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Utah pivots from ‘Yeti,’ to carry vote for 3 finalists

Nick Schmaltz tallies goal for Utah Hockey Club on the power play (0:53) Nick Schmaltz tallies goal for Utah Hockey Club on the power play (0:53) Greg WyshynskiJan 29, 2025, 05:30 PM ET Close Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer. Utah Hockey Club will not be moving forward with “Yeti” or “Yetis” as its

Utah pivots from ‘Yeti,’ to carry vote for 3 finalists

Nick Schmaltz tallies objective for Utah Hockey Membership on the facility play (0:53)

Nick Schmaltz tallies objective for Utah Hockey Membership on the facility play (0:53)

  • Greg WyshynskiJan 29, 2025, 05:30 PM ET

    Close

      Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL author.

Utah Hockey Club is not going to be transferring ahead with “Yeti” or “Yetis” as its workforce nickname and can maintain an in-arena fan vote to choose a brand new one.

The workforce expects to announce a everlasting title and id earlier than the 2025-26 NHL season. The brand new fan vote comes after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected names and logos that Utah Hockey Membership had submitted for approval, particularly “Utah Yetis,” which was extensively assumed to be the franchise’s eventual nickname.

Followers attending Utah’s subsequent 4 house video games may have the chance to vote for 3 choices utilizing tablets stationed round Delta Heart. The workforce estimates that may very well be upward of 15,000 followers per sport.

The title choices are:

Utah Hockey Membership. The workforce’s present title was meant as a placeholder for its inaugural season in Salt Lake Metropolis, after Smith Leisure Group bought the Arizona Coyotes franchise. “It has at all times been our intention to let our season one id as Utah Hockey Membership, the workforce’s efficiency and the superb response from our followers maintain the dialog by way of our inaugural season,” mentioned Chris Armstrong, the workforce’s president of hockey operations.

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Utah Mammoth. This nickname was one in every of six finalists from a fan vote held final yr, together with Utah Blizzard, Utah Hockey Membership, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom and Utah Yeti. Workforce proprietor Ryan Smith later revealed on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Present” that Mammoth had made the ultimate 4 choices.

Utah Wasatch. That is a wholly new possibility for Utah’s workforce title, because it wasn’t included within the preliminary 20 names introduced to followers in a survey. It references Utah’s Wasatch mountain vary, identified for its many ski resorts. However the workforce acknowledges that it is principally a substitute for Utah Yeti. The title will permit the workforce to make use of a “legendary snow creature within the type of a Yeti” as its mascot, in keeping with Mike Maughan of Smith Leisure Group.

The followers will vote on these three names and two logos: One for the Utah Mammoth and one that might be used for both the Utah Hockey Membership or the Utah Wasatch that options the Yeti-like creature, which Maughan mentioned is named the “mountain defender” brand internally.

This won’t be the final fan vote, in keeping with Maughan, who mentioned there may very well be one other spherical after this one. However he reiterated that regardless of the followers resolve in these votes would be the title of the Utah workforce starting subsequent season.

Maughan mentioned the workforce submitted all 20 names on its preliminary survey to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace. However the greatest refusal was for “Yeti” or “Yetis.” It was extensively anticipated, even amongst Utah gamers, that “Yeti” or “Yetis” would finally win out because the workforce title.

The USPTO rejected a trademark utility from the workforce for “Utah Yetis” due to the “probability of confusion” for shoppers to different firms and types that use the title. Utah Hockey Membership was searching for to make use of “Utah Yetis” on quite a lot of clothes gadgets. The USPTO mentioned a database search turned up “numerous third-party marks registered to be used in reference to the identical or related items and/or companies as these of each applicant and registrant on this case.”

Amongst these events was Yeti Coolers LLC, which makes drinkware, coolers and clothes.

“We engaged deeply with Yeti Cooler Firm and labored with them over a course of to see if there was some coexistence settlement that we might interact with them on,” mentioned Maughan. “They’ve a singular and robust trademark on something revealed Yeti or Yetis. We didn’t have a coexistence settlement with Yeti and subsequently have determined to maneuver on from that title.”

Maughan mentioned the workforce anticipated trademark hurdles for “Yeti” and different names — together with Utah Hockey Membership, which additionally was rejected however faces much less of a barrier to future approval — and thus anticipated the necessity to pivot. He mentioned the workforce is assured the three names within the fan vote ought to clear the USPTO course of.

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“Now we have an unimaginable workforce, and we’re very assured we now have a transparent path to every of these names,” he mentioned. “Now we have methods to method every of them and really feel that we’re on very strong floor as we proceed ahead.”

Fan voting on the brand new title will start throughout Tuesday night time’s sport towards the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.

Utah Hockey Membership is in its first season taking part in in Salt Lake Metropolis. The Arizona Coyotes franchise was bought to Utah Jazz homeowners Smith Leisure Group in April 2024. SEG acquired the franchise, its gamers and its hockey operations division within the sale, though the workforce is taken into account a brand new franchise reasonably than an extension of the Coyotes’ legacy.

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