You have to admire the PWHL’s ability to tease.
The league went through its entire first year without team names or logos for a variety of reasons, none more important than the lack of time to get it done and get it done properly.
At the draft last June in Minnesota, the first whispers started that the team names and logos would be coming in August.
Well, August came and went with no announcement, but then early Thursday all six teams’ social media accounts suddenly and collectively changed the generic team logos, differentiated only by the city name and the colour of the PWHL logo, to black and white.
That set off rampant speculation, again via social media, that the names and logos would be unveiled at some point during the day.
Turns out that too was a tease as later in the day all six teams’ social media accounts, again within minutes of each other, sent out Monday’s date in a bold font with what appeared to be a hint to each club’s future team name.
In Toronto that hint was: “Almost ready to rule the rink,” accompanied by a portrait of what appeared to be Marie Antoinette.
That suggests a previously league trademarked name “Torch” is unlikely. More likely is something like Reign or Monarchs or Royals or — and we readily admit this — we could be way off.
In Ottawa, the previously trademarked name was “Alert” but that club’s social media hint was “Bringing the energy” which could suggest Dynamo or Sparks or Spirit or even Power.
Montreal’s clue to its team name was “Something’s is calling” which does in fact line up with the previously league-trademarked team name Echo.
At this point, it’s all a guessing game which is how we imagine the PWHL front office types want it with puck drop in Year 2 still somewhere around three months away.
If it doesn’t leak before, we’ll all find out Monday.