Is the past the future for Vancouver's name?
What could the PWHL Vancouver brand identity look like?
One of the only things we're still waiting for as we head into the 2025-26 season is to learn the names, logos, and brand identities of the two new expansion teams, Vancouver and Seattle.
I wouldn't put it past the league to make them do their time as nameless teams, but it's much more fun to speculate on what the teams might be called.
While each of the original six teams may have strayed away from the historical angle, I wanted to start there. So I reached out to BC Sports Hall of Fame Curator and Facility Director, Jason Beck, to learn more about the history of women's hockey in Vancouver.
The Historical Perspective
Women's hockey was alive and well in Vancouver in the 1920s. Aided by the opening of the first indoor arena in Vancouver, Denman Arena, women and men were able to play hockey on a regular schedule, not just whenever there was enough ice to play on the ponds.
The best-known and most reported-on team at the time was the Vancouver Amazons. Founded in 1918, the team was owned by Frank Patrick, who also owned the Vancouver Millionaires, a predecessor to the Vancouver Canucks. They both played at Denman Arena and attracted large crowds.
The Amazons played other teams in the area, including the Victoria Kewpies and the Seattle Vamps. Their games against the Vamps are considered the first-ever international professional women's hockey matchups in BC, if not in Canada.
"There's lots of teams, several teams in Vancouver, the Kootneys had a lot of teams, like the Fernie Swastikas, the Rossland Ladies Ice Hockey team, which had gone back even further there," Beck explained.
The most important tournament of the time was the Banff Winter Carnival, in Banff, Alberta. Teams would travel from all across Western Canada to compete, even if it meant travelling for hours or days by train. The Amazons competed in and won the tournament many times.
The team folded within the decade, and a new one was started in 1931 by competitive speed skater, Doris Parkes.
But, as Beck explained to me, women's hockey in Vancouver starts to disappear after that.
"I can kind of trace the history of the Amazons through the 20s and into the 30s, but what happened to the team after that? And it's just kind of that it died out... In the 1930s, the sport just fades from the newspapers, from what I can gather."
World War II was a large part of that, too. "Every sport was hit hard there, and women's hockey was no exception."
And while women's hockey started to pick up again in the 60s and 70s across Canada, Vancouver and BC were slow on the uptake.
The next time the Vancouver area had a women's hockey team that made headlines was when the Vancouver Griffins were born in 2000. The first expansion team outside of Ontario and Quebec for the National Women's Hockey League, the team picked up players through open tryouts in the area. The only two non-BC-based players were goaltender Krista Cloutier from Alberta and forward Julia Berg from Norway.
After a season of exhibition games within the first NWHL and against collegiate teams in the area, the Griffins signed some big names, including Cammie Granato, Nancy Drolet, and Shelley Looney.
"The hope was that they would grow into, like, a long-standing professional team," Jason said.
When two other teams entered the league from Western Canada—the Calgary Oval X-Treme and the Edmonton Chimons—the NWHL gave the three teams their own division. But, after just one season playing in the division, the Griffins folded.
"It sounds like the support just wasn't there," Beck told me, something all women's sports fans have definitely heard before. "Diane Nelson, who was the owner, sure did everything she could."
And eventually, the NWHL met a similar fate to the leagues before (and after) it, folding in 2007.
So now, it's the third time (ish) the charm to get a long-standing Vancouver team.
But are any of these names really what the team will choose? Beck doesn't think so.
"A lot of the women's hockey names in BC, they are just very dated," He told me, "They are from their era, you know, the Amazons ... But those are not names I would expect that would be picked up, even though they have some historical cache."
When I asked Beck about other sports teams during that time, there wasn't much there either. In nearly every sport, whether men's or women's, they didn't always have the most creative names. Oftentimes, they would just be called by the name of the town or city where they played, or by the team's sponsor.
"There were some women's lacrosse teams in the 20s and 30s in Vancouver. One was called the Vancouver Pirates... And there were some women's basketball teams through the 50s, like the Vancouver Eilers and the Vancouver Headlands. But again, names that are interesting, but are kind of like, are of their time."
If we did follow in these teams' footsteps, we'd end up with the Vancouver Walters. And I don't think anyone likes that.
So, while the history is really interesting, it's unlikely that the PWHL will select any of these names moving forward.
Instead, I decided to ask the people who will end up owning the name, logo, and brand identity across jerseys, hats, hoodies, and toques: the fans.
The Fans
The fans came prepared with some names that hadn't even crossed my mind. Two fans put forward the Vancouver Valkyries (or Valkrie). I like this one. Great alliteration, and I love the symbolism of the Valkyries. Unfortunately, I think the WNBA might put up a fight. But, as X user @dalvirvandher said in defense of their submission, many teams share team names across leagues, like the Giants or the Jets.
There was also a strong animal theme. The Sea Otters, Seawolves (which required a Google search, but is actually a real type of wolf or a very ugly fish), or the Tigers were all suggested. Shockingly, no orca or other whale theme, but maybe that's too predictable (RIP Connecticut Whale).
One commenter offered the Vancouver Blazers, likely a throwback to the men's Vancouver Blazers of the WHA, who played out of the Pacific Coliseum, which is where the new PWHL team will hit the ice. Which, if we're going with a logo like this, I'm 100% down for.
We did have a couple of nature-themed options, including the Vancouver Summit, the Vancouver Breakers (which was the name of one of my minor-league hockey teams in Calgary), or the Vancouver Twilight.
Last but not least, we have the PWHL Vancouver fan account's submission of: The Vancouver Swift.
When it comes down to it, I do think the PWHL will choose a new name for the Vancouver team. We have seen the newest Vancouver women's sports team, the Vancouver Rise, create a wonderful brand identity around a new name that has really spoken to the fans. If the PWHL can do the same, I'm sure the Vancouver fans will embrace it with open arms.
Just... please don't let it be the Lady Canucks. Thank you.
Additional sources:
1921-22 Vancouver Amazons Women's Hockey Team (BC Sports Hall of Fame)
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