Maveric Lamoureux set alarms on his phone every day this summer.
The Utah Mammoth prospect received alerts at 6:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., noon, 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
It was time to eat.
Lamoureux’s primary goal during the offseason was to gain weight and muscle. The 21-year-old got a taste of the NHL in his short stint with the Mammoth last year, and knew he had to get stronger to be a regular at that level.
And so, Lamoureux consumed around 5,000 calories a day. It included four meals, two shakes and snacks between his training. The 15 extra pounds Lamoureux came into the Mammoth rookie camp with on Wednesday proved it was worth it.
“It was a lot. Just to tell you now, food does not taste good for me,” Lamoureux said with a smile. “I ate way too much food this summer.”
Lamoureux worked with the Mammoth’s performance nutrition coach, Carl Bombardier, to put the diet plan together. The two are both from Quebec and got connected before Lamoureux was drafted 29th overall to the Arizona Coyotes in 2022, where Bombardier held the same job. Around 2020, Bombardier met Lamoureux’s agent through a mutual friend and took the athlete on as a client. Ending up in the same organization was a welcome surprise.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club defenseman Maveric Lamoureux (10) looks to shoot during the game between the Utah Hockey Club and the Colorado Avalanche at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024.
“He has always been a tall kid that needs to fill his frame,” Bombardier said.
The goal was the same this summer.
Bombardier customized the program to Lamoureux’s height (6-foot-6), weight (196 pounds), food preferences and workout schedule. There was a focus on carbs, like rice and potatoes, Bombardier said, as well as fats like peanut butter, almond butter and avocados. They experimented with overnight oats, fruits, orange juice and “a lot of pancakes.” Lamoureux doesn’t eat a ton of eggs, Bombardier said, so he would sometimes opt for a steak for breakfast.
“The thing with food is, at some point, most people would get full, and that’s the same thing for him,” Bombardier said. “We kind of tried to spread it across the day. He’s a great kid — wakes up early and gives us a little bit more time throughout the day to add all those meals in.”
Lamoureux is entering his second pro season with a greater understanding of the demands of his position. The defenseman made his NHL debut, perhaps prematurely, at the end of October after the Mammoth called him up from the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners. Sean Durzi and John Marino had just been sidelined for months due to their respective surgeries, and Utah needed a quick solution.
That was Lamoureux. He played 15 games with the Mammoth — mostly on the second pair with veteran Ian Cole — and had three points (one goal, two assists) while averaging 16:07 of ice time per game. Lamoureux injured his hand in late November and was subsequently reassigned to Tucson. He posted 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) in 42 games with the Roadrunners.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Maveric Lamoureux practices with the Utah Hockey Club at the Olympic Oval in Kearns, on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024.
“He came up obviously with us — desperate times call for desperate measures — and you would’ve liked to see him play some more games. He did a phenomenal job when he played for us in the National Hockey League,” general manager Bill Armstrong said. “We’d like to see more of that. He’s big, he’s long, he’s got to bring a physical presence, he’s got to be able to move the puck clean up here. And just really be a good shutdown D for us. If he can do that, all the other things are a bonus. He’s got a chance.”
This was one of the first summers in Lamoureux’s young career during which he was not working back from a serious injury. He has undergone two shoulder surgeries in the prime years of his development; the first came in 2022 and the second was in March 2024. Having a healthy offseason allowed Lamoureux to get ahead instead of catching up.
“Having a full summer of workouts was definitely good for me,” Lamoureux said. “I felt that last year, sometimes I was losing too many battles and I was not strong enough. Coming into this year, I feel way more confident. ... I believe I can play for this team, and I just have to do everything I can to make it happen.”
While the pairings and combinations during rookie camp can mean little, Lamoureux skated with Dmitri Simashev for the majority of Wednesday’s practice. Simashev joins Lamoureux as one of the organization’s highly-touted defensive prospects — he was selected sixth overall in 2023 — and signed his entry-level contract in May.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dmitri Simashiv (26) during Utah Mammoth development camp in Park City, on Tuesday, July 1, 2025.
It could be a daunting duo in the AHL, NHL or both this season. Lamoureux stands at 6-foot-6, and Simashev is 6-foot-4. The size is an obvious positive, but they can also both skate and manage the puck.
“I definitely like playing with him,” Lamoureux said of Simashev. “So if both of us do our thing good and we end up playing together with Utah, I think it is going to be a pretty dangerous pairing for me and him.”
Lamoureux’s path to being an NHL regular will likely not be linear, especially given the internal competition at the blueline for the Mammoth right now. But his added — and still growing — weight will only help his endurance in the pros. Bombardier takes pride in seeing the difference a strong diet plan can make in an athlete’s career.
“Their bodies are a business; it is their work. If you don’t take care of yourself, there’s a difference between being a pro athlete for five years versus 15 years,” Bombardier said. “It is probably the most rewarding part of everything that we do as a support staff. For me, nutrition is one of those things where everybody eats, but as an athlete, you kind of have to eat with a purpose.”