Las Vegas NHL team picks 'Vegas Golden Knights' as name

Photo from Vegas Golden Knights Twitter.

The Las Vegas NHL organization will be called the “Vegas Golden Knights.”

The team officially announced the name and logo at a much-hyped ceremony Tuesday at the Toshiba Plaza next to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The announcement came after a lengthy delay during the ceremony that involved a technical difficulty with the video to announce the name.

“We won’t screw up the first game like we screwed up the video,” owner Bill Foley said.

Said Foley in a statement, “We want our team to be known for dedication, honor, strength, courage and a commitment to never give up – both on the ice and off. We want our team to be committed to teamwork, service to this great city and integrity in all things – and we wanted a name and logo that represented all of this and was unique to Las Vegas and our community. Vegas Golden Knights is that name.”

The Golden Knights will be the first team from a major pro sports league to play in Las Vegas and the first NHL expansion team since the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets entered the league in 2000.

The decision to go with Golden Knights ends a long process that involved many twists and turns. These included possibilities from variations on the word ‘Hawk’ to the ‘Knights’ template.

In early October, team owner Bill Foley told Puck Daddy he had registered Desert Knights, Silver Knights and Golden Knights. Foley said that he was initially partial to Black Knights based on his military heritage as a West Point graduate, but got “pushback” from the army and immediately moved on. Also, Foley noted that Black Knights wasn’t exactly the first choice of the team’s prospective fans.

Vegas Golden Knights logo.

As for the colors, Foley had said that he wanted them to “signify strength, the strength of character, power and colors we can build a culture of ‘never give up, never give in, always go forward, always advance.’”

Added Foley, “We also want to get some colors that have a relationship to Las Vegas so we’re trying to work that in, so it has been a process. It has been interesting but it has been a real process.”

The NHL announced it would expand into Las Vegas after a unanimous Board of Governors vote before the 2016 NHL Awards. The Golden Knights will officially start play in 2017-18.

The next major step for the team will likely involve hiring a coach, though general manager George McPhee said that may not happen until the spring.

The expansion draft will take place in between June 17, when the organization will receive a list of protected players from the NHL, and June 20 when McPhee must alert the league to his decisions.