SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
For the past few months, hockey fans in Salt Lake City have been doing something they've never been able to do before - cheering on an NHL team of their own. The relocated Arizona Coyotes have been a huge hit in Utah, despite the fact that the club still doesn't have an official name. For months, the team has been going by...
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: The Utah Hockey Club.
DETROW: ...The Utah Hockey Club. Maybe not the trendiest choice of name, but in the coming days, the team will be zeroing in on an official name and logo. Belle Fraser is the hockey beat reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune. She's been following all of this and joins us now. Welcome.
BELLE FRASER: Thank you for having me.
DETROW: I think one of the most interesting things about this is how much the Utah Hockey Club has really stuck with fans. What do you make of that? Any theories why that is?
FRASER: Yeah, I mean, from Day 1 when this team was acquired from Arizona, fans were at the forefront of this organization. Smith Entertainment Group that acquired the team - it also owns the NBA's Utah Jazz, and they said they're bringing the NHL to Utah for the community. So they wanted to see the tradition and the hockey culture and the way these new Utah fans would adapt to this team and let that be the guiding force for what they ultimately decide. So Ryan Smith, the team owner, early on in the process, he sent out a tweet and said, everyone, respond to this tweet and give me any names that you want.
DETROW: So this was intentional. This was, let's bring the fans along for the ride. This wasn't like we saw here in Washington, D.C., with the Washington Commanders. There was - it was almost like the Washington football team was, like, a buffer zone in between two names. This was different. Let's make the fans part of the process.
FRASER: Yeah, this was very intentional. And Utah Hockey Club, from the beginning, it was always supposed to be temporary to let room for the team to figure it out and the community to figure it out.
DETROW: But it's a final option. It stuck around.
FRASER: Yes, it is a final option. So it made it through the polling, and I think some people are attracted to it because it has ties to the inaugural season. You know, the Utah Hockey club name, and the Jerseys will always look back on as a piece of NHL history as the first year in Utah. So I think maybe there's sentimental value to that. But I think fans are more so leaning away from Utah Hockey Club now but...
DETROW: OK.
FRASER: ...Still appreciating that it'll probably be part of the franchise moving forward, no matter what.
DETROW: Something they're definitely not going to be called - the Utah Yetis, which was a fan favorite, but it's not going to happen. What happened there?
FRASER: Yeah, so on January 9, the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected the trademark application for Utah Yetis, and that was rejected for likelihood of confusion specifically with the YETI's cooler brand, which sells drinkware, coolers. But they also have the trademark to use for merchandise for sweaters, for T-shirts, everything that an NHL team would need to brand its team to the public. YETI coolers denied the option for a coexistence deal. They did not want to share their trademark with Utah Hockey Club, so that was the reason that SEG, Smith Entertainment Group, decided to pivot and move in a different direction and drop the yeti name in its entirety.
DETROW: So it's not the Utah Yetis. It might be the Utah Hockey Club. What are the other two finalists?
FRASER: Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth and Utah Outlaws are the top three that fans are voting on this week at Delta Center.
DETROW: As a reporter who covers the team every day, are you allowed to have a favorite or a preference?
FRASER: I mean, I think so (laughter).
DETROW: What is it?
FRASER: I think Mammoth is cool.
DETROW: Yeah.
FRASER: I like that. I mean, Outlaws, I think probably has more of a historic tie to Utah in some way, just with the bandits and that type of thing. But I think Mammoth sounds more like an NHL team. I think the branding for that would probably be easier and perhaps more interesting. But at the end of the day, I don't care. It's just - it's the same team, same sport so...
DETROW: Yeah, I think I'm with you on Mammoth. That's Belle Fraser, hockey beat reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune. Thanks for talking to us.
FRASER: Yep, thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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