Utah Mammoth’s 2024-25 Report Cards: Michael Kesselring

With a massive injury to Sean Durzi and newcomer John Marino already on LTIR, Kesselring’s role was quickly elevated as he was paired with Mikhail Sergachev when Durzi went down. Kesselring played well with Sergachev, but the lack of defensive depth for Utah was unsustainable. The team acquired Olli Määttä, and the young defenseman was placed on the middle pair with Ian Cole.

“It was obviously a really good opportunity for me at the start of the year, being a guy that wasn’t fully established, I would say it was nice to get the bigger opportunity,” Kesselring said. “I feel like I played really well and helped us kind of stay afloat without Sean and Johnny. It was a good opportunity.”

Even though he was demoted from the top pair, Kesselring continued to play well with Cole. His ice time was still high, playing around 18-20 minutes, and he continued to produce, including putting up a multi-point performance against the Sabres in early December and tallying three points in four games in January. 

Despite the return of Durzi and Marino by February, the pairing of Kesselring and Cole wasn’t split up. While the two were moved to the bottom pairing, they were still effective despite less ice time.

“At the end of the year, I started to play well in my more of a depth role and learning how to contribute even when I’m not playing as many minutes,” Kesselring said. “So there’s a lot of ups and downs. It’s good for me mentally, to learn and go through it, and I think it’s got me better prepared for next year.”

Kesselring continued to rack up assists throughout the rest of the season. He had his fourth multi-point game of the season in March against the Detroit Red Wings. His final multi-point game came in the second-to-last game of the season against the Nashville Predators, where Kesselring scored his first goal since the beginning of February. 

Kesselring ended his season with 29 points in 82 games. He was second among Utah defensemen in points and also second in goals (seven) and assists (22). His plus-4 rating was tied for third in the plus/minus category for all Utah players. Kesselring was also one of six players to play all 82 games for Utah.

“I felt established. I felt like I proved that I’m an everyday, every night kind of player, and now it’s just about taking that next step into a bigger role and keep growing and keep getting better,” Kesselring said. “I think I have a lot of the tools to be a guy that can put up points and play good defensively, so it’s just about bringing it every night.”

Similar to the prior summer, Kesselring joined teammates Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley, and Doan overseas for the World Championship tournament for Team USA. In 10 games, he produced four points and was a plus-7 while helping his country capture gold for the first time in 92 years.

It seemed like Kesselring was going to be part of the Mammoth team that was going to challenge for the playoffs in 2025-26. He had cemented a fantastic relationship with Cooley and Doan and had taken a massive step forward during the season. He looked like a solid middle-pairing defenseman who could challenge for that spot in the lineup during training camp.

However, that wouldn’t come to fruition. A couple of days before the NHL Draft, Kesselring was traded to the Sabres with Doan for J.J. Peterka. It was a shocking trade, with neither player being on anyone’s minds when it came to any potential trades for the Mammoth. It ended Kesselring’s tenure with the Coyotes/Mammoth, where he had produced 53 points in 153 career NHL games.

The Future

As of right now, the consensus is that the Mammoth won the Peterka trade and the Sabres didn’t get enough back. However, as mentioned in his report card, Doan might thrive in Buffalo with more ice time, and the Mammoth might miss Kesselring more than some might think.

At 25, Kesselring completed his second full season in the NHL. In almost every category among defensemen, he was second, usually behind Sergachev. Yet, for a good amount of the season, he was playing either on the second or third pair with less ice time than guys like Durzi, Marino, and Määttä. Yes, you can argue that Kesselring is more of an offensive-minded player than Määttä and maybe Marino. However, you have to admit that taking him away from Utah during this past season would’ve worsened their record.

On top of his great and growing on-ice contributions this past season, Kesselring was a big locker room guy for the Mammoth. He and Doan helped create a fun yet focused on winning mindset, and you could tell players like Cooley benefited both on and off the ice with them around.

The departure of Kesselring creates a hole in the lineup and in the locker room. Fortunately, the Mammoth brought in Nate Schmidt to be paired with Cole on the bottom pair. However, at this stage of his career, Schmidt is a bottom-pairing defenseman. Kesselring is growing into a solid top-four defenseman who has shown that he can play top-pairing minutes.

Currently, most websites project Kesselring to play on the Sabres’ second pair with Owen Power. The Sabres’ blue line is way younger than the Mammoth’s, but they still have a lot of talent. Power and Rasmus Dahlin are some of the best younger defensemen in the NHL. Power is also a two-way defenseman. It might take Kesselring some time to fit into that new pair and the system, but it could ultimately work, and the duo could be a scoring threat on the blue line.

Funny enough, Kesselring is only 25, but he is now one of the oldest defensemen on Buffalo. Only Conor Timmins is older (by a year), and Dahlin and Mattias Samuelsson are 25 as well. This could hinder Buffalo, or it could work in their favor. Their culture and locker room should improve extremely as well with a player like Kesselring added in.

Going forward, it seems like Kesselring isn’t done improving. One thing he wants to improve on and something he can improve on is scoring. He scored seven goals this past season, which is two more than in his prior season. With his great and powerful shot, he can definitely score more than that.

“I have high goals,” Kesselring said. “I don’t want to say specific numbers, but I think I can score a lot of goals with my shot, and I think this year, I hit a lot of posts, a lot of crossbars. I could hit the net a little bit more consistently, too. That’s one thing I definitely want to keep building upon. I think for me too, it’s big defensively to keep growing and being trusted in late-game situations to keep gaining more minutes that way and being all around a good two-way player, but I definitely want to keep growing.”

As mentioned by Kesselring, being deployed late in games and getting more ice time will help him grow more as well as become a dependable defenseman. Now in Buffalo on a worse blue line, Kesselring will most likely get the chance to do both of those things on his road to becoming a top-four defenseman in the NHL.

Final Grade

As his stats showed, Kesselring was arguably one of the most important defensemen for Utah this past season. He stepped up big when needed to, and when his role shrank, he didn’t complain; rather, he continued working on his game and continued to play well.

Throughout the season, Kesselring got better and better. We’re at the point where he can now arguably step into a top-four role on most NHL teams and thrive. That’s something you couldn’t say at the beginning of the season. You can even say that Kesselring was one of the most improved players on Utah this season. It shows when he’s one of the two pieces used to acquire a star like Peterka.

Overall, Kesselring is getting an A-minus for his season. As a two-way defenseman, he was one of the best on Utah. Stepping up when two of the top three defensemen on the team are injured isn’t easy. Yet Kesselring did it with ease, eating up big minutes of ice time, and he ended up as one of the best plus/minus players on the team despite playing all 82 games.

Now, as he continues his career in Buffalo, Kesselring will get more opportunity to build on his successful 2024-25 season. It could be ultimately what he needed most to try to become a top-four defenseman. With the Mammoth, young players like Maveric Lamoureux, Dmitriy Simashev, Artem Duda, and Maksymilian Szuber are knocking on the door, and the team has most of its other defensemen returning. Kesselring probably would’ve never gotten the same chance with the Mammoth that he will with the Sabres.

As mentioned, Kesselring could be a big player for Buffalo for the foreseeable future. Not only will he get the chance to help turn the team around on and off the ice, but he also gets the opportunity to really revive Buffalo’s culture for the better, a team that has missed the playoffs for more than a decade now, which has compelled players to stay away from signing there. It makes sense that the Sabres wanted Kesselring in the Peterka trade. He’s a solid and young top-four defenseman who is a great teammate, but most importantly, wants to learn and grow to be the best player he can be.