The Utah Mammoth have one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL. Since the organization decided to rebuild after the 2020 season as the Arizona Coyotes, they have acquired an outrageous amount of draft capital and now are starting to reap the benefits after seeing Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley blossom into stars in the Utah Hockey Club’s inaugural season. Josh Doan also played significant minutes again this season, while Maveric Lamoureux, a 2022 first-round pick, made his NHL debut and played valuable minutes when Utah was hit hard by injuries to the blue line.
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The Mammoth have the Hockey Club’s first and only first-round draft picks in Tij Iginla and Cole Beaudoin coming up the ranks, and a pair of 2023 first-round draft picks in Daniil But and Dmitry Shimashev, who are expected to move from Russia to North America this offseason.
Finally, along with all the highly-touted prospects, the Mammoth have many prospects drafted in later rounds in their system who are succeeding and developing into promising players, including Justin Kipkie, a fifth-round pick by the Coyotes in 2023. Kipkie has yet to sign an entry-level contract, and the Mammoth will lose his rights if they don’t sign him by June 1st.
Justin Kipkie’s Development
Kipkie finished this season with 12 goals and 62 points in 64 games, the fifth-most points of any defenseman in the Western Hockey League (WHL). Kipkie added 13 points in 11 games for the Victoria Royals, who lost to the Spokane Chiefs in the second round of the WHL playoffs.
This was Kipkie’s third season playing for the Royals. In his first season, he registered 33 points, which jumped to 52 in his second, before almost becoming a point-per-game player this season. The offensive upside has always been there for Kipkie. However, the knock was always the defensive side of the puck. The director of player development for the Mammoth, Lee Stempniak, said of Kipkie, “We want to see him be more assertive defensively,” adding that “I think he’s looking to rely on his stick to kill plays, but that’s not the way we want to play in Utah.”
What the Mammoth Are Looking For
Kipkie finished with a negative-35 rating in 134 games over the first two seasons of his junior hockey career. There was a clear need for improvement, and while not being perfect, Kipkie did progress in this area last season, finishing as a plus-18 in 64 games.
James Patrick, head coach of the Royals, spoke about Kipkie’s development. “They’re very engaged with me as a coach, but also with the player,” Patrick said of his development team. “I know the things we are talking about are things that Kurtis has been driving home all along. He sees the exact same things I do, or I see the same things that he does. We just need a little more of that from Kipper, and I think Kipper has delivered”.
The Mammoth are still looking for more physicality from Kipkie, as these comments were made in April 2025. However, defensemen with Kipkie’s offensive skills and instincts rarely come around. With time running out to get an entry-level deal done, something teachable like how to use your body to win more puck battles is not a reason to give up on a prospect like this.
Physicality will come for Kipkie, and it is not that he’s not big enough. Kipkie is listed at 6-foot-3, 207 pounds, up from 193 pounds, the weight he was listed at before being drafted by the Coyotes. With this type of size, Kipkie should have no issues overpowering other players once he learns how to use his body. In the WHL, against teenagers, he has probably been able to get away with relying on his long reach relatively easily.
In a professional environment, Kipkie would be forced to learn to use his body against bigger, stronger and faster competition. It is the only facet of his game that is sometimes missing; he has the size, the mobility, the offensive ability and instincts. Being a fifth-round pick, it’s unlikely he will turn into a superstar. However, he has the potential to become one of those extremely valuable bottom-pair defencemen and a potential power-play specialist who can move pucks. Kipkie is a player the Mammoth should sign to see how his development goes.
