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John Marino, Utah Hockey Club (Photo by Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images)

Utah Mammoth’s 2024-25 Report Cards: John Marino

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Chase Beardsley | Last updated Jun 21, 2025 8:45 AM ET

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 John Marino.

Last Season

After losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the playoffs, Marino and the New Jersey Devils looked to take another step forward in their path to a championship. With a young core and additions over the offseason like Tyler Toffoli, going beyond the second round was the bar for the Devils.

Both Marino and the Devils started the season off well, beating the Detroit Red Wings in the first game of the season, with the defenseman recording an assist in the game. In the first four games of the season, Marino had two points and played over 20 minutes in all but one of those games. The Devils had a record of 2-1-1 after the stretch of games.

In late October, Marino began his best stretch of the season offensively. He had eight points in nine games, including his first goal of the season against the Winnipeg Jets, before his scoring streak ended in the next game. Marino was also playing consistently high minutes throughout the nine games, solidifying his role as a top defenseman on the Devils.

However, from that point onwards, Marino struggled offensively and was questionable defensively. He recorded only 14 more points throughout the rest of the season, and while he matched his point totals from the 2021-22 season, it felt more like a letdown considering his strong start to the season.

Marino’s questionable stats can’t be solely blamed on him, though. The team around him wasn’t playing well at all. Jack Hughes and Dougie Hamilton suffered injuries, goaltending was a rotation of three underperforming goalies, coaching was stale, the blue line was changed up with Ryan Graves and Damon Severson leaving in free agency, and management chose to wait too long to make any sort of moves to help them out.

Throughout the season, Marino mainly played with Kevin Bahl, although the pairings were often switched up. During five-on-five, the pairing struggled, and it showed as the team finished the season with a 38-39-5 record, which landed them with the second-worst record in the Metropolitan Division.

For his personal stats, Marino had 25 points in 75 games. He also had an average ice time of 20:57. His advanced stats are where many pointed out his flaws. His defensive rating ended up eight goals under projected, an indicator that his defensive game was a dropoff from his prior season, where he was one of the best defensemen on the Devils.

It was clear the Devils were going to shake up their roster, especially after firing Lindy Ruff, trading Bahl, and rumblings of going after pending free agent Brett Pesce. As a result, during the NHL Draft, Marino was shipped off to Utah with a 2024 fifth-round pick for a 2024 second-round pick and a 2025 second-round pick, ending his two-season stint with the Devils.

This Season

Marino’s start with his brand-new team was not smooth. He was placed on injured reserve to begin the season and later had surgery to repair an injury in his lower back. He was estimated to be out for three to four months.

During his time on injured reserve, Marino took part in many community events with fellow defenseman Sean Durzi, who was also placed on injured reserve early in the season. This included Smith Entertainment Group’s Pay it Forward event, where he worked as a barista at a coffee shop.

At the end of December, Marino finally started skating again for the first time since the 2023-24 season. Around that time, Utah brought him on their road trips for him to spend time with the team and further understand their systems.

It all paid off on Jan. 14, when Marino made his Utah debut against the Montreal Canadiens. He ended up playing 18:04, an impressive amount considering he had just started skating again less than a month ago.

Two games later, Marino recorded his first point with Utah in a game against the St. Louis Blues. Two games after that, he started a stretch of four games where he had a point in each game. In March, Marino scored his first-ever goal with Utah against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Marino is more of an offensive defenseman than some of his teammates. However, he’s not too shabby defensively as well. Whenever he was in Utah’s lineup, especially when key players on the blue line were hurt, he stepped up and became one of the best defensemen on the team.

A key example of this was during a game against the Blues, where he slid across the crease to make a save on the penalty kill while Ingram was out of position. Somehow, Marino got there in time and blocked the shot, helping Utah ultimately win the game 4-2 while acting as the number one defenseman thanks to an injury to Mikhail Sergachev.

MARINO. WHAT A BLOCK pic.twitter.com/ciNneCjsMo
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) January 19, 2025

Throughout the season, Marino was paired with Sergachev, becoming a strong two-way duo for Utah. Marino also played with players like Olli Määttä when Sergachev was hurt.

Unfortunately for Marino, his season would end prematurely after taking a puck to the head in a game against the Jets. He wouldn’t play another game as Utah finished the season outside of the playoffs. Marino later confirmed that he would’ve returned if there were more games after the team’s final road trip through Dallas, Nashville, and St. Louis.

Marino finished the season with 14 points in 35 games. His average time on ice was 21:10, which was a career high for him.

The Future

It sounds like Marino will be fully healthy entering the 2025-26 season. This is good news for the Mammoth, considering they were without him and Durzi to begin the 2024-25 season. That also means that the Mammoth will likely have their top duo of Sergachev and Marino, another good thing for the team, as they’ll need that tandem if they want to have a strong start to the season.

A strong season for Marino will be necessary for the Mammoth’s success next season. He complements Sergachev well and is one of the best two-way defensemen on the team. With the defense fully healthy, the Mammoth’s blue line is arguably one of the best in their division. Marino is a massive part of that.

It’s arguable that if Marino were available for the full season, he would’ve had one of his best seasons of his career, offensively and defensively. He was playing really well during his 35 games and fitting in well in head coach André Tourigny’s system.

The biggest thing for Marino this summer is to stay healthy. His lower body injury that kept him out until January was sustained during a summer training session. Other than that, it’s hard to judge what Marino really needs to work on because he played less than half of the season. The expectation is that he continues his strong play for a full 82 games in 2025-26.

Final Grade

As mentioned, it’s hard to judge Marino’s season since he only played 35 games. In his 35 games, though, he played well and often acted as the number one defenseman when players like Sergachev were out with injury. He blocked shots well, produced some points, and ate up a lot of minutes. It’s everything the Mammoth wanted when they acquired him last summer.

Overall, Marino is getting a B for this season. Despite being out of the lineup for 47 games, he played some of his best hockey when he returned and easily returned to playing top-pairing minutes. The injury definitely affects his grade, but you can’t argue that his play during his 35 games wasn’t anything less than solid.

It’s been mentioned repeatedly that the thing holding Marino back is his health. Can he stay healthy for a full season? He has yet to play a full NHL season in his career, coming the closest with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2021-22 when he played in 81 games. Only time will tell, but trying his best to get to that point while playing the same two-way game from this season is what the Mammoth need from Marino as he heads into his second season within the organization.