A week ago, Utahns were floored by their good fortune.
The Utah Mammoth advanced 10 spots in the lottery to grab the fourth overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. The team had a 1.5% chance of winning the second sequence, and yet, it did.
“It was so funny,” said a fan who goes by @JazzePinkman on X. “Because we’re not used to that at all here — jumping up in the draft.”
There were hopes that luck had shifted in the state. The NBA’s Utah Jazz, following their worst season in franchise history, would need it.
But, despite a 14% chance of securing the No. 1 overall pick, the Jazz fell to fifth on Monday. In 51 years, the franchise has never been awarded the top overall pick.
A season of suffering amounted to little for Jazz fans.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler (24) and Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) as the Utah Jazz host the Boston Celtics, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 21, 2025.
“The Jazz have just never gotten lucky in the lottery or anything like that,” said Daniel Chavez, who has been a fan of the team for more than 30 years. “It seems like we don’t get lucky with most stuff. I kind of was already set up for disappointment.”
“It is pretty deflating, honestly. It is not a great feeling,” said Bryant Williams, a Utah native who has been a Jazz fan his whole life.
The disappointment, frustration and anger boiled over for some Jazz loyalists. And, in the immediate aftermath of this week’s draft lottery, there were more than a few basketball fans who said they would be taking their fandom elsewhere for the time being.
That is, the Utah Mammoth and their seemingly bright future.
“Welcome ex-Jazz fans,” one Utah hockey fan posted on Reddit the day after the lottery.
The Mammoth finished just seven points out of the playoffs in the NHL and are coming out of the fourth year of a rebuild. The team, suddenly, is in win-now mode. Expectations have risen since Ryan Smith acquired the group last April, along with the emergence of young stars and veteran presence in their inaugural season.
“That’s why it’s been so nice with the Mammoth because we all knew that they were trying to make the playoffs, even though it sadly didn’t happen,” Chavez said. “We at least knew that they were trying to make it happen.”
Spencer Wixom, who has also been a lifelong Jazz fan, said the team’s downward trajectory (even before the season started) was the main reason he got into hockey in the first place.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club celebrates the win over the Anaheim Ducks, NHL hockey in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 12, 2025.
“I didn’t really have any history with hockey,” Wixom said. “And then the team was announced, and it came at a time when things are very depressing with the Jazz, so it was kind of opportunistic and gave me something to focus on as well. That’s where my focus on the hockey team came from and started, and then it’s become an obsession since then.”
Wixom and others are trying to put their energy into optimism for the Mammoth instead of sadness for the Jazz. But it is hard. The NBA Draft is important for Utah — especially after tanking — and the lower pick changes a timeline the Delta Center faithful were already struggling with.
“I just think realistically it is the only way we are going to get a multi-time All-Star on the Jazz,” Williams said. “It’s either get lucky and trade for one, or we have to embrace controlling what we can and drafting the best player possible.”
Chavez pointed to the Jazz’s historical challenges in the free-agent market as another reason this draft lottery carried so much weight.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz forward Brice Sensabaugh (28) as the Utah Jazz host the Sacramento Kings, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025.
“It is kind of hard because just being in Utah, we can never get free agents,” Chavez said. “It is not like we are the Lakers or something like that, where they can just decide to get people in free agency. We are really limited to what we can do. It’s kind of like a beggars, choosers situation.”
There’s a different feeling with the Mammoth, though. Internally and externally of the organization, there seems to be a belief that Utah could turn into a destination for the NHL’s free agents. Time will tell; free agency begins July 1.
Some fans are ready to make the pivot nonetheless.
“Having something else to watch other than the Jazz, which just gives us depression. We have something to look forward to now every day with the hockey team,” @JazzePinkman on X said.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club center Clayton Keller (9) jumps on Utah Hockey Club defenseman Mikhail Sergachev (98) to celebrate Sergachev's game-winning goal in overtime, giving Utah a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks at the Delta Center, on Wednesday, Dec 18, 2024.
Whether it was on purpose or not, Smith bringing the NHL to Utah when he did is keeping a portion of his Jazz devotees happy while things eventually work themselves out on the court.
“I think it is a good time for them to capitalize and gain some of that interest because the Jazz just don’t have the core centerpieces that the Mammoth do. The things that you can really grasp onto and be excited for the future,” Wixom said.
“I think it is far more likely — just with the way the leagues are set up — that the state of Utah will hoist the Stanley Cup before they ever get an NBA championship.”
