A year in the waiting, the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s six teams now have names, including appropriately enough a weather-related one for Minnesota.
PWHL Minnesota finally has its new name: the Minnesota Frost
The PWHL waited to name its teams, building anticipation for Monday’s announcement.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
September 9, 2024 at 4:41PM
The league’s inaugural Walter Cup champions will now be known as the Minnesota Frost after a season generically called PWHL Minnesota.
Its logo features a stylized ‘F’ with angular edges and sharp points that are, according to the league’s announcement made Monday, reminiscent of icicles in a State of Hockey that has a deep-rooted love for the ice.
The franchise will keep its purple color scheme — a connection to hometown hero Prince, or maybe the NFL’s Vikings? — while including other shades that the league calls lilac and blizzard in white.
The PWHL also named its other five teams: the Boston Fleet, Victoire de Montreal, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres.
“It’s an exciting day, a historic day in PWHL history, hockey history, sports history,” Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said in a video call with reporters. “I’m excited for the fan base in Minnesota, excited for the league and excited for hockey fans around the world. They can now associate a team name and logo with the greatest women’s professional hockey league in the world.”
Coyne Schofield said she and her teammates didn’t play a part in the process, but simply said, “I love it” about the name and logo.
The PWHL website had hats, hoodies and T-shirts for sale for all six teams on Monday morning. Replica team jerseys aren’t expected to be available until closer to the league’s second season start in late October or early November.
Still to come are such things as mascots.
The original six PWHL teams played their inaugural season without nicknames, logos or other team branding, except for the league logo and team colors.
The league simply didn’t have enough time for such important decisions in the rush from the league’s summer 2023 inception to its 2024 New Year’s Day start mere months later.
The PWHL last year applied for trademarks that included the Minnesota Superior, the Boston Wicked, Montreal Echo, New York Sound, Ottawa Alert and Toronto Torch, each one a singular name that didn’t get rousing public reaction when they were discovered.
The names and color schemes announced all had ties to its home markets: The Boston Fleet pays homage to the city’s rich maritime history. The New York Sirens’ primary blue colors are reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty. The Toronto Sceptres recall its regal history with its ties to England’s monarchy in a city traveled on Queen and King streets.
And the Minnesota Frost came well before the first one arrives across the ponds and streams this fall.
Gone are the simple city identifiers used last season.
“It’s easier to say than PWHL Toronto,” Sceptres captain Blayre Turnbull said.
On Thursday, PWHL Minnesota put a cryptic message on its social media posts that simply said, “A cold front is rolling in 09.09.2024. On Monday morning, the franchise posted a slick 44-second video that pronounced “We Are the Minnesota Frost” after the league revealed the names on ABC’s “Good Morning America” show.
“It’s a pretty monumental day for our league,” PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer said. “The next step is waiting to see how fans bring these logos to life in the arena. We’ve done our part. Now it’s up to the fans to do their part.”
PWHL VP of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah said league officials considered “many, many, many names, not all weather related.”
“It was a name that kept coming up and had a lot of resonance with us,” Bhatt-Shah said. “We thought about how you build an identity around it that makes sense for Minnesota and connects in an emotional way that speaks to the people. I think we all have a lot of heart for the Frost.”
Scheer said the league chose not to bring back team names from past women’s professional leagues, such as Minnesota’s Whitecaps. She said the most challenging part was searching intellectual property in the U.S. and Canada for names not already claimed.
“We want to create our own history,” Scheer said.
The Minnesota Frost has a larger staff than did PWHL Minnesota, plus newly branded gear, a longer season and, of course, the Walter Cup trophy.
