We are getting closer to an official team name for Utah’s NHL team.
Ryan Smith, who recently bought the Arizona Coyotes and moved the team to Utah, called into The Pat McAfee Show and offered four finalists for the name of his new Salt Lake City hockey franchise.
McAfee, the popular ESPN sports analyst and talk show host, asked Smith as to what the “early favorites” were for the former Coyotes franchise.
“We’ve got our four … I think Mammoth is up there, I think Yeti is up there, I think a couple other ones are up there, it should be good,” Smith stated.
Before this reveal, Smith took to X on May 8 to ask fans to vote on what their favorite name was. He offered 20 choices, and allowed fans to choose their top four.
Here were the choices offered:
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Some of the options were head scratchers, to be honest.
The “Utah Caribou,” while presenting a cute image, makes zero sense. That’s due to the simple fact that reindeer are not found anywhere in Utah, and are extremely rare in the northern contiguous states!
McAfee inquired about the notion of a “Utah Black Diamonds” on the call, but was met with no answer from Smith regarding the skiing-themed name.
“Utah HC” is perhaps the most egregious. What could be more upsetting to fans than intentionally leaving your team nameless? It would be like the Washington Commanders permanently deciding on staying with the “Washington Football Team.”
It works in soccer. Not in other sports.
Regardless, it seems the snowy theme will be the go-to.
Yeti and Mammoth are a good start, and we’ll see what the remaining finalists are in the coming days.
Recently, we gave our ranking of the potential Utah team names. Check them out here.