The Utah Mammoth locked up their head coach Monday, signing Andre Tourigny to a multi-year extension. The team didn’t release terms, which is standard practice.
Tourigny is heading into his third season with the Mammoth. Over 164 games, he’s gone 81-64-19 with a .552 points percentage. Last season, Utah went 43-33-6 for 92 points, a three-point jump from the year before. That was enough to get them into the playoffs for the first time since moving to Utah. They finished sixth in the Central Division and lost in six games to the eventual Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights.
But here’s the thing people forget: Tourigny has been with this franchise through a lot. He took over in Arizona back in 2021, when the Coyotes were still a thing. He coached through the relocation to Utah in 2024, kept the roster and staff stable during a messy transition. The franchise is 170-195-45 under him across 410 games dating back to that Arizona era. Not a glamorous record on paper, but context matters.
What He’s Built
Tourigny’s biggest win might be player development. Guys like Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse, Dylan Guenther, Logan Cooley, Jack McBain, Barrett Hayton, and goalie Karel Vejmelka all took real steps forward under him. That’s the core of the roster right now. Keller’s a consistent point producer. Cooley looks like a future star. Vejmelka turned into a legit starter. You don’t get that without a coach who trusts young players.
Tourigny is one of the longest-tenured coaches in the NHL right now. Only Jon Cooper, Jared Bednar, and Rod Brind’Amour have held their current jobs longer. That puts him in some serious company.
Before the NHL
He was an assistant with Colorado from 2013 to 2015 and Ottawa in 2015-16. Before that, he coached the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s and won OHL Coach of the Year twice (2018-19, 2019-20) and the CHL Coach of the Year award in 2019-20.
Internationally, he’s coached Canada at the IIHF World Championship — won gold in 2023 as head coach. He also took silver at the 2021 World Juniors and worked multiple Worlds as an assistant and head coach.
The extension doesn’t come as a surprise. The Mammoth are still building, still finding their identity in a new market. Tourigny’s a known quantity, and for a franchise trying to establish something long-term, that matters.
Leave a Comment