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Utah Hockey Club Unveils New White Uniforms and Rink Details

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Good Tuesday morning, Uni Watchers. I hope everyone had a pleasant Monday.

The 2024-25 NHL season is fast approaching, and the league’s “newest” team, the Utah Hockey Club (UHC), have finally unveiled their white road sweaters and also some important details about their new arena. We also got some new looks at the Club’s home uniforms, which were first unveiled during the NHLPA’s Rookie Showcase last week.

There’s a lot to get to, so let’s take things one at a time.

Although we’d already seen the full UHC home uniform at the Showcase, the team “officially” unveiled them via video.

The team showed off a close up view of their black sweater. Note the “Inaugural Season” patch on each shoulder. Also note the striping around the collar. There is a thin blue stripe which goes almost entirely around the collar, stopping in the front where the NHL logo is placed. There is also a thicker white stripe that goes about three-quarters of the way around. That detail was present, but not readily apparent, in the initial jersey graphic unveiled by the team.

We also got some looks at the full home uniform on the ice. Jerseys have white block NOB, and jersey numbers are white with a blue outline. Home helmets are black, and feature an outline of the State of Utah in white with blue “UTAH” letters atop the graphic. The pants are black and stripeless.

Other than the collar stripe treatment, I think this is a pretty solid uniform to serve as a one-year placeholder until the team completes the process of selecting a name. Utah has not yet announced the name of the team but has narrowed the list down to six finalists. Those names are the Blizzard, Mammoth, Outlaws, Venom, Yeti or sticking with Hockey Club and simply going by “Utah HC.” The ownership group expects to have an identity, mascot, logos, and branding ready before the start of the 2025-26 season. In addition, the Club showed some closeup of the detail of the sleeve stripes.

The UHC also officially unveiled the road white sweater.

You’ll note that while it is similar to the black home jersey, there are some differences. For one, the collar is solid blue, including the “notch” where the NHL logo is situated. Another difference is the striping pattern. Whereas the black jersey has a blue/white/blue pattern, those stripes are separated by two thin black stripes. The base of the black jersey has a white and blue stripe, separated by a thin black stripe. On the white sweater, the sleeves have a thin blue/thick black/thin blue stripe pattern, with no breaks as on the black. And the base of the jersey has a thick black/thin blue stripe pattern, which differs from that on the black jersey.

Like the black jersey, the front features “UTAH” in black letters with a blue outline, in a diagonal pattern from the upper right to the lower left.

While we still haven’t seen the full road uniform, EA Sports’ NHL25 screen grabs do show how it will look. As expected, the helmet and socks are white, with the stripe pattern on the socks matching that on the sleeves. Numbers will be black with thin blue outlines. If the pattern of the NOB follows that of the black jersey, NOB will be solid black block letters.

But the Club wasn’t quite done. On Sunday, the team revealed what the ice will look like at the Delta Center for the upcoming season:

As you can see, the center ice circle will feature the Club’s inaugural season logo. And in a very cool move, the red line will contain outlines of the State of Utah.

The Utah Hockey Club’s first game is on October 8 against the Chicago Blackhawks. The club will then begin the away portion of their schedule with a four-game road trip starting against the New York Islanders on Thursday, Oct. 10 at UBS Arena. Utah returns to at-home action on Saturday, Oct. 19 against the Boston Bruins. You can see the full schedule here.

Given the limited period of time for the team moving from Arizona to become the Utah Hockey Club, I think both the home and away uniforms are perfectly fine. The colors work well together, and the diagonally-set “UTAH” workmark works well as a placeholder. Even though it tweaks my OCD a bit, I don’t even mind that the home and road jerseys aren’t “exact” inverses of one another (I prefer both the collar and the striping on the white jersey however). If the team does keep these colors going forward, I would love to see them introduce a blue third sweater as an alternate. All in all, a solid effort for a “first” year team with a very limited branding period. We can only hope that of the six finalists for a new name (Blizzard, Mammoth, Outlaws, Venom, Yeti or sticking with Hockey Club and simply going by “Utah HC”) their choice isn’t influenced by possible mascots that would be associated with the name. I’m not a big fan of any of the names, but of the choices Yeti or Utah HC would be my personal preferences.

What do you guys think of the uniforms and the ice designs?

 

 
  
 

Guess the Game from the Scoreboard

Guess The Game…

…From The Scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from James Trickington.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date and location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

 

 

Guess the Game from the Uniform


Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.

Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.

Today’s GTGFTU comes from Paul Mitchell.

Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.

 

 

And finally...

…that will do it for the early lede. Be sure to keep checking back thoughout the day as I should have a few more articles, plus Mike Chamernik’s Question of the Week!

Everyone have a good Tuesday and I’ll catch you back here tomorrow.

Peace,

PH

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Comments (30)

    I think the uniforms are fantastic and I actually hope they keep them mostly intact going forward. I assume they’ll replace the diagonal Utah with the permanent logo, but aside from that just keep it the same.

    Hey, if Utah Hockey Club wins as the permanent name they don’t have to change anything besides the inaugural season patch.

    I think it’ll be Yeti or Blizzard though.

    Blizzard, Mammoth or Yeti would be nice, although Yeti seems unlikely, given the Avs use of the character. Outlaws or Venom? Yuk.

    I love the color combo and design. I say, just replace the home sweater’s center with whatever the mascot ends up being, and leave “UTAH” on the whites permanently.

    They will keep the Utah HC name is my guess. I like the uniforms but wish for a blue alternate to go with it.

    Black and light blue are a really underrated combo. These look great. I expect we will probably get a light blue alternate as well in the coming years.

    Black and royal/light blue are indeed an underrated combo. But it’s also a combo that is unforgiving, and if not designed very carefully looks terrible. The white jersey is a fine example of how to do it right. The black uniform doesn’t go all the way to monstrous bruise, but to my eye it’s an argument against dominant black with blue highlights. Swap blue a black within the uniform and it would be one of the greatest in NHL history to me. I hope the team keeps these colors and basically the look and feel of the uniforms, but with a more dominant blue and less primary black. The UTAH wordmark has really grown on me, and I increasingly like it at home as well as on the road. I’d grade the white jersey an A-plus, the black jersey a B-minus. Overall, an A-minus uniform set for me. The NHL continues its run as the smartest uniform-making league in North America.

    GTGFTU: Either game 3 or 4 of the NFL 75 year anniversary season in 1994. As a lifelong Bills Mafia fan I had never seen that helmet before. I agree with Paul and think they should stick with white helmets as I believe they are more of a blue team.

    Quite remarkable that they even changed to the red lids to begin with in 1984 as they were trying to help Joe Ferguson distinguish his wide receivers better.

    link

    I have a feeling that these Utah Jerseys are gonna stick around for a couple of seasons. They will unveil a name/logo, slap a secondary logo on the shoulders of the jerseys and introduce a light blue alternate.

    The inconsistent Utah HC sleeve stripe & bottom stripe pattern is similar to the New York Rangers’ current jersey (except that with Utah it’s the white jersey without the in-between stripes):

    Sleeve stripes:
    Utah white: blue-black-blue, Utah dark: blue-black-white-black-blue
    Rangers dark: white-red-white, Rangers white: blue-white-red-white-blue

    Bottom stripes:
    Utah white: black-blue, Utah dark: white-black-blue
    Rangers dark: white-red-white, Rangers white: blue-white-red-white-blue

    And the Utah jersey even uses diagonal lettering like the Rangers jersey. A big difference is that the Rangers’ sleeve and bottom stripe patterns match each other.

    Unrelated, but I thought the Jets and 49ers game featured a great uni matchup. Of course, it would have been greatly improved if the Jets wore white socks.

    I was very distracted by how dated Aaron Rodgers’ helmet looks.

    I’ve said this before re Rodgers’ helmet: not only does it look outdated, it appears too big for his head. Looks like The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones.

    I guess I will be the bastard at the family reunion and call out the Jets’ uniforms for being too plain. There needed to be a little black to create visual interest. One thing I did like is the “2” with the diagonal stroke.

    Agree 100%. As someone who started following the NFL in the early 90s, the Jets looked like the Jets! I’m all for progress rather than regurgitating old looks, but I kept thinking that despite being a bit simple, that look works, and really emphasises how awful the previous set was.

    “If the pattern of the NOB follows that of the black jersey, NOB will be solid white block letters.”
    I think you meant black block letters in this instance, as I doubt the team would pull a Harold Ballard on their white jerseys.

    I really like the color combo. It works well together and is well executed given the minimal time frame. I honestly hope they stick around for a few seasons regardless of the new team name. Maybe they can replace the inaugural season patches with the new team crest and keep the jersey.

    My take on the striping difference is that there are black separator stripes on both uniforms, you just can’t tell on the white jersey because they are the same color as the “main” black stripes. The result is overweighting the black stripes on the white jersey compared to the white stripes on black.

    Obviously they aren’t sewn that way, but this is how I’m making sense of it.

    Smart move putting the patch on the shoulder so you can sell the ad space on the front of the jersey midway through the season.

    Honestly, the Utah uniforms look great. Are they generic? Slightly. But they work. I hope they keep them as intact as possible whenever they sort out their team name. I’m still stunned they didn’t have that figured out before the move, but I digress.

    And for all the people who lust after the Bills red helmets, that picture illustrates a good reason I don’t care for them. That striping is honestly brutal. Would I like it more with different striping? Maybe. But I like the white lid too much.

    Looking at the second picture of the black uniform (#91 action shot).
    For the first time I realized mid-sleeve stripes & bottom of the sweater stripes line up when a player is in skating position…. mind blown.
    Not sure how I never noticed this before?
    But it serves as absolute proof the striping size/patterns for both areas need to match

    Lets hope the ice stays how it is. No ads on the boards, no ads in the corners or down the slot like some teams have. Takes away from the game.

    I’m cheering for Mammoths but the Kraken have grown on me enough that I think Yeti would work.

    The one thing I hope for when Fanatics does move on from the Adizero template to a new one is that they fix the damned collars. This collar construction just looks so awful with the piecemeal coloring. The collars on the white jersey look better for having all the segments one color compared to the black jersey, but the collars still look a bit oversized anyway.

    I just really miss the era where we could have striped collars.

    Anyway, the uniforms in general are alright.

    Uniforms can be very stupid and Utah’s is just generic. Well done.

    Is Salt Lake City that cold and snowy? Every name idea is based around survival situation halfway up a mountain. Although Yeti is mostly a water bottle and cooler at this point.

    Utah uniforms look fine. Colour scheme appropriate when they become the Yeti.

    Time and perspective change things. When I first saw the Coyotes Kachina uniform in 1996 after the Winnipeg Jets relocated, thought it was the ugliest uniform of all time. Now in 2024, I am going to miss it in the NHL

    Utah uniforms are a little plain, but I don’t mind them. I prefer that to some of the gimmicky alternatives. I’m a fan of nice, big crests on a hockey jerseys (as opposed to lettering). Most sports don’t really allow for that big center crest, so I feel like it’s a missed opportunity when a team goes for front lettering instead (those old Dallas Stars jerseys with the numbers on the front might be my all-time least favorite).

    As to the name, I think all of the candidates I’ve heard sound pretty bad. Conceptually, I’m fine with a team being called something like “Utah HC” or “Washington Football Team,” rather than having a nickname as their official brand. That sounds a little more mature and dignified to me, and I got really sick of every new team adopting extremely processed and focus-grouped names like the Shelbyville FREEZE or the West Carolina RAGE. I wish we’d left all that stuff behind in 1999. I expect that they will choose a nickname, although I don’t like any of the heretofore stated possibilities.

    I do like the idea of teams having a serious-sounding, self-respecting name, and then letting informal nicknames come organically from the fans, players, and press. The Gunners. The Southsiders. The G-Men. The Galacticos. The Monsters of the Midway. That seems more authentic, more earned, and less forced. Any time I hear some name like “Utah VENOM” it always reminds me of the Simpsons Poochie episode.

    One thing not mentioned that is unique, the red line on the ice is not solid as is the case in all other rinks going straight the the team logos. Utah seems to overlay the logo on top on the redline more so than any other rink. Compare the Islanders ice to this and you will see.

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