- Utah signs 6-foot-4 defenseman Max Pšenička to a three-year entry-level contract
- The 2025 second-round pick just wrapped his second WHL season in Portland
- Read below for what the Mammoth are getting in the 19-year-old blueliner
The Utah Mammoth keep adding to their back end.
Utah signed defenseman Max Pšenička to a three-year, entry-level contract this week. The Mammoth drafted the Czech blueliner 46th overall in the second round of the 2025 draft, and now he is officially in the fold.
He fits the mold Utah has been chasing on the blue line. Pšenička stands 6-foot-4 and shoots right, the kind of long, mobile defender every team wants more of.
The 19-year-old just finished his second season with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks. He posted 30 points in 53 games there in 2025-26, taking a real step forward as an offensive contributor.
Pšenička also suited up for Czechia at the World Juniors, coming home with a silver medal and three points in 13 games for the country’s U20 program.
He even got a brief taste of the pros, skating in two games with Utah’s AHL affiliate in Tucson to close out last season.
Utah has spent the summer stacking young talent and locking up its core, and general manager Bill Armstrong keeps repeating that the Mammoth are becoming a destination. Getting a big right-shot defenseman signed for the next three years fits that plan.
Pšenička is not going to crack the NHL roster this fall. He profiles as a project who will keep developing in junior or Tucson before he is ready. For a team building something in Salt Lake, that is exactly the kind of bet worth locking in three years on.
