The Mammoth are the NHL's newest franchise — born in 2024 when the Arizona Coyotes' hockey operations moved to Salt Lake City. They played their first season as the Utah Hockey Club, a placeholder, before the fans chose the Mammoth: the tusks-up logo, the prehistoric power, and a name as big as the mountains. Utah had waited decades for major pro hockey; the Mammoth arrived to a frenzy.
The Coyotes' history came with the move — the Winnipeg Jets origins, the long desert struggle in Arizona, the devoted fans who fought for years to keep the team. But the Mammoth are a fresh start: new city, new name, new energy. The Delta Center crowds were electric from night one, proving what the league had long suspected: Salt Lake City is a hockey town waiting to happen.
The young core — Clayton Keller's brilliance, the pipeline of talent — gives the Mammoth a real foundation. The task now is the same one every new franchise faces: turn excitement into contention, and contention into a first banner. The tusks are up; the climb begins.
The Mammoth (2024-present) are the league's newest team: the 2024 the the franchise's move to Salt Lake City (the the owner's rescue), the 2024-25 89-point inaugural season (the playoff miss, the the the young core's fight) — the arrival. The 2025 name unveiling (the Mammoth, the fan vote, the the identity) was the coronation: Utah's team, Utah's name. The 2025-26 season (the the expectation, the the the core's growth) is the present. The Coyotes' history (the 2012 conference finals) is the baggage; the Mammoth's future the promise. The Delta Center's Salt Lake City crowd brings the 2024-25 memory: the inaugural roar, the 2024 sellouts, the belief that Utah's team belongs. The Central wars define the winter. What the Mammoth are now is a franchise arriving — the Cooley-Keller youth the hope, the 2024-25 inaugural fight the proof, and the playoff the goal. In Salt Lake City, the tusks are up, and the Mammoth's era has just begun.
What defines the Mammoth is the beginning: no Cups, no history, just a prehistoric name and a mountain of potential. In Utah, the Mammoth aren't just a relocated team — they're the start of something, and the whole state is along for the ride.
