In a dramatic move by the National Hockey League, the Arizona Coyotes have relocated to Salt Lake City Utah. The Arizona Coyotes brand did not move with the team. The team in Utah is considered a whole new team. The Arizona Coyotes may come back in a few years. With the Utah NHL team being a whole new team what will their name be? They have not announced a final name yet. For the 2024-25 season they will be calling themselves the Utah Hockey Club or Utah HC. They have released temporary logos, branding, and jerseys for the upcoming season. They will change their name and logos after their first season. Other professional sports teams in Salt Lake City include the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association and Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer.
For the 2024-25 season the Utah NHL team will be know as the Utah Hockey Club or Utah HC. They are the first new branding in the National Hockey League since the Seattle Kraken released their branding back in 2020. Their branding was leaked a while ago. They did officially release their branding and uniforms this last week. Their colors are rock black, salt white, and mountain blue. It is unclear at this time if they will stick with those colors beyond the 2024-25 season. It is likely that they will. The Utah Hockey Club primary logo for the 2024-25 season is a roundel logo with the team name. They will be the only NHL team with a roundel logo as their primary logo for the 2024-25 season. They will be the ninth NHL team with a round primary logo. They do have two recolored versions of their primary logo. They have nine different wordmark logos. They have three logos with the “Utah Hockey Club” on in front of a silhouette of Utah. On their jerseys they will be using a diagonal “Utah” wordmark logo. They may get new jerseys after the 2024-25 season. It is likely that even if the pattern on the jersey stays the same, the new branding will be added to the jerseys.
Their is a long list of potential names. There was originally twenty names to choose from. The Utah Hockey Club is allowing teams to vote on what the future team name should be. It would have been cool to see the team buy the Utah Grizzlies branding and have the Utah Grizzlies become an NHL team. They did not do that. the Utah Stormin’ Morons was never an option. That was the funnest name I have heard suggested for the team. I do think voting it going a little fast considering the team will not use the new name until after the 2024-25 season. They have already narrowed the team name down from twenty names to around three names. Voting only started less than three months ago. The team name voting process is going so fast that by the time the 2024-25 season starts, the Utah Hockey Club will lose a lot of momentum surrounding the new name. If they slowed down the voting and kept it going until the end of next season, fans will be on the edge of their seat waiting for the new name until the end of next season. Then by the end of next season the excitement will be larger than if they finished voting and announced a team name before the 2024-25 season starts. If the team name is announced before the start of the 2024-25 season, all hype surrounding the new name will be gone before the season is over. With how fast the name voting is going, they will likely stop calling the team Utah Hockey Club while using the new logos before the 2024-25 season even starts. The Utah Mammoth and Utah Yeti are the current front runners. I am not a fan of either of those names. There are a couple of names on the list that are not too bad. The list of names feels rushed. The Arizona Coyotes, Vegas Golden Knights, and Seattle Kraken have great names and branding. It will be interesting to see how the NHL follows that up in Utah.
Zac Electrifly 
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