VHL Rebrand: NA Conference Edition

[sadie 905]

Today, I'll be proposing a new set of teams for the VHL, designing 8 new teams in terms of team location, colors, and branding to replace those of the current NA conference. I'm going to bar all current VHL, VHLE, and VHLM locations to make myself think a little, and it'll be more interesting than another team in NYC, Toronto, Vancouver, etc. This could either be based upon cities I like and want to see a team in purely out of bias, or it could be a complete joke, or it could be an actually okay idea- we'll see!

 

1. Montréal Royal
My NHL team is the Habs, so of course the first place I thought of was Montréal. HOW IS THERE NOT ALREADY A TEAM HERE? I think perhaps there was one a long time ago, but it's honestly inexcusable to have representation in such a city, in a province like Quebec with the amount of history that it has. At least give a team to Quebec if not Montréal. Anyway, I chose the name Royal after the mountain (well more of a hill to be honest) that looms a whole 233m above Montréal. The mountain the city is named for would be a great title for this team, and the name Royal rather than Royals makes it sound more French, something les montréalais would hopefully approve of. I can't deviate from the blue, white, an red that the Habs, the Alouettes, and the Expos already possess(ed), so I'll go with a blue-white-red color scheme as well.

 

2. Minnesota Aurora
For Minnesota, I'll steal a name from their women's soccer team, because the Aurora is beautiful. I was struggling to think of an original and good Minnesota name, but Minnesota having been the North Stars previously did help me decide on Aurora. This is a city that definitely deserves a hockey team... I mean LOOK AT THE STATE. Hockey is extremely commonplace, something you can't say for everywhere in the US, and it's their state sport. The branding could be unreal for a team based on the northern lights; a black jersey base and green, blue, and purple used as accents could be beautiful. I'm imagining the alternates or special occasion jerseys could be very beautiful and incorporate gradients in a really creative way.

 

3. Boston Blizzard
Time to continue this streak of names that don't end in s! The Blizzard is not only an appropriate winter name for hockey, but also alliterates with the city of Boston and would make for a pretty okay chant in "Let's go Blizzard". Given that when a major weather event actually does happen here, it's decently likely to be a snowstorm, the name fits well. Boston deserves a team again because of its history with the Bruins, and it being such an important American city in their history as well. I think good branding colors would be a darker green main color (given the city's fixation on it's NBA team, the Celtics, as well as the Irish heritage everyone there apparently has). Using black and white as accent colors would be ideal since I think anything else would likely clash with the green. I'm also starting to realize how similar to the PWHL Boston team this is becoming. These first three NA teams are also all new PWHL locations but ignore that I'm definitely not copying.

 

4. Cancún Dolphins
It would be crazy to plan out a full league of teams without at least taking into account Cancún, unquestionably the hockey Mecca of the world. Almost everyone grows up playing hockey and it has spread to places like Canada and the US throughout the years. It's exciting to see how the game has grown out of Mexico. A Cancun team could fittingly be called the Dolphins, providing a great opportunity for a creative logo and branding. I see a color scheme being a sea-blue base with golden and white accents, symbolizing the water, sand, and the foam where they meet. This would open up great unique jersey concepts about the ocean.

 

5. Colorado Mountaineers
Given that Davos is ceasing to exist in this universe, we have to honor them with a new purple mountain team. Denver is a great place to expand to given its high elevation and location in a state known for its winter sports. It is a great place to support a sports team given the fanbase of the Avs, Nuggets, and Rockies (and then there’s the Rapids). Mountaineers is a self explanatory name, and the color scheme is going to be purple (because a purple team is needed), white (symbolizing snow) and orange (symbolizing a cool accent color and also maybe the sunrise if you want to get technical).

 

6. Edmonton Glacier
I don’t think I could have felt good about this list putting only one Canadian team on it, so in comes Edmonton. With Ottawa, Toronto, Saskatoon, Mississauga, and Vancouver not being options, it was really only Winnipeg, Quebec City, or one of the Alberta cities left. The Oilers being my second favorite NHL team helps with that decision. The colors will be light blue, white, and black, some pretty evident glacier colors. I chose the name glacier to pay homage to the beautiful glaciers of Banff and to keep the theme of these names on nature because I like nature. I feel some of the only other options would have been oil-related and we already have the Oilers and the Oil Kings.

 

7. Honolulu Humpbacks
Just for fun, let’s throw another tropical team in here with beautiful Honolulu. We have to put aside the logistics of building an arena there, the hours and hours of plane travel from there to literally anywhere else, and also the fact that fans can’t travel easily. But if you overlook those, Honolulu is an awesome city on a stunning island and that’s really all you need. Humpbacks was chosen as a name due to its humpback whale population which has its breeding grounds around the Hawaiian archipelago. For team colors, I have chosen dark blue, white, and grey to fit a general whale/ocean color theme.

 

8. Raleigh Red Wolves
Rather than calling the team here Carolina as seems to be customary, I decided to go with the city name Raleigh (the alliteration is just so good as well); the name Red Wolves is fitting due to the fact that North Carolina is the only remaining place this endangered species can be found in the wild. I know Istanbul already has this name, but it's the VHLE, so they might not be around much longer anyway. As for why I choose Raleigh as a VHL City, they have already shown their love for hockey to their other team, the Carolina Hurricanes of the second-tier NHL league. After relocation from Hartford, Carolina showed they have an amazing atmosphere and fan base and absolutely deserves a team. Their jerseys would be red, purple, and black (red for the obvious red, wolves, purple because it is the best color, and black because it rounds it out nicely).

 

Spoiler

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Edited April 15 by sadie
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[sadie 905]

claim for week 4/21

[mattyIceman 1,214]

11 hours ago, sadie said:

HOW IS THERE NOT ALREADY A TEAM HERE?

 

Alot of my energy goes into NOT ASKING THIS QUESTION.

 

It is in fact a travesty that the Mecca of Pro Hockey Cups and Titles has no VHL team.  Anyone that says Toronto is the Mecca of hockey, I'll just answer with 1967