NHL on-ice officials will be trying something new at the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series on Saturday, but fans will have to watch very closely to notice.
For the first time ever in an outdoor game, League officials will be using the NHL Watch Comms App, developed by Presidio for Apple Watch, to get real-time, in-game situational notifications throughout all the action.
Officials will get haptic notifications during the game, including game clock countdowns, penalty clock countdowns and jersey numbers of which players are in the penalty box at a given time.
This technology has been in tested and refined for the last few seasons at certain indoor venues, but Saturday will mark the debut of the NHL Watch Comms App in an outdoor setting when the Columbus Blue Jackets host the Detroit Red Wings at Ohio Stadium, the famed football stadium of The Ohio State University.
The normal in-game environment – with roaring crowds and lightning-fast speeds – has certain challenges when it comes to communication between officials, and an outdoor environment can be even more challenging.
That’s where the NHL Watch Comms App comes into play.
“The environment changes every time the officials go out onto the ice,” said David Lehanski, the NHL’s executive vice president of business development and innovation. “Obviously there’s a bigger change [at the Stadium Series].”
The biggest change, Lehanski said, is that with an outdoor setup, there’s no giant scoreboard hanging above center ice, making it more difficult for officials to keep track of game timing and situations. The goal of the NHL Watch Comms App is to provide that information to the officials directly on their wrist.
Officials across the League have been using this technology on a widespread scale, with almost all wearing the watch this season.
“Having a participation rate over 90 percent in just the first few years speaks volumes, Lehanski said. “(The officials) participated in the process from Day One. We knew we had to build a solution here for a very specific case, and we wanted them to be involved.”
The League collaborated with Apple and Presidio, which developed the custom app for Apple Watch.
“As an innovation partner to the NHL, Presidio was approached to develop a solution designed to enhance game clock and penalty box awareness, thereby improving player and official safety and reducing game interruptions,” said Andres de Corral, vice president of digital services at Presidio, in a statement. “Our team worked closely with NHL officials and their operations and technology teams to identify and deliver the ideal solution to realize their vision.”
Lehanski was quick to compliment the collaboration between the NHL, Apple and Presidio to develop and expand on this technology.
“In all these technology relationships we have, we can credibly make the claim that we’re working with the world’s best partner in that space,” Lehanski said. “And we feel exactly that way about this solution that we built with Apple and Presidio.”
The NHL has a long-standing relationship with Presidio helping the League to improve the player, official, coach and fan experience. Presidio’s work spans the NHL’s entire technology ecosystem – from modernizing the NHL’s IT infrastructure, to developing and managing mission-critical applications and enhancing streaming and production experiences for fans.
The NHL and Apple have long collaborated on ways technology can improve the game. Since 2017, iPad and Mac have delivered real-time video for coaches and players to make in game adjustments.
