Utah NHL Team Opens Fan Voting for Name: Mammoth, Ice, Yeti, Venom Among 20 Options

A survey released by the NHL's new Utah franchise on Wednesday listed 20 different potential team names that fans can vote on.

According to ESPN, the following names were included in the survey:

• Frost
• Ice
• Powder
• Mountaineers
• Freeze
• Mammoth
• Black Diamonds
• Blast
• Caribou
• Blizzard
• Swarm
• Hive
• Outlaws
• Yeti
• Squall
• Fury
• Glaciers
• Canyons
• Venom
• HC (Hockey Club)

A group led by Ryan Smith, who is the governor of the NBA's Utah Jazz, purchased the Arizona Coyotes from Alex Meruelo for $1.2 billion last month. It was immediately announced that the franchise would be relocated to Salt Lake City, starting with the 2024-25 season.

There had been an NHL team in the state of Arizona since 1996 when the Winnipeg Jets relocated to Phoenix. But with Meruelo unable to secure a new arena for the franchise, the decision was made to relocate.

While all Coyotes players and personnel are now part of the Utah franchise, Meruelo has been allowed to retain the rights to all Coyotes intellectual properties and records.

Should Meruelo secure a new arena in the next five years, the Coyotes can then re-enter the NHL as an expansion team.

As for Utah, there is already a significant amount of interest in NHL hockey coming to the state. Nearly 23,000 people paid season-ticket deposits within one day of the move from Arizona becoming official.

Utah will play its games at the Delta Center in downtown Salt Lake City, which is the home of the Jazz.

Per ESPN, Smith announced that his team's jerseys will say "Utah" on them during the 2024-25 season before the new name, logo and colors take effect for the 2025-26 campaign.

Voting for the new team name will run through May 22, but it is anticipated that there will be additional rounds of voting after that.

The Seattle Kraken, who entered the NHL in 2021 as the league's latest expansion team, went through a similar process to determine their name.

On Tuesday night, the Utah franchise conducted its first official order of business since relocating from Arizona by taking part in the 2024 NHL draft lottery.

Utah, which ended up with the No. 6 overall pick, used the NHL logo and the word "Utah" as its logo during the lottery since it doesn't yet have a team name.