The owner of the Utah Jazz, Ryan Smith, has unveiled 20 names for his new hockey club, the former Phoenix Coyotes. Fan input is going to dictate a lot here, with the club asking fans to vote on the team name for this new expansion club.
We've got the whole list here and we're going to give you our favorite names off this list. Should the Jazz decide to change their name ever, some of these they may want to keep in their back pocket for when that day comes.
Below are the 20 names that the current Utah hockey team posted on their website;
- Black Diamonds
- Blast
- Blizzard
- Canyons
- Caribou
- Freeze
- Frost
- Fury
- Glaciers
- Utah HC (Hockey Club)
- Hive
- Ice
- Mammoth
- Mountaineers
- Outlaws
- Powder
- Squall
- Swarm
- Venom
- Yeti
Of all of them, I'm a fan of the Black Diamonds, the Mammoths, The Outlaws, and the Yetis. Of all of them, however, only the Black Diamonds and Yetis are good enough to be the team's name going forward. Everything else feels like an EA Sports knockoff team name. You could've had something with the Blizzard Blasts, combining the two names near the top of the list. However that one may be hard to pull off due to copyright patents.
The Canyons, Freeze, Frost, Fury, Glaciers, Utah HC (Hockey Club), Ice, Mountaineers, and Powder are just too generic and plain to warrant a spot on the team's jersey.
The idea of bees is a hard pass in any way. Fans don't typically like bugs, so while it goes hand in hand with the state's nickname (the Beehive State) Hve, Swarm, and Venom are out. The Charlotte Hornets got lucky but most fans don't want to see a bug-eyed thing staring them down.
The Caribou seems like a good idea on the surface, but then you realize that they're just the Rocky Mountain Bucks at that point.
Lastly, Squall is a great name, at least if you've never played Final Fantasy VIII. If you have, you know how lame Squalls actually are.
Of all the names, the Black Diamonds are the most unique sounding, while also being a dynamic idea to make into not only a logo but unfiroms as well.