The Smith Entertainment Group has officially closed all of its transactions necessary to acquire the hockey operations of the Arizona Coyotes franchise, the NHL confirmed in a statement Thursday. The new franchise will officially be known as Utah Hockey Club for the 2024-25 season, also confirming their temporary colorways and jerseys.
While largely a formality to close the sale as initially described in April, it is not without ramifications for some still affiliated with the now-deactivated Coyotes franchise. PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan reports that many of their remaining office staff are expected to be laid off in the coming days.
The Coyotes’ roster from last season, including pending free agents, is now officially under contract with Utah. The new franchise has also acquired the Coyotes’ full reserve list, future draft picks, and all members of their hockey operations department, led by general manager Bill Armstrong.
As announced by the team, the initial branding consists of a simple black, blue and white color scheme that will only remain in effect temporarily next season. A fan vote between six permanent team name finalists – Utah Blizzard, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom and Utah Yeti – remains open through June 20. It’s unclear if the current colors will remain past 2024-25.
It’s an important procedural step to allow Utah to operate without restraint as the draft and free agency approach. The team has reportedly already signed a few Coyotes reserve list players, including 2022 second-round pick Julian Lutz. Those deals will now be officially registered with the league. Armstrong can now also officially register new contracts for their large slate of pending RFAs, which includes defensemen Sean Durzi, J.J. Moser, Juuso Välimäki and center Barrett Hayton.
So bland. Not an impressive first impression.
Hopefully they call the team The Smiths.
Prophets!
Rock
Love the color scheme and look of the jerseys. Not at all fond of any of those names though. Blizzard is awful. Who wants to cheer for a bad snow storm? Utah Hockey Club? How is that even a serious contender? Outlaws and Venom sound soooo bush league. Utah Yeti? Whose sponsoring them, the cooler and coffee mug company? I’d vote for the Utah Mammoth if push came to shove I guess. Not great though. I expect Yeti to win and some stupid cartoonish caricature to be splashed onto the jerseys and that the team will look ridiculous.
@darthdragula — Mammoth & Outlaws are lacrosse team names, Yeti (as stated before) is traditionally used in the Himalayas. Venom is no good, as you say. As @Gbear stated, Blizzard will make you think more of Dairy Queen, less of an NHL team. Utes belongs to the NCAA school. Utah Hockey Club sounds copy-catted. Antelope and Pronghorns would be OK. If they had to go with Stingers, that would be understandable too.
At least with Mammoth they would have commonality with the Preds in having an extinct mammal as their logo. :D
Tempest instead of Blizzard? Feels like I’m talking about StarCraft…
I thought black diamonds had more relevance than any of these. None of them are good, but at least that would’ve made Sense for Utah.
Pronghorns would be my pick. Certainly better than the 6 they came up with.
Utah will be a solid hockey town but the 6 remaining team potential names for the Utah franchise just suck & sound terribly corny as well in some cases just don’t go with Utah, sorry to say. But I guess it will match the last hockey expansion franchise with their cornball team name in Kraken for example.
Sockeyes wouldve been better, because they have a lot of those fish there, plus the name would’ve sounded nice as well
How about Seagulls as in the Mormon folklore!
I second the Sockeye name.
Not to get all fish-nerdy, but sockeye are native to the north Pacific and any in Utah are planted. The indigenous salmonid is the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout. So how about “Utah Cutthroats?”
The metaphorical challenge is that the trout appear to be victims of throat-cutting, not the throat-cutters themselves. Perhaps not the best image for a sports team.
He was referring to Seattle.
They had a minor league baseball team that used Gulls.
Utah Venom can possibly have a pretty sick logo, plenty of good designs can be made of a Snake
D’ backs would be Ironic!
The Prophets have prophetically proclaimed that the Utah Hockey Club of Utah Great Salt Lake shalt haveth No name!
Lame!
Garage league.
No name they come up with would be more nonsensical culturally than Utah Jazz. So, they have that low bar going for them. I would go with the Utah Milk
At least jazz was a relocated team that just kept the name. They are actually choosing this garbage.
Since Jazz has little to do with SLC. I think hockey should pick something that goes that direct. Utah Senators? Utah Prospectors? Utah Fighting Irish? Utah Hoosiers?
Salt Lake Sea Gulls was my 1st pick. Utah Buzz would’ve fit with Jazz so perfect.
As a Kraken fan, people will get used to anything but Utah Hockey Club. But the finalist names suck.
My first thought was Utah Grizzlies like the old IHL team, but I didn’t realize they now have an ECHL team with that name.
shame jazz has already been taken
Could go with Utah Doom metal or Utah indie folk haha
Rock. Just Rock…. When they get a WNBA team they can call them the Utah Country. Unfortunately I cannot disclose the shortened nickname for said team ;)
Jazz fans are lucky. Ryan Smith’s jersey and name ideas are as bland as his name is generic.
They stole our old third jersey color scheme (or original color scheme if you like to go back in time to when the Leafs last won a Cup).
Worth stealing, at least. Nice looking.
Outlaws.
Latter day, skates
Utah Golden Blades
Utah Wives
Utah Brighams