Utah’s hockey team has an oddly familiar ring to it

Picking a name for a new sports franchise is always an exciting time for owners and fans alike. It’s a good chance to get creative, get some fun input from the people paying to go to the games, and land on something original that distinguishes the team from any other.

For the Utah Hockey Club, it was announced that the franchise was changing its mascot to the Mammoth, ending a search that spanned around 13 months. The franchise collected about 850,000 ballots from the fanbase in an in-depth voting process, which resulted in the Mammoth being the mascot of choice.

A new Ice Age dawns. Introducing Utah Mammoth. #TusksUp pic.twitter.com/B2yuoflDRt

— Utah Mammoth (@utahhockeyclub) May 7, 2025

For Denver sports fans, that name sounds all too familiar. Is Utah trying to replicate the success of the Colorado Mammoth of the NLL to bring a championship pedigree to town? The Denver-based lacrosse team brought a championship home in 2006 and 2022, giving them the third-most championships by any professional team in the city. They lost in the championship game in 2023, and have made it to the divisional final another four times since they relocated to Denver ahead of the 2003 season.

The Utah Mammoth used to be the Arizona Coyotes in the NHL and relocated to Salt Lake City after the 2024 season. In 28 seasons, the franchise made the playoffs just nine times, and only advanced past the first round once, when the team made it to the Western Conference Finals in 2012. The franchise only eclipsed the 100-point tally in a season once, in 2010.

In the franchise’s first year in Utah, the team was just seven points shy of a wild card berth, a solid season for an inaugural year.

The name wasn’t the only idea that Utah took from the other side of the mountain range, as the team uses practically the same social media hashtag as the Colorado Mammoth in #TusksUp. Colorado’s tag is #TuskUp. Again, one franchise has produced championships in the past, so maybe the other is just taking ideas to follow suit?

Winning isn’t easy in North American professional sports, no matter the league. The Utah hockey franchise clearly needed some form of change to try and spark winning, but this change is something that makes Denver sports fans point at their TV and think a little bit as to what went into the decision. There were plenty of signs back in the summer that a conflict of interest like this was on the table, and now it officially is.

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