Utah’s professional hockey team just got a mammoth-sized makeover. Yesterday morning the Utah Hockey Club announced a new and permanent name and mascot for the team. The mammoth was chosen in honor of the mammoths that had once roamed the state over 10,000 years ago.
These fossils have been found in places like Bear Lake, Park City, Orem, Lake Powell, and Huntington canyon where a complete skeleton of the creature was discovered in 1988. Columbian Mammoths had once lived in the mountainous areas of the state. These creatures were a significant part of the ecosystem during the Ice Age and stood at about 14 feet tall and weighed approximately 8 to 10 tons.
According to the NHL “the mammoth has embodied strength, momentum, and an earth-shaking presence – qualities that are brought to life by the passion of Utah’s hockey fans and that mirror the franchise’s bold emergence into the NHL.”
The process to select the new identity for the team took over a year and it was done by using a voting process in which the community had the opportunity to choose the name that they believed would be best for Utah. Throughout the voting process the list of names consisted of Yeti, Outlaws, Hockey Club, and Mammoth. With over 850,000 votes and several rounds of community input the fans helped chose the name that now defines Utah’s NHL team. The owners Ryan and Ashley Smith have come out and said, “The community chose the Utah Mammoth brand, and it stands as a symbol of who we are, where we came from, and the unstoppable force we’re building together.”
On the team’s social media, they shared that “Evidence suggests mammoths charged in herds at speeds exceeding 25 miles per hour, comparable to the speeds reached by the fastest skaters in the NHL,”. They also shared the symbolism of the team’s colors with the Blue representing our winter sports and clear skies, black representing the mountains at night and Utah’s volcanic rock, and white representing the snow and salt flats.
The different logos that the team has have symbolism as well. The Mountain Mammoth logo includes the Wasatch Mountain Range and has a small “M” that is shaped by the snow. The Utah logo has the Mammoth Tusk that curves upward in a shape that resembles the “U” for Utah. The team also uses its own typeface or font called Mammoth Sans which has a 10-degree forward slant that is supposed to resembles the mountains and their steepness.
The new home jersey is black with blue and white stripes and features the new mascot on the front and has the Utah emblem on the shoulders. The white away jersey nods back to the team’s inaugural season jerseys with “Utah” on the front in their updated typeface blue and black stripes, and the mammoth on both shoulders.
Merchandise like hoodies, hats, and shirts are currently on sale at the Delta Center and will be available to purchase online on May 14th. The jerseys will be available at a later date.
Works Cited
“Utah’s NHL Franchise Officially Named the Utah Mammoth | Utah Mammoth.” Nhl.com, 7 May 2025, www.nhl.com/utah/news/utah-s-nhl-franchise-officially-named-the-utah-mammoth-release-5-7-25. Accessed 8 May 2025.
Miller, Ryan. “Tusks Up: The Utah Hockey Club Is Now the Utah Mammoth.” Ksl.com, ksl.com, 2017, www.ksl.com/article/51308328/tusks-up-the-utah-hockey-club-is-now-the-utah-mammoth. Accessed 8 May 2025.
Wyshynski, Greg. “Utah Picks Mammoth as Mascot to End Yearlong Search – ESPN.” ESPN.com, ESPN, 7 May 2025, www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/45036623/utah-picks-mammoth-mascot-end-yearlong-search. Accessed 8 May 2025.
Bagley, Cole. “Utah Hockey Club to Become Utah Mammoth as Team Announces New Name.” KSL Sports, 7 May 2025, kslsports.com/nhl/utah-mammoth/utah-hockey-club-to-become-utah-mammoth/547274. Accessed 8 May 2025.
