The Good, The Bad, And The Fury: The Best And Worst Of Potential Utah NHL Names

There's going to be an NHL team playing in Utah next season and they're going to need a name.

This week, owner Ryan Smith said that he plans to use a March Madness-style bracket to let fans decide what the team will be called.

Of course, this can't be a free-for-all because the team will need to have the right to use whatever name ends up winning. The easiest way to do this would be to trademark a bunch of possible monikers so that whatever wins can be used.

Well, that appears to be what they're doing.

Utah Jazz (also owned by Smith) beat writer Ryan Miller of KSL.com tweeted a list of names that the organization has submitted trademark applications for.

Hmm… that stands to reason that all of those are being considered. There are some winners on there if you ask me, but there are some real duds.

So, whatd'ya say we dig through them and see how we feel about them?

We may not know the Utah NHL team's name for a while, but we know that they'll be playing at Salt Lake City's Delta Center. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)

The Good: Utah HC, Outlaws, Mammoth, And Yetis

There are a few solid names in here, and let's start with the one we're most likely to see first: Utah HC, or Utah Hockey Club.

It has been hinted that the team may use temporary branding since the sale of the Arizona Coyotes happened extremely fast and the organization now only has about 5 months to nail down an identity. That's really not a ton of time.

So, Utah HC is a great placeholder. Think Washington Football Team and, frankly, I wouldn't hate this as the real name. A bunch of teams in Europe go this route and I think it can be a classy way to brand a team.

I do think it's more likely that we'll see the team adopt a more traditional brand and Outlaws is a great one. No one has adopted the Western, gun-slinger motif. I feel like there are a ton of possibilities here and they could really do something cool.

I like Mammoth a lot, but there's a lacrosse team that plays in Colorado with that name. I'm not sure if that's an issue or not, but something to consider.

Yetis is another brand that would be fantastic, even if it makes no geographic sense. We all know the Yeti hails from the Himalayas, not the Rockies but hey, a giant bipedal ape is a giant bipedal ape, so I like it.

I just can't see the NHL going back to the mythical creature well with back-to-back teams after the Seattle Kraken, but maybe that's not a concern.

The Bad: Utah Ice, Blizzard, Venom

The problems with Ice, Blizzard, and Venom are all the same. They're not terrible, but they sound like create-a-team names from an NHL game, not a name that would fit in among the others in the league.

Ice is just too on the nose. They play hockey on ice, we get it. Why not call them the Pucks at that point?

The NHL also doesn't need any more weather/natural phenomena names. We've got Avalanche, Lightning, and I'd even throw Wild in there.

Venom is another one that just doesn't sound very NHL. A lacrosse team or Arena Football Team maybe, but Venom sounds very ‘90s. 

Remember how everything in the ’90s had to be edgy and EXTREME?!

Yeah; that's how Venom feels.

The Fury: Fury

What the f--k even is this? 

If you thought Venom was a bad ‘90s name, "Fury" would like you to hold its beer.

Jeez, crack a window. What a stinker.

The branding possibilities are endless, but that's only because there aren't any. Therefore, there is no end to them because there isn't a start.

If this wins in a March Madness-style bracket I will have lost what little faith in humanity (or at least Utah hockey fans) that I have left.

…

You've got to think that some more possibilities are being kicked around, but that's not a bad crop of names to get the creative juices flowing… except for Fury, it sucks so much.