- May 21, 2026
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The Utah Mammoth announced that they’ve signed defenseman Zac Jones to a two-year contract at the league minimum cap hit of $875,000.
Jones was an unrestricted free agent after the conclusion of his one-year, $900,000 contract with the Buffalo Sabres. While he would have been a restricted free agent, he didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the Sabres, putting him on the UFA market.
Jones’ contract is a two-way contract, with his AHL salary coming down to $500,000. He’ll take up 0.08% of the Mammoth’s salary cap, and is signed to the 2027-28 season when he’ll be 27 years old. That also means that when his contract expires, he’ll be a UFA without needing his team to not qualify him.
Jones spent the entirety of his season in the AHL with the Sabres’ minor-league affiliate, the Rochester Americans. It’s the first season in his professional career that he did not play at least one game at the NHL level. In 60 games with the team, he had 10 goals and 52 assists for 62 points, which led all defensemen in scoring by a significant margin. In fact, Jones had more assists than the next closest defenseman had points, that being Jack Ahcan with 50.
Jones was a third-round pick for the New York Rangers in 2019, and after making his NHL debut in 2021, spent parts of five seasons with the Rangers before going to unrestricted free agency after not receiving a qualifying offer.
The Mammoth have had a busy offseason, as they’ve dealt J.J. Peterka and Sean Durzi from the roster while trading for Vincent Trocheck and Sebastian Cossa, along with signing Anders Lee in free agency. Utah now has about $4,697,977 in salary cap space according to PuckPedia (according to PuckPedia) with no RFAs left to re-sign.
Follow along with Daily Faceoff’s live free agency tracker here.
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Jones was an unrestricted free agent after the conclusion of his one-year, $900,000 contract with the Buffalo Sabres. While he would have been a restricted free agent, he didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the Sabres, putting him on the UFA market.
Jones’ contract is a two-way contract, with his AHL salary coming down to $500,000. He’ll take up 0.08% of the Mammoth’s salary cap, and is signed to the 2027-28 season when he’ll be 27 years old. That also means that when his contract expires, he’ll be a UFA without needing his team to not qualify him.
Jones spent the entirety of his season in the AHL with the Sabres’ minor-league affiliate, the Rochester Americans. It’s the first season in his professional career that he did not play at least one game at the NHL level. In 60 games with the team, he had 10 goals and 52 assists for 62 points, which led all defensemen in scoring by a significant margin. In fact, Jones had more assists than the next closest defenseman had points, that being Jack Ahcan with 50.
Jones was a third-round pick for the New York Rangers in 2019, and after making his NHL debut in 2021, spent parts of five seasons with the Rangers before going to unrestricted free agency after not receiving a qualifying offer.
The Mammoth have had a busy offseason, as they’ve dealt J.J. Peterka and Sean Durzi from the roster while trading for Vincent Trocheck and Sebastian Cossa, along with signing Anders Lee in free agency. Utah now has about $4,697,977 in salary cap space according to PuckPedia (according to PuckPedia) with no RFAs left to re-sign.
Follow along with Daily Faceoff’s live free agency tracker here.
Continue reading...