Utah’s NHL franchise will be called Blizzard, Hockey Club, Mammoth, Outlaws, Venom or Yeti, according to the team.
After the first round of fan voting that ended on May 22, the Utah NHL (formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes) unveiled the list of six team names that had been reduced from the original twenty.
More than 520,000 votes were cast during the first voting phase. The second round of fan voting runs through June 20 at 11:59 PM MT.
The team said the final steps in the voting process will be announced “in the coming months.”
Once an official team nickname is chosen, the team will “work diligently over the next year” to design a logo, mascot and colors. When NHL Utah takes the ice for the 2024-2025 season, they will wear jerseys with their chosen colors, but without a nickname. Only UTAH will appear on the jerseys for their first season.
The nickname and other branding will be revealed before the 2025-2026 NHL season.
But if recent research from Utah Jazz beat writer Ryan Miller is any indication, blue, black and white will be part of the color scheme.
Trademark applications have been filed for eight logos for the Utah Hockey Club (including the one that circulated last week).
It looks like the branding is coming together for the first season. pic.twitter.com/tGqNAObAqp
— Ryan Miller (@millerjryan) June 3, 2024
In April, the NHL Board of Governors approved the $1.2 billion sale of the Arizona Coyotes to Smith, a billionaire who co-founded Qualtrics and also owns the Utah Jazz and Real Salt Lake. The Coyotes originally moved from Winnipeg in 1996.
As part of the sale deal, former Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo can secure a new arena in Arizona within five years, repay the $1.2 billion and get an expansion franchise.
