Bettman meeting with Ryan Smith, owner of Utah Jazz and Real Salt Lake (upd: Smith asks NHL to open expansion process)

[GKJ]

None of these names are that bad when you're in a league with the "Wild". It's not even a noun! How you gonna call yourselves an adjective. Wack.

Should reread the dictionary on that one.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

There are plenty of reasons to not like the name Wild irrespective of if it is a noun, a verb, an adjective, or... man, been a while since I last took an English class, there are other types of words.

Also, they went with that rather than the Blue Ox. Come on, man.

 

[JKG33]

I hate the names that don't end in s. Kraken is dumb. Wild is dumb. Lightning and Avalanche aren't the worst but still kinda dumb. Yeti would be a dumb name so I'm sure they'll go with that since Jazz is even dumber, before you even account for the nonexistant Jazz music scene in Utah.

Utah Lakers would actually be a not horrible name. Certainly more fitting than those idiots who named the LA's basketball team. But I doubt they'd copy that, the only 2 teams across the big 4 that I can think of with the same name are the NY and Texas Rangers, and that happened about 70 years ago

 

[sneakytitz]

I hate the names that don't end in s. Kraken is dumb. Wild is dumb. Lightning and Avalanche aren't the worst but still kinda dumb. Yeti would be a dumb name so I'm sure they'll go with that since Jazz is even dumber, before you even account for the nonexistant Jazz music scene in Utah.

Utah Lakers would actually be a not horrible name. Certainly more fitting than those idiots who named the LA's basketball team. But I doubt they'd copy that, the only 2 teams across the big 4 that I can think of with the same name are the NY and Texas Rangers, and that happened about 70 years ago

The Lakers moved to LA from Minnesota (land of 10,000 lakes) and the Jazz moved to Utah from New Orleans. Both teams kept their name during the move, hence why they don't necessarily jive where they landed. I will also note that there are no Grizzlies in Memphis either, outside of their zoo.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

The Wild, Kraken, and Yeti all sound like Single-A baseball teams.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

It depends on the name. I'd agree that the Wild is a weird thing we all just got used used to, but had that been announced during the age of social media they would've been pilloried online.

But Lightning and Avalanche are both solid in my book, and my area is about to get the ECHL Bloomington Bison and I think that works as well.

Granted, looking back on the 90s, I'm just glad that we somehow avoided a situation where a major pro team wasn't pluralized with a "z" rather than an "s". We could've easily gotten something dumb like the Fire Antz.

And if you hate the Avalanche, just be happy that they didn't go with their actually somehow seriously contemplated alternative, the Rocky Mountain Extreme.

 

[Yukon Joe]

I hate the names that don't end in s. Kraken is dumb. Wild is dumb. Lightning and Avalanche aren't the worst but still kinda dumb. Yeti would be a dumb name so I'm sure they'll go with that since Jazz is even dumber, before you even account for the nonexistant Jazz music scene in Utah.

Utah Lakers would actually be a not horrible name. Certainly more fitting than those idiots who named the LA's basketball team. But I doubt they'd copy that, the only 2 teams across the big 4 that I can think of with the same name are the NY and Texas Rangers, and that happened about 70 years ago

Jets - Winnipeg and New York. But that was also 50+ years ago.

Utah Buzz would be sort-of interesting. The Jazz and the Buzz are owned by the same group so he might like that they rhyme. Bees are somehow significant enough to Utah that a beehive is front and center on the brand new Utah state flag. It was the former name of a minor league baseball team however.

 

[Bixby Snyder]

the only 2 teams across the big 4 that I can think of with the same name are the NY and Texas Rangers, and that happened about 70 years ago

Jets, Panthers, Kings and formerly the Oilers.

 

[JKG33]

Jets - Winnipeg and New York. But that was also 50+ years ago.

Utah Buzz would be sort-of interesting. The Jazz and the Buzz are owned by the same group so he might like that they rhyme. Bees are somehow significant enough to Utah that a beehive is front and center on the brand new Utah state flag. It was the former name of a minor league baseball team however.

Right, I knew I was forgetting a painfully obvious one.

Ugh I hope it's not buzz. Sounds corny af. Stingers would be ok.

Jets, Panthers, Kings and formerly the Oilers.

Panthers slipped by me too. I genuinely had to look up who the other Kings team was lol

 

[nhlfan79]

Jets, Panthers, Kings and formerly the Oilers.

Giants, too. (NY and SF).

 

[Brodie]

None of these names are that bad when you're in a league with the "Wild". It's not even a noun! How you gonna call yourselves an adjective. Wack.

Wild is so bad but it doesn’t justify continuing to pick AA baseball tier names because they get a lot of semi ironic likes on X

If they call this team the Yeti, it’ll just reinforce the perception of the NHL as a semi bush league operation

 

[sneakytitz]

How did the Yeti push get started anyways? That's something in Nepal, an entire ocean away. Salt Lake City 'Squatch or Sasquatch at least has alliteration and they get tons of sightings in Utah.

 

[Tawnos]

How did the Yeti push get started anyways? That's something in Nepal, an entire ocean away. Salt Lake City 'Squatch or Sasquatch at least has alliteration and they get tons of sightings in Utah.

I don't like the Yeti idea, but Kraken was originally a mythical monster in the North Atlantic.

It's mostly about what's cool.

 

[Yukon Joe]

Wild is so bad but it doesn’t justify continuing to pick AA baseball tier names because they get a lot of semi ironic likes on X

If they call this team the Yeti, it’ll just reinforce the perception of the NHL as a semi bush league operation

See, I would argue that if the league were to bring in teams with a lot of really boring names it will reinforce the perception of the NHL as a conservative league existing mostly for old white men.

But I won't - precisely because the league has been more innovative in picking names. The last several expansion teams have all had fairly unique names. Kraken - definitely. Golden Knights - well Knights would have been super-traditional, but by bringing in sparkly gold into their name and uniform makes it unique. Wild is unique. Thrashers - being named after a bird is super-traditional. Blue Jackets - unique.

 

[barkovcanfinnish]

Don’t the Avs have a secondary logo that is supposedly a Yeti footprint or something like that. Wonder if that would be too similar for a team really close geographically.

Hopefully whatever color scheme the Utah team chooses, it’s a unique look. How about some variation of purple?

 

[sneakytitz]

Don’t the Avs have a secondary logo that is supposedly a Yeti footprint or something like that. Wonder if that would be too similar for a team really close geographically.

Hopefully whatever color scheme the Utah team chooses, it’s a unique look. How about some variation of purple?

Bigfoot footprint. Their original mascot was Howler, a bigfoot.

 

[Yukon Joe]

Don’t the Avs have a secondary logo that is supposedly a Yeti footprint or something like that. Wonder if that would be too similar for a team really close geographically.

Hopefully whatever color scheme the Utah team chooses, it’s a unique look. How about some variation of purple?

I don't think they use it anymore, but yes (googling - they dropped it for 2015).

I don't think the Avs would object to the Yeti name, but stranger things have happened.

 

[DustyDangler]

How did the Yeti push get started anyways? That's something in Nepal, an entire ocean away. Salt Lake City 'Squatch or Sasquatch at least has alliteration and they get tons of sightings in Utah.

It is something Smith has said positive things about bringing the Y and the U together.

See 2:33:

 

[Reaser]

Kraken was originally a mythical monster in the North Atlantic.

It's mostly about what's cool.

Which made a ton of sense for Seattle being that we have the Pacific ocean over here ...

Though, they did try to retrofit a Kraken narrative -we found a big octopus over here!- as the Kraken story. But, to me, it never made sense. Was just something that grew on social networks by non-sports/hockey fans who thought it was "cool" along with everyone that liked making the "they can call the arena the crack house" comment and voila, team was named Kraken.

 

[Yukon Joe]

Which made a ton of sense for Seattle being that we have the Pacific ocean over here ...

Though, they did try to retrofit a Kraken narrative -we found a big octopus over here!- as the Kraken story. But, to me, it never made sense. Was just something that grew on social networks by non-sports/hockey fans who thought it was "cool" along with everyone that liked making the "they can call the arena the crack house" comment and voila, team was named Kraken.

The Kraken name certain grew virally on social media, but what makes you think it wasn't from hockey fans?

 

[rojac]

The Kraken name certain grew virally on social media, but what makes you think it wasn't from hockey fans?

I suspect the "logic" goes like this:

Poster is a hockey fan.
Poster hates the name "Kraken"
Therefore, all hockey fans hate the name "Kraken"

 

[Tawnos]

Which made a ton of sense for Seattle being that we have the Pacific ocean over here ...

Though, they did try to retrofit a Kraken narrative -we found a big octopus over here!- as the Kraken story. But, to me, it never made sense. Was just something that grew on social networks by non-sports/hockey fans who thought it was "cool" along with everyone that liked making the "they can call the arena the crack house" comment and voila, team was named Kraken.

Right, yes. That's the point I was trying to make. If you can call a team the Kraken in Seattle when the myth comes from the North Atlantic, then you can certainly call a team the Yeti in Salt Lake City when the myth comes from the Himalayas.

 

[Reaser]

The Kraken name certain grew virally on social media, but what makes you think it wasn't from hockey fans?

I live here. The hockey fans here that already existed, many were hoping for Metropolitans. Others wanted something new but despised the Kraken suggestion and thought it was stupid. When it first started gaining traction, you could see that tons of people that were excited about "Kraken" weren't from Seattle, The Great State of Washington, or hockey fans.

I personally don't mind it, definitely not my favorite but is what it is. I would have liked Metropolitans or some of the other suggestions more. My biggest issue was always that it was more Northern Atlantic mythology and we aren't exactly close to the Northern Atlantic over here.

 

[DustyDangler]

Team names should be unique. Kraken works nicely.

NHL teams names that should be jettisoned would include:
Panthers
Jets
Rangers
Senators

 

[Reaser]

I suspect the "logic" goes like this:

Poster is a hockey fan.
Poster hates the name "Kraken"
Therefore, all hockey fans hate the name "Kraken"

Your suspicision was incorrect.

Poster is a hockey fan, from Seattle.
Poster doesn't mind the name "Kraken" other than the North Atlantic mythology and we're next to the Pacific part.
I never said all hockey fans hate the name "Kraken"

You tried, though. So credit for that?