NHL unveiling new logo for Stanley Cup playoffs

The NHL on Monday unveiled a new logo for the Stanley Cup playoffs and Final that replaces the one used for the last 13 years. 

League officials said the process of designing the new logo and word mark began more than two years ago, before the start of the pandemic. It'll debut in earnest when the playoffs start in early May.

"This feels like the appropriate time to release the mark and really establish the mark in the landscape that we're currently in," senior design director Greg Mueller said. "With two new (U.S.) broadcast partners and the excitement about the upcoming Stanley Cup Final and fans in the buildings, this is the time."

The design features a realistic rendering of the Stanley Cup set against a championship banner. Paul Conway, the league's vice president of creative services, said many different designs were workshopped before deciding on having the trophy straight up, like it sits on the table before it's presented.

Mueller said it's about "celebrating the journey that gets to the moment."

One font was derived from the Victoria Cougars etching on the trophy from 1925. The other is based on the sign outside the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, where the NHL was formed in 1917.

Chief brand officer Brian Jennings oversaw the rebranding process. Conway said Commissioner Gary Bettman gave his input before the final decision was made.

"All players dream of having their name engraved in immortality and it is every NHL team's mission to raise a championship banner, and we wanted to visually capture and evoke the majesty of Lord Stanley in a manner that both respects the history and represents of the future of this great game," Jennings said.

The 2022 playoffs are set to be a return to the standard, 16-team Eastern and Western Conference format last used in 2019. The postseason was expanded to 24 teams and contested in quarantined bubbles in 2020, and all divisional play was used for the first two rounds in 2021.