Name Voting Results
Voting ended Tuesday night in the latest series of polls in the IceHL's 13 Weeks of R&R. Voters selected names for nine of the 11 teams being rebranded or relocated. Two teams will require run-off polls over the next two days. Click here to vote!
Dallas, Halifax still to be determined
The run-off polls will close Thursday night. Voters have decided to stick with Outlaws as the name of the Dallas franchise. The question now is whether the team will continue to be named for Dallas or switch to Texas instead.
Then for the Halifax team, voters will choose between Acadians and Atlantics. The two names have little to do with each other but were placed together due to conceptual similarity.
Five teams will keep their names
Based on the results, at least five of the 11 teams will keep their names.
- Boston Colonials (51%)
- Hamilton Steelcats (37%)
- Montreal Olympiques (57%)
- Vancouver Lumberjacks (42%)
- Washington Sentinels (54%)
On a personal note, I have to express my disbelief at the continuation of the Hamilton Steelcats name. After all the complaints I've received over the years about the lack of a team in Toronto, I created many opportunities to change that. And it never happened. The voters have been heard loud and clear now.
Also, I'm somewhat disappointed to see we're sticking with the Lumberjacks for Vancouver. The rest of the names I'm happy to see stick around for the foreseeable future.
Four teams get new names
The Cavalry become the Calgary Stallions (47%) this summer. Happily, this allows for the possibility that the team could keep its horse-centric logo.
The Motorheads will now be the Detroit Chargers (49%). I'm not sure what the voters had in mind when they chose this name, but I'm very eager to see what our logo designers come up with.
Our team in Saskatoon will now represent its entire province as the Saskatchewan Sharpshooters (47%). Like the Stallions, the Sharpshooters could potentially keep their existing logo.
And finally, the Sharpshooters' former provincial rival, the Regina Renegades, have become the Philadelphia Patriots (37%) after a close vote. It topped "Renegades" by a very small margin.
This post will be updated Friday following the end of the Dallas and Halifax run-off polls.