By David MacDonald A s the clock ticks closer and closer to the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft – it gets underway June 18 th in Las Vegas, the home of the NHL’s newest club, the Las Vegas Golden Knights – hockey fans are already drawing imaginary lines in the desert sand. Senators fans don’t want to lose Bobby Ryan to the glitz and glamour of the Strip. Kings fans want to protect Drew Doughty from Sin City. And the cap-cursed Blackhawks are poised to sacrifice a fan favourite to the Entertainment Capital of the World: the gritty defensive centre Marcus Kruger.
It goes without saying that a lot of hockey fans are about to lose big because of the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
But if it’s any solace to all those already dejected diehards out there, it hasn’t all been all golden in Vegas these days.
The 31 st franchise in the NHL – the first new team since 2000 when both the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild entered the league – has skated into its fair share of ruts in the ice already.
According to Bleacher Report, long before their on-ice debut in pre-season action in Vancouver on September 17 th , the first contest that the State of Nevada’s first NHL team faces is in court. In December, the team’s trademark applica- tion was rejected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, because it appeared to be “confusingly similar in appearance where similar terms or phrases or similar parts of terms or phrases appear in the compared marks and create a similar overall commercial impression.” The infringed upon party is NCAA Division 2 team, The College of Saint Rose Golden Knights in Albany, New York.
Everything considered, the puck that will hit centre ice for the first faceoff in regular season play at the T-Mobile Arena on Las Vegas Boulevard will be decorated with the current Golden Knights’ logo. But it’s possible that the gold and steel
grey barbute helmet won’t be a registered trademark on that night. As if the ongoing trademark dispute – which league deputy commissioner, Bill Daly sees as a “routine matter” – wasn’t enough to give Golden Knights fans the pre-game jitters, the NHL also recently announced that team uniforms will no longer be provided by CCM. Adidas will take over that role for the 2017-18 season and the transition has some fans reeling. Unless you’re a season ticket holder in Las Vegas, chances are that you won’t be sporting your official Golden Knights jersey until the NHL Preseason begins in September.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • MAY 2017
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