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NHL Utah has shortlisted a total of six names for the renaming process of the franchise. Earlier, team owner Ryan Smith had announced that the new name of the franchise would be decided by fans from a naming bracket of 20 names.
Despite the franchise moving to Salt Lake City in April, its new name will still have ‘Utah’ as a nod to the team’s origin. For the first year of the team in Salt Lake City, the franchise will simply go by “NHL Utah” and will not have a particular nickname.
Now after 520,000 fan votes, the new Utah NHL franchise has narrowed its name options to six for the second round of voting. The six short-listed names are Utah Blizzard, Utah Hockey Club (Utah HC), Utah Mammoth, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom, and Utah Yeti.
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Fans were quick to react to the final six names on the internet. Some fans were divided between the options, while others vouched for their favorite picks. Following are some of the fan reactions from X/Twitter:
“These all kinda suck but Utah Outlaws is the best.”
“Blizzard is the only acceptable one, Utah HC is ok for next season.,” commented one fan.
“They better not be Utah hockey club full time. I can’t believe that’s even an option 😂,” wrote another user.
Fans warmed to a few names like ‘Yeti’ and ‘Blizzard’ in the comments. Meanwhile, some mentioned picking names that were not shortlisted.
“BRING ON THE YETI!”
“Utah Outlaws is pretty cool,” wrote one user.
“These are all wack but Outlaws the only option here. Should’ve went with Utah Mountaineers,” commented another fan.
‘Utah Mammoth’ and ‘Utah Yeti’ are favorites, per Utah NHL owner Ryan Smith
NHL Utah and Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith made an impromptu appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show” earlier on May 30, where he shared a couple of the names that were favorites among fans. He mentioned shortlisting four fan favorites at the time.
“We’ve got our four. I think Mammoth is up there, I think Yeti is up there, I think a couple of ones are up there. It should be good,” Ryan Smith said.
While the process is already underway, Utah NHL will only be known as ‘Utah’ for their first season in Salt Lake City. The entire branding based on the chosen name will start after the 2024-25 NHL season and the team will debut the new name from the beginning of 2025-26.
