Rooney, 32, will fill a depth role in the organization, whether it’s with Utah the Mammoth or the Tucson Roadrunners.
Hours after announcing their opening-night roster, the Utah Mammoth have made another addition: veteran center Kevin Rooney.
Rooney, 32, played 70 games for the Calgary Flames last season — the most in a season over his nine-year career. It’s a two-way contract worth the league minimum of $775,000 at the NHL level.
Last-minute signing for Utah. Rooney is a big-bodied vet and a proven depth forward.
— Brogan Houston (@houston_brogan) October 7, 2025
We’ll see if he replaces Agozzino or someone else in the lineup. https://t.co/oBUM5h9cA7
He attended camp this fall on a professional tryout contract with the New Jersey Devils, the team that gave him his first NHL chance back in 2017.
Rooney is perhaps best known for his time with the New York Rangers, with whom he appeared in the 2022 Eastern Conference Final. The Rangers fell to Mikhail Sergachev’s Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.
Head coach André Tourigny spoke during training camp about finding guys to fill particular roles. The example he gave was Alexander Kerfoot, who’s starting the season on injured reserve, as a penalty killer. He indicated that it doesn’t make sense to fill that roster spot with, say, a goal scorer if he can’t kill penalties.
Rooney is a penalty killer. He averaged nearly two minutes per game on the PK last year, helping the Flames nearly into the playoffs (they missed out due to a tiebreaker).
The 6-foot-2, 190-pound native of Massachusetts has also been known to drop the gloves when necessary.
Assuming the plan is to keep Rooney in the NHL for the time being, someone will have to be sent down — perhaps Andrew Agozzino, who had a solid camp but likely only made the roster because of the number of injuries to Utah forwards.
Rooney is probably more suited for an NHL bottom-six roster spot, given his size and grit, compared to the 5-foot-10 Agozzino.
Over 330 games in his NHL career, Rooney has a total of 32 goals and 60 points. He has also played 242 games in the AHL, where he has amassed 34 goals and 93 points.
Category: General Sports
