Now that the Coyotes’ move to Utah is official, the question on everyone’s mind is what the team’s new name will be.
The NHL Board of Governors approved the sale and relocation of the team to Jazz owner Ryan Smith on Wednesday.
What exactly the new team could be called when it steps onto the ice next season is still a mystery, even to Smith himself.
“We’ll start with Utah on the jersey and we’ll figure out the logo and everything else and what it is that we are,” Smith told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We’re going to be Utah either way. We have the first part of the name. We don’t have the last.”
Ad agency Doubleday & Cartwright already has been hired to help with the rebranding efforts, the AP reported, and Smith indicated that a placeholder name could be used for the team’s first season in Salt Lake City.
Nevertheless, there appears to be some clues as to what the team ultimately could be called.
Trademark filings were submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday and appeared to be possible names for the Utah franchise.
Filings, which were first reported by Clark Rasmussen of DetroitHockey.net and viewed by The Post, included trademarks for the Utah Blizzard, Utah Venom, Utah Fury, Utah HC and Utah Hockey Club.
“It’ll be Utah something, obviously,” Smith said. “It’s really important that we’re not saying, ‘Hey, this has to be ready by the fall,’ especially when it’s going to be Utah something. I think both the league feels better and we feel better to just run the process and then we’ll drop it when we drop it.”
Smith purchased the hockey operations assets of the Coyotes for $1.2 billion, and former Yotes owner Alex Meruelo will keep the name, intellectual property and historical records of the Coyotes.