With the resurrection of the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes as the Utah Hockey Club for the 2024-25 regular season, a new franchise was born out of the ashes of NHL failures in the Valley of the Sun and although the new club inherits all of the records of the old Coyote franchise, the Utah Hockey Club is for all intents and purposes a brand-new organization.
However, in the day and age when professional sports teams can easily be named for music styles (Utah Jazz) or even a motion picture (Anaheim Ducks, originally the Mighty Ducks after the Disney film) the Utah Hockey Club's identity falls essentially flat because they have no real identity as the current regular season enters its final days.
In a league that screams sports traditions with teams such as the Canadiens, Bruins or even Sharks, the Utah Hockey Club falls flat on creativity and excitement. The Washington Commanders of the NFL fell into this naming convention trap when they changed their venerable name due to cultural pressures from the Redskins the vanilla-bland name of the "Washington Football Team" which generated little excitement among football fans as a stalwart of the old NFL.
The Smith Entertainment Group started the process of renaming the Utah Hockey Club.
As the Utah Hockey Club entered this season as a bland, no-name team, the Smith Entertainment Group (SEG) led a fan-centered naming contest in order to generate more input on the eventual permanent name for this new NHL franchise. From 20 possible names, fans in Salt Lake City were able to narrow down the final list to three names, with the possible nicknames of "Outlaws," "Mammoth" and "Utah Hockey Club" remaining as the top naming choices.
While these names have been registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, only the names Mammoth and the utilitarian Utah Hockey Club have recently been extended to protect any trademark names should the club decide to use a specific name for next season. Utye LLC filed the trademark extensions on behalf of the Utah Hockey Club and it appears that these will be the two naming choices for the future of this franchise.
Utah Hockey Club or the Mammoth - which will it be?
While the potential team name of the Outlaws seemed to make perfect sense with the Wild West location of Utah, it appears that the future of this NHL club rests on either the name of an extinct Ice Age animal or keeping the bland current name as a sort of badge of honor.
While the name Mammoth is currently used by a National Lacrosse League franchise in Denver, CO, the hockey team's location in the Wasatch Range of Utah does lend some credence to calling the franchise the Mammoth. Fans can only envision a new logo that's unique to this club and certainly a cuddly giant wooly mammoth logo could easily translate into merchandise sales.
However, if the Utah Hockey Club wants to really stand out within professional sports, then simply keep the current name and current team colors. Sometimes, elegance and pride come out of simplicity and by keeping the current name, this franchise already has their identity within the National Hockey League.