50 Fun Facts About Utah Mammoth

In which season did the Utah franchise begin NHL play?

It spent that first season as the placeholder 'Utah Hockey Club'.

Whose hockey assets were used to stock the new Utah team instead of an expansion draft?

The Coyotes franchise was declared 'inactive', much like the Browns-Ravens split in the NFL.

Ryan Smith already owned which NBA team when the NHL granted him a franchise in April 2024?

Ryan Smith and his wife Ashley control the club through Smith Entertainment Group.

Ryan Smith co-founded which Provo-based experience-management company?

He started it at BYU with his father and brother, dropped out, and finished his degree in 2016.

How much was the expansion fee Smith paid to the NHL's other owners?

The league separately paid Alex Meruelo $1 billion for the Coyotes, so the $200 million gap acted as a relocation fee.

Under what temporary name did the team play its inaugural season?

Fans dubbed themselves the 'Clubbers' and still use the nickname.

On what date was the permanent 'Mammoth' name revealed?

Leaks of a changed YouTube handle had tipped it off a week earlier.

Which name, widely expected even by players, was blocked by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office?

It was too close to the company name Yeti Holdings.

Which mountain-range name was on the naming survey for one day before 'Outlaws' replaced it?

It was meant to evoke a Utah-centric snow creature after the Yeti fell through.

Which of these was NOT one of the six naming finalists announced on June 6, 2024?

Glaciers made the 20-name poll but not the final six of Blizzard, Utah HC, Mammoth, Outlaws, Venom and Yeti.

Which fan-survey platform, founded by the owner, ran the naming polls?

The first poll listed 20 candidates from Black Diamonds to Yeti.

Which colour trio makes up the Mammoth's scheme?

The colours carried over unchanged from the Utah Hockey Club season.

What is hidden in the top of the mammoth's head in the primary logo?

One of the peaks also traces the outline of the state of Utah.

Which condition did Utah's Senate attach when it passed arena tax legislation in February 2024?

Discussions with the NHL had quietly been under way since early 2022.

Roughly how many season-ticket deposits did Utah sell in the first four hours?

Six thousand went in the first two hours.

Which suburb hosts the Mammoth's purpose-built practice facility?

Ground was broken there on August 12, 2024.

Who was Utah's first-ever draft pick, taken sixth overall in 2024?

He is the son of Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla and was playing for the Kelowna Rockets.

Whom did Utah name its first captain on October 4, 2024?

He had been the Coyotes' only four-time All-Star.

Whom did Utah beat 5-2 in its first regular-season game on October 8, 2024?

The Delta Center crowd was 16,020.

Who scored the first goal in franchise history?

He added an empty-netter later and had just signed an eight-year, $57 million extension.

Where did Utah play its first-ever preseason game, a neutral-site win over St. Louis?

It was at Wells Fargo Arena on September 22, 2024.

What was Utah's record in its inaugural 2024-25 season?

Sixth in the Central Division and out of the playoffs.

What league first did Utah achieve during its 2025-26 season?

It was the first time since the shootout arrived in 2005; the season ended in a first playoff berth.

Which mascot filled in for Utah during its inaugural season?

The permanent mascot arrived a year later.

What is the name of the blue woolly mammoth mascot unveiled in October 2025?

He debuted before the first home game under the Mammoth name.

Which name did Utah fans adopt for themselves during the first season?

It plays on the 'Hockey Club' placeholder.

Which AHL affiliate did Utah inherit from the Coyotes?

The Allen Americans served as ECHL affiliate for one season.

Which minor-league club played in the city from 1969 to 1994 before becoming the Detroit Vipers?

They won three Adams Cups and two Turner Cups and opened both the Salt Palace and the Delta Center.

The 1995 Utah Grizzlies were a relocated IHL champion from which city, displaced by the Avalanche?

Their Cup clincher drew 17,381, then a minor-league record crowd.

Which two venues hosted the 2002 Olympic hockey tournaments in the Salt Lake area?

The Delta Center hosted figure skating and short track as the 'Salt Lake Ice Center'.

Salt Lake City was awarded a second Winter Olympics in 2024 for which year?

The IOC confirmed the bid on 24 July 2024; Delta Center is slated to host the ice hockey for those Games.

Which Utah businessman privately financed the Delta Center, opened in 1991?

It cost $93 million and the Jazz court was later named for him.

Which radioactive-waste company's 2006 naming deal earned the arena nicknames like 'the Chernobowl'?

Vivint took over in 2015 and Delta returned in 2023.

What was the Delta Center's official hockey capacity for Utah's first regular-season game?

Renovations are removing obstructed seats and lengthening the bowl by 12 feet at each end.

Roughly how much did Ryan Smith secure for Delta Center renovations and a nearby district?

About $525 million of it goes to the arena itself, with work running until October 2027.

Where did Utah's first NHL captain, Clayton Keller, play his one college season?

He won the Tim Taylor Award there; he was born in Chesterfield, Missouri, and raised across the river in Swansea, Illinois.

Which gold medal did Keller and Logan Cooley help the United States win in 2025, its first since 1933?

Cooley had four goals and eight assists in ten games.

Logan Cooley became the first Mammoth player to do what in a November 2025 win over Vegas?

He had signed an eight-year, $10 million-a-year extension a month earlier.

Which QMJHL club did Utah's first head coach, Andre Tourigny, run for 11 years?

He later won World Junior gold as Canada's head coach in 2020 and 2021.

Which team traded Mikhail Sergachev to Utah in June 2024 for Conor Geekie and J.J. Moser?

He keeps backyard chickens in Utah and brings the spare eggs to teammates.

The scorer of the first Mammoth goal also netted an overtime gold-medal winner for Canada at which event?

He scored twice against the Czech Republic in that final.

Which Provo-based station carried Utah's NHL telecasts from the 2024–25 season?

It had previously aired the Coyotes; games also streamed on Mammoth+, formerly UtahHC+.

Who was the first player Utah officially signed, on June 17, 2024?

The former Coyotes third-round pick signed a three-year entry-level deal, just under two weeks before the team's first draft.

Whom did Utah select fourth overall in the 2025 NHL entry draft?

A year later the club took Ethan Belchetz 17th overall in the 2026 draft.

Who was Utah's first general manager when the NHL team was founded in 2024?

He came over with the rest of the Coyotes hockey operation, as did first head coach Andre Tourigny.

Which former Coyotes announcer was hired in September 2024 as Utah's TV play-by-play voice?

Dominic Moore and Nick Olczyk joined him as analysts, while Mike Folta took the radio call on KSL Sports Zone.

Which ECHL club served as Utah's affiliate for the 2024–25 season under a one-year deal?

For 2025–26 the Mammoth went without an ECHL affiliate, while keeping the AHL's Tucson Roadrunners.

How many goals did Dylan Guenther score in 2025–26 to set the franchise single-season record?

That same season Clayton Keller set the assists record with 62, and Karel Vejmelka the wins record with 38.

What did Utah achieve for the first time in the 2025–26 season?

The Mammoth clinched the first wild-card spot in the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs in only their second season.

Which 1996 Utah Grizzlies game drew 17,381 fans, then a minor-league hockey attendance record?

The Grizzlies had arrived from Denver a year earlier, displaced by the NHL's newly relocated Colorado Avalanche.