Meet the Mammoth: Utah Hockey Club Begins Ice Age

Utah Hockey Club has chosen the Mammoth as its permanent nickname, ending a long and winding renaming process that included several setbacks. 

The NHL team said that Mammoth emerged as the clear favorite in final fan surveying that also included the options of keeping Utah Hockey Club and the Outlaws, itself a late replacement for the discarded option of Wasatch. The change to Mammoth arrives in advance of next month’s draft, when Utah will pick fourth, and will begin in earnest with the 2025–2026 season. 

Team colors of rock black, salt white, and mountain blue will remain intact. The away white jersey will have many similarities to last season, including the use of a “Utah” wordmark, but a new Mammoth primary logo now assumes a prominent role. So, too, does a new team rallying cry and social media hashtag of “Tusks Up.”

The selection of Mammoth arrives less than 13 months after the franchise first relocated from Arizona to Salt Lake City, and 11 months after it chose Utah Hockey Club as a temporary nickname, a timetable significantly shorter than many other pro team naming efforts. The choice will be formally announced Wednesday morning by owner Ryan Smith and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, and merchandise sales will begin immediately after that.

“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,” Smith and his wife, Ashley, said in a statement. 

During a four-stage fan vote amassing more than 850,000 votes, Yeti previously emerged as a heavy favorite and had been widely expected to be the final selection. The team, however, ran into trademark issues involving the popular insulated drinkware and cooler company, particularly around the usage of the name on clothing, and ultimately moved on from that option.

Mammoth, which refers to the Ice Age mammoths that roamed the land that is now Utah, had been more recently expected after a leak last week of the name on the team’s official YouTube page. 

The Mammoth is also used by the National Lacrosse League’s franchise in Colorado. Smith Entertainment Group said there have been conversations with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which owns that team, and there are no conflicts. The situation there is not unlike names such as Giants, Jets, Panthers, and Rangers used across multiple pro leagues. 

The Mammoth name also arrives as Smith Entertainment Group has begun a large-scale renovation of the Delta Center, the downtown Salt Lake City arena home to both the hockey team and the NBA’s Jazz. The project will allow attending fans at the arena, originally designed for basketball, to have unobstructed views of both sports.