The Professional Women’s Hockey League has unveiled the long-awaited names and logos of its six original franchises ahead of the 2024–25 season.

The teams were named: Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montréal Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres.

“From our start with this huge pool of names that was generated to the point where we are today, I am so proud of each and every one of these team names and identities,” said Kanan Bhatt-Shah, PWHL vice president of brand and marketing and leader of the project. “We’ve landed at a point where we just couldn’t be happier.”

Each team name was “inspired by the fans, players and cities where the teams play,” Monday’s press release said.

According to the league, “Fleet” represents Boston’s maritime history. “Frost” embodies Minnesota’s deep-rooted love for the ice and the sport in the state of hockey. “Victoire” – which means victory in English – is meant to celebrate Montreal’s pursuit of sporting success. “Sirens” is an ode to New York’s unique energy and refers to the sound of the goal horn after the puck goes into the net. “Charge” is a nod to Ottawa’s official motto, “Advance – Ottawa – En Avant.” And “Sceptres” is a tribute to Toronto’s “royal history,” referring to its old nickname the Queen City and iconic locations like Queen Street.

Merchandise is available through the league’s online store, including a collaboration with Peace Collective, a Canadian apparel brand based in Toronto, but newly designed jerseys from Bauer Hockey, the league’s first official jersey partner, will be unveiled closer to the start of the season.

For the inaugural season, the PWHL used temporary jerseys for all six teams with a simple standard design. Each jersey had a color scheme and the name of the city (or state) was printed diagonally across the front of the jersey. The lack of nicknames and logos caused some consternation among fans, but league officials said the team branding was too important to rush.

All teams retain the base colors of the original jerseys. This is a conscious decision by the league to allow fans to feel connected to the team even through the merchandise they may have purchased in the first year. However, additional colors have been added to each team’s color palette.

“We didn’t want to pressure fans and say, ‘Oh my God, Boston isn’t green anymore,'” explained Amy Scheer, PWHL senior vice president of business operations. “They can still have green merchandising.”

Bhatt-Shah joined the PWHL in November 2023 and quickly went to work developing the new names and branding. The PWHL also worked with creative agency Flower Shop. Scheer and Bhatt-Shah realized that fans wanted conventional team names in line with those used in most North American sports leagues. Throughout the season, fans enthusiastically threw names in the hat and the league, Bhatt-Shah said, “considered them all.”

“We’re very happy that we were able to have an inaugural season with the ‘PWHL team name’ because we were able to get feedback from fans at the games and see everything that was happening on social media. We were able to really listen and get a feel for what resonates with the local communities. That definitely played a big part in it,” she said.

The project began with a research phase where they immersed themselves in each market and spoke to staff, players and community members to ensure every fan base could relate to the new names. “We really wanted to be intentional, thoughtful and strategic about the process from start to finish,” Bhatt-Shah said.

The league took many things into consideration when brainstorming and making the final selection of the individual names.

Does the nickname make sense for the city? Is it something that fans identify with and support? What would the logo and graphics look like? How would it come to life in the arena? And of course, the name legally available?

Scheer said one of the biggest challenges in the process is finding names that could be successfully trademarked and owned by the league in both Canada and the United States in 2024, since there are already so many professional hockey and sports franchises.

If a name met all the creative criteria but was already in use, the group went in a different direction. For example, some fans – and players – liked “Minnesota Reign.” But Ontario Reign – the minor league affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL – already exists.

“You can’t just pick a name and say, ‘I’m going to do that,’” Brian Jennings, NHL executive vice president of marketing, told The athlete back in November 2023. “Is there anyone else in hockey with that name? You could say that consumers are confused. If it’s another sport, you could probably get a coexistence agreement with the trademark and patent office. But it takes time to work through that.”

After all the names were chosen, the group moved on to design. The process moved quickly because the jerseys took a long time to produce. Bhatt-Shah said she first met with the jersey designer in March 2024 – about four months after she began working with the league. The final design deadline was in May.

“Fans wanted traditional team nicknames and logos and jerseys that brought those to life,” she said. “So for us, it was really about making sure we had jerseys that fit those identities in our second season.”