Maveric Lamoureux
Lamoureux entered September camp as a long-shot depth defenseman fighting for a bottom-pair NHL job, and an upper-body injury suffered in a September 22 preseason game against the Kings has now knocked him out of that competition just as the season starts.
Role
Before the injury, Daily Faceoff and preview outlets (Last Word on Sports and Yahoo Sports 'Puck Drop Preview,' both published September 22, 2026) described Utah's bottom defense pair as an open battle among Andrew Peeke, Nick DeSimone and Lamoureux, with Peeke seen as the favorite given his 386 games of NHL experience; Dmitri Simashev was expected to take the other bottom-pair spot after Cole's departure. Lamoureux sustained an apparent upper-body injury in the September 22 preseason game versus Los Angeles (per Cole Bagley of KSL Sports), and on September 23 the Deseret News's Brogan Houston reported he is expected to miss some time. Puckpedia's injury tracker (checked around September 25) lists him day-to-day with an expected return date of September 29, 2026, the same day Utah's regular season opens, though that is a projected date rather than a confirmed clearance. A Deseret News camp preview from September 15 had already flagged him as Utah's likely first call-up from AHL Tucson once the season begins, regardless of who wins the bottom-pair job out of camp.
He is a big, physical, right-shot defenseman who was the presumptive first man up from Tucson even before the injury, so a clean recovery in the coming days would still put him in position for NHL call-ups, and depth-chart injuries elsewhere on Utah's blueline (Olen Zellweger was also day-to-day with a concussion per Puckpedia) could open a path to games sooner than expected.
Even healthy, Lamoureux was viewed as the third option behind Peeke and DeSimone for the final bottom-pair spot, with one Hockey Writers analysis and an East Idaho News roster projection both suggesting he was more likely to open the year back in Tucson; missing time now with an upper-body injury only makes it harder for him to win a camp battle he was already not favored to win.
Where analysts split
The disagreement in current coverage is not really about the injury itself, it is about whether Lamoureux would have made Utah's opening-night roster at all: Yahoo Sports/Last Word on Sports frame the bottom pair as a genuine three-way camp battle he could win, while The Hockey Writers and East Idaho News lean toward Peeke or DeSimone getting the job with Lamoureux returning to Tucson as the top call-up option; the injury adds an added question of whether he'll even be evaluated in exhibition play before the roster is set.
Injury: IR: assessed avoid
Shoulder injury, IR, out until mid-February
Long-term IR designation with an expected return date roughly four and a half months out means he is unrosterable for fantasy purposes for the foreseeable future.
What would change this: Any updated timetable or practice return report as the expected return date approaches.
Research confidence: reported. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
Others at D
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