WILL THE COYOTES CHANGE THEIR NAME IN UTAH? LATEST NEWS, RUMORS ON NEW NICKNAME OPTIONS FOR 2024-25 RELOCATION

It's official – the NHL is headed to Salt Lake City, Utah. 

The NHL Board of Governors approved the sale of the Arizona hockey club to the Smith Entertainment Group, which is led by Ryan and Ashley Smith. The Smiths are current owners of the NBA's Utah Jazz and have been in discussions with the city about bringing a hockey club to the region for a bit of time now. 

With the move, it closes one chapter in the NHL while starting another. For Arizona, it marks the end of hockey in the desert ... for now. The Coyotes moved from Winnipeg to the state in 1996 and operated for nearly 30 years before the sale. The deal that current Arizona owner Alex Meruelo has in place with the league allows him the option to "restart" the franchise if a concrete arena plan is put in place, but for now, the NHL's time in Arizona is over.

For Utah, the state is getting an NHL team for the first time, providing a promising start to a potentially long era of success in Salt Lake City. While Utah has housed minor league clubs before — and still currently has one in the state — this is a chance for hockey to really burst in the area.

There are plenty of questions surrounding the team amid its relocation, but perhaps the biggest of them all is the team's nickname. With the club moving north from Arizona to Utah, will the team still be called the Coyotes, or will another moniker be given to the team?

The Sporting News is tracking all the latest news and rumors about the team name for the new hockey club in Utah. 

MORE: Why are the Coyotes leaving Arizona?

Will the Coyotes change their name in Utah?

With the sale of the club just announced, one of the next steps Smith and his organization will take is to decide on the name of the team. 

The only thing set in stone is that the name of the team will have Utah in it, not Salt Lake City. Smith confirmed this, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun, and said that his group is going to take their time deciding on the moniker. 

One of the more intriguing notes from Smith is that the team may not have a new nickname to start the 2024-25 season, as the timeline for the naming process has not been revealed.

Initially, there were five applications filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office for trademarks that very well could end up being one of the names selected for the Utah team. In the next three days, two additional applications were filed for trademarks from the same group that submitted the forms for the names above, and more have been added since then.

Whatever the name ends up being, fans will have a say in the matter. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Smith said that the organization would be a fan bracket to help decide the moniker for his Utah team. 

Smith followed through on his word, posting a survey to X on May 8, giving fans the opportunity to vote on the franchise's new name. The first round of fan voting is open until May 22.

Options include: Black Diamonds, Blast, Blizzard, Canyons, Caribou, Freeze, Frost, Fury, Glaciers, HC, Hive, Ice, Mammoth, Mountaineers, Outlaws, Powder, Squall, Swarm, Venom and Yeti.

MORE: Stanley Cup playoff bracket

Utah hockey team name options

There are plenty of options for Smith to consider for the new team name. The Blizzard, Venom and Fury, among other options, would give the NHL its fifth team where the nickname is singular, not plural.

Utah HC could be a temporary option. By no means should it be one of the top options, but it would not be the first time that a North American professional sports team dumbed down the name to its simplest terms.

Utah could follow in the footsteps of Seattle's expansion team and continue the theme of naming teams after mythological creatures by nicknaming the club the Utah Yeti, one of the names already filed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 

Before the Kraken were introduced three years ago, few would have considered the Yetis to be a real option, but the Kraken opened that door by naming the team after the mythological monster that lives in the sea. Utah has been home to plenty of Bigfoot sightings, so the Yeti name would have ties to the region.

There are several options notably not listed among the potential names in the survey released by the team.

The organization could theoretically have looked to keep the Coyotes as the moniker. Similar to the state of Arizona, coyotes are quite common in Utah, so having the team named after the animal would still make sense despite the move. But the logo and trademarks of Arizona's version of the Coyotes are remaining with Meruelo as part of the deal, Sportico reported.

The team also could have taken a blast to the past and looked at former professional hockey clubs in the state. There used to be a hockey organization called the Salt Lake Golden Eagles that operated from 1969-94. The team played in the WHL, CHL, and IHL. But the name Golden Eagles might have been too similar to the Golden Knights.

There is also an ECHL team in the state called the Utah Grizzlies. It is the second iteration of the team name after there was previously an IHL/AHL club called the Utah Grizzlies that operated from 1995-2005 before moving to Cleveland. But the likelihood of Smith purchasing the rights to the name was slim, even though there is history with the Grizzlies name and hockey in Utah.

2024-04-18T21:41:37Z dg43tfdfdgfd