2024-25 NHL Changes

[spartacat_12]

A possible hint to one of the colours with the powder blue outline on the script? 

[McCall]

1 minute ago, spartacat_12 said:

A possible hint to one of the colours with the powder blue outline on the script? 

If so, hopefully it's paired with purple.

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

51 minutes ago, TBGKon said:

Mammoth is low key a sleeper in this presumptive list.  

 

I think it sounds better plural. 

[Cherono]

2 hours ago, tBBP said:

 

Which underscores how good an idea it is to think beyond the box sometimes regarding hyper-localized identities. I mean shoot, Vegas just did it. There's nothing about Vegas that infers anything about knights (unless some sarcastic peazy somewhere wants to bring up the Excalibur), and that doesn't even address the irony of the Golden Knights playing in the Silver State. Yes, we all know how why the team has the Knights nickname, but the point is that sometimes fun branding is fun whether [hyper-]localized or not.

 

All I'm saying is if people have to go to the extreme ends of the galaxy to find some hyper-local source material for a team brand, perhaps maybe it's time to reevaluate the approach altogether. A little bit of whimsy never hurt anyone. (See Exhibit A: Kraken, Seattle for a significant example.) So, if Smitty n' em want to look beyond the state for a mascot that "works"...or find some nickname that may be, oh I don't know, "out of this world", so be it. I personally am coming around on the idea of "Yeti" just for the phonetic alliteration alone. (Wait--is "Yeti" plural in the same vein as "moose" or "deer"??? Somehow, "Yetis" doesn’t really flow right to me.)  

 

But whatevs...we'll see how this goes.

Agree on the overemphasis of locality. That gets into one name I like but have not seen proposed in this thread or much anywhere: the Utah Yaks.

 

It has the same sound as Yetis without the minor league feel. Yaks are native to the Himalayas but are bred elsewhere (including Utah!). There is a relative dearth of bovine mascots in pro and college sports despite their prominence and importance. It appears only Yakima Valley College utilizes the name.

 

I can imagine the U in a Utah script having horns and a logo where mountains are used for the Yak's hair on its head. 

 

[Digby]

Honestly I really dig the beehive/mountain combo design motifs that DetroitHockey has been using in coverage, and it's a sharp color scheme too. But I suppose a bees theme are too Blue Jackets (and opens the door to something corny like the Utah Buzz), the mountains and colors are too Avalanche, and the mountains are doubly beaten to the punch by Real Salt Lake's new jersey.

 

(Honestly didn't even realize Utah changed their flag until all of this -- new one is pretty good!) 

 

 

[officeglenn]

3 hours ago, LMU said:

Utah Jell-O Moldzz.  Still an option.

 

 

A potential owner in Kansas has already laid claim to that name:

 

[tBBP]

4 minutes ago, Digby said:

Honestly I really dig the beehive/mountain combo design motifs that DetroitHockey has been using in coverage, and it's a sharp color scheme too. But I suppose a bees theme are too Blue Jackets (and opens the door to something corny like the Utah Buzz), the mountains and colors are too Avalanche, and the mountains are doubly beaten to the punch by Real Salt Lake's new jersey.

 

(Honestly didn't even realize Utah changed their flag until all of this -- new one is pretty good!) 

 

 

 

They didn’t bother to adjust the slant angle of the NHL banner to match the angles of that hexagon? Yeesh!

 

18 minutes ago, Cherono said:

Agree on the overemphasis of locality. That gets into one name I like but have not seen proposed in this thread or much anywhere: the Utah Yaks.

 

It has the same sound as Yetis without the minor league feel. Yaks are native to the Himalayas but are bred elsewhere (including Utah!). There is a relative dearth of bovine mascots in pro and college sports despite their prominence and importance. It appears only Yakima Valley College utilizes the name.

 

I can imagine the U in a Utah script having horns and a logo where mountains are used for the Yak's hair on its head. 

 

 

Okay...I'm feeling that idea, and loving that nickname suggestion. Also, I was 30-seconds-ago years old (as of the time of this posting) when I learned what the word "bovine" meant...good call on that one.

[Haz_Matt]

I'm pretty sure they used that same blue color in the nba all-star logos when Utah hosted in 2023

[JTernup]

13 minutes ago, Digby said:

Honestly I really dig the beehive/mountain combo design motifs that DetroitHockey has been using in coverage, and it's a sharp color scheme too. But I suppose a bees theme are too Blue Jackets (and opens the door to something corny like the Utah Buzz), the mountains and colors are too Avalanche, and the mountains are doubly beaten to the punch by Real Salt Lake's new jersey.

 

(Honestly didn't even realize Utah changed their flag until all of this -- new one is pretty good!) 

 

I don't like the name Buzz but I'm kind of shocked that it hasn't been floated more. It checks off the beehive state component, has the double ZZ that matches up with the Jazz and actually sounds pretty natural when you say 'Utah Buzz'.

[BenLaine]

Not sure how many have voted, but at the poll below, despite 20 names, Yetis have 36% of the vote, with the next closest at 13%.

 

Poll: Vote For Favorite NHL In Utah Team Nickname (kslsports.com)

 

This has to make this name a massive favorite for any official fan vote.

[FinsUp1214]

4 minutes ago, JTernup said:

I don't like the name Buzz but I'm kind of shocked that it hasn't been floated more. It checks off the beehive state component, has the double ZZ that matches up with the Jazz and actually sounds pretty natural when you say 'Utah Buzz'.

The Salt Lake Buzz MiLB team had to change thier name in 2000 due to a trademark dilution lawsuit from Georgia Tech, whose mascot is also named “Buzz”.  I don’t think Smith would test those waters again. 

[bowld]

2 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

What did you think 'Black Diamonds' was?

A singular black diamond run as opposed to a double black diamond run

[Chromatic]

4 hours ago, tBBP said:

 

Which underscores how good an idea it is to think beyond the box sometimes regarding hyper-localized identities. I mean shoot, Vegas just did it. There's nothing about Vegas that infers anything about knights (unless some sarcastic peazy somewhere wants to bring up the Excalibur), and that doesn't even address the irony of the Golden Knights playing in the Silver State. Yes, we all know how why the team has the Knights nickname, but the point is that sometimes fun branding is fun whether [hyper-]localized or not.

 

All I'm saying is if people have to go to the extreme ends of the galaxy to find some hyper-local source material for a team brand, perhaps maybe it's time to reevaluate the approach altogether. A little bit of whimsy never hurt anyone. (See Exhibit A: Kraken, Seattle for a significant example.) So, if Smitty n' em want to look beyond the state for a mascot that "works"...or find some nickname that may be, oh I don't know, "out of this world", so be it. I personally am coming around on the idea of "Yeti" just for the phonetic alliteration alone. (Wait--is "Yeti" plural in the same vein as "moose" or "deer"??? Somehow, "Yetis" doesn’t really flow right to me.)  

 

But whatevs...we'll see how this goes.

Its a balancing act. You want to tie the name into the region, but don't want it to be so hyper-specific it only appeals to locals. At the same time, you also don't want to go the generic route where it feels like an EA Create-A-Team that could exist anywhere. As much as I don't want to see "Salt Lake City Salted Lakers", I also don't want to see "Wildcats" or "Bulldogs" or whatever other high school nickname either. 

[ManillaToad]

What is the thinking behind using "Mammoth" as a collective noun instead of just using "Mammoths"?

[Cherono]

2 hours ago, tBBP said:

 

They didn’t bother to adjust the slant angle of the NHL banner to match the angles of that hexagon? Yeesh!

 

 

Okay...I'm feeling that idea, and loving that nickname suggestion. Also, I was 30-seconds-ago years old (as of the time of this posting) when I learned what the word "bovine" meant...good call on that one.

Thanks! I did a half-assed job of just putting the Jazz mountains on it and swapping the colors with the OG Jazz colors minus switching the yellow to the shade of the Utah state flag. 

 

I think it came out okay, but I just stole/misappropriated Joel Hudson's logo and that of a summer baseball team in the state. The uniform was recolored from PGH Concepts.  I do not own the images nor did I create them. Maybe the look is too Vikings but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

 

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

That looks EXTREMELY Chicago Bulls.

[Digby]

I don't know that the Mardi Gras color scheme works in a hockey context, at least not this particular one. But the 90s scheme of purple with sky-blue trim seems like a versatile no-brainer regardless of which direction the name might go in.

[Chromatic]

7 minutes ago, Digby said:

I don't know that the Mardi Gras color scheme works in a hockey context

It does in Utah, they'll fit right in with the Jazz

[Digby]

5 hours ago, tBBP said:

Which underscores how good an idea it is to think beyond the box sometimes regarding hyper-localized identities. I mean shoot, Vegas just did it. There's nothing about Vegas that infers anything about knights (unless some sarcastic peazy somewhere wants to bring up the Excalibur), and that doesn't even address the irony of the Golden Knights playing in the Silver State. Yes, we all know how why the team has the Knights nickname, but the point is that sometimes fun branding is fun whether [hyper-]localized or not.

 

 

I think the hyperlocal stuff is largely the product of Nike putting its full weight into the City Edition-ification of all that it can (even if the roots of that probably trace, before that, to soccer). New teams get to start there, so lucky them.

 

That said, I'd also suggest that part of this is because we're going on a century in some cases of pro sports as an established cultural/economic force... and several decades of the merch-selling, in particular, being an enormous economic piece of the pie. So it's getting harder and harder to do something new. And that's not just the capitalist cynicism of attention being more valuable than quality. There's also the legal element, as evidenced by a Utah pro team nickname getting legally scuttled by a college team mascot on the other side of the country, which is insane. 

 

So there's a level of clever trendiness but there's also this piece of being forced to come up with something comically specific and difficult. I do some day-job work in the drinks industry, and the craft brewers have completely run out of reasonable names for beer. With that industry being so localized, I think it's insane that trademark disputes mean two individual beers (not even breweries) can't share a generic-ish name if their distribution areas are time zones apart. But, here we are, and now every new beer I see has a name like a Fiona Apple album title. Same gist.

[TBGKon]

3 hours ago, spartacat_12 said:

A possible hint to one of the colours with the powder blue outline on the script? 

Dont connect too much to this logo, remember Seattle started their generic imagery with red.