For 28 of the last 30 years, the Utah Grizzlies have been the lone professional hockey team in the state of Utah. On Sunday, they play their final game.
The Grizzlies announced in September that they’re moving to Trenton, New Jersey, at the conclusion of the season, having been sold to Pro Hockey Partners, LLC. They’ll henceforth be known as the Trenton Ironhawks.
While one might assume the team couldn’t stay afloat with the Utah Mammoth offering select NHL tickets in the same price range as the lower-level Grizzlies, it actually had more to do with internal matters.
Owner David Elmore passed away in 2023, followed by President and CEO Kevin Bruder in 2025. And with the declining health of Elmore’s wife, Donna Tuttle, it was time to hand the reins to someone else.
The Grizzlies have four games left. They’ll visit the Idaho Steelheads on Tuesday and then return home for a three-game set against the Rapid City Rush on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s game has been dubbed “Fan Appreciation Night,” where they will celebrate the team’s legacy.
With three consecutive wins and victories in six of their last seven games, the Grizzlies are determined to go out on a high note.
About the Utah Grizzlies
The Grizzlies arrived in Salt Lake City in 1995–96 after relocating from Denver, where they used the same name. In the previous season, the team had won the Turner Cup, the championship trophy in the now-defunct International Hockey League, but was forced to move when Denver got an NHL team.
In their first year in Utah, the team repeated as Turner Cup champions.
When the IHL dissolved, the Grizzlies joined the American Hockey League, where they would stay for four seasons before moving to the ECHL (formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League, though it now just uses the letters with no meaning attached to them), where they’d remain until the present day.
Over the years, the team has been the secondary minor-league affiliate of four different NHL teams: the New York Islanders, the Calgary Flames, the Anaheim Ducks and the Colorado Avalanche.
Dozens of NHL players have spent time with the Grizzlies, whether before or after their major-league careers or during lockout seasons.
Among them are a number of prominent names, including:
- Hockey Hall of Famer Scott Niedermayer
- 2003 NHL First-Team All-Star Todd Bertuzzi
- 2012 NHL Second-Team All-Star Ray Whitney
- IIHL Hall of Famer Žigmund Pálffy
- Current NHL head coaches Jim Montgomery, Sheldon Keefe and Scott Arniel