Utah’s Hockey Team Down To Three Name Options; Could The Islanders Have Been Called Something Else?

After the rapid decision to move the Arizona Coyotes to Utah ahead of the 2024-25 season, the next order of business was to come up with a name.

Jazz owner and now Utah hockey team owner Ryan Smith (no, not former Islanders forward for 23 total games Ryan Smyth) has left the team name up to a fan vote

This week, it was announced that Utah Yeti was out as a name. Here are the three choices:

With Utah Yetis out of the running due to trademark issues, the top three remaining names are Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth and Utah Wasatch.

Fans will vote on their favorite this week at Delta Center.

— Belle Fraser (@bellefraser1) January 29, 2025

Sure, you can throw in the Nashville Predators as a good name rivalry as well, maybe suited better for the Mammoth like in the movie Ice Age.

When the New York Islanders became a team in 1972, their name seemed obvious.

But that didn’t mean that “Islanders” was the first choice, as many thought it would be something else.

From 1959-1961, there was a minor league hockey team on Long Island called the Rovers. The Maven Stan Fischler shared in his “Maven Memories” story that they played out of Long Island Arena in Commack, New York, and served as the New York Rangers farm team before being bought by Al Baron, who changed the name to the Long Island Ducks.

So, when the Islanders were given a franchise, people thought the Ducks made a lot of sense for the name.

The Islanders made more sense.

“Long Island Arena hosted EHL hockey for a couple of years after the Islanders arrived,” Fischler said. “By that time fans had shown they were ready for The Show. As the Isles moved toward their first playoff team in 1975, so were Coliseum seats filling up. In time, the Ducks became just a fond memory.”

The Long Island Ducks, an independent baseball league, use the name because of the former hockey team. The NHL’s Anaheim Ducks, originally called The Mighty Ducks, is based on the 1992 Disney film.

Did you know that in 1961, when the MLB awarded New York an expansion team and held a team-name contest, the Islanders and the Empire were options?

So, if the Mets had actually been named the Islanders in 1961, would the Islanders have been named the Ducks 11 years later or the Mets, or something completely different?

The Empire is actually the name of New York’s World Team Tennis (WTT) club.

Soon enough, we will have our answer, as Utah hockey will happen regardless of the name this upcoming fall.