Utah Mammoth Sign Goaltender Hrabal to ELC, Assign Him to Tucson Roadrunners

The Utah Mammoth locked up one of college hockey's best goaltenders Wednesday, signing Michael Hrabal to a three-year entry-level contract and assigning the 21-year-old Czech netminder to the Tucson Roadrunners on a professional tryout agreement.

The ELC begins next season, but Hrabal will immediately report to AHL Tucson on a tryout basis to finish the current campaign, where he won't be eligible to suit up in the NHL this year but will get an early chance down the stretch to challenge AHL veterans Jaxson Stauber and Matt Villalta for playing time.

The timing matters beyond the paperwork. Hrabal had previously turned down a contract offer from the Mammoth, and Utah faced a hard deadline: the organization would have only owned his rights until the end of next season, after which he could have signed anywhere in the NHL. Getting the deal done now secures what may prove to be the franchise's most important long-term roster decision.

Hrabal is one of three finalists for the 2026 Mike Richter Award, given annually to the top goalie in men's NCAA Division I hockey. The case for him is overwhelming. The Prague native was voted the 2025-26 Hockey East Player of the Year, becoming the third Minuteman to earn that honor, joining Bobby Trivigino and 2019 Hobey Baker winner Cale Makar. He is also the first European-born player in history to be named the league's player of the year.

Hrabal put together a stellar second half of 2025-26, helping UMass vault from last place to second in the Hockey East standings. Since January 1, he went 13-3-1 with four shutouts, a 1.25 GAA, and a .958 save percentage, allowing two goals or fewer in 15 of those 17 games. He made 30 or more saves 10 times this season, eclipsing the 40-save mark on three occasions, including a career-high 50 stops against UConn on February 28.

Hrabal is the tallest goalie in Division I Hockey, standing at 6'7". That frame, combined with a shutout streak of 191 minutes and 14 seconds at UMass this season, the longest in program history by a full period, pushed him squarely into the Hobey Baker conversation. On the international stage, his resume is equally compelling. At the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, he started six of seven games for Czechia and posted a 4-2-0 record with a 2.45 GAA and a .919 save percentage. In the bronze-medal game against Sweden, he stopped 12 of 14 shots in a record-breaking 14-round shootout and was named Player of the Game. A quarterfinal upset over Canada, sealed by 29 Hrabal saves in a 4-3 result, gave Czechia back-to-back bronze medals in 2024 and 2025.

Per PuckPedia, the ELC carries a cap hit of $1,075,000 at the NHL level, with performance bonuses escalating from $500,000 in year one to $750,000 in year two and $1,000,000 in year three. His AHL salary will be $82,500 annually. Neither Stauber nor Villalta has been particularly inspiring this season, with sub-.900 save percentages, so the path is wide open for Hrabal to establish himself as Utah's clear-cut third goalie entering training camp in the fall, potentially even challenging to replace pending unrestricted free agent Vítek Vaněček as Karel Vejmelka's backup.

Hrabal is the second top prospect Utah signed in the span of a few days. Caleb Desnoyers, whom the Mammoth drafted fourth overall in 2025, signed his ELC on Monday.

The Mammoth drafted Hrabal 38th overall in 2023, and over the last decade only 10 goalies have been selected in the first two rounds across the entire league. At the time, he said "as a goalie, there's no rush" and committed to finishing his education at UMass, where he majored in sports management. That patience, and the Mammoth's willingness to wait for it, looks prescient now. He leaves Amherst as the best goalie in college hockey. Tucson is next.