Surprising name of Utah NHL team revealed

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Liam McCormick
April 18, 2024 (3:10 PM)

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Moments ago, news broke that the NHL board of governors has officially approved the relocation of the Coyotes to Utah. Now, Utah has a ton of work to do in preparation, beginning with a name.

According to several sources, Utah is actually not going to immediately name their team. They will stick with the state name of Utah instead of Salt Lake City, but owner Ryan Smith explained they don't want to rush into a team name - they want to get it right. For the next season, it's possible they're named simply the Utah Hockey Club.

While they're expected to go into next season with the name Utah Hockey Club, they did also file trademarks on a few other names.

It's a bold strategy in the first year of a team to forego using a real name, but it is not unprecedented. The Washington Football Team of the NFL was a name that actually almost stuck for many fans, and it looks like Utah will take the same approach while they work out their jerseys and branding. A few weeks ago, the Utah ownership group did survey fans for what they would like to be their name. According to Greg Wyshynski, we could find out as soon as tomorrow about a team name, and later this week about their new colours.

Even if the Utah NHL team isn't going all out with the branding this offseason, there's reports that they're going to take significant steps in free agency and trade to make the team much better on the ice than the Coyotes have been. With free agents like Steven Stamkos, Sam Reinhart, Jake Guentzel and more, they really could make an impact addition to the team to be the face of the franchise.