Very rarely do you see a team relocate only to start off as a new franchise, but that’s the case with the Utah Hockey Club. In recent memory, this has happened just once, and it occurred when the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens, only for the former to be “reactivated” in 1999.
The Ravens, on the other hand, did not start play in 1946, as would have been the case if they retained the Browns history. Instead, their history begins in 1996, just as Utah’s begins in 2024, and not 1996 or 1972.
This was supposed to be the case regarding the Arizona Coyotes, which is why Utah is considered to be an expansion team, but not in a traditional way. Recall that when the NHL expanded in 2017 and 2021, they held a pair of expansion drafts for the incoming Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken, but that wasn’t the case for Utah.
Instead, the Rock Black and Mountain Blue retained the Coyotes lineup and prospects pool, but the franchise itself is a new one with a brewing identity and no history. This is unlike the Coyotes, who themselves generated from the relocation of the old Winnipeg Jets, who played in Manitoba from 1972 to 1996.
In a way, this kind of makes Utah not the Baltimore Ravens of the NHL, as it looks like it would take nothing short of a miracle for the Coyotes to return within five years at this point, but instead, the Indianapolis Colts of the NHL. Okay, so you might find that confusing, but let me explain.
Utah Hockey Club’s expansion is unique but kind of complicated
If you know anything about the Colts, they started off in 1953, ironically in Baltimore. But thanks to a long, winding history, they can trace their roots to 1913, beginning with a franchise known as the Dayton Triangles. In a sense, you can see where I’m getting here with Utah since, in a manner of speaking, one can sort of claim that the franchise’s roots date back to 1972 with the original Winnipeg Jets.
Following the 1995-96 season, the Jets, facing financial constraints, sought refuge in the Phoenix, Arizona area, which, in turn, led to the rather forgettable history of the Coyotes that lasted nearly three decades. So, here in Salt Lake City, while the franchise begins its first season, its unofficial origins trace back much further, making Utah’s lineage 53 years old as of the 2024-25 season.
Officially, Utah will always be formally considered an expansion team that started play in 2024-25, but if fans in Salt Lake City are history buffs, it’s more than worth exploring a little more than a half-century’s worth of history that began north of the border in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and has made its latest, and hopefully greatest, stop in Utah.