Utah Hockey Club replaces Wasatch for Outlaws in fan name vote

One day after announcing three finalists for their permanent nickname, the Utah Hockey Club has replaced one of them.

Wasatch, named for the Wasatch mountain range in Utah, has been swapped out with Outlaws, the team announced on Thursday. It will join Hockey Club and Mammoth, which made the final four after an initial fan vote last year, as the three options fans will be able to vote on during the team's current four-game homestand.

"We listened to your feedback and dug into all the Qualtrics data from last night's survey," the team said in a statement Thursday. "For the team name, it's clear that Outlaws should be in the mix instead of Wasatch, so we're swapping it out."

Yeti had been a favorite option and was part of the voting process since the beginning, but a trademark issue caused the team to drop it from consideration.

Mike Maughan, an executive of the team's parent company Smith Entertainment Group, confirmed to reporters this week that the team would pivot to a different selection of possible names after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected the Yeti name and logo it submitted for approval.

The USPTO specifically cited a "likelihood of confusion" for consumers due to other companies and brands with a similar name, most notably the Yeti Cooler Company. Different companies can feature a similar name if they're in clearly different fields (e.g. the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple Computers), but it seems likely an NHL team with the same name would clash with certain products, such as the cooler company's apparel line.

Maughan said the team is confident that the winner of the fan vote will clear the patent and trademark process.

The team is planning to have a permanent name and home and away jerseys in place in time for the start of the 2025-26 NHL season.