partially renovated building for a market still proving it belonged. The one that takes the ice Oct. 1 is coming off the franchise’s first playoff appearance and an offseason in which general manager Bill Armstrong added Vincent Trocheck and Anders Lee specifically to push a young core forward.
The opener also starts the most ambitious season yet placed on this franchise’s calendar. Dec. 31 brings Utah’s first outdoor game, the Winter Classic against the Colorado Avalanche at 54,000-seat Rice-Eccles Stadium — a date the league set in April — and when that puck drops, all 32 NHL franchises will have played outdoors. Opening at home against an Original Six opponent and hosting the league’s marquee event in the same season is the sort of scheduling treatment usually reserved for established markets. Three years in, Utah is getting it.
For fantasy purposes, Oct. 1 gives draft prep its first fixed point, and this roster enters the season with more draftable players than in either previous year. Trocheck, the expected second-line center behind Logan Cooley, holds mid-round value in assists and faceoff formats, while Lee is a late bet on net-front goals. Thursday’s full schedule release is worth a read for Central-heavy stretches once the two extra divisional games are distributed.
