Several Utah prospects gear up for Memorial Cup

Q: What is the Memorial Cup in junior hockey?

The Memorial Cup is the most prestigious trophy in junior hockey, akin to an NCAA national championship, highlighting the best young talent.

Q: Which Utah Mammoth players are prospects for the Memorial Cup?

The article mentions that the Utah Mammoth have several prospects competing for the Memorial Cup, although specific names are not provided.

Q: When does the Memorial Cup take place?

The Memorial Cup is held annually in the spring, with specific dates varying each year.

Q: How does the Memorial Cup differ from NCAA hockey championships?

Unlike NCAA championships, junior hockey teams in the Memorial Cup cannot recruit over-age players to dominate, ensuring a more level playing field.

Cole Beaudoin (24) during practice as the Utah Mammoth hold rookie camp at their new practice facility in Sandy on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Mammoth fans, if you’re looking for meaningful, Utah-related hockey to watch this spring, look no further than the Memorial Cup.

Simply put, it’s the most important trophy in junior hockey. Think of it as an NCAA national championship, except teams can’t just grab a bunch of over-agers and dominate the way they do in college hockey.

In other words, the stars of these teams tend to become stars in the NHL — and the Utah Mammoth have plenty of prospects in the running.

What is the Memorial Cup?

The Memorial Cup is a tournament between the champions of the three leagues that comprise the Canadian Hockey League, with the fourth spot going to the host team.

They play each other in a round-robin format. The highest-placed team goes straight to the final, while teams two and three play each other in a semifinal game for the other final spot.

So, in order to win the Memorial Cup, a team that isn’t hosting the tournament must:

Make the playoffs in its own league
Win all four rounds of playoffs in that league
Beat out the other champions and the host team for the trophy

The Western Hockey League’s Kelowna Rockets are hosting this year. The finals are currently ongoing for each of the three CHL leagues, which will determine the other teams that will fight for the Memorial Cup.

Which Utah Mammoth prospects could compete for the Memorial Cup?

Tij Iginla, whom Utah selected with its first-ever draft pick — sixth overall in 2024 — plays for the Rockets. Even though they suffered a second-round elimination in the WHL playoffs, they get an automatic spot in the tournament.

Cole Beaudoin, Utah’s other first-round pick from the 2024 draft, plays for the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League. The Colts are in the OHL Final, where they’re currently down 1-0 to the Kitchener Rangers in a best-of-seven series.

Caleb Desnoyers, the Mammoth’s fourth-overall pick in the 2025 draft, plays alongside Gabe Smith, a Utah fourth-rounder from 2024 with the Quebec-Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s Moncton Wildcats.

The Wildcats’ QMJHL Final series with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens begins Friday. Both teams swept their first- and second-round playoff series, so they’re undoubtedly the cream of the crop.

Utah’s history with the Memorial Cup

Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong seeks out players who have won championships. Those guys, he says, know how to win, and they’re hungry to do it again.

MacKenzie Weegar and Mikhail Sergachev are the Mammoth’s resident Memorial Cup champions, having won it in 2013 and 2017, respectively. Four years after winning it, Sergachev became a two-time Stanley Cup champion.

Sean Durzi competed for the Memorial Cup in 2019, losing in the final. He tied then-teammate and current Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki for second in tournament scoring with seven points in four games.

Dylan Guenther, now a 40-goal-scorer in the NHL, made it to the Memorial Cup twice: with his hometown Edmonton Oil Kings in 2022 and with the Seattle Thunderbirds in 2023. He was injured in 2022, and his team placed fourth. He registered four assists in five games in 2023, ultimately losing in the final.

Iginla was teammates with Guenther on that 2023 Thunderbirds team, though he played a much lesser role at the time and did not suit up in any Memorial Cup games.

In 2025, Desnoyers and Smith played for the Memorial Cup, losing in the semifinal game.

“I had a good experience. ... It’s a great event,” Desnoyers told the Deseret News in a December interview. “The best of the best of every league compete for the biggest trophy and maybe the hardest trophy to get in hockey history. Yes, (there’s) the Stanley Cup, but we have to win our own series before going there. ... To win that is pretty hard.”

Desnoyers also is eager to face off against his future Mammoth teammates.

“It’d be great to be able to compete against them,” he said.

Armstrong would like to see several of these guys push for NHL roster spots in training camp this fall. He included a message to his prospects in his exit interview Tuesday.

“Come up, come ready. Be fighting for a job. There’s opportunity there,” he said.

Memorial Cup dates and where to watch

The tournament runs from May 22-31 at Prospera Place in Kelowna, British Columbia. Iginla’s Rockets kick things off with a game against the OHL champions — potentially Cole Beaudoin’s Barrie Colts — on the first day.

U.S.-based fans can watch the entire tournament on NHL Network and Victory+.

Tij Iginla talks with media after practice as the Utah Mammoth hold rookie camp at their new practice facility in Sandy on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News