Four Worst Survey Names Utah's NHL Team Could Be Called

Utah is closing in on a name for their NHL team, and four options stand out for all the wrong reasons, says Rob Couch.

The name of a sports franchise can make or break a team's introduction to their city. To find the name the most people like, Utah has released a survey with 20 options for the community to vote on a team name.

While there are some great options, it's also worth looking at nicknames that don't make sense or are just bad names to call a professional hockey team in the top league in the world. Here are the bottom four, leading up to the worst, in this writer's opinion:

Calling the team Utah HC would be very bland and not on par with the creative names the rest of the NHL teams have. This would be more in line with teams overseas in leagues below the NHL or even soccer.

Being named Utah Hockey Club would then make the logo, mascot and other branding elements difficult to pinpoint, which could lead to an overall brand that doesn't make much sense. The likely outcome here is these big parts of a team identity would end up being one of the other options that fans can vote for and Utah would have a needlessly plain name for no reason.

Regarding animals Utah could be called, caribou shouldn't even be in the top two if the team is going by relevance. The elk is Utah's state animal (as of 1971), and funny enough, coyotes are one of the most common animals in the state.

The initial intent of having names attached to teams was to help intimidate opponents. While that has gotten very off-track with many teams everywhere, you still think it has to hold up a little bit, as caribou aren't exactly intimidating and don't properly represent the location of Utah's new NHL team.

Utah Powder does relate to the state as Powder Mountain is the USA's largest skiing area, but it just doesn't fit well at all with a hockey team. If Utah wanted to go with a cold element to call the team, there are better and more closely related options to hockey like Ice, Glaciers, Yeti, Freeze, Blizzard, and Frost.

'Powder' also has some negative connotations to an... illegal substance... for those who don't understand the context. Many fans of Utah or other teams could easily think of this without knowing about Powder Mountain and cause unwanted and unnecessary discussions.

Utah is said to have the largest concentration of slot canyons in the world, but 'Canyons' is just a weird name to represent a team. This is similar to Powder but sounds even worse.

Canyons is not one bit intimidating and less creative than even naming the team after a named landmark already. This is a pretty bland name that would make for a bad logo and odd mascot, likely in climbing gear. It has nothing to do with hockey and should stay that way.

Which is your least favorite? Let us know by clicking here.