Given all the challenges the franchise has in PHX, it’s not surprising the NHL has chosen to move them. To make it all work is going to require a big renovation of the Delta Center. With the impending Olympics decision coming, it was an easy sell to the legislature, city, and county to pitch in for the work.
Quite excited about this. WAY more interested in an NHL team than I was for a MLB team.
If you’ve never been to a professional hockey game, I can’t recommend it highly enough. They’re a blast.
There will be an entire new arena.
So are they going to do something lame and rename the team the Coyoteezz, or is there another idea on the agenda? There are certainly coyotes in Utah, but it’s not exactly what the state is known for. Maybe the Utah Moose, or Utah Elks? Snow related names like the Freeze or the Blizzards wouldn’t be bad, and that could get in some requisite Z’s for the nerds.
Brine Shrimpzz? 
Utah Cheaters
I saw some mock ups for Utah Yeti, Stags, Eagles or Blizzard.
Bring back the Golden Eagles.
No.
Part of the deal is the current owner keeps all of the rights to the Coyotes names.
He’ll be given first chance to an expansion team, as long as he gets his arena situation sorted out
This is quite exciting news. I’ve long thought an NHL team would do well in Salt Lake.
Cheaterzz
Hockey’s a different crowd, so emphasize the toughness of the team: the Utah Meanies (or Meaneezz, if you prefer).
- To get ratings until the team gets good, elevate the enforcer role, have tryouts for local former football players, teach them how to skate - guys that weren’t at the NFL level in FB, but can hit like a Mack truck:
- The crowd gets a free chicken sandwich for a week every time the team puts an opponent on the IR.
"Now onto the ice at 6-0 and 295 lbs, Tevita Kaufusi, the "Human Steely"!!! He could come into the game, throw his stick to the crowd in a signal that he really means business, then start going after people.
(I’ve never understood the fighting part of hockey, so I’m just kind of riffing on that.)
My suggestion for the name is Salt Lake 1847.
Already been done…
I’ve posted this before but it’s a great ethnography of junior pro hockey.
It won’t be surprising if they rename the franchise the Golden Eagles, taking a page from Salt Lake’s hockey past.
Regarding the issue of fighting, like all full contact sports the physicality does get chippy from time to time. Football does a good job of controlling it by having a larger referee crew to get between players. Add the players are carrying sticks, and they like to chip on one another with them as they work to the puck, and pretty soon someone is breaking the unwritten code - roughing a star player, and enforcement is required. The referees will let the fight go and eventually stop it and put the players in the penalty box to cool off. Occasionally guys get tossed for it.
The truth is fighting has gone way down from what it was in the past.
“Called us names!”
That would be pretty cool, actually.
I’ve heard Yeti floating around, which is blech. Hopefully that’s just fan noise.
That means a lot.
The scenes of refs watching the fights, then stepping in after a few minutes like a boxing ref to break it up… hard to take the sport seriously, with shades of pro wrestling-like fan enthusiasm (but worse, because it’s real).
Football might be pretty brutal, if you give a guy an upper cut, you’re out of the game.
I’ll try not to mock hockey anymore, and it is pretty cool that Utah’s getting a NHL franchise.
Hockey can’t be mocked.