On Friday night when meeting with the media following the first round of the NHL Entry Draft where they selected Tij Iginla and Cole Beaudoin, Utah General Manager Bill Armstrong appeared to have let their team name slip during one of his responses.
For the first year of their existence, Utah will be keeping it simple and going with 'Hockey Club' as their nickname or 'HC' for short. The reason being is that they didn't want to rush the branding process and it takes quite a while to nail down branding, logos and jerseys for any professional sports team, sometimes as long as 12 to 18 months. The second phase of Utah's fan vote began earlier this month and ran until June 20th, so it shouldn't be too long until we officially hear their team name.
It should be an exiting year in Salt Lake City and the city of Utah as they try to make the team competitive right out of the gate and look to compete for a playoff spot. Bill Armstrong did a fantastic job on Saturday to add a couple of big additions to their blue line in Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino. Once the free agent market opens on Monday afternoon, expect Armstrong to be busy once again and try to add a top-nine forward for his roster.
