No one can ever get enough of the brackets that dominate March Madness and NCAA basketball. Not even the NHL.
So now that the team formerly known as the Phoenix Coyotes is making a move to Salt Lake City, team owner Ryan Smith has a novel idea — to select the new nickname via bracket. In other words, there stands a good chance that the process will involve an Elite Eight and Final Four.
"The goal is we want it to be by Utah, for Utah, and let our fans and our people and our players take part in creating that," Smith said on Sportsnet's 32 Thoughts podcast.
Smith and wife Ashley also own the NBA's Utah Jazz, by the way. The new hockey team will share the arena with their NBA counterparts and could also share a similar look.
"If you look at the mountains on the (Jazz) jersey, I think that kind of breeds a little bit of a color palette naturally, of fresh ice, the whole setup, blue skies, you see that," Smith said.
"You've got to leave a little room for teams to get out and do special stuff that's not going to be part of that diagram. But I think there can be a really cool symmetry and I don't think it has to just be like Pittsburgh or everything else where everything's the exact same color."
As for the bracket, Smith suggested ... well, hey, why not?
"I have my opinion but this is part of the reason why I want to do it with the fans is because unfortunately, or fortunately, my opinion weighs pretty heavily here," Smith said. "That's not what we're trying to do. I truly want this fanbase to be able to name it."
SportsNet reported that several nicknames are already being floated for the newest NHL team — such as the Blizzard, Venom, Black Diamonds, Yetis and Golden Eagles.
