Description The Utah Grizzlies were a professional ice hockey team in the ECHL. They played their home games at Maverik Center in West Valley City, Utah.
The current Utah Grizzlies franchise started in 1981 as the Nashville South Stars in Nashville, Tennessee, in the Central Hockey League. Henry Brabham then took over the team in 1983 and relocated them to Vinton, Virginia mid-season, to become the Virginia Lancers. Brabham and the Lancers were then one of the founding members of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) in 1988.
The franchise was sold and relocated several times until it went dormant after the 2002–03 season. After the American Hockey League (AHL) incarnation of the Grizzlies suspended operations in 2005, David Elmore and Donna Tuttle of the Elmore Sports Group bought the rights to the dormant ECHL franchise and moved the team to the E Center to replace the previous Grizzlies franchise.