Utah Hockey Club Swaps Out Potential Team Name Over Fan Feedback

The Utah Hockey Club is still deciding on its permanent team name for next season and beyond.
The Utah Hockey Club is 21-21-8 in its first season playing in Salt Lake City.
The Utah Hockey Club is 21-21-8 in its first season playing in Salt Lake City. / Christopher Creveling-Imagn Images
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The Utah Hockey Club is bringing another name back into consideration as it looks to land on an permanent team name ahead of the 2025-26 NHL season.

Shortly after the franchise ran into issues with the U.S. Patent Office over its favored name, the "Yetis," it added three names back into the fold for fans to vote on—the Utah Mammoth, Utah Wasatch and Utah Hockey Club. However, after the first night of fan voting, the franchise changed its mind.

Utah announced Thursday that the "Utah Outlaws" nickname is now back in the mix for the fan voting.

"We listened to your feedback and dug into all the Qualtrics data from last night’s survey," Utah Hockey Club said in a statement. "For the team name, it’s clear that Outlaws should be in the mix instead of Wasatch, so we’re swapping it out."

Unlike Wasatch, the nickname "Utah Outlaws" was among the original 20 team names pitched to the fan base back in May as the voting process began. It advanced past the first round and was one of the six finalists, joining the Utah Blizzard, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth, Utah Venom and Utah Yeti.

The fan voting will take place during games at Delta Center, meaning it will pick up again Friday when the Utah Hockey Club hosts the Columbus Blue Jackets.


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Tom Dierberger
TOM DIERBERGER

Tom Dierberger is a staff writer and editor on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in November 2023 after stints at FOX Sports, Bally Sports and NBC Sports. Dierberger has a bachelor's in communication from St. John's University. In his spare time, he can be seen throwing out his arm while playing fetch with his dog, Walter B. Boy.