Islanders officially name helmet sponsors for 2021 season

The New York Islanders have found their helmet branding partners for the 2021 season and it’s exactly who you thought it would be.

The New Jersey Devils were the first team to officially announce that they would have a helmet sponsor for the 2021 season. Since then most NHL teams announced deals of some sort for helmet ads. But on the day the New York Islanders were to hit the ice for their first game of 2021, we hadn’t heard if the Isles had a helmet sponsor.

On Thursday, hours before the Islanders are set to take the ice against the New York Rangers, the team

officially announced they’d have helmet branding partners

for 2021. Both Northwell Health and UBS would be the team’s helmet branding partners.

Helmet Branding Partners

With the economic downturn in the NHL economic downturn just about everywhere including the NHL, teams and the league are trying to find new ways to make money this season. Cue helmet ads, sorta.

Sorta, because these ‘ads’ aren’t exactly making any money. Yet. These helmet ads serve two purposes right now. They allow teams to make good with some of their top-end sponsors or those who paid for naming rights and they allow the NHL to see how visible the ads are and how viable these ads are in an open market.

This is why the Islanders helmet branding partners are Northwell Health (naming rights to practice facility at Eisenhower Park) and UBS (who will pay $350 million over 20 years for naming rights at the Islanders new arena at Belmont Park).

The ads themselves, based on the picture included with the announcement seem tasteful in size and design. They shouldn’t be a distraction to anyone watching the Islanders. At this point, I should stop calling them ads. The Islanders are calling them ‘helmet branding partnerships’ for a reason. This isn’t some sort of financial transaction.