The inaugural season for the Utah Hockey Club (now the Utah Mammoth) is officially over. The team finished with a 38-31-13 record while their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners, finished with a 34-32-4-2 record, which was good enough for the seventh playoff spot in the Pacific Division. The Roadrunners went on to lose in the first round of the playoffs 2-1 to the Abbotsford Canucks.
With the season in the books, it’s time to look at the 48 Utah players under an NHL contract (excluding Connor Ingram for obvious reasons) and grade their 2024-25 seasons. We’ll also reflect on how they did during the 2023-24 season and see if they improved or did worse, along with what their future holds. We’re going alphabetically by first name. Next up is Karel Vejmelka.
Last Season
Coming into his third season in the NHL after producing decent numbers on a horrible 2022-23 Arizona Coyotes team, both Vejmelka and his team were expected to take another step forward in 2023-24. Vejmelka was named the starter for the first game of the season on the road against the New Jersey Devils.
Against a Devils team that was expected to make the playoffs, the Czech goaltender and the Coyotes stole their first win of the season in a shootout, with Vejmelka recording a .917 save percentage (SV%). Vejmelka started the last game of the New York road trip against the New York Islanders, where, despite him recording 33 saves and holding a .971 SV% ended up being a loss for the Coyotes.
Going into the season, it was expected that Vejmelka and his teammate Ingram would play nearly the same number of games. That’s what happened in the early weeks of the season, with head coach André Tourigny alternating between the two goaltenders. Vejmelka put up a solid game in the Coyotes’ home opener against the Anaheim Ducks, recording 32 saves. Ingram had a solid performance himself in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks shortly after.
It was around the turn of November when Vejmelka unexpectedly began to struggle. In his six starts during the month, he lost every single game. He only had one game where his SV% was above .900, and he was even pulled in a 6-5 loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Related: Utah Mammoth’s 2024-25 Report Cards: Kailer Yamamoto
For those who know Tourigny and his philosophy with goaltenders, you know that in order to become the starter, you have to prove you can do it. With Vejmelka struggling and Ingram…
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