Utah Hockey Club narrows permanent name choice to 3 finalists. It won’t be the Yeti

The Utah Hockey Club logo is seen on the helmet of center Nick Schmaltz during a game against the Minnesota Wild, Dec. 20, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn, file)

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Hockey Club has chosen three finalists for the permanent team name it will adopt beginning with the 2025-26 NHL season.

The franchise will use a final round of fan voting to decide among the Utah Mammoth, Utah Hockey Club and Utah Wasatch. Team officials backed away from including Yeti as a finalist after being unable to work out a co-existence agreement with Yeti Coolers to use the name in branding and merchandising.

“They have a unique trademark that allows them to prevent the use of the word Yeti or Yetis,” Smith Entertainment Group executive Mike Maughan said. “They made a determination for the sake of their brand that they didn’t want to enter into a coexistence.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month refused a request by the club, citing a “likelihood of confusion” with other notable brands using the name, such as Yeti Coolers. An email sent Wednesday by The Associated Press to Yeti Coolers LLC seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Fans in attendance at the next four home games, starting Wednesday night against Pittsburgh, will vote at designated iPad stations at the Delta Center to help decide the team’s name and logo. It will unveil a first look at designs for the logo, jerseys and branding associated with each choice.

Only fans in attendance will be allowed to vote at the Penguins game, against Columbus on Friday, St. Louis on Sunday and Philadelphia on Tuesday. The permanent team name and logo will be unveiled ahead of Utah’s 2025-26 regular-season opener.

Wasatch filled the finalist spot originally intended for Yeti. Wasatch is a reference to the Wasatch Mountains, which run north to south along the east side of the Salt Lake Valley.

“We wanted to honor this idea people had for a mythical snow creature like the Yeti and bring a very Utah-centric approach to it,” Maughan said. “Because we have the Wasatch Mountains, because we have the Wasatch Front, we have so many different iterations or ways we can do it. We wanted to honor the sentiment of one of those top names of the last iteration (of fan voting) while also including a Utah-centric version of it.”

___

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

John Coon, The Associated Press