SALT LAKE CITY — While the relocation of the Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City has been considered a mere formality for the last week or so, the biggest mystery surrounds what tfhe Utah's new NHL will be called.
How about... nothing?
Saying the NHL "wants the team to have plenty of time to get it right," ESPN hockey writer Greg Wyshynski claims the team won't have a nickname or even a mascot during its first season in Salt Lake City.
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“It’s really important that we’re not saying, ‘Hey, this has to be ready by the fall,’ especially when it’s going to be Utah something. I think both the league feels better and we feel better to just run the process and then we’ll drop it when we drop it," team owner Ryan Smith told The Associated Press Thursday.
Interestingly enough, applications were filed at that the U.S Patent and Trademark Office for the following names, including two that are rather generic and support Wyshynski's reporting.
- Utah Hockey Club
- Utah HC
- Utah Blizzard
- Utah Venom
- Utah Fury
- Utah Yetis (added after original names)
The applications were filed Tuesday by a Salt Lake City law firm on behalf of a Delaware corporation called Uyte. It's not clear who is behind that company.
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It's possible that Smith will address the team name and colors when he and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hold a media briefing Friday at the Delta Center.
As for Salt Lake City, what's for sure is that the franchise will be called the Utah (insert name here) and won't reference the city itself.
“We’ll start with Utah on the jersey and we’ll figure out the logo and everything else and what it is that we are,” Smith told the AP. “We’re going to be Utah either way. We have the first part of the name. We don’t have the last.”
