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The National Hockey League allowed the Arizona Coyotes franchise to relocate in Salt Lake City last summer.
Their nickname “Coyotes” fit nicely with the Arizona geography and was a great match for that region’s hockey team.
Unfortunately, the team’s ownership did a really lousy job. Local fans abandoned the team in droves during the final few seasons in the desert.
Last summer found the moving vans loading-up the former Coyotes out of Arizona into the welcoming open arms of Salt Lake City, Utah. The city has a metro population of about 1.25 million people and ranks as the #33 television market.
NHL hockey had finally arrived in Utah!
The state likely has its share of coyotes, but the name “Utah Coyotes” or “Salt Lake City Coyotes” just didn’t sound like a very good match for this city.
Salt Lake City is tucked in the Wasach Mountains and lures multitudes of skiers during the winter months.
The new NHL team in Salt Lake City borrowed a page from the NFL
The hockey team’s ownership smartly took a cue from the former Washington Redskins of the National Football League.
That famed football franchise temporarily changed its nickname to the Washington Football Team for the 2020 and 2021 NFL seasons.
In 2022, the Washington Commanders (ugh) debuted with the team’s current nickname.
Washington’s pro football fans suggested a number of clever names such as the Redtails, Warriors, Hogs, and Presidents. A relatively safe choice of “Commanders” was selected by team ownership.
In a similar move, the new “Utah Hockey Club” began the 2024-2025 NHL season in Salt Lake City.
The team conducted a contest for a permanent nickname after coming to Utah. More than 850,000 votes were cast over the past year in four rounds of voting.
The finalists were:
Utah Outlaws
The Utah Yeti
Utah Hockey Club (leave it as it was this season)
The Utah Mammoth
And the winner is…
“The community chose the Utah Mammoth brand. It stands as a symbol of who we are, where we came from, and the unstoppable force we’re building together,” said team owners Ryan and Ashley Smith.
Believe it or not, archeologists believe that mammoths once roamed across Utah 10,000 years ago.
Fossils of the Huntington Mammoth were discovered in 1988 in central Utah.
The proposed nickname of Utah Yeti failed to get past a copyright issue with the Yeti cooler and drinkware manufacturer of the same name.
Too bad!
The Yeti would have been a terrific nickname for this pro hockey team.
Utah has struggled to find good nicknames for its professional sports teams
Anyone who followed sports in Louisiana knows that one of the greatest sports nicknames was the NBA’s New Orleans Jazz. The Crescent City’s jazz musicians are a big favorite with tourists.
The New Orleans Jazz were an NBA expansion franchise which started playing in 1974. The team later acquired the Pelican state’s greatest basketball player, Pete Maravich.
The New Orleans Jazz failed financially as the Louisiana Superdome’s initial configuration was too cavernous to watch basketball. The Superdome’s rental costs worked against the pro basketball team, too.
The team owner moved the New Orleans NBA franchise to Salt Lake City in 1979. The former Utah Stars of the ABA had exceptional fan support during its 6-year run in Salt Lake City in the early 1970’s.
Instead of changing the nickname, the team became known as the Utah Jazz.
This was initially done because there wasn’t enough time left prior to the start of the 1979 basketball season for the NBA to effectuate a name change.
Salt Lake City was not and still isn’t known for its jazz entertainment. The local fans didn’t mind the name, so the Utah Jazz is still playing NBA basketball in Salt Lake City in 2025.
Louisiana fans still chuckle knowing that the Utah Jazz have never won an NBA title. Then again, the current New Orleans Pelicans franchise hasn’t won a championship, either!
Other Salt Lake City sports nicknames
Other than the poorly named Utah Jazz of the NBA, Salt Lake City is the host for a variety of professional sports franchises.
Some of their nicknames are better than others.
Utah Bees – Salt Lake City’s professional baseball franchise plays in the Class AAA Pacific Coast League.
A Mormon settlement named Deseret means Honey Bee, and the state of Utah is known as the Beehive State. Perfect name!
Utah Archers – This unique nickname belongs to Salt Lake City’s professional field lacrosse team which competes in the Premier LaCrosse League.
Utah Grizzlies – The city’s minor league hockey (ECHL) team has been playing since 1988.
The Grizzlies continued to play this year and competed with the NHL’s Utah Hockey Club for local hockey fans.
Some NHL team nicknames are a little unusual
The Utah Mammoth (ugh) won’t be the only odd nickname for a National Hockey League franchise.
The Mighty Ducks – The Anaheim NHL expansion team was named The Mighty Ducks in 1992. That nickname was based on a Disney movie of the same name. The team was sold to new owners who shortened the nickname to just “Ducks” in 2006.
Sabres – An NHL expansion franchise in Buffalo chose “Sabres” for its nickname beginning in 1970. It was better than the team’s three other finalists. The Buffalo Mugwumps, Buffalo Buzzing Bees, and Buffalo Flying Zeppelins were (thankfully) discarded.
Flames – This pro hockey team was founded in Atlanta in 1971 as the Atlanta Flames. That nickname made sense since Atlanta was burned down during the Civil War. The team moved to Calgary in 1980, and the owner kept the nickname anyway.
Blue Jackets – Did you know that the city of Columbus, Ohio produced the majority of the blue coats worn by Union soldiers during the Civil War?
North Stars – This team’s first NHL home was in Minnesota and nicknamed the North Stars. The team then moved to Dallas in 1993 and smartly dropped the word “North” to reflect the Lone “Star” state of Texas!
Red Wings – Detroit’s NHL franchise started using this odd name in 1932. It is not named for the shoe company, though.
Originally known as the Falcons, the nickname was changed by the owner to sound similar to his other pro hockey franchise in Montreal known as the Winged Wheelers.
The Wild – After losing their first NHL team to Dallas, another franchise was awarded to Minneapolis in 2000. As weak as “The Wild” sounds, it beat other finalists such as the Blue Ox, Freeze, Northern Lights, and White Bears.
Canucks – This 1970 NHL expansion franchise in Vancouver, British Columbia took a name which Canadians have loved since the 1860’s. A political cartoon named “Johnny Canuck” became a beloved nickname for the word “Canadian”.
Since Montreal’s NHL team was already named the Canadians, Vancouver went with the Canucks.
Jets – This wandering franchise started in Atlanta, moved to Phoenix, and then landed in Winnipeg in 2011. The team almost became known as the Manitoba Moose.
Winnipeg hosted a World Hockey League team decades ago which went by the nickname “Jets”, because the team’s owner was a big fan of the NFL’s New York Jets.
Is this a Mammoth mistake or a terrific marketing idea?
The names Utah and Mammoth don’t really sound like they mix very well – at least to this Southerner from the Bayou State.
I have a mental picture of the team’s in-stadium mascot looking a lot like Mr. Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street.
Having a nickname like Mammoth also conjures up a lumbering, slow moving beast. Hockey is a very fast paced game, so the Utah Mammoth better get to work on his cardio before the first puck drops in the fall.
This year’s 2024/2025 Utah Hockey Club finished with a respectable record of 38-31 plus 13 overtime losses. They failed to make the NHL playoffs this spring.
Salt Lake City will start its new NHL season in October featuring the debut of the Utah Mammoth.
Maybe Big Bird will be on hand to drop the opening puck!