Utah Hockey Club

The Utah Hockey Club is a professional ice hockey expansion team that will be based in Salt Lake City. The team will compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and will begin play during the league's 2024–25 season. The team will play its home games at the Delta Center, the home of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with plans being made to remodel the arena to make it more suitable for both franchises.

The team was created on April 18, 2024, in a deal that essentially split the existing Arizona Coyotes franchise in half. The NHL Board of Governors approved the establishment of a franchise in Salt Lake City, to be owned by businessman and Jazz owner Ryan Smith. In lieu of an expansion draft to stock the new team, Smith acquired the hockey assets (players, coaching staff and draft picks) of the Coyotes, which suspended hockey operations at the same time. The team will play its inaugural season in 2024–25 with a temporary name and colors, while a full identity is developed in time for 2025–26. The team's name, colors and jerseys for their inaugural season were revealed on June 13, 2024.

History

Background and establishment

History of ice hockey in Salt Lake City

Prior to the arrival of the NHL, Salt Lake City had limited ice hockey history. The first team to call the area home, the minor-league Salt Lake Golden Eagles, played 25 seasons across the Western Hockey League (WHL), Central Hockey League (CHL), and International Hockey League (IHL) from 1969 to 1994. Playing out of the Salt Palace for their first 22 seasons and the then-new Delta Center for their final three, the Golden Eagles won two Adams Cup championships in the CHL and two Turner Cup championships in the IHL, before ultimately being sold and relocating to Auburn Hills, Michigan, as the Detroit Vipers after the 1993–94 IHL season.

After just one season out of ice hockey, Salt Lake received another IHL franchise in 1995, as the reigning Turner Cup champion Denver Grizzlies, having been replaced by the newly relocated Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, relocated to the Delta Center for the 1995–96 season as the Utah Grizzlies. The Grizzlies spent two seasons in Salt Lake City proper, including a second consecutive Turner Cup championship in 1996; notably, the Cup-clinching game 4 of the Turner Cup Finals saw an attendance of 17,381, at the time the largest attendance in minor-league ice hockey history. The Grizzlies later moved to the newly constructed E Center (since renamed the Maverik Center) in the suburb of West Valley City for the 1997–98 IHL season, and joined the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2001 alongside five other surviving IHL franchises upon the latter's collapse. However, the Grizzlies voluntarily suspended operations for the 2005–06 season, before being sold to Dan Gilbert, the owner of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, and relocating to Cleveland, Ohio, as the Lake Erie Monsters (later Cleveland Monsters) for the 2007–08 season.

The AHL iteration of the Grizzlies were subsequently replaced by a relocated ECHL franchise of the same name; the franchise had most recently played in Lexington, Kentucky, as the Lexington Men O' War but had become dormant after the 2002–03 ECHL season. The new Grizzlies began play out of the E Center in 2005, immediately after their AHL predecessor had gone dormant, and have played 19 seasons in the ECHL since. However, the franchise has been comparatively unsuccessful; although they have missed the playoffs only three times, they have won just one division championship and no conference championships, only having reached the conference finals twice.

The Delta Center has hosted multiple Los Angeles Kings preseason games as part of the NHL's Frozen Fury series. However, the arena was not considered well suited to host ice hockey permanently, owing to poor sightlines and broadcasting capabilities. The Maverik Center, and the Peaks Ice Arena in the suburb of Provo, hosted the ice hockey tournaments at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which featured NHL players. Salt Lake City is also the preferred host city for the 2034 Winter Olympics.

Establishment of the team

Salt Lake City initially emerged as a potential NHL destination in June 2023, with rumors regarding the Arizona Coyotes' potential relocation spreading after the failure of the New Tempe Arena referendum. Six months later, in January 2024, Ryan Smith, owner of the NBA's Utah Jazz and co-owner of Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake, petitioned the NHL to begin the process of expansion to Salt Lake City. Discussions to bring an expansion team to the city were revealed to have been underway since early 2022, with the Utah State Senate passing tax legislation in February 2024 to support a new ice hockey-capable downtown arena proposed by Smith; the only condition asked by the Senate was that any potential team be branded "Utah" to honor the state in general, as opposed to any branding using Salt Lake City.

On April 13, 2024, it was reported that, with the NHL's permission, the Coyotes were making efforts to relocate to Salt Lake City following concerns about an indefinite timeframe on a new arena and the effects of continued play at the 4,600-seat Mullett Arena. The deal became official on April 18 after the NHL Board of Governors voted to establish a team in Utah using the Coyotes' hockey assets; under the terms of the agreement, rather than a formal relocation the Coyotes will be considered "inactive", with Utah regarded as an expansion team in a similar situation to the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League.

While the deal was reported in the media as a $1.2 billion "sale" of the Coyotes, it is in reality two separate transactions in which $1 billion is being paid by the NHL to Alex Meruelo for the Coyotes franchise while Smith is paying a $1.2 billion expansion fee to the NHL's other owners. The $200 million difference is thus in effect a '' de facto'' relocation fee to be shared equally by the other 31 NHL clubs. According to Smith, the team sold more than 11,000 season-ticket deposits in the four hours after going on sale, with 6,000 sold in the first two hours. The team was formally introduced at the Delta Center on April 26, with over 12,000 fans attending a welcome celebration featuring players and coaches. On May 6, the Smith Entertainment Group announced that a practice facility would be built for the team in the nearby suburb of Sandy, Utah. On June 13, the NHL announced that the sale of the franchise had officially been completed and that the team would go by the name "Utah Hockey Club" for their inaugural season. On June 17, Utah made their first official player signing, with former Coyotes third-round pick Noel Nordh signing his three-year entry-level contract.

Team identity

Name

The team was initially introduced without a name, though Smith confirmed on April 18, 2024, that the franchise would use the "Utah" state moniker, rather than Salt Lake City. After emphasizing not wanting to "rush" the naming process, Smith announced on April 22 that the team identity would be chosen via an eight-name bracket, voted on by fans using the Smith-founded Qualtrics platform. In the days surrounding the team's founding, a law firm filed trademarks for a multitude of names on behalf of an anonymously owned LLC; these included Utah Hockey Club (Utah HC), Blizzard, Fury, Venom, Yetis, Outlaws, Ice, and Mammoth.

On May 8, the Smith Entertainment Group confirmed the team would play their first season simply named "Utah", with no logo, mascot, or official team colors, and "Utah" written across the jerseys. At the same time, SEG released a Qualtrics poll featuring the 20 name finalists. The options included Black Diamonds, Blast, Blizzard, Canyons, Caribou, Freeze, Frost, Fury, Glaciers, Utah HC (Hockey Club), Hive, Ice, Mammoth, Mountaineers, Outlaws, Powder, Squall, Swarm, Venom, and Yeti. On May 29, Smith confirmed on the Pat McAfee Show that the club had narrowed the list down to four names, specifically mentioning the Mammoth and the Yeti. On June 6, however, the six finalists were revealed to be Blizzard, Utah HC, Mammoth, Outlaws, Venom, and Yeti, and a second round of polling began.

On June 13, it was announced that the team would be known as the Utah Hockey Club for the 2024–25 NHL season.

Logo, colors, and uniforms

On June 13, the same day that the temporary name was revealed, the team also released their logos, colors, and jerseys for the inaugural season; the primary logo depicts a roundel with a "Utah" wordmark in the center, ringed with "Hockey Club" and colored with mountain blue, rock black, and salt white. The secondary logo features a "Utah Hockey Club" wordmark over an outline of Utah itself. The home uniforms consisted of a black base with a diagonal "UTAH" wordmark across the front, with blue and white striping, with the road uniforms utilizing a white base with black and blue striping.

Team information

Broadcasting

Television

On April 18, 2024, shortly after the establishment of the team, it was announced that the team had reached an agreement with the E.W. Scripps Company to broadcast Utah NHL games on their Provo-based station KUPX-TV. KUPX, branded as Utah 16, had previously served as a regional affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights' television network, and also broadcast select Arizona Coyotes games.

Players and personnel

Current roster

Owners

The team is owned by Smith Entertainment Group, which is controlled by businessman Ryan Smith and his wife Ashley Smith.

General managers

* Bill Armstrong, 2024–present

Head coaches

* Andre Tourigny, 2024–present

First-round draft picks

* 2024: Tij Iginla (6th overall), Cole Beaudoin (24th overall)

References

External links

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2024 establishments in Utah
Central Division (NHL)
Ice hockey clubs established in 2024
Ice hockey teams in Utah
National Hockey League teams
Sports in Salt Lake City
Proposed sports clubs and teams
National Hockey League expansion teams