Utah Hockey Club to hold in-arena fan vote for permanent name - ESPN

Utah Hockey Club will not be moving forward with «Yeti» or «Yetis» as its team nickname and will hold an in-arena fan vote to pick a new one.

The team expects to announce a permanent name and identity before the 2025-26 NHL season. The new fan vote comes after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected names and logos that Utah Hockey Club had submitted for approval, in particular «Utah Yetis,» which was widely assumed to be the franchise's eventual nickname.

Fans attending Utah's next four home games will have the opportunity to vote for three options using tablets stationed around Delta Center. The team estimates that could be upward of 15,000 fans per game.

The name options are:

• Utah Hockey Club. The team's current name was meant as a placeholder for its inaugural season in Salt Lake City, after Smith Entertainment Group purchased the Arizona Coyotes franchise. «It has always been our intention to let our season one identity as Utah Hockey Club, the team's performance and the amazing response from our fans hold the conversation through our inaugural season,» said Chris Armstrong, the team's president of hockey operations.

• Utah Mammoth. This nickname was one of six finalists from a fan vote held last year, along with Utah Blizzard, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom and Utah Yeti. Team owner Ryan Smith later revealed on ESPN's «The Pat McAfee Show» that Mammoth had made the final four options.

• Utah Wasatch. This is an entirely new option for Utah's team name, as it wasn't included in the initial 20 names presented to fans in a survey. It references Utah's Wasatch mountain range, known for its many ski resorts. But the team acknowledges that it's basically a replacement for Utah Yeti. The name will