Utah Hockey Club Calls An Audible After First Night Of Having Fans Vote On Permanent Name

The Utah Hockey Club is inching toward their permanent name and this week they announced plans to let fans at the next few home games cast their votes to solidify the club as the Utah Mammoth, Utah Wasatch or stay the course and remain the Utah Hockey Club.

Well, they've already called an audible, and Utah Wasatch is officially out of the running.

In its place? Utah Outlaws.

The team announced the decision on Thursday and said it was the result of surveys from Wednesday night's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which ended in a 3-2 overtime loss for Utah.

"Hey Utah hockey fans! We listened to your feedback and dug into all the Qualtrics data from last night’s survey," the team wrote on X. "For the team name, it’s clear that Outlaws should be in the mix instead of Wasatch, so we’re swapping it out.

"Surveys will continue at the arena Friday, Sunday and Tuesday for you to vote for the options Utah Mammoth, Utah Hockey Club, and Utah Outlaws."

Man, who knows what the results must have been bad news for the Wasatch name.

I mean, I kind of get it. I'll cop to it: I had to look up "Wasatch" and I'm a former middle school geography bee champion (I'd be the current champ too if they'd just let me compete). So, I don't know that the brand would really land well on the national stage.

Meanwhile, Outlaws? I know what those are.

Mammoths? Yup, I think those are super badass.

Utah Hockey Club? I'm familiar with that one too.

I think all the names that are left provide great marketing opportunities too, If they go Outlaws they can lean into the Wild West. If they go Mammoth, they could have a big, Mr. Snuffleupagus-looking hair elephant crest which would be cool.

But, if they keep Utah Hockey Club — a name that is already familiar to fans — they can go all kinds of directions with their branding.

There are still three nights of voting left so we'll see how it goes.