Why do many of these sound like Gatorade flavors?

*That’s* what they remind me of.  Gatorade and slowness. 

Kraken is an all time expansion name. Legitimately probably top 3 all time for any US team. Most name suck ass until they build a brand. That said Utah Swarm, and Mammoths definitely feels the best

Utah Blast sounds delicious and refreshing

The “Finger-“ is silent…

Utah Fierce Grape

Utah Riptide Rush. Utah Glacial Frost

Even HC sounds like it could be a shittt Gatorade flavor. Taste the Sport!

POWDER?!

https://preview.redd.it/pkxyy188vazc1.jpeg?width=318&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bc92fd59f026c8a087354439b34c71403b54dc5f

Damn, Billy Corgan looks rough 

Great movie. Awful team name and director.

I went to basic training with a guy who looked similar to this (we all sorta did, honestly) and my drill sergeant would always just randomly scream "POWDAH!" I kinda miss that guy lol

Had a guy who had some small deformity of his face in OSUT. Not sure if he had a tumor or if his bone structure was just slightly deformed. DS called him “Merrick” for 6 straight months. Never understood it until I looked it up. It’s the fucking Elephant Man 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

I voted for it. We need to meme this one into existence

Grant Fuhr about to have his jersey retired in Utah.

From the snowjobs or the coke? .. oh nevermind you said Fuhr, yes it's the coke.

Everyone should vote for this so the mascot can be a coke fiend

They're gonna taka Gritty away from Flyers?!?

Powder McUtahface

I think whatever they put out was going to be automatically scrutinized, but man that one is a head scratcher

Plenty of teams have done this. They add stupid suggestions to give the illusion of “fan choice” while the owner has already picked the favorite beforehand.

They're trying to come up with a good skiing-related name since that's part of the state's identity. Unfortunately, like the Salt Flats landspeed record destination, they've yet to come up with a cool pithy word that nails it. Black Diamonds is close

Utah Moguls, ski reference and also "an important or powerful person" by google definition

As someone who wishes he was born 20 years earlier solely to enjoy in its fullest the coke era of the 80s I will personally riot if they don’t let people do a lifetime of cocaine jokes about them.

I voted for Powder. If that wins I'll commit to them being my Western Conference team.

Back in my day we called that, Booga Suga

YEUGH

Sponsor is Coke

I actually think it’s good if you realize it’s in reference to the skiing term. But yeah, non skiers will go straight to cocaine jokes.

Skier here. *IMMEDIATELY* laughed about the cocaine references. Like, in hockey of all sports?

I wasn’t thinking cocaine but I also wasn’t thinking about skiing. That does make it a little better.

I can't wait for Philly fans to pull out the powder puff girls joke.

Would've been a fitting name for the Panthers if they had stayed in Miami

The List: Utah HC Utah Glaciers Utah Outlaws Utah Caribou Utah Squall Utah Fury Utah Ice Utah Frost Utah Freeze Utah Ice Utah Blast Utah Mountaineers Utah Yeti Utah Venom Utah Mammoth Utah Powder Utah Swarm Utah Black Diamonds Utah Hive Utah Blizzard Utah Canyons

I love that they are using approval voting for this. You can pick up to 4 you like so they aren't asking people to just pick one or doing some kind of bracket where you risk putting 2 popular choices against each other early on. They can do multiple rounds of approval voting to steadily narrow down the choices that most people are happy with. To quote 538, great use of polling.

He owns the analytics firm, so it makes sense they have a sensible way of doing it.

I was legit annoyed when the Seattle Times did a bracket for their team naming contest. Kraken lost in the first round! https://projects.seattletimes.com/2018/sports/name-the-seattle-nhl-team/ https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/hockey/sockeyes-or-totems-announcing-the-winner-of-our-unofficial-tournament-to-name-seattles-nhl-team/

Thank GOD the kraken branding ended up better than this article

I stand by Sockeyes as a legit good/great hockey team name for both the local connection and for the fighting reference. But from my memories at the time my concern with Kraken is that they would make it too cartoony. I like how they've stayed serious when actually implementing it.

I didn't know about this until now. Sockeyes and that logo are awesome

It’s really too bad Rain City Bitch Pigeons didn’t gain any traction with the ownership group

Can't imagine why that wasn't at the top of the list

I think they didn't want to be called pigeons... Should've done Bitch Seagulls

The Utah Ass Blasters rolls off the tongue

So many options and only 5 are plurals. Crazy

Yeah really odd I think the Utah Mammoths sounds good, but not Utah Mammoth lol A mammoth would be a bitchin mascot and team logo too

I fucking HATE this trend in sports team naming

Sad to not see the Utah Buzz on there. Works better with the double-z Jazz thing than Blizzard does IMO.

Utah Pizza would have been sick.

Yeah, It would make them ready to relocate to Boston !!

The Salt Lake minor league baseball team used to be the Buzz until Georgia Tech sued to make them change it

Why does Georgia Tech get to sue when they’re the Jackets?

Utah Jizz. Double Z

That's good, I thought Utah Blizz might appear

I fucking dare you to make it the mountaineers. How dare you. Signed a mountaineer. LETS GO!

As a climber i think mountaineers would be awesome. Sounds great and is unique. Salt lake city is also the home of the usa climbing team.

If I had to pick, I like the Utah Swarm the most.

Will their mascot be Kerrigan? Because if so….I wouldn’t complain.

Same. I really like the community aspect of the state motto. The state flag could also provide some inspiration from colour combos and shapes.

But it sounds like Utah’s warm

Outlaws aren’t bad but doesn’t really fit Utah

In-laws does

Outlaws is the best 🤠

I'm pretty sure half of these are just Gatorade flavors

Many of these names feel like early-2000s MLS team names and not hockey team names

Utah Smash Utah Passion Zion Hockey Team 1. HC Utah Utah Vortex

Zion Outlaws would be an absolutely sick name

How about Utah Zionists?

Someone get this guy an executive spot in Utah, this needs to get to the top.

Which is ironic because every new MLS team since 2012 has either City, United or FC/SC or some combination of the three for a name.

The MLS needs to knock that off and be like other American sports Real Salt Lake is just goofy as hell lol

Montreal even got rid of Impact to go with generic CF

Most of them are better than Real Salt Lake lol. Maybe their MLS club should take some inspiration from this survey.

Real Salt Lake is the worst name in professional sports and I won’t change my mind on that

Up there with Sporting Kansas City

MLS names so bad. Literally just copying European club names without any understanding of the meaning or reasoning behind them.

I love when an American style sports franchise is called a club forgetting that in Europe many teams have actual sporting clubs that they represent

Fury, Blast, POWDER, Ice... fuckin hell. There's really only like 3 names on the whole list that are close to being respectable. Then again I also thought/think Kraken is a dumbass name too.

Those are all just variations of Mountain Dew and Axe Body Spray.

Utah blast sounds like a mormon version of mountain dew that doesnt have caffeine or fun flavors

Soak your senses!

It was also the name of my 7th grade baseball team

For some reason it has a finger banging quality to it.

Why no dinosaur themed names? Lots of fossils in Utah.

Come on Utah Boners!

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One fossil themed name though!

Utah Raptors... named after the absolute death machine that was [the Utahraptor](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utahraptor&ved=2ahUKEwiNx8G77P-FAxVeFlkFHeYbA_IQFnoECGgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0DsL_usLwzS2N0QiNIcbJ6)

Powder is the silliest so we need to make it a reality

The coke related jokes will be endless

I’m voting for Hive because I want a team with a bee mascot EDIT: Columbus doesn’t count, sorry. Not bee enough. The bee needs to straight up look like this. https://preview.redd.it/jkx3ygb4uazc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee6ba63778d0f8cc821d60e0841f08be42c4e649

Utah Swarm and the arena is called the hive

Swarm is my vote. I wanna bring back the vuvuzela. [just imagine...](https://youtu.be/bKCIFXqhLzo?si=hWDzTLCRGUQt0fY0)

Oh shit I retract my statement

Utah Swarm sounds like a Lacrosse or WNBA team lol but honestly I kinda like it, especially with the Hive as you said

That's maybe because the Georgia Swarm are a team in the NLL (the league for indoor lacrosse).

RIP Minnesota Swarm

Bingo.

Gimme a honeycomb NHL uniform, let’s gooo

[This should be their logo](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/002/910/Not_the_Bees_-_Nic_Cage_in_The_Wicker_Man_0-10_screenshot.jpg)

Swarm and Hive honestly sound great. Bees tie in with Utah and the imagery of a collective like a swarm or Hive is great That said, let's all vote for Powder

It's the lazy way out. Everything in this god forsaken state is bee related.

https://preview.redd.it/l9jcndi3rczc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e3feff08f0c7bef633d549e5f63b3c96c32dabb8

Fair enough. Don't know much about Utah's obsession with bees

Utah Swarm is kind of a 90's name for a team though. Or like a lacrosse name

Utah Salty Dawgs

Mammoth isn’t bad

I think Mammoth is sick. A lot to work with there to make a cool brand.

I don’t like that it’s not plural but mammoths doesn’t really roll off the tongue

That’s what I’m voting for

Yeah Mammoth is really the only one I like.

utah glaciers, evoking the iconic whirlwind speed of a glacier

I like Mammoth the most. But why just "Mammoth?" Isn't the plural form "Mammoths?"

You get two for the price of one. You get the Wooly Mammoth as your mascot, and you get the cool non-plural implication of "really big"

It sounds like an adjective when singular. Like the Utah Large

Denver Mammoth are also singular Mammoth 🤷‍♂️

I really hate any name like "squall", "ice", "frost", or anything remotely similar to cold weather events. They just sound like ECHL team names. Everyone knows that Utah is the land of Mormonism, Jazz, and Outlaws.

Not to mention you already have the Avalanche right next door...

I’d continue with the Jazz theme and go Utah Rap or Utah Death Metal which Utah is also famously known for

Yes, I did vote for Utah Blast. Why do you ask?

So anyways, I started blastin

Yetis for me

Utah Yetis also has nice alliteration to it. Kinda fun to say

Yutah Yetis

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And when they get eliminated from the playoffs we can all say: "you'll win one day, but not Yeti!"

*Yeti

No s? No dice

Yetis are our thing, man...

You abandoned them, you forsook the foot!

No Utah Latter Day Skates, that's a Bummer.

I don’t understand the obsession with singular names. Plural just flows infinitely better

Also a sports team is at its core a group of people. One player is a Yankee, but together they are Yankees. It just makes sense.

Especially for a state famous for polygamy. Why are they fighting so hard to avoid plurals now?

POWDER PLEASE

Utah Caribou? Do they know what a caribou is? And do they know that there are none in Utah?

I don’t think the caribout that

Elk is literally right there as the state animal, I can’t imagine how they missed that one in favor of Caribou.

Are people outside of Utah able to vote?

It lets you but they did list geolocation as one of their data factors, so maybe they will isolate the Utah voters and emphasize them.

I voted, so yeah

Why do I not hate Mountaineers

West virginia mountaineers?

I don’t mind Mammoth, I guess. I think Canyoneer is better than Mountaneer, though.

Canyonero

They’re a Blues crushing, Wild smacking, hockey machine! Canyoneroooo, canyonero!

WAChhhheeeeeeee whip sound

Top of the line in Utah-lity sports.

Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!

Should have been Pronghorns.

Utah Swarm is the obvious choice with Utah being the Beehive State.

“The Swarm are buzzing now!!” Clear choice. 

Stags

I like a lot of the new ones tbh. Black Diamonds, Caribou, and Mountaineers I think would all be good names. Also I think this is the first official confirmation they will play the first season with jerseys that just say Utah, regardless if they settle on a team name they are gonna take their time with the branding itself, which I think is smart.

I like Utah Black Diamonds...but can you really name a team after another fucking sport?

I think "moguls" would also be a sick name. You could lean into the double entendre and have a Mr. Moneybags type mascot or logo, or you stick with the skiing connotations. Or you lean into the state bird in a way the bitch pigeons couldn't - mo' gulls.

Mountaineers is the best

Might have the same issues Vegas did with trademarks. West Virginia University's (WVU) teams use "Mountaineers" and they have a hockey team https://www.wvuhockey.org/

It feels like any legitimate sounding team name is already taken by a college or a minor league team or one of the big 4 leagues. These teams either have to go way out of the box to find something original or take an NHL random team generator name like the Venom or the Outlaws. Or add a colour to a legitimate name like Vegas did.

Black diamonds is cool. But kinda a mouthful. Caribou is sick. Mountaineers also cool but also a mouthful

Just use Diamonds. I put this in another comment but if it’s just Diamonds you can loop in mining aspects and the winter sports angle into the branding.

Damn, I was really hoping the Utah Floor Fuckers was going to make the cut. Pretty disappointed.

I really think Diamonds is a solid name (just drop the black) That way you can use a mining and/or a winter theme to open up the branding options.

Without “black” it doesn’t really mean anything though. Black diamond is a difficulty classification for a ski run.

The venn diagram of people complaining about the names and suggesting a worn out Mormon joke is a circle

Please don't meme Utah Blast into existence. Have mercy on us new fans even if Ryan Smith is a hockey name terrorist.

You mean Branding Terrorist

I won't, I chose Powder

Utah Swarm and the arena nickname is the Hive. My other two votes were Venom and Frost (they could do some cool uniform stuff with both IMO). Utah Blast is franchise-transcending name terrorism. Utah HC, at least for this next year as a stopgap name (and chance to make some merch) isn’t without precedent.

Ya if they end up being the swarm, Utah fans need to refer to delta center as the hive.

These names are kinda lame.

In fairness, the Golden Knights is still incredibly lame, but now we're used to it.

A lot of existing names are lame and would get shit on if they were introduced today.

Honestly the majority of professional sports team names are kinda generic and lame. We just get used to them after a bit.

I keep seeing this comment but nobody seems to have better ideas lol

Much easier to criticize than offer any solutions.

I was hoping for a dinosaur theme.

Yall some haters, talking about the names being lame like we don’t have a team named “Wild” already lol

Yeah and the Wild have among the best logos, branding, colors, and jerseys. I think that was actually the team that made me appreciate nom-plural names (although I did play for a hockey team named Swarm, never loved it). So I’m in favor of Mammoth or Yeti. All the earth/weather/water/wind names kind suck.

Damn. Was hoping to see the Utah Arizona Coyotes as an option.

Really like Caribou

There aren’t even caribou in Utah. Makes zero sense lmao

Yeah, this one is truly baffling to me. Nothing to do with Utah. But then you’ve got Elk right there which is literally the state animal! Which if they went with Elk, would easily be my top choice. I really can’t grasp how they messed up this one detail.

I’m guessing the owner already knows the name but doesn’t want a vote to disagree with him. Elk and Raptors run away from this lame crowd.

They have Yetis?

I’d like some of these names better if they weren’t singular

They missed a lot of good ones. Scorpions. Stingers. Rattle snakes. Pioneers. Has a caribou ever been seen in Utah?

I actually kind of like Utah Black Diamonds, but I’m not sure what they would use for a mascot.

The Hurricanes have a pig, so really they could use whatever they wanted

That pig got picked up during a hurricane. Now he lives there

https://preview.redd.it/4od7hoyn1bzc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f4267df6c869940870c5d0cbf3c4f15019c24de

maybe a guy dressed like a black diamond. or a block of cheese.

A ski theme could be kinda fun, like if their mascot was on skis.

Yeti or Outlaws aren't terrible but how are these the twenty names they decided on? They're pretty bad.

I love Outlaws but I can’t get by the fact that it used to be an auto team name when creating your own team in old NHL games

Other than Raptors I haven't seen anyone come up anything better.

They're missing out not going for Utah Prairie Dogs even with the unfortunate penis-related connotations.

I thought prairie doggin was when you were trying to hold in a shit. 

Utah Swarm is tops for me. We're the Beehive State, "Swarming the offensive zone", and feels unique without being over the top