New York Islanders
Utah Mammoth Sign Anders Lee to 3-Year Deal
Anders Lee has signed with the Utah Mammoth, a three-year deal worth $5.4 million per season.
The Utah Mammoth have signed Anders Lee to a three-year deal worth $5.4 million per season. After adding Vincent Trocheck via trade, Utah picks up another solid piece for their top nine.
Lee’s departure ends a run in New York that started when the Islanders drafted him 152nd overall back in 2009. He spent his entire 923-game career on Long Island, serving as captain and racking up 308 goals and 549 points — the most goals by an Islander since 2012, and second in points to only Brock Nelson over that stretch. He was coming off a seven-year, $49 million deal signed in 2018-19, and while both sides reportedly wanted to continue the relationship, talks stalled over term as Lee headed into his age-36 season, pushing him to the open market.
At 35, Lee remains a productive piece, coming off a 42-point season (19 goals, 23 assists) in 82 games, his fifth-straight year clearing the 37-point mark. His game has always centered on net-front presence and power-play scoring rather than pure speed, and while his role in New York had shifted toward the middle six in recent seasons, he’s shown he can produce secondary offense in a top-nine role.
Related: Vincent Trocheck Being Traded to the Utah Mammoth
For Utah, that’s exactly the kind of complementary piece the front office was targeting. Pairing Lee’s net-front scoring with the two-way center depth added via Trocheck gives the Mammoth real balance up front — a mentor with size and Cup-final experience (Lee reached the Final with the Islanders in 2020 and 2021) surrounding a young core headlined by Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther.
It’s the second notable veteran addition of the day for Utah, and it continues a clear organizational pattern: after strikeouts on bigger names like Artemi Panarin and Robert Thomas earlier in the year, Armstrong is using free agency and the trade market to add experienced, professional pieces around his skill core rather than betting solely on internal development.
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