The Utah Hockey Club is making progress on its lasting brand identity

MANALAPAN, Fla – Following Monday’s meeting of the NHL’s Board of Governors, top officials from the Utah Hockey Club and the NHL discussed developing the team’s lasting brand identity.

Utah owner Ryan Smith and president of hockey operations Chris Armstrong sat with Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, and Brian Jennings, the league’s senior executive vice president of marketing and chief branding officer.

“We’re in the middle of the (jersey) design process for next season, which is closely tied to our brand identity and what we’re going to do there,” Armstrong said. “We’re all working within the timelines and trying to get creative to give ourselves as much wiggle room as we can get all the pieces to line up properly.”

Developing a new NHL jersey alone is said to be an 18-month effort that includes design, brand approval, sourcing raw materials and ultimately producing game and retail versions.

The NHL created the new franchise on April 18, giving Utah about five months before its first training camp and about 17 months before its second training camp. The team decided to use a temporary brand identity this season while developing a permanent one.

When the first jerseys went on sale on November 15, Utah set sales records.

The deadline for decisions on permanent brand identity is approaching.

“I would say we are on the verge of having to make some decisions,” Armstrong said. “I would say early in the new year. Everyone has tried their best to work flexibly – or stay away from fixed deadlines – because it is a complicated process, especially on the (intellectual property) side. Just make sure we have everything sorted and buttoned up before we make any firm decisions.”

Any announcement or reveal will likely come after the season.

“That’s what we think now,” Armstrong said. “We said that we didn’t want to take the wind out of our sails in the first season. We have received such a great response and momentum in our inaugural season and we want the focus to continue to be on this inaugural season and the efforts our players are putting in to make it a successful season. We don’t want to dominate this conversation with questions about what we might or might not be next year. I think that’s important.”

Due to the tight time frame, Utah is still a work in progress in many ways. The team skates in a makeshift practice facility; A permanent building is under construction and is scheduled to open in September. The Delta Center first had to be renovated for this season. Utah is still finalizing the plan for the next phase of renovations and will begin after the team and the NBA’s Utah Jazz finish their seasons.

But Smith and Armstrong knew a lot of people in the NHL before Utah joined. Although this is Utah’s first appearance at the large annual Board of Governors meeting in December, Smith has previously appeared at a smaller Board of Governors meeting. Armstrong attended two events and met regularly with people from around the league.

“I feel like we had a good opportunity to get to know everyone,” Armstrong said. “And when I’m out with the team, like I’ve been this year, I’ve been able to connect with people, see them before games and at games and have a little more meaningful conversation than just a quick hello in the room Put your feet up.”

Other NHL teams were helpful.

The Seattle Kraken, which was an expansion team in 2021-22, provided guidance on the practice facility. The same was true for the Edmonton Oilers, even during their run to the Stanley Cup Final last season.

Utah brought marketing and game presentation staff to the road games, and the teams took them behind the scenes in their production rooms. The Vegas Golden Knights, who began playing as an expansion team in 2017-18 and became known for their game presentation, were particularly open about it.

After Utah’s 4-2 win at Philadelphia on Sunday, the Philadelphia Flyers even took Armstrong to Monday’s meeting here.

“Those little things really made us feel like we had been a part of this community for longer than we had been here, which was great,” Armstrong said. “Everyone was very supportive of our journey to a successful launch and shared their insights and best practices in many areas on the business side that were helpful to us.”

Armstrong chatted with others about Utah’s new jerseys at Monday’s meeting.

“As I’ve said before, given how well the jerseys have been received this year, I think we respect the feedback from our fans and want to try to keep things essentially similar next year,” he said . “It will of course be updated with our identity and some small changes that, based on this year’s feedback, we believe can improve the jerseys even further.

“But yes, as I said today (to a group of colleagues), we’re going to have a while to catch up and that’s why everyone has recognized that and worked with us to make sure we do things the right way.” under the right conditions.”