It appears one of the Utah Hockey Club’s biggest star players may know what the newest NHL team will be called when they finally decide on a more permanent name.
Utah forward Clayton Keller was at the NHL’s media tour in Las Vegas this past week and was pressed by reporters on whether he had any inside knowledge of which name the team appears to be leaning toward.
While one might expect a player to feign ignorance to that type of question, Keller gave a surprisingly candid answer and might have possibly leaked the team’s new name.
“It sounds like it’s going to be the Yeti, but I don’t know,” Keller told NHL.com’s Mike Zeisberger. “We’ll see what happens. Whatever they choose, I think it’ll be a good one.”
Yeti has been a popular suggestion from hockey fans on social media, and it did make it into the final six of a team-name survey run by owner Ryan Smith earlier this summer. If it does indeed stick, it would mark the second-straight team in the NHL to go with the name of a cryptid, following the Seattle Kraken, which did the same when they revealed their name back in 2020.
Other names that ended up making that final six included:
- Outlaws
- Blizzard
- Mammoth
- Venom
- Hockey Club (HC)
It’s also possible that this isn’t the first giveaway that the Utah Hockey Club was leaning toward the “Yeti” name. While a permanent name has not been revealed, the club’s colour scheme of black, white, and a powdery light blue was unveiled and will be worn on the team’s jerseys in their inaugural season. It seems like the perfect mix of colours for a team named after the mountainous creature.
The name also fits a Utah NHL team nestled in the mountains surrounding Salt Lake City, which could serve as the home for the elusive Yeti. Funnily enough, there is a template for this kind of jersey, as former WHL team the Winnipeg Ice wore similar jerseys that featured a Yeti as the logo.
Everything amazing in life comes from Winnipeg one way or another https://t.co/vwhAr7FXUB pic.twitter.com/SoZ4r8C7FW
— Jesse Pollock (@jpolly22) September 9, 2024
Whatever the name may be, it does seem like Utah has a lot of fans on board with the colour scheme of their inaugural jerseys. They will be a hot ticket item for collectors, as new ones with updated branding will presumably be on the way for the team’s second season. However, fans will be unable to buy Utah jerseys for quite a while due to the short notice.
Utah will don these jerseys for the first time in an NHL game when their season kicks off on October 8.