On Friday night after the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas, Utah Hockey Club general manager Bill Armstrong met with the media to field questions about his two picks, Tij Iginla and Cole Beaudoin.
At one point, Armstrong was asked when he knew that Iginla would be available to take with the sixth overall pick. In the process, did he leak the future name of the team, or perhaps at least share his favorite?
“When we hit Pick 5, that’s when we knew,” Armstrong said regarding Iginla’s availability. “That’s when we knew he would be a Utah Yeti, I think.”
A reporter later followed up with a question about Armstrong’s use of Utah Yeti.
“I’m not allowed to pick the name, but I think the little kids in Utah vote about 25 times a day, so I think they got it.”
As Armstrong alluded to, there has been a voting process in place for fans to have a say in what the future name of the team will be. It began with 20 choices and has been whittled down to six — Utah Yeti, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom, Utah Mammoth and Utah Blizzard.
The team will be called Utah Hockey Club for at least the 2024-25 season. If another one of the names is chosen as the permanent name, it will be changed prior to the 2025-26 campaign.