Utah Yetis is officially in the mix for team names

As the world waits to see what Utah's new NHL team will be named, a company has been leaving clues. Here's the latest one.

Utah officially landed the NHL on Thursday, with Jazz owner Ryan Smith securing rights to the Arizona Coyotes operations and team.

The team won’t be called the Coyotes, as the league left open hope for an expansion franchise to one day return to the desert.

But a mysterious entity based in Delaware has been quietly and quickly applying for trademarks on what could be the next NHL team’s name.

The latest? The Utah Yetis.

Uyte, LLC on Thursday filed an application with the U.S. trademark and patent office to secure rights to the name.

There was a problem: someone else had already beaten Smith to the name. Not to worry, though, as the filer is also a well-known name in Utah’s hockey community who’s in favor of NHL coming to Utah.

That person was contacted by Smith and agreed to give up the trademark, adding Utah Yetis to the list of possible names for the team.

To bring things full circle, the name Utah Yetis is registered to the Larry H. Miller Companies, who sold the Utah Jazz to Ryan Smith in 2020. The Millers registered the name in October 2023, state filings show.

This is in addition to the same entity’s requests for the following names:

• Utah Blizzard

• Utah Venom

• Utah Fury

• Utah HC

• Utah Hockey Club

The filings were made using a Salt Lake City-based attorney. Smith needs to work quickly to secure the rights to names he likes, and all signs point to the Yetis joining the list above.

One final possibility is that Utah simply skates as the Utah Hockey Club or Utah HC, which are both on the list of new trademark filings.

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