Utah Hockey Club Narrows Name Options to Three

The Utah Hockey Club is down to three options for a permanent identity.

Jon Alfano | Jan 29, 2025

Jan 20, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Hockey Club center Logan Cooley (92) celebrates a goal with center Nick Schmaltz (8) and center Barrett Hayton (27) against the Winnipeg Jets during the second period at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images / Rob Gray-Imagn Images

As the Utah Hockey Club navigates its inaugural season on the ice, team executives are hard at work in the background building a permanent identity for the NHL's newest franchise.

The unique circumstances surrounding the team's founding - as it received the assets of the Arizona Coyotes but is technically a different franchise - didn't leave enough time to develop permanent branding for the inaugural season. As a result, Smith Entertainment Group, the team's parent company, launched a multi-phase process allowing fans to vote on a name, and that process appears to be in its final stages.

On Wednesday, the team announced it is now down to three options for a permanent name: Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth and Utah Wasatch.

Utah H.C. and Utah Mammoth were both names previously included in the previous round of voting, which featured six possible options. Utah Wasatch, on the other hand, is an entirely new option "created to honor the idea of a mythical snow creature with a Utah-centric approach inspired by the Wasatch Mountain range," according to the team's website.

Unlike previous rounds of voting, which took place entirely online, only fans who attend the team's next four home games at Delta Center will be able to vote in this round. The team claims this decision was made because this round features logos and brand treatment in addition to names.

The four games fans can vote at are as follows:

Wednesday vs. Philadelphia Flyers
Friday vs. Columbus Blue Jackets
Sunday vs. St. Louis Blues
Tuesday vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

Fans may notice that there's one notable omission from the list of possible names: Utah Yeti(s). That name was widely considered the favorite for the permanent identity, with even players and executives mentioning it offhand. However, trademark problems led the team to abandon the name.

"As fans will see, one name is not on the list: Yeti, which was also one of the top six names included in the most recent survey round," the team's press release reads. "An SEG executive shared that it explored every avenue to make Yeti work but that YETI Coolers, LLC was ultimately unwilling to agree to a co-existence agreement. SEG has confirmed it is no longer pursuing Yeti as a potential name for the team."

While it is disappointing to lose that option, it is undoubtedly exciting to see the team's identity come together in real time.

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Published Jan 29, 2025

JON ALFANO

Jon is a lead writer for Baltimore Ravens On SI and contributes to other sites around the network as well. The Tampa native previously worked with sites such as ClutchPoints and GiveMeSport and earned his journalism degree at the University of Central Florida.