‘Utah is amazing," Jack McBain says. But will the Mammoth pay to keep him here?

When Jack McBain sat down for his end-of-season interview, he felt pretty happy with his body of work.

The Utah Mammoth forward was a utility player who grew into a bigger role. It resulted in 27 points and an effective role on the third line by the year’s final game. Not to mention a team-high 291 hits and minutes on both the power play and penalty kill.

Despite these statistics, McBain knew some uncertainty would lie ahead. He was now a restricted free agent (RFA) without a new contract in place. At the beginning of July, that is still the case.

“We’ll see what happens this summer. I love this group that we have in the locker room. A lot of close relationships with the guys. You’re an RFA, so it’s not like you can do too much. But I think it’s an exciting group to be a part of,” McBain said back in April. “Hopefully good stuff moving forward.”

As an RFA, McBain can only sign a standard player contract with the Mammoth because they still own his rights. The only way another organization can sign McBain is through an offer sheet, which would force Utah to either match the number or let him walk (and get draft-pick compensation in return).

McBain was tendered a qualifying offer by Monday’s deadline — preventing him from becoming an unrestricted free agent — and negotiations have continued.

“We’ve had great dialogue with Jack and his representatives. We’ve made it very clear that he’s an important part of our future, and we felt that he believes he’s an important part of our future. So we’ll continue to work on that,” Mammoth president Chris Armstrong said on Thursday. “We’re in active conversations with his representatives. We hope we can get that done as quickly as possible.”

McBain’s last contract was a two-year deal with a total value of $3,199,998 and an annual cap hit of $1,599,999. The 25-year-old is likely looking for an increase on both term and salary. Utah, like any other NHL team, does not want to give too much of either away.

Armstrong is familiar with this back and forth because he used to be on the other side of it. Before joining the Mammoth as the president of hockey operations last June, Armstrong spent 14 years as an executive at Wasserman. The agent background has been helpful.

“I think it’s just another perspective in the room to think about how the players and their representatives might be thinking. It’s another opportunity for us when we’re viewing things strategically and playing out different scenarios,” Armstrong said. “I always say, both parties should leave a negotiation mutually dissatisfied. Feeling like they got the things they needed, but not everything they wanted.”

If the Mammoth and McBain cannot settle on a contract on their own, the negotiations could be taken to arbitration. NHL salary arbitration is a process that either the player or the team can file for to resolve RFA contract disputes. A neutral arbitrator comes in and determines the player’s salary and contract term within 48 hours of the hearing — which includes cases from both sides about performance, off-ice value, injury history and more.

McBain went to arbitration in 2023, but the two sides agreed to a deal before the hearing. This year, the deadline for player-elected salary arbitration is July 5 at 3 p.m. MT. The deadline for club-selected salary arbitration is July 6 at 3 p.m. MT. Arbitration hearings are scheduled from July 20 to Aug. 4.

“[McBain] has been very professional on his side and I think they’re very happy with how the talks have gone and we just make some further progress as we go along,” general manager Bill Armstrong said in late June. “It’s not an easy fight, but it’s good. I think we are both on the same page. Hopefully, at some point in time during the summer, we move a little closer to getting a deal done.”

After losing a scrappy Josh Doan in the J.J. Peterka trade, and having a lack of big bodies down the middle on the current roster, keeping McBain around should be a priority. Centers are a commodity in the league, and someone with McBain’s stature — 6-foot-4, 219 pounds — and grinding style of play would be wanted in most teams’ bottom six.

It is why McBain’s name has been at the center of some offer-sheet rumors this summer.

An offer sheet is an NHL contract presented to an RFA by a team other than the one that owns that player’s rights. If the player chooses to sign the offer sheet with another organization, their current team has two options: match the offer or let them go. If the latter is picked, the original team gets compensation in the form of draft picks from the franchise that made the offer sheet; the type and number of draft picks depend on the average annual value of the new contract.

The Mammoth have around $10.9 million remaining in cap space, so they could match the hypothetical offer. Avoiding that should be the goal, though. It seems, too, that McBain wants to stay in Salt Lake City.

“The way that you get treated here is probably top in the league. … The treatment, top down, is unbelievable. Living in Utah is amazing,” McBain said. “We played some really good hockey down the stretch. Coming together as a group and seeing what we have was really good. Individually, I think I made a lot of good steps moving forward. It’s easy to look at stats and say you want to be here or there. I think personally, my game is a lot more than that. I think it was a very positive year in a lot of aspects as a group and individually.”

McBain and the Utah front office likely want to see him build upon that in a Mammoth jersey next season. But the NHL is a business. Players know their worth and try to get the highest dollar amount out of it. Teams have a long-term plan, moving pieces to navigate and an obvious desire to limit spending. So, we will see how this one falls.

“That’s all you can do in any negotiation — try to collate as much information as you can and make the most informed decision,” Chris Armstrong said. “And try to anticipate things from the standpoint of the other side and what their needs might be.”