Ranking all 20 possible team names for the Utah NHL franchise

Last week, the recently relocated Arizona Coyotes franchise that will now take up new roots in Utah announced the 20 team nicknames available for fans to vote on, with the eventual plan for it to take on the form of a bracket to select the winner. Some names were met with intrigue, some were met with criticism and some were just met with confusion, but it created plenty of debates over which names were the best of the bunch.

Naturally, when these kinds of discussions come up, we here at Daily Faceoff want to have a discussion of our own. That’s why I organized a panel of six writers – myself, Colton Davies, Hunter Crowther, Mike Gould, Sam Nestler and Tyler Kuehl – to really spice up the debate and bring several unique opinions to the table. And there was definitely a lot of divisive opinions for this one.

20. Frost

Colton’s Rank: 18th
Hunter’s Rank: 14th
Mike’s Rank: 18th
Sam’s Rank: 16th
Scott’s Rank: 13th
Tyler’s Rank: 15th

Colton: I just think of Christmas and Winter whenever I hear frost and to me, it just wasn’t a hit nor is it a name that sounds threatening.

Sam: But Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year! 

Mike: “Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a Frost.” Do you realize how silly that looks? This is somehow one of the worst names of an awful bunch.

19. Freeze

Colton’s Rank: 15th
Hunter’s Rank: 16th
Mike’s Rank: 16th
Sam’s Rank: 17th
Scott’s Rank: 15th
Tyler’s Rank: 13th

Hunter: Didn’t have this one ranked high, but now that I have a minute, just get Arnold Schwarzenegger to dress up as his character Mr. Freeze from the 1997 film, Batman & Robin, drop the puck before a game and have him yell, “ICE TO MEET YOU.” You’re welcome, Freeze fans!

Mike: “Tonight’s forecast: a FREEZE is coming!”

18. Squall

Colton’s Rank: 17th
Hunter’s Rank: 19th
Mike’s Rank: 14th
Sam’s Rank: 13th
Scott’s Rank: 17th
Tyler’s Rank: 6th

Scott: I had no idea what a squall was when doing this and just assumed it was a bird or something. Then I learned it was a storm that usually involves rain or ice, and I felt even more disappointed. I mean, it does have some fearsomeness to it, but I just feel like there are better names on the board here that broadcast the “ice storm” vibes that roll off the tongue better and also will be something that more people understand.

Mike: Their goal song should be “Squall Me Maybe.” And their celebrity mascot should be Timothy Spall.

17. Glaciers

Colton’s Rank: 19th
Hunter’s Rank: 12th
Mike’s Rank: 9th
Sam’s Rank: 18th
Scott’s Rank: 11th
Tyler’s Rank: 17th

Tyler: Like the Titanic, I’m not the biggest of Glaciers. What you’re going to get is an endless barrage of melting gifs from opposing teams’ social media admins, not to mention the number of climate change jokes. I mean, I get the concept of having an ice-related nickname since they are playing ice hockey…but have you ever seen a glacier anywhere near Utah?

Mike: Also, don’t glaciers famously move slowly? Hence the phrase “moving at glacial speed”? I guess you could say it took a long time for the Coyotes to move, too — I’m sorry, I really am — but it just doesn’t seem like an ideal descriptor for a hockey team. 

16. Ice

Colton’s Rank: 13th
Hunter’s Rank: 5th
Mike’s Rank: 17th
Sam’s Rank: 19th
Scott’s Rank: 16th
Tyler’s Rank: 11th

Scott: I talked about how I don’t mind the ice storm vibes for the team name when talking about the Utah Squall, and while Ice is an improvement on Squall, it’s not by much (at least for me, obviously my colleagues disagree with that sentiment). That said, a hockey team just simply called the Utah Ice would be funny.

Sam: I strongly do not disagree. 

Hunter: Three words: Ice, ice baby. 

Mike: “Let’s kick some ICE!”

15. Powder

Colton’s Rank: 16th
Hunter’s Rank: 7th
Mike’s Rank: 12th
Sam’s Rank: 14th
Scott’s Rank: 10th
Tyler’s Rank: 18th

Colton: Do I even need to explain myself here? I’m sure a lot of us all thought of the same thing when this name proposal came out. I mean heck there are a couple of active NHL players that would be great for that team name. In all seriousness, I know it has to do with the slopes and winter sports, but again, there are too many “memes” to be made of the name.

Mike: Seriously, there’s no chance, right?

Scott: When I organized my list, this was the true divider between the good names and the ones I wasn’t too into. Do I love the name? No. Do I think it would be funny if this was the name they went with? Absolutely.

Sam: It would definitely push us to another Miami Vice remake. But does anybody really need that? Did anybody really need the last one? 

14. Venom

Colton’s Rank: 4th
Hunter’s Rank: 17th
Mike’s Rank: 19th
Sam’s Rank: 4th
Scott’s Rank: 9th
Tyler’s Rank: 19th

Scott: Utah has a strong enough population of venomous snakes to get away with this one, and I have to say, I really like how it rolls off the tongue. It wouldn’t be the best name for search engine optimization (it’s almost impossible to google what actual venom looks like thanks to the popular Marvel character), but I can get behind this one. The real question is: would the goal song be everyone’s favourite Eminem song “Venom”?

Mike: ‘Venom’, of course, lends itself to a different Batman & Robin reference. It’s how Uma Thurman kills people with kisses! As such, I cannot take this suggestion at all seriously.

13. Canyons

Colton’s Rank: 9th
Hunter’s Rank: 11th
Mike’s Rank: 8th
Sam’s Rank: 9th
Scott’s Rank: 18th
Tyler’s Rank: 16th

Mike: The Calgary Flames’ anthem singer is a western cowboy type who goes by the stage name ‘George Canyon,’ although he’s actually a dude named Fred Lays from Nova Scotia who occasionally appears in Hallmark movies and runs for federal office. I forget where I was going with this. Anyway, this is one of the “better” names on an otherwise really bad list.

12. Black Diamonds

Colton’s Rank: 11th
Hunter’s Rank: 6th
Mike’s Rank: 7th
Sam’s Rank: 11th
Scott’s Rank: 19th
Tyler’s Rank: 12th

Tyler: As a member of the KISS Army, naming a team after a rocking tune would be fun. You have a goal song (or entrance song) already built into the pie. In all seriousness, it would be a cool way to honor the old Black Diamond Mine in Millard County. 

However, I think there is a pickleball team in Salt Lake City called the Black Diamonds. I guess we could have something like the old New York Giants teams. The Salt Lake City Hockey Black Diamonds…might be tough to put that on a sweater.

Scott: The thing with this team is that it sounds like the kind of name a team like Vegas should actually be called. Oh, the irony if this name wins and is greenlit because in the seven years since Vegas joined the NHL, sports gambling has been normalized.

Mike: Mmmmmmm … cheese.

11. HC

Colton’s Rank: 20th
Hunter’s Rank: 1st
Mike’s Rank: 2nd
Sam’s Rank: 20th
Scott’s Rank: 20th
Tyler’s Rank: 2nd

Scott: This is a perfect team name for Utah… this year. Like, this works as a team name while you’re actually trying to figure out the team name (see the Washington Commanders), but not as the team name. As much as I love soccer, I’m not as big on the fact that almost every team’s nickname is either FC, United, Real or City. Let’s get creative here people, we don’t need this name associated with Utah beyond the 2024-25 season where they don’t plan to have a name.

Sam: How does this have so many high votes?

Hunter: This is the best possible team name, and forget about it being the team name for just 2024-25 … make this the permanent team name. Some don’t like that it steals the format from European clubs of various sports. Guess what? Greatness borrows, and genius steals. 

Utah HC goes way harder than any of the other names on this list, and there’s a majority branding opportunity if they go with it. The NFL’s Washington Commanders did “Washington Football Team,” or WFT, for a season, and it ruled. Gave off the same vibe as Costco’s Kirkland branding, or No-Name products in Canada. Lean into it. 

Mike: Basically every other name on this list is garbage. HC is different. It’s distinctive, it has a bit of a European football twist to it, and it has a quirkiness befitting the whole situation here. We’re talking about a team that just played two seasons out of a 4,600-seat college arena before being sold through a surreptitious three-way transaction by which they technically split in two, with the players going to Utah and the Coyotes IP remaining in Arizona. Now, against all odds, this is Utah’s hockey club. I love the comparison to Kirkland Signature, it’s perfect. I was also a sucker for the “Washington Football Team” branding and thought moving to “Commanders” was a mistake. In this case, I think there’s a bit of charm in going generic. None of the other names on this list have any charm. They all sound like video game studios or energy drinks.

10. Blizzard

Colton’s Rank: 14th
Hunter’s Rank: 9th
Mike’s Rank: 15th
Sam’s Rank: 5th
Scott’s Rank: 7th
Tyler’s Rank: 10th

Tyler: You want an instant division rivalry? Pit a force of nature against a force of nature – Utah Blizzard vs. Colorado Avalanche. I think it will be near because you can create a unique logo to go along with the name. With the climate, snow is obviously prevalent in Salt Lake City. It would be fitting also, as the team has a number of young and talented players that have the ability to…storm through the Central. 

Scott: Not to mention the potential cross-conference storm rivalry with the Carolina Hurricanes.

9. Yeti

Colton’s Rank: 2nd
Hunter’s Rank: 10th
Mike’s Rank: 20th
Sam’s Rank: 1st
Scott’s Rank: 6th
Tyler’s Rank: 20th

Hunter: I mean, if we go with this name, we’re just setting up Hockey Night in Canada’s Ron MacLean to say something like, “You’re saying they lost in Utah? I bet he met a Yeti,” or something like that. As someone who loves Ronnie Mac, I can handle that, but I don’t know if the general population can. Actually, come to think about it, I don’t think I could, either. But if they went with Yeti, it does mean that they could reference the yeti in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer…

…my partner is telling me the creature’s name was The Abominable Snowmonster of the North. Scratch that last bit about Rudolph. Still, cool name. 

Mike: Pardon my French, but this one is effing abysmal. The worst of the worst. I don’t like “Yeti”, I don’t like “Yetis,” and I don’t like anyone who likes either of them. OK — that last part’s not true, but … seriously? YETI? The water bottle brand? It sounds like a fake name from the fourth Mighty Ducks movie they never made. Even having no name at all would be better. Just call them “Utah,” not even “HC.” Who cares? 

8. Blast

Colton’s Rank: 8th
Hunter’s Rank: 15th
Mike’s Rank: 13th
Sam’s Rank: 10th
Scott’s Rank: 4th
Tyler’s Rank: 8th

Colton: I don’t know why but I actually wanted to put this higher on my list. I thought of quarries and mines right away. Utah has a lot of mines and industrial sites, so the name makes sense in that regard.

Scott: Plus, anytime they score a goal, it’s basically a layup for their social media admins to post the “So anyway, I started blasting” meme.

Sam: I thought of Gatorade. I like Gatorade.

Mike: This sounds like the name a double-A baseball team with no marketing budget would pick. Or a really bad Mountain Dew spin-off. “Yuck, all they have is Utah Blast?”

7. Hive

Colton’s Rank: 3rd
Hunter’s Rank: 18th
Mike’s Rank: 10th
Sam’s Rank: 8th
Scott’s Rank: 3rd
Tyler’s Rank: 14th

Sam: The Hive is an excellent choice if for some reason the Swarm doesn’t work out. I think the Swarm is tougher, but the Hive brings with it just as many possibilities. I could see some team-oriented mottos about bees buzzing around a hive and working together. My only issue comes with the logo and branding. What do you use as a logo for the Hive? How do you avoid looking like a box of Honey Combs? If they can answer those highly-intellectual questions, I might be sold. 

Mike: They’d have to get Jason Statham out to their games in full Beekeeper garb. “Protect the Hive!”

6. Caribou

Colton’s Rank: 12th
Hunter’s Rank: 3rd
Mike’s Rank: 5th
Sam’s Rank: 15th
Scott’s Rank: 14th
Tyler’s Rank: 3rd

Mike: Look, at least it’s something. It’s tangible. It’s a thing! Everyone knows what a Caribou is, it’s one of those moose things that lives in the forest or something (I am not looking this up). It’s an animal. The mascot would be the animal. The logo would be the animal. Great, got it, good. You know what isn’t tangible? The “Blast”! The “Fury”! They’re just so abstract! How in the world do you depict the “Utah Blast” in a logo? It’s nonsensical. The “Caribou” at least has something going on.

Scott: When I hear the name Caribou, my immediate first thought is the fact that it’s on the Canadian quarter, and then I remember a banger from my childhood called “Canada in my Pocket.” So, is it tangible? Yes. But it also comes with a much bigger association with Canada than Utah.

5. Fury

Colton’s Rank: 7th
Hunter’s Rank: 13th
Mike’s Rank: 11th
Sam’s Rank: 7th
Scott’s Rank: 5th
Tyler’s Rank: 1st

Scott: While I’m not as bullish on this name as Tyler, I definitely like it compared to a lot of the names on here. The only thing that leaves me somewhat curious is how the branding will go. Will the logo be the angry emoji? There’s a lot of potential for them to personify rage in a logo and color scheme, so I’m interested to see what they do with it should this be the name that wins. 

Mike: Uh, Tyler? Are you okay? I genuinely do not understand how the prospect of calling a team the “Fury” could elicit such a strong reaction from anyone. (Honestly, at first I thought it said “Furry”, which would be … different).

4. Mountaineers

Colton’s Rank: 6th
Hunter’s Rank: 4th
Mike’s Rank: 3rd
Sam’s Rank: 12th
Scott’s Rank: 12th
Tyler’s Rank: 5th

Hunter: When I was in high school, I had two obsessions: The Wire, and West Virginia Mountaineers football. When I wasn’t annoying my friends with boring soliloquies about Omar Little and whether season three was the best of the show (it is), Pat White was the star quarterback, a dual-threat option when rushing QBs weren’t the beloved commodity they are now. 

What were we talking about? Oh yeah, the Mountaineers is a great name that evokes the imagery of bada--ery. Besides, what’s a tougher task than climbing a mountain?

Mike: It’d be a little weird to have an American team nicknamed the “Mounties,” which I’m sure would happen here, but … hey, I dig it. Or, should I say, I climb it? Look, I dunno. It’s not great, but it’s better than friggin’ FURY. 

3. Mammoth

Colton’s Rank: 10th
Hunter’s Rank: 8th
Mike’s Rank: 6th
Sam’s Rank: 3rd
Scott’s Rank: 8th
Tyler’s Rank: 7th

Sam: I mean, how could you not like the Mammoth? Aside from immediately thinking about the movie ‘Ice Age,’ the Mammoth would give Utah a chance to really diversify its uniforms. I envision some light blue with a heavy utilization of the Mammoth tusks. I am also a big fan of singular team names (or at least ones that do not use an ‘S’). The Kraken, Avalanche, Wild and Lightning are the only four teams currently fitting this criteria. I wouldn’t mind adding a fifth. Plus, just imagine John Forsling announcing a Mammoth-Kraken matchup. Or the Mammoth surviving an Avalanche. The possibilities are endless. 

Scott: You don’t see a lot of brown uniforms, so this name could certainly provide an opportunity to finally have that.

Sam: I love that idea. Combine the light blue and brown, similar to Tufts University. 

Mike: Look, it’s fine. I have it ranked sixth, but we’re grading on a steeeeeeeep curve here. In isolation, I don’t like it much at all. For one, there’s already an NLL team next door with the same name; also, it just feels weirdly minor-pro to me, although I guess Avalanche does, too. It’s the kind of name I’d eventually get used to, but I’d never go to bat for it.

2. Swarm

Colton’s Rank: 1st
Hunter’s Rank: 20th
Mike’s Rank: 4th
Sam’s Rank: 2nd
Scott’s Rank: 1st
Tyler’s Rank: 4th

Sam: I went back and forth between the Swarm and the Yeti as my top choice. Neither has an ‘S’’ and both are pretty dang intimidating. The Swarm? My mind immediately flashes to getting attacked by a massive swarm of hornets in a treehouse at my friend’s birthday party when I was young. That was terrifying, and I believe it would be just as scary as an NHL team. I also really like the wide array of options that come with the name. Does the whole crowd Buzz at the opponent?? Is the mascot basically just a real-life version of Barry B. Benson from ‘Bee Movie’?! We should watch that. The only issue I envision is trying to avoid looking too similar to the Penguins with the yellow and black traditionally associated with bees. 

Scott: Matt Larkin really sold me on this one during our roundtable for the name, and I’ve been a big supporter of this name ever since. I think the jerseys should just be straight black and yellow stripes. You can also have the team intro be the opening monologue to the Bee Movie, and while on that movie, you have the perfect tie-in to your basketball team with the infamous line “You like jazz?”

Colton: There would be nothing scarier, or funnier than the whole crowd going “BUZZ” as the Swarm came out on the ice.

Hunter: The silliest name of all the options. What are you swarming? Mitt Romney at the Senate? Steve Young at a BYU game? Roseanne Barr? (Yes she’s from Utah, look it up! I know, Roseanne herself!) Just go with something snow-themed, no one wants a Barry B. Benson puck drop night where Jerry Seinfeld does a tight-five set on “What’s the deal with no-touch icing?” 

Mike: “Swarm” is technically a hockey term (swarm defense, anyone?) and it works with the whole bee thing Utah apparently has going on. It’s a damn sight better than Yeti, I’ll tell you that for free. It’s still a bit abstract for my liking, but it’s workable. A solid 5/10 name, which is somehow good enough to finish fourth on my own list.

1. Outlaws

Colton’s Rank: 5th
Hunter’s Rank: 2nd
Mike’s Rank: 1st
Sam’s Rank: 6th
Scott’s Rank: 2nd
Tyler’s Rank: 9th

Mike: This is the only name on this list that I would genuinely classify as being ‘good’. After all, it’s the only name I ranked above “HC”, which means it’s the only one I think is better than essentially having no name at all. Sure, I don’t know if there are all that many actual outlaws in modern Utah — not with all the confession going on — but then again, their basketball team is called the Jazz. How relevant does the name need to be? “Utah Outlaws” doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as easily as, say, “Utah Swarm,” but it’s not like it’s difficult to say. It also evokes strong images of the Old West, and while there might not be any outlaw cowboys in Utah today, there certainly were 150 years ago. Call ‘em the Outlaws, give them burnt orange, purple, and brown jerseys, and call it a day.

Scott: If the jerseys are burnt orange, purple and brown, at least they can just delete a few layers off the Coyotes’ Kachina jersey file and put a cowboy logo on top. It could be a cool way to tie the two teams together even if they legally aren’t the same franchise.

Mike: I think what I’m describing is slightly more like the Coyotes’ second Reverse Retro jersey, which was actually primarily orange, instead of the Kachina jersey, which was black (neither had any brown whatsoever). Either way, I do agree that it would be a neat homage while still being its own thing. The only issue is that while a desert-ish color scheme would be fitting on the south side of Utah, the northern end is very different, and a forest green base might work better for a Salt Lake City-based team. Then again, the Coyotes’ old jerseys had quite a bit of green on them. Anyway, to summarize: “Outlaws” good!

Scott: Yeah, the Reverse Retro jersey is definitely the one I meant.