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Nick Schmaltz, Utah Mammoth (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)

Nick Schmaltz Committed to Utah with Eight Year Extension

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Chase Beardsley | Last updated Mar 16, 2026 11:05 AM ET

Going into the trade deadline, the Utah Mammoth’s core was pretty much solidified and locked up. Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley had signed long-term extensions in the past two years. JJ Peterka, Karel Vejmelka, and Jack McBain had all signed five-year extensions that will keep them in Utah until 2030. Mikhail Sergachev and newcomer MacKenzie Weegar are under contracts that they signed with their former teams until 2031. Nearly every single core member of the Mammoth had contracts that guaranteed them to stay in Salt Lake City until around 2030.

There was one exception. Nick Schmaltz entered the deadline on Friday with an expiring contract. Rumors swirled around the forward saying that he wasn’t going to extend with the Mammoth and that he would test free agency. In the midst of a career season and proving that his connection with Clayton Keller was irreplaceable, Schmaltz was proving that the Mammoth needed to keep him.

A couple of days after the deadline, it finally all came to an end as Schmaltz signed an eight-year, $8 million annual average value (AAV) extension. It’s a contract that will keep him with the Mammoth until 2034, when he’s 38. That’s solidified with multiple no movement clauses and modified no trade clauses littered throughout the contract. At the end of the day, Schmaltz chose loyalty over money. He chose Utah over everywhere else.

The Road to Resigning

Schmaltz is one of the few guys on the Mammoth that General Manager Bill Armstrong didn’t draft, sign, or trade for. Schmaltz’s tenure with this team goes back to the John Chayka days with the Arizona Coyotes. During the 2018-19 season, the forward was acquired by the Coyotes from the Chicago Blackhawks for Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini. He made an immediate impact, producing 14 points in 17 games before sustaining an injury.

Even in his first couple of games, Schmaltz found himself on a line with Keller. Over time, the duo would be paired with Alex Galchenyuk, Barrett Hayton, and Lawson Crouse. However, it was almost always Schmaltz and Keller. A tandem that continues to this very day in Utah.

It’s chemistry and a friendship that Schmaltz says is very unique between the two and something you can’t find very much in the league. They hold the record for most points combined by two United States-born teammates, surpassing Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat earlier this season. It’s a bond that Schmaltz never wants to give up.

“We got a special bond,” Schmaltz said. “I think Kells (Keller) and I have a special chemistry that you can’t really find around the league. He’s definitely a guy I want to play with for the rest of my career. He makes my job a lot easier, and we read off each other super well. I’ve had a blast playing with him and other teammates as well, but I think he and I have a special chemistry.”

Over 344 regular-season games, Schmaltz produced 269 points. That included three straight 20-goal seasons. He was a big part of the Coyotes having good seasons in 2018-19 and 2019-20, the latter of which culminated in the team’s first playoff appearance since 2012. In the final seasons of the team being in Arizona, Schmaltz was one of the few consistent bright spots, keeping the Coyotes somewhat hard to play against thanks to his production with Keller and Hayton.

Like everyone else on the Coyotes, Schmaltz’s life turned upside down in 2024 when the team was sold to Ryan Smith and was moved to Salt Lake City. Schmaltz was one of the first players Smith met in Scottsdale after acquiring the team. Little did the forward know what was awaiting him in Utah.

Everyone knows the story by now. The team was flown from Arizona to Utah to check out their new arena and new community. Schmaltz mentioned that as one of the things that stuck in his mind when deciding to stay with the Mammoth.

“That first day we got here to Utah, stepping off the plane from Arizona, seeing hundreds and hundreds of kids just lined up so excited to have an NHL team, and then going to the Delta Center that night, a sold-out crowd for us just to walk on the stage,” Schmaltz said. “It was eye-opening. It was like, wow. I did not know Utah was like this.”

While Schmaltz’s first couple of days in Utah were ones he’ll remember forever, his first season with Utah was one to have mixed feelings on. It was an extremely slow start for the forward, not being able to score his first goal of the season until late November. While a strong second half of the season got him to the 20-goal plateau and a career high 63 points, everyone, including Schmaltz, knew that he could do better.

Fast forward to this season, Schmaltz has been one of the best players on the Mammoth. He’s already set a new career high in goals, now with 24. He’s on pace to break the career high in points he set last season. Throughout the whole stretch of time, his teammates were with him every step of the way. Smith says that’s a great representation of the life lessons you see through the sport.

“Nick had a rough go at the beginning of last year, where he didn’t score as much as he had, and his teammates and everyone rallied around him,” Smith said. “Then you look at what he’s done this year, it’s incredible. This is hockey, but this is life, though. There are life lessons in every single part of this, where they make up for each other. They pick up for each other. We have a player who goes down. It’s the next man up mentality that’s actually like a great representation of everything else we do.”

When it came to the decision to resign Schmaltz, it was easy for Armstrong to do it. The resume speaks for itself. Five straight seasons where he’s passed the 50-point plateau. Five straight seasons with 20 goals or more. He’s a cornerstone player for the Mammoth franchise.

However, there’s also the fact that Schmaltz is a big part of the team off ice as well. First off, he’s a great role model for younger players because of his commitment to being the best at everything. Armstrong mentioned how good Schmaltz is at golf and ping pong. It’s the same thing with hockey. He’ll do whatever it takes to be at his best, and it’s a good trait young players can learn from.

“He’s a model every day, by the way he plays, the way he shows up,” Armstrong said. “He’s putting a lot of time into getting better in the summer. I think him spending time with our young kids and talking about the things you have to do and how you have to approach the game; he does a lot of that by just modeling it. He lives the right way off the ice. He trains hard in the summer. He does all the little things. He’s a great teammate.”

There’s also the fact that Armstrong was stared down by Schmaltz’s finance, Abby, after he scored a hat trick against the Canucks. That alone should’ve made Armstrong give him the extension.

HATS ARE FLYING AT THE DELTA CENTER pic.twitter.com/6Zo07h0g6S
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) February 3, 2026

All jokes aside, there’s no debating how important Schmaltz has been to this team and the size of the impact he’s made on guys throughout the lineup. He’s an integral part of the Mammoth and one the team would’ve missed tremendously had he left.

Utah Is Becoming a Hot Spot

Schmaltz’s extension is just another big move the Mammoth have made, showing players want to live in Utah. For the long haul at that, too.

There are the big extensions Armstrong has handed out over the past year and a half to Guenther, Cooley, Vejmelka, Peterka, and now Schmaltz. There are free agents like Nate Schmidt and Brandon Tanev who signed multi-year contracts to join the team. More recently, there was the big trade to acquire Weegar, who had to waive his no-movement clause to join the Mammoth.

You can definitely credit the team’s success and bright future as part of the attractiveness of the Mammoth. Something they rarely had in Arizona. However, a lot more credit has to go to the Smiths and their willingness to make the team better in any way possible. It’s no new news. However, it’s something that Schmaltz mentioned as a huge reason why he wants to stay in Utah.

“Ryan and Ashley have given us every single tool to get better every single day,” Schmaltz said. “They’ve built this amazing practice facility. They’ve done stuff at the Delta Center, renovations to make the building better. It seems like they’re all in on us. They do whatever it takes to win, and they make our job easy just to go out and perform.”

Stability has been a big difference ever since Schmaltz and the team arrived in Utah. Gone from the chaotic and untrustworthy ownership in Arizona, there has been nothing but good news coming out of the Mammoth organization.

It’s Smith’s philosophy that has really helped the Mammoth become one of the more appealing markets in the NHL. If we’re getting an NHL team, we’re doing it the right way only. A statement that seems like it should apply to every pro sports franchise owner, but is really only lived up to by guys like Smith, who back up their words with their wallets.

“We weren’t going to do hockey unless we were going to do hockey,” Smith said. “I think people are starting to see Utah’s actually a place I want to live, especially with being an athlete, and how loud it gets, and how many people hit you up on social media and everything else.”

Utah is Home for Schmaltz

Across Schmaltz’s 655 games in the NHL, he’s seen a lot. In just Arizona alone, he was a part of two different rebuilds, including Armstrong’s own rebuild that completely gutted the team and made them a punching bag for jokes across social media. If loyalty wasn’t something Schmaltz valued, he would’ve requested a trade long ago.

With the eight-year extension, Schmaltz will get to see the rebuild get completed and witness what Armstrong set out to build during those tough years in the early 2020’s. The light at the end of the tunnel is so bright for the Mammoth, and Schmaltz wants to see the rewards that the team will reap.

“I’m a pretty loyal guy,” Schmaltz said. “I committed to Arizona for seven years, and obviously, there were some tough times there. I liked the group we had. I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. I knew at some point it had to turn around. I wanted to see it through, be a part of the rebuild, and build it from the ground up. You can see the steps we’ve taken. It’s been fun to see with the new guys we’re bringing in, the young talent. I’m super happy that I did that.”

Utah Mammoth center Nick Schmaltz celebrates a goal against the Buffalo Sabres (Rob Gray-Imagn Images)

As Schmaltz mentioned, the Mammoth still have a stockpile of young talent yet to break into the NHL full-time. Dmitri Simashev, Daniil But, Caleb Desnouyers, Tij Iginla, and Cole Beaudoin are just the highlights of one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL. Each of those players is part of the light at the end of the tunnel that Schmaltz mentioned that will play a part in the Mammoth potentially winning a Stanley Cup.

Though there are so many forwards previously mentioned that will break into the top six one day, Schmaltz isn’t threatened; he’s excited to play with those prospects. Ultimately, that leadership is just another one of the traits that Schmaltz has that make the Mammoth better.

“The difference maker was getting Nick signed,” Armstrong said. “That’s a big piece for us because he plays in so many key situations, and he’ll allow some of the youth to come and play with him, because of his hockey sense and what he accomplished on the ice. He’ll make that adjustment to us in getting players. You put a good centerman in there in the middle of the ice, you can make the guy left or right here way better, and that’s what he’ll do.”

For their best chances of winning it all, the Mammoth had to commit to Schmaltz for the foreseeable future. On and off the ice, he’s a cornerstone piece of the franchise. Schmaltz is a big reason why the team is poised to make the playoffs this season. His dynamic offensive abilities, paired with his solid defensive play and leadership, help make the Mammoth’s top six as lethal as it is.

For Schmaltz, staying with a core that he’s been with for so long is a simple choice. Staying in a city that has supported him since he first set foot in it is a simple choice. Calling Utah his home for the next eight seasons was the easiest choice of his career.

“It was a no-brainer for me to stay here,” Schmaltz said. “I love my teammates. I love playing with these guys, and we’ve got a really bright future.”

Home is Utah for Schmaltz. It would be really hard to imagine the Mammoth without him on their team. Now, it’s something they’ll never have to think about. Schmaltz is here to stay, and he’s excited to take the team to the playoffs and beyond.