Rob Gray-Imagn Images
It’s been around a year since the Arizona Coyotes ceased to exist before the NHL welcomed its newest franchise in the form of the Utah Hockey Club. That name was initially set to serve as a placeholder, and it appears the team has finally decided on a new one after inadvertently revealing the pending rebrand on YouTube.
The Coyotes spent 28 years attempting to prove Hockey Belongs In The Desert before finally waving the white flag after years of financial difficulties, and in 2024, Jazz owner Ryan Smith added a new franchise to his portfolio by dropping $1.2 billion on the squad that relocated to Salt Lake City and was rechristened as the Utah Hockey Club.
The name exuded some serious “Washington Football Team” energy, and as was the case with that moniker, it was intended to be a temporary one until the team firmed up its branding.
Smith was a vocal proponent of allowing the team’s fans to have a say in that decision, and while it looked like they were going to be dubbed the Yeti after multiple rounds of voting, things took a turn courtesy of the cooler brand with the same name that created a trademark dispute that forced them to go back to the drawing board.
In January, we learned Utah had set up a bunch of iPads in the Delta Center to give fans the chance to vote on a new trio of finalist: Hockey Club, Mammoth, and Outlaws (the last choice was initially Wasatch, a nod to a mountain range running through Utah, that was ultimately swapped out after it fell flat).
As things currently stand, the team has not announced the direction it’s going after wrapping up the inaugural season where it missed the playoffs after posting a 38-31-13 record. However, all signs point to the franchise entering the upcoming campaign as the Utah Mammoth after its YouTube handle was briefly updated on Tuesday night.
Utah Hockey Club’s official YouTube page now shows UtahMammoth 🦣 pic.twitter.com/pi4CU5tDCb
— Cole Bagley (@BagleyKSLsports) April 30, 2025
That premature “announcement” may have created a bit of a headache for the team; as of this writing, YouTube gives you an error message if you attempt to visit the page via the @UtahHockeyClub handle, and @UtahMammoth currently redirects to a channel with no description or videos.
It seems safe to assume an official announcement is just around the corner, but we’ll have to wait and see.