Utah’s NHL team has finally revealed its new name.
The team formerly known as the Utah Hockey Club and the Arizona Coyotes will henceforth be referred to as the Utah Mammoth.
The move had been expected after some recent clues surfaced online. Last month, fans and media discovered the team’s YouTube channel had been changed from ‘@UtahHockeyClub’ to ‘@UtahMammoth,’ on both its landing page and URL.
Owners Ryan and Ashley Smith unveiled the franchise’s permanent name Thursday morning after nearly a year of fan input and voting.
‘From Day 1, we committed that this team would be built with and for the people of Utah, and we are excited to celebrate today´s launch with the entire state,’ they said in a statement announcing the name. ‘The community chose the Utah Mammoth brand, and it stands as a symbol of who we are, where we came from and the unstoppable force we’re building together.’
The couple also owns the NBA’s Utah Jazz, who also call Salt Lake City’s Delta Center home.
Utah Hockey Club right wing Josh Doan (91) and center Jack McBain (22) and center Logan Cooley (92) celebrates a goal scored by Doan against the Dallas Stars on April 12
While the road jersey will remain similar, the home sweater now contains the team’s new logo
Mammoth replaces the inaugural season placeholder name Utah Hockey Club, which was also one of the three finalists.
Yeti was taken out of consideration when the cooler company bearing that name could not come to a copyright agreement with Utah ownership, and Wasatch – a reference to the state’s mountain range – was quickly replaced as an option by Outlaws.
The Mammoth are maintaining the same black, light blue and white color scheme and the road jerseys with UTAH diagonally down the front.
Utah’s Manti-La Sal National Forest is where the famed Huntington Mammoth was found in 1988. The discovery allowed researchers to sequence the animal’s DNA.
Utah has an exciting summer ahead holding the fourth pick in the draft, the first phase of arena renovations taking place and more than $20 million in salary cap space for general manager Bill Armstrong to make a splash in free agency and trades.
