Utah picks Mammoth as mascot to end yearlong search
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah | May 7, 2025 — Goodbye, Utah Hockey Club. Tusks up, Utah Mammoth.
After a 13-month process that included trademark drama and more than 850,000 ballots cast by fans in multiple rounds of voting, Utah Mammoth was revealed as the new name and permanent identity for the NHL franchise Wednesday.
It replaces Utah Hockey Club, a temporary name for its inaugural 2024-25 season after Smith Entertainment Group purchased and relocated the former Arizona Coyotes franchise to Salt Lake City.
“When it came to naming the team, we did something unprecedented — going through four rounds of community voting, including getting feedback not only on potential names but also on potential logos,” Utah owners Ryan and Ashley Smith said in a statement. “The community chose the Utah Mammoth brand, and it stands as a symbol of who we are, where we came from, and the unstoppable force we’re building together.”
Utah began selling a limited selection of first-run Utah Mammoth merchandise — including T-shirts, hats and hoodies — at the team store inside Delta Center on Wednesday. A news conference featuring NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was also scheduled at the arena.
Mammoth jerseys will be available for purchase later this offseason. They will be seen at the NHL draft in June, as Utah selections will wear the new sweaters. Utah won the second draft lottery drawing Monday night to receive the fourth overall pick.
Utah will introduce a Mammoth-inspired mascot at home games next season, which will be revealed in the coming months.
The name, which inadvertently leaked on the team’s official YouTube channel last week, was inspired by herds of mammoths having claimed what would become Utah as their home more than 10,000 years ago. Fossils have been found throughout the state, and a complete mammoth skeleton was discovered in Huntington Canyon in 1988.
“Evidence suggests mammoths charged in herds at speeds exceeding 25 miles per hour, comparable to the speeds reached by the fastest skaters in the NHL,” the team said in its release.
According to the team, Utah chose a singular “Mammoth” rather than “Mammoths” because “it symbolizes one team, all-in and all of Utah.”
The new team logo — the head of a mammoth with a curved tusk — features several Easter eggs for fans.
The snow-capped Wasatch Mountain Range makes up the top of the mammoth’s head. The silhouette of Utah and a negative space “M” are hidden on the left side of the logo. The curved tusk is meant to evoke the letter “U” for Utah. “Tusks Up” is the team-endorsed rallying cry for Mammoth fans.
Utah will wear its new Mammoth logo on home jerseys and the state’s name on away jerseys, joining the Carolina Hurricanes as the only teams currently wearing a logo on one jersey and a wordmark on the other. According to Utah, the road jerseys continue messaging from the team’s inaugural season “to put a prominent focus on representing Utah when we’re away from the state.”
The Mammoth will wear patches with the state of Utah and a hockey stick on the shoulders of their home jerseys and a patch with the Mammoth logo on the shoulder of their away jerseys.
The rebranding ends a process that began over a year ago.
The team was known as Utah Hockey Club in 2024-25 after having little time to decide on a permanent nickname and logo. Design firm Doubleday & Cartwright developed the team’s color scheme — Rock Black, Salt White and Mountain Blue — while targeting the franchise’s second season for an official nickname.
SEG released a Qualtrics poll in May 2024 featuring 20 potential team names. That produced six finalists in June for another fan vote: Blizzard, Utah HC, Mammoth, Outlaws, Venom and Yeti.
During Utah’s inaugural season, “Yeti” was widely considered to be the team’s eventual name, even by its players. But Utah announced in January that it would not be moving forward with “Yeti” or “Yetis” as a nickname after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected a trademark application for “Utah Yetis” because of the “likelihood of confusion” for consumers to other companies and brands that use the name. Among those parties was Yeti Coolers LLC, which makes drinkware, coolers and clothing.
With Yeti and Yetis out, the team announced in January that Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth and Utah Wasatch would be the finalists in a fan vote at Delta Center. Fans voted with iPads located at stations around the arena that featured the names, logos and potential branding for each option.
While Wasatch was never a part of previous fan votes, the team included it as a new option. It referenced a local mountain range and would have allowed the team to use a “mythical snow hill creature in the form of a Yeti” as its mascot. But when the team saw early vote returns, Utah Wasatch was quickly swapped out for Utah Outlaws.
While the vote totals weren’t released, the team said Mammoth was “the clear favorite” in the final round of voting.
Utah said the names in the final voting group were all clear of any trademark issues. There’s also no issue with the neighboring Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League. According to the team, Utah has been in regular dialogue with Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, which owns the lacrosse franchise, and has received support for the new Utah team name.
As for “Utah Hockey Club,” the team said that name and branding will “always be a part of our history” and could be honored in a nostalgic way in the years to come.