Per Friedman: Coyotes players told team moving to Utah starting next season (Mod warning post #50)

[NYRfan85]

Whatever Utah calls themselves, they must adopt the 'red rock' color scheme that the Jazz adopted for some of their alternate uniforms. Love this color scheme, and it's a great nod to the Utah desert landscapes.

 

[joestevens29]

Whatever Utah calls themselves, they must adopt the 'red rock' color scheme that the Jazz adopted for some of their alternate uniforms. Love this color scheme, and it's a great nod to the Utah desert landscapes.
View attachment 852157
View attachment 852159

That black jersey combo looks like something Germany would wear.

 

[Faceboner]

I like the Utah Venom ... But unfortunately , I think they are going with the Utah Yeti. Everywhere I look , even years back they have a fascination with the Yeti ..

If I was a betting man , it will be the Yeti. I just hope the Jersey scheme is sick and unlike anything in the league.

This is not made by me , but I like this color combo , not the logo or lettering

View attachment 852144

I think the cyan screams Utah for some reason but a yeti logo would look sick if done right

 

[Barnum]

These are all pre 1930 examples. The only old teams to not pull from local culture were the various teams named Victorias and the Bruins.

Actually, the Bruins are name locally also. Adams the owner had the colors for the sweaters/uniforms picked out before they named the team. Brown and Gold was the colors of his Boston area grocery store chain so Bruins was chosen because brown and gold were close to the color of the bears.

 

[Sgt Schultz]

the part with Kraken and yeti names is they are never going to be deemed offensive to anyone in the future which i assume in these days that is part of the thought process

I would never bet on that one. Too many people wandering around looking to be offended. And if they can't find a reason, they will be offended for somebody else. Kinda like the Geico caveman.

They could stick with Coyotes unless they want a break from everything related to the Phoenix/Arizona era. I could see why they would want to do a clean break.

 

[cowboy82nd]

I would never bet on that one. Too many people wandering around looking to be offended. And if they can't find a reason, they will be offended for somebody else. Kinda like the Geico caveman.

They could stick with Coyotes unless they want a break from everything related to the Phoenix/Arizona era. I could see why they would want to do a clean break.

But the Geico caveman is offensive to other cavemen.

 

[Sgt Schultz]

But the Geico caveman is offensive to other cavemen.

I guess that, in theory, we all descended from cavemen. Therefore we are all offended.

Or so that kind of logic goes!

 

[Aoko]

Salt Lake Dragons, a homage to their North Shore monster folklore.

 

[5 Minute Major]

The Utah Aspen

Quaking Aspen is the state tree.

 

[kvladimir]

But again ... it's uniformly bad.

And to repeat what I've said every time I've mentioned this idea: I know the owners will never go for it. However, if we're trying to solve the problem of doing relocation / expansion and geography getting in the way, the only way you're going to do that is to get rid of geography as a consideration - and the only way to do that is to redraw divisions so that they span all time zones and you don't end up with a scenario where one division is Toronto/Buffalo/Pittsburgh and everything north and east from there, while another division goes Tampa/Florida to Seattle/Vancouver.

If it's a format that would make realignment because of relocations/teams folding unnecessary, my time zone-based format would do that, and it would make travel as good as possible (still way better for the Eastern teams, but even the Western ones would get a break on that)

Agree. Travel money would go through the roof, and you might have to start thinking about extra days of rest for travel and such, impacting the schedule, but even reducing the season by 4-6 games would help alleviate this. The only other way to fix a larger NHL would be to make like 6 divisions of 6 teams, but then you would have to rejig the way the playoffs work to account for a more competitive division with a winner that has less points being like the 3 seed and a non competitive division with a winner who gets a ton of points being the 1 seed and the playoff brackets being a total waste of time.

This can be dealt with as well: if you have 3 divisions per conference, you can have the winners only get seeded for home ice advantage (believe the NBA does this), so a weak division winner would seed #4, and the second strongest #2 team would be their opponent (#5 seed) - usually that #5 seed would have a better record, just would not have home ice advantage, but they finished lower in their own division, so that's arguably fair anyway.

If there were 6 divisions in each conference (which would be strange), you could have each of the winners auto-clinch a playoff spot, but not get seeded higher than their record, so weak division winners in that format could still be seeded #7 or 8 and draw the top teams, instead of ones below them.], while any strong #2 team would be seeded in line with their record

 

[Captain Mountain]

Sad for the fans but overall glad this is finally coming to an end.

I do think it's complete bs that he's making like a 300% return on his initial investment despite being such an objectively terrible owner. It was interesting to hear on 32T that there are other owners unhappy with the deal he got and that they may vote against him getting another expansion team down the line, although I find it unlikely he'd get his shit together anyway. I could see him just disappearing after he gets his $1B.

That's a result of Bettman trying to force an NHL team into Arizona.

But there's no other major league that has been more desperate to make a team work in a market, at least not in recent history. The bankruptcy hearings and the NHL taking over the team happened 15 years ago.

The biggest losers here are local Coyotes fans, followed by grassroots hockey programs. But the NHL/other owners is up there. This is a sweetheart deal for Merulo so that he doesn't cause a fuss. But it was the leagues choice to keep on doing whatever they could to keep the team in Arizona.

The best case scenario for fans in Arizona may be that Merulo's plan falls through and someone like Ishbia decides to pursue an expansion team. Bettman still desperately wants a team in the Phoenix area, but they need a plan and arena that actually doesn't require the rest of the league to bail the organization out constantly.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

there likely is no call for realignment even when the league is at 36.......

 

[Daximus]

It has such a nice ring to it. Let's make it happen, We already went with the Kraken meme, let's go full circle.

That's a result of Bettman trying to force an NHL team into Arizona.

But there's no other major league that has been more desperate to make a team work in a market, at least not in recent history. The bankruptcy hearings and the NHL taking over the team happened 15 years ago.

The biggest losers here are local Coyotes fans, followed by grassroots hockey programs. But the NHL/other owners is up there. This is a sweetheart deal for Merulo so that he doesn't cause a fuss. But it was the leagues choice to keep on doing whatever they could to keep the team in Arizona.

The best case scenario for fans in Arizona may be that Merulo's plan falls through and someone like Ishbia decides to pursue an expansion team. Bettman still desperately wants a team in the Phoenix area, but they need a plan and arena that actually doesn't require the rest of the league to bail the organization out constantly.

I think the best case scenario for Yotes fans is that Merulo bails and keeps his money and someone else steps up.

Based on what I've heard from the media, Merulo will be getting a 5 year right of refusal option but that 5 year option is void if certain steps aren't met within certain time frames. I think that if he doesn't have shovels in the ground on a new arena within a couple years of this deal then it all goes away for him and someone else can step in.

 

[D34DLYB1RDS]

It has such a nice ring to it. Let's make it happen, We already went with the Kraken meme, let's go full circle.



I think the best case scenario for Yotes fans is that Merulo bails and keeps his money and someone else steps up.

Based on what I've heard from the media, Merulo will be getting a 5 year right of refusal option but that 5 year option is void if certain steps aren't met within certain time frames. I think that if he doesn't have shovels in the ground on a new arena within a couple years of this deal then it all goes away for him and someone else can step in.

Atlanta Hawk fans almost had Meruelo as their owner.

 

[Empoleon8771]

This starts with a lot of Arizona talk and some of the terms and recent events going back to the Tempe vote.

-Tempe vote was when the NHL started seeing Meruelo differently bc they said they were so sure they would win and instead got hammered.

-Meruelo can get back in at $1B, if he hits certain benchmarks, gets arena built within 5 years, and gets BOG approval (who are very pissed off). He must win the June 27 auction. He also ostensibly has a seat at the kids table in the owners room.

-Bettman heard the noise from the PA, to which this is their #2 issue behind the international schedule.

-Arizona likely has a gag order that Bill Armstrong may have went around to inform players.

-Meruelo keeping the Roadrunners as part of the deal so their business ops can keep their jobs and keep the youth programs. Roadrunners may play at Mullett. Affiliation with Utah is not part of the deal, but can still happen.

This is actually the interesting part to me. I was thinking that the expansion team would be guaranteed as long as Meruelo got the arena built, just as a way to get Meruelo to agree to the sale. The NHL BOG being able to tell him to go screw himself is something I wasn't expecting to see in the deal, the other owners must really hate him.

The more I read, the more I think the likely outcome here is that Meruelo pockets the money and just leaves the Phoenix/NHL market entirely.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

What RT says about situation?

 

[Habaneros]

The Utah Yeti, that works ,it's marketable ....Yeti as a mascot ..it checks all the boxes.

If you want to go in another direction Utah has Wildcats...The Utah Wildcats could work.
Utah has bighorn sheep ...The Utah Ramblers

Utah has fire trucks...The ( Utah Fire Trucks)..or The (Utah Firemen)
Imagine after every goal fire engine sirens blaring over the PA system
smoke coming up from under the seating area , fire hoses shooting water into the crowd.
Players throwing fire extinguishers into the crowd.....George Straight 'The Fireman' song after every win at home. ..lol

IMAGINE in the playoffs a battle between the UTAH FIRE TRUCKS\Utah Firemen vs CALGARY FLAMES...wow..lol

 

[MMC]

 

[Dex]

I hear that you can't sink in the Great Salt Lake. So I'm going with the Salt Lake City Floaters. YMMV

 

[Goptor]

Isn't the Yeti the one in Asia?
Wouldn't Utah Bigfeet be more apropriate?

I still think the Utah tah-tahs are the best.

 

[HockeyVirus]

I feel terrible for Yotes fans. NO fan deserves to lose their team. Just a frustrating situation made even worse by keeping their owner involved when he clearly is not the solution.

I hope they build and arena and the NHL expands there and gets a new owner.

 

[Daximus]

I hear that you can't sink in the Great Salt Lake. So I'm going with the Salt Lake City Floaters. YMMV

I really do think that Salt Lake City is a better location marker than Utah but I do understand that having the broad appeal of the state is sometimes better for a team. Salt Lake City just opens up a lot more in terms of alliteration that works well.

Plus SLC as a team acronym is just nicer looking than UTA.

Salt Lake City Swarm
Salt Lake City Summit
Salt Lake City Spirits
Salt Lake City Sidewinders
Salt Lake City Punks

You also have the option of dropping city from the name and going with just Salt Lake.

Salt Lake Seagulls
Salt Lake Stingers
Salt Lake Outlaws
Salt Lake Eagles

Isn't the Yeti the one in Asia?
Wouldn't Utah Bigfeet be more apropriate?

I still think the Utah tah-tahs are the best.

Location never mattered when Seattle took the Kraken, which is a mythological creature from the Norwegian/North Sea.

 

[Three On Zero]

Crazy thing is the team was valued around 600 million but is being sold for essentially 1 billion (minus the NHL broker fee of 200 million). Crazy to think what a top valued team would go for in a situation like this.

Side Note: Please be named the Salt Lake Sinners

 

[Goalie_Bob]

Whatever Utah calls themselves, they must adopt the 'red rock' color scheme that the Jazz adopted for some of their alternate uniforms. Love this color scheme, and it's a great nod to the Utah desert landscapes.
View attachment 852157
View attachment 852159

The jagged edge down the side of the of the uniforms is killer as well. Both would be great as a set for Hockey.

 

[TheDeuce]

For my money I would tie the name/branding to an Olympic theme. The Olympics is a big part of the city’s sporting history, and tying the team into the hype for the likely upcoming winter games in SLC (and potentially more in the future) could be a boon.

Well, if they want to tie into the 2002 Winter Olympics they could go with the Utah Scandals. The Utah Bribes? The Utah Corrupt Figure Skating Judges?

Just going for the lulz.



m.