Meet the Utah Mammoth: Inside the NHL’s fan-driven name and logo reveal

Utah Mammoth draftees at next month’s NHL Draft will be the first to don the team’s new uniforms. The Mammoth were one of the big winners in this week’s Draft Lottery, moving up from No. 14 overall to No. 4, which is a significant development for a franchise already loaded with prospects. The team released new merchandise available to fans on Wednesday, though jerseys will not be for sale until closer to the start of the 2025-26 season in October.

Utah’s inaugural color palette will remain – termed as Black Rock, Salt White and Mountain Blue – along with the original colors and striping from their first-year jerseys. It’s the Mountain Mammoth logo that will adorn the Black Rock home jersey, with U-T-A-H scripted across the Salt White away jersey – so there will be no confusion in visiting arenas about where the Mammoth hail from.

There are a number of easter eggs hidden within the Mammoth’s new identity. The team says the Mammoth logo “captures the fierce power of the mammoth mid-charge, tusks up and ready to attack.” The nearby Wasatch Mountain Range’s snow-capped peaks forms the Mammoth’s crown. The outline of Utah is subtly embedded in the mountain silhouette and the curved tusk is in the shape of a “U” for Utah. The tusk will also be featured on the Mammoth’s black hockey pants.

In the Mammoth’s secondary wordmark, a curved tusk is embedded into the “U.” Utah’s permanent brand identity was developed in collaboration with design firm Doubleday & Cartwright and includes a custom designed typeface named Mammoth Sans, which features a 10-degree forward slant that the Mammoth say mirrors Utah’s mountainous terrain, Utah’s famous stair step and what the team says is an upward trajectory. The Mammoth Sans font will be featured on player jersey nameplates as well as numbers.

There is one other North American professional sports team named the Mammoth, playing out of Colorado in the indoor National Lacrosse League, a franchise owned by the Colorado Avalanche parent company. The Utah Mammoth said they were in “regular dialogue” with Kroenke Sports and Entertainment and got their blessing to name the NHL club the Mammoth, which also included a lengthy trademark process. The club also explored naming the team Utah Yeti, a choice in the fan vote, but moved on once it became clear that process was clouded with brand confusion because of the existing cooler and outdoor company.

According to the team, Mammoth was the “clear favorite” and “prevailing choice” among the 850,000 votes cast. The organization said they wanted this process to be a “two-way conversation with our fans,” and moved quickly in a branding process that typically takes more than two years and involves many NHL stakeholders.

There is undoubtedly a great historical significance that connects the Mammoth to Utah. Fossils of Mammoths, which weighed up to 22,000 pounds, have been found throughout Utah in Bear Lake, Park City and most notably Huntington Canyon, where a complete skeleton was discovered in 1988.