The Utah Hockey Club has officially joined the NHL.
Nearly two months after the NHL Board of Governors approved the establishment of a franchise beginning with the 2024-25 season in Utah, Smith Entertainment Group, led by Ryan and Ashley Smith, on Thursday formally closed its transactions -- announced on April 18 -- establishing the Utah Hockey Club.
"Today is a monumental day for the state of Utah as we officially close on the establishment of a new NHL franchise," said Ryan Smith, governor of Utah Hockey Club and chairman of 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 could not be more excited about what's to come."
Said NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman: "On behalf of the Board of Governors, I am delighted to officially welcome Utah to the National Hockey League. Congratulations to Ryan and Ashley Smith, their entire organization, the state of Utah and the fans as the Club continues its exciting march toward puck drop in October."
The first post from the team under the handle @UtahHockeyClub contained a hype video.
Other posts included the team's uniforms, logos and color schemes for its first season.
According to a press release, the color palette consists of rock black, representing the darkness of night in the mountains and the volcanic rock of Utah's deserts; salt white, illustrating both the snow on Utah's peaks and the famous salt flats; and mountain blue, a representation of Utah's rich winter sports history and its clear skies for more than 230 days a year. The distinctive colors will establish the cornerstone of the club's brand as it evolves through the team's name selection ahead of the 2025-26 NHL season. The selected color palette for Utah's first NHL team is also intentionally complementary to that of the Utah Jazz -- also owned by SEG -- whose expanded colors were introduced last week and include a similar sky blue as a tertiary color.
The Utah Hockey Club's home uniform will be rock black with UTAH across the chest in stairstep lettering and feature salt white and mountain blue striping across each arm, the bottom of the jersey, and on the socks. The team's away uniform will be salt white with UTAH across the chest in the same stairstep lettering. The away jersey will feature rock black and mountain blue striping. The inclusion of stairstep lettering, two-ply twill, zig-zag stitchdown appliqué, and triple striping on sleeves and socks complete the image of an emerging club steeped in the traditions of hockey's heritage.
It also launched its website, UtahHockeyClub.com, and its social media channels -- @UtahHockeyClub -- on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
The team could have a new name for the 2025-26 season, with a fan vote narrowing the choices down to six: Utah Blizzard, Utah Hockey Club (Utah HC), Utah Mammoth, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom and Utah Yeti.
The voting is open until June 20. Details on the final steps in the name selection process will be announced in the coming months.
Ryan and Ashley Smith, who purchased the contracts of Arizona Coyotes executives, coaches and players, will have the team play at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, home of the Jazz since 1991-92.
The Arizona franchise is inactive after playing in the Greater Phoenix area since relocating from Winnipeg for the 1996-97 season.
The Utah Hockey Club currently has the No. 6 selection in the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft, which will be held at Sphere in Las Vegas. The first round is June 28 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS) and rounds 2-7 are June 29 (11:30 a.m. ET; ESPN+, NHLN, SN, SN1).
Utah general manager Bill Armstrong told NHL.com at the Scouting Combine earlier this month that nothing has changed in how the hockey operations department is approaching the draft.
"I think that's one of the reasons that they brought everybody from the hockey ops, is to keep the process the same," Armstrong said. "I think our staff has done a tremendous job at acquiring prospects and going through the draft and just accumulating a good mass of prospects in a short period of time. So, I think they're excited about the process that we've developed here and the talent, not only that we've drafted but also in our staff that allows us to kind of feed the engine every year."
Defenseman could be an area Utah focuses on at No. 6, with Sam Dickinson of London of the Ontario Hockey League, Carter Yakemchuk of Calgary of the Western Hockey League, Zeev Buium of the University of Denver, Zayne Parekh of Saginaw of the OHL and Stian Solberg of Valerenga in Norway among potential options.
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