The NHL boasts a rich history filled with iconic teams and unforgettable names.
But for every New York Ranger or Boston Bruin, there’s a hidden treasure chest full of avant-garde NHL team name suggestions that almost came to be.
From the good, the bad, and the straight-up weird, here are some of our favourites from over the years.
1. New Jersey Meadowlarks
Back in 1982, New Jersey held a “name the team” contest for their new NHL franchise.
Meadowlarks was among the top 11 submitted names, which also included Americans, Blades, Colonials, Lightning, Meadowlanders, Coastals, Generals, Gulls, Jaguars, and Patriots.
Although not a finalist, ownership ultimately settled on Devils, a nod to an urban legend stemming from the area.
2. Seattle Sockeyes
Seattle’s NHL team could have been called the Sockeyes, named after sockeye salmon, a fish commonly found in and around the Washington region.
Kraken and Sockeyes were two of the names the Seattle ownership group were considering when they registered 38 website domain names representing 13 different team names back in January 2018.
Sockeyes also came in first in a poll conducted by the Seattle Times.
3. Vegas Desert Hawks
Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley registered a handful of possible team names back in 2016. Among them were the Silver Knights, Golden Knights, Red Hawks, Nighthawks, and Desert Hawks.
With that said, Foley later admitted to including false names in his finalized list in order to mislead people.
As for how close they were to being some type of hawk, one can only wonder.
4. Colorado Rocky Mountain Extreme
Before ultimately settling on the Avalanche, former franchise owner Charlie Lyons was a fan of the name “Rocky Mountain Extreme,” even having logos and marketing materials made up.
While the overly long name seems tacky and odd now, it was certainly more appealing in the 90s. Luckily, someone on the board had a little bit of foresight.
5. Minnesota Blue Ox
In November of 1997, six finalist team names for Minnesota’s new NHL franchise were announced by the organization: Blue Ox, Freeze, Northern Lights, Voyageurs, White Bears, and Wild, with the latter ultimately winning out.
6. San Jose Golden Skaters
After San Jose was awarded an expansion franchise, the team reached out to a handful of local newspapers, allowing readers to submit name ideas. Those readers certainly delivered, with more than 2,300 different suggestions coming in.
The strangest ideas in the bunch included Saddlesores, Integrated Circuits, Rubber Puckies and Salty Dogs, and Screaming Squids (extra points for alliteration).
They eventually narrowed it down to 15 finalists: Blades, Breakers, Breeze, Condors, Fog, Gold, Golden Gaters, Golden Skaters, Grizzlies, Icebreakers, Knights, Redwoods, Sea Lions, Sharks, and Waves.
7. Phoenix Moon Doggies
The result of another name-the-team contest, before the Phoenix Coyotes settled on their name in 1996, there were plenty of interesting choices in the mix.
Among the most popular were Moon Doggies, Goal Miners, Scorpions, and Phreeze. Since Winnipeg’s franchise was relocating to the desert at the time, the idea of keeping the name “Jets” was also thrown around.