The new NHL team based in Salt Lake City will be known as the Utah Hockey Club in its first season.
The Arizona Coyotes franchise was sold to Utah Jazz owners Smith Entertainment Group in April, and that sale finally closed on Thursday. Although the Coyotes’ intellectual property remains the property of owner Alex Meruelo, Utah acquired the franchise, its players and its hockey operations department as part of the sale. He starts playing next season.
“Today is a monumental day for the state of Utah as we officially close the creation of a new NHL franchise,” said Ryan Smith, Utah Hockey Club Governor and Chairman of the Smith Entertainment Group. “The NHL has been incredible to work with throughout this process, providing us with invaluable guidance and support. We have a ton of work to do – training camp starts in less than 100 days – and we don’t might be more excited about what lies ahead.”
🪨Black rock🪨
◽White salt◽
🩵Mountain blue🩵#UtahHC pic.twitter.com/xQW5grjJ1i– UtahHockeyClub (@utahhockeyclub) June 13, 2024
A fan vote for the official team name and mascot is underway. The next round of voting will end on June 20 and there will be another round beyond that. The names still in the running are Mammoth, Yeti, Outlaws, Blizzard, Venom and Utah Hockey Club. A name will be chosen before the 2025-26 season.
“Utah Hockey Club” is a temporary name, but its color scheme will be the franchise’s official color scheme going forward.
The Utah Hockey Club will have jerseys simply reading “Utah” on the front during the 2024-25 season. The team’s colors are “rocky black”, which “represents both the darkness of night in the mountains and the volcanic rock of the Utah desert”; “salt white,” which illustrates “both the snow of Utah’s peaks and our famous salt marshes”; and “mountain blue,” which represents the team’s winter sports history and “clear skies 230 days a year.”
The team began trademarking names and logos related to the Utah Hockey Club earlier this month.
The team’s home uniform will be rock black with “Utah” across the chest in stair letters. It will feature salt white and mountain blue stripes on each arm, the bottom of the jersey and on the socks. The team’s away uniform will be salt white with “Utah” on the chest in the same stair lettering.
The Utah Hockey Club will intentionally have complementary colors to the recently released new Utah Jazz color scheme. The team worked with design firm Doubleday & Cartwright on these jerseys and official branding going forward.
Official Utah Hockey Club merchandise will be available for sale during the team’s NHL Draft Night on June 28.
