The Utah Hockey Club is close to finalizing its permanent brand identity.
"We're deep in the (jersey) design process for next season, which goes hand in glove with our brand identity and what we're going to do there," Utah's president of hockey operations Chris Armstrong said Monday at the NHL's board of governors meetings, per NHL.com's Nick Cotsonika. "We're all working within the timelines and trying to get creative about those to give ourselves as much runway to get all those pieces lined up properly."
The sale and relocation of the Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City wasn't approved by the NHL's board of governors until April 2024, so the league's newest franchise opted to go with the temporary identity of Hockey Club for its inaugural campaign given the quick turnaround.
There's a slim chance Hockey Club could be permanent, though. That was one of six finalists from a fan vote held in June, in addition to Blizzard, Mammoth, Outlaws, Venom, and Yeti.
Team captain Clayton Keller said in September that "it sounds like it's going to be the Yeti, but I don't know."
Armstrong added that they're hoping to come to a conclusion early in 2025.
"I'd say we're getting close to needing to make some decisions," Armstrong said. "I'd say early in the new year. Everybody's tried their best to work flexibly - or away from hard and fast deadlines - because it is a complicated process, especially on the (intellectual property) side. Just making sure we've got everything lined up and buttoned up before we make any firm decisions."
However, the team isn't expected to unveil its decision until the offseason.
"That's what we're thinking now," Armstrong said. "We've been saying we don't want to take the wind out of our sails on season one. We've got such a great response in our inaugural season and a lot of momentum, and we want the focus to continue to be on this inaugural season and the efforts our players are putting into making it a successful season. We don't want to dominate that conversation with what we might be or not be next year. I think that's important."