It’s official. The NHL board of governors voted unanimously to move the Arizona Coyotes to Utah immediately, with the team set to begin play in Salt Lake City at the start of the 2024-2025 season.
Currently, Utah’s NHL team does not have a name and owners Ashley and Ryan Smith of Smith Entertainment Group, who also own the NBA’s Utah Jazz, have only confirmed that the team would wear “Utah” on their jerseys for the upcoming season.
For NHL fans, the past 5 years have been a whirlwind of brand new brands at the games highest level. Prior to the announcement that Las Vegas was awarded an expansion franchise on June 16th, 2016, it had been well over a decade since the NHL expanded. The Winnipeg Jets, formerly the Atlanta Thrashers, changed locations during this time, but they were not an expansion team.
Like the Jets, who existed, didn’t exist, and became a team by way of re-location, the Utah NHL team is also not an expansion team. The Arizona Coyotes, all of their players, and a large portion of their staff will relocate to Utah.
NHL Expansion teams and Relocations in the past 30 years
- 2000: Minnesota Wild
- 2000: Columbus Blue Jackets
- 2011: Atlanta Thrashers re-located to Winnipeg, now known as the Winnipeg Jets
- 2017: Vegas Golden Knights
Will the Arizona Coyotes exist in the future?
Provided that former owner Alex Merulo can build a state of the art NHL facility somewhere in Arizona, it is very likely we will see the Arizona Coyotes back in action by way of an expansion team. Merulo was awarded the rights to an expansion team as a part of the relocation to Utah, but is unable to sell or transfer these rights and must construct an NHL worthy facility within 5 years.
What will Utah name their hockey team?
Possible Team Names for the Utah NHL Team
Like every NHL fan, we’ve been scouring the internet for possible team names for the NHL’s latest location. Below are some of the top possible team names for Utah’s NHL team.
Utah Yeti
Salt Lake Monsters
