Wannaskan Almanac for Tuesday, February 11, 2025 Yet I Trouble

So...Utah has a hockey team currently called the Utah Hockey Club.  This is because they want to call themselves the Yeti, but there is a problem with that since there is a company already selling products under the name Yeti.  We will sort it all out in this article.

Ooh...what a unique name and logo...what is that circular shape?

Way back in 1996 the town of Winnipeg suffered the indignity of having their hockey team moved to Phoenix.  In doing so, the Winnipeg Jets (1.0) became the Phoenix Coyotes.  Not one to keep things the same, the Phoenix Coyotes changed their name to the Arizona Coyotes.  Finally, last year, the Arizona Coyotes relocated to Utah and chose the unique name of the Utah Hockey Club.  I know.  It is a dumb name.  I mean...hockey isn't like soccer where they name all their teams the (insert city name here) Football Club.  Even that seems a little tough for soccer owners so they shorten it to (insert city name here) FC.  Just look at the MLS teams.  Austin FC.  Charlotte FC.  Toronto FC.  At least Montreal mixed it up and called themselves CF Montreal.  

FC...it stands for Soccer somehow

FC actually stands for Football Club.  For those of you who don't understand Europeans, football is what we call soccer in America.  I believe that Europeans describe what we call "football" as rugby, or weird rugby.  All this is said just to show that soccer has boring names but hockey has real names.  Hockey teams are cool...like the Oilers, Red Wings, and the poorly spelled Canadiens.  They don't have names like the such and such hockey club because they aren't soccer teams.  But then along comes Utah...and what do they do?  The Utah Hockey Club.  Utah HC.  Was it a vain attempt to trick soccer fans into watching a game?  The answer, of course, is no.

You see, the Utah Hockey Club name is just a placeholder.  The plan was to call the Utah team the Yeti.  There was big plans to sell all kinds of Yeti merchandise at exhorbitant prices.  They wanted to sell mugs and coolers and hockey sticks and jerseys at a huge markup.  The problem was that there was already over-priced Yeti merchandise out there courtesy of Yeti Inc.  Go ahead and click on the link.  It is safe...to everything except your wallet!  So Yeti Inc. doesn't want another Yeti organization selling overpriced merchandise.  It could cut into their niche.  

Actual Yeti hockey player

So, while the Utah Hockey club and Yeti Inc. fight it out for who has the right to sell cheap Chinese goods at outrageously high prices, the hockey world is left with the boring name of Utah HC.  This might be for the best as I would hate to see this cup raised at the hockey championship.  

Your Yeti cup champions!

*Note...after being threatened by both the admirably named Utah Hockey Club and Yeti Inc. (makers of fine products) we are forced to add that the above facts are completely fictional, and bear no resemblance to any real situation in modern or post-modern times.

*Note Note...After the writing of this article the Utah Hockey Club has decided not to pursue the name "Yeti".  Crisis averted.