The Utah Mammoth need another goaltender. When could their top prospect be ready?

Park City • Besides being the starting goaltender for the UMass Amherst men’s hockey team, Michael Hrabal is also a student at the university’s Isenberg School of Management.

The Utah Mammoth prospect is majoring in sports management and wants to get his degree before taking the next step in his hockey career. He comes from a family of educators so the accolade is important to him.

It is part of the reason why Hrabal turned down a pro deal with Utah this summer and is instead returning to UMass for his junior season. That and he still has room to grow.

“Just talking with my parents and agent — as a goalie, I don’t think there’s a rush,” Hrabal said Monday at the Mammoth’s first on-ice development camp session of the summer. “I’m still young and playing less games, having more time to practice. I think I can still get stronger and improve overall on and off the ice. I think that will help my game a lot.”

Hrabal was a second-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes (now Utah Mammoth) in 2023 and is shaping up to be the team’s best goalie prospect in the pipeline. Due to the uncertainty surrounding Connor Ingram and the need for a 1A, 1B netminding system in the modern NHL, the Mammoth tried to sign Hrabal to his entry-level contract a bit early. He, however, has stayed the course.

“It takes courage for a kid, especially when an NHL team is asking you to go, but that goes to his confidence,” said Steve Mastalerz, who is the goaltending coach at UMass.

Hrabal is on track to graduate with his UMass degree in just three years. He is taking extra online classes this summer and a heavier workload in the winter to fulfill the requirements. The Prague, Czechia, native has around a 3.9 grade point average, Mastalerz said.

“He brings a lot more to our team, program and university than just on the ice. He’s a great kid and he’s well respected in the community and locker room,” Mastalerz said.

Hrabal built that respect from his teammates through the way he bounced back from adversity last season in the NCAA. He was pulled 14 minutes into a Nov. 9 game against the University of Vermont after allowing two goals. Hrabal then sat the following game against Providence College. The next night, Hrabal led his group to a 5-1 win over the Friars with 34 saves. Things began to shift.

“The first couple months weren’t the best, but I think the coaches, they squeezed me well,” Hrabal said. “They showed me what they needed from me and I think I gave the team what they needed. Overall, the season was good. Now I’m focused on the next year and trying to win something.”

The 6-foot-6, 209-pound goalie finished the year with a 2.37 goals against average and .924 save percentage in 36 games. Hrabal was a key piece of UMass pulling out an upset win over the University of Minnesota in the first round of the NCAA tournament. His newfound consistency was at the center of all of it.

“It was a good wake-up call for him to make sure he was competing every single day in practice, off the ice taking care of your body to the fullest and when you get in a game, you’re prepared fully for it,” Mastalerz said.

The hope is that Hrabal continues to build on that next season. The Mammoth’s staff know they have to be patient with this specific position.

“Goalies typically take a while to develop and they need to play games. He needs to be in a spot where he can play games,” said Lee Stempniak, who is the director of player development for Utah. “At UMass, he’s the man. He’s a huge part of that team and they’re going to go as far as he takes them in a sense…We’re really happy with him and excited to see where he goes.”

In a perfect world, Hrabal would sign, automatically be NHL-ready and come in behind his countryman Karel Vejmelka to provide goaltending depth for the Mammoth next season. That, however, is wildly unrealistic. It, flat out, will not happen.

So what does Utah do while it waits for Hrabal?

Well, that’s a complicated answer. The Mammoth are currently without Ingram, who stepped away from the team and entered the NHL’s player assistance program on March 9. He has been unavailable to Utah since that day as he receives care.

Ingram played 22 games for Utah and posted a 3.27 goals against average and .882 save percentage. The 28-year-old is entering the last season of the three-year, $5.85 million contract he signed in June 2023. It is unclear when he will be able to rejoin the team.

“From the point right now, it is all speculation of where he’s at and I don’t really want to comment,” Utah general manager Bill Armstrong said. “[Ingram is] a great kid, I know he’s in the program. We wish him the best and hopefully, he can get on the other side of this. We’ll continue to look for updates.”

Utah recalled both Jaxson Stauber and Matt Villalta from the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners throughout last season to be Vejmelka’s backup, but it did not have a true second goaltender it could rely on down the stretch.

The NHL’s free agency market — which opened Tuesday at 10 a.m. MDT — could help add options for the Mammoth between the pipes. Anton Forsberg, Alexandar Georgiev, Alex Lyon, James Reimer, David Rittich, Ilya Samsonov, Vitek Vanecek and Dan Vladar are all still available names if Ingram is not projected to be ready by the start of the season.

It is all a balance of filling immediate holes while still investing — and holding faith — in the up-and-coming prospects.

Hrabal has shown a steady progression since entering the Mammoth system.

“For him, I’ve noticed a big change in just his presence in the net. He’s obviously a big player but the goal is you want to see that presence in the net,” Stempniak said. “I think he tracks the puck better — that’s something you’ve seen growth in over the year. He’s looking out to the point, there’s some traffic in front, being able to pick up that puck as it’s coming in so there are fewer rebounds. Playing the puck, it’s just an advantage if you can do it, and he’s made strides there.”

It is Hrabal’s mental strength, too, that has pushed him along.

“Size obviously you can’t teach that. In addition to his size, it’s his mentality. He’s a very confident kid in himself,” Mastalerz said. “He brings that onto the ice, being calm, letting the play come to him and not trying to do too much. As a bigger guy, that’s a little easier because you fill more space. But he has a lot of trust in himself.”

Hrabal is not second-guessing his journey. He had no interest in talking about the anticipation of eventually making the Mammoth team. Hrabal is focused on one thing at a time, he said. Now it is Utah’s development camp and this season it will be winning a trophy for UMass.

The thought of putting on a Utah jersey one day, though, is a motivator.

“My goal is to play in the NHL one day and I’m going to do anything I can to achieve that,” Hrabal said. “Utah is beautiful, the nature here. ... I hope one day this will be my home.”