Utah Mammoth Reigns Supreme In The Name Game

It’s no secret that the NHL’s newest family member announced their official name today as the temporary year long placeholder of “Utah Hockey Club” was subbed out for an actual real name.

The artist formerly known as the UHC is now the Utah Mammoth, complete with new logos and uniforms in tow.

The logo is sleek, the branding is beautiful and (most) fans seem genuinely excited for the reveal both in and outside of Utah.

It’s a day fans have anticipated ever since the news broke that Ryan Smith would be purchasing the assets of the Arizona Coyotes a little more than a year ago and it seems well worth the wait.

Banners are being hung, merchandise is available to buy at the team store and will be online in about a week and it’s almost as if Utah gets two consecutive years of feeling “brand new”

However we didn’t get here without glaciers to climb and ice to crack.

It was a drawn out, grueling process that gave fans moniker whiplash at times.

The road to Mammoth as the final selection was a long one, and I for one want to make sure we remember the fallen names who were trampled underfoot of the giant beast.

This is not to say there were better options who were wrongly ignored, I have been team Mammoth from the beginning.

Yet, it’s my duty to preserve random sports tidbits of information that someone can enjoy down the road.

Too many teams have changed locations or names where the alternative options that didn’t win out ended up being lost to the sands of time.

So today I make it known that although Mammoth was the winner, and rightfully so, Utah’s Hockey team had a chance to be named any of these potential options at one point in time.

It all started back on May 8th, with the initial poll from the Smith Entertainment Group asking for fans to “Help us select a name”.

The Poll featured 20 potential names where fans could pick their top 4 mascots in a single vote attempt and thus began the process of elimination.

The first twenty names offered a varied range from top contenders like Yeti, Mammoth and Outlaws to what the crap is a “Utah Blast.”

The entire list of options were as follows:

Utah HC (Hockey Club)

Utah Venom

Utah Glaciers

Utah Canyons

Utah Squall

Utah Fury

Utah Hive

Utah Swarm

Utah Blizzard

Utah Caribou

Utah Blast

Utah Black Diamonds

Utah Freeze

Utah Ice

Utah Frost

Utah Powder

Utah Mountaineers

Utah Mammoth

Utah Outlaws

Utah Yeti

Despite the quantity of names, the quality was weak.

This was evident by names that resembled Powerade flavors, Bee puns and generic winter theming.

What, we can do Squall, Frost and Glaciers but no Salt Lake City Sleet?

It was pretty evident from these options below that names like Yeti, Mammoth, Outlaws and maybe a few outliers like Mountaineers, Black Diamonds, Blizzard or Venom would be the only real names with any big chances.

Let it be known however, I may have voted for Caribou with my 4^th selection, so there’s at least one vote in that department.

As one could expect the next opportunity came a few months later in June.

This time around, the options were whittled down significantly with only six choices, all of which accounted for about 60 percent of the first round poll.

The top six were:

Utah HC (Hockey Club)

Utah Mammoth

Utah Outlaws

Utah Venom

Utah Blizzard

Utah Yeti

By this point in time, it was becoming incredibly apparent that Yeti was likely the frontrunner with Mammoth and Outlaws trailing.

Despite Venom and Blizzard “qualifying” for the top six, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who had those as their #1 option, or at least a group of somebodies.

Now only able to choose one option, the selections had to have made it very clear at this point in time who Utah preferred.

The season began and the Utah Hockey Club went mum on the name for a while as they focused on their inaugural season and push for the postseason.

Then came the new year, and with it, the death of “Yeti.”

The trademark battle between the NHL team and the company that sells coolers could find no middle ground and the frontrunner of the race was laid to rest right then and there.

Now seemingly more open than ever before with as few names as ever before the organization asked fans to come vote in person at the Delta Center during games on a final list of three options:

Utah Hockey Club

Utah Mammoth

Utah Wasatch

Now you might say, whoa, hold up, where did Wasatch come from?

And you wouldn't be alone.

The quick introduction to Wasatch was a shoehorned name in order to still use the Yeti branding the team had been working on behind the scenes while crediting the mountain range that decorates the Salt Lake Valley.

Despite their best efforts to save the Yeti brand, Wasatch seemed too quick, too local and too distant from what fans wanted in the Yeti moniker, and was literally replaced one day later with a different but familiar finalist.

The final three ended up being:

Utah Mammoth

Utah Outlaws

Utah Hockey Club

And likely in that order.

Fast forward through much debate and hope, a leaked name via a YouTube account and today’s announcement and lo and behold Utah has spoken and the NHL’s newest team will from here out be known as the:

Today is a day that many will remember fondly, bathed in excitement and optimism.

It’s also a day that 19 other naming options were officially put to rest, testaments that the road to Mammoth was a woolly one, but a worthwhile one.

Afterall, the end result came from the fans (and Yeti Coolers), and that itself is worth a lot when it comes to connecting to a team.

From here on out, go Mammoth and TuskUp!