The North Star State has a national championship-winning team without a name.
Now league champions, PWHL Minnesota needs a permanent name. Here are 10 suggestions.
Some of these monikers may sound familiar. Feel free to play name-the-team at home.
PWHL Minnesota won the Walter Cup with a 3-0 win over Boston on Wednesday night, prompting an end-of-week celebration in St. Paul and once again raising the question: What are we going to call our newly minted champions?
All six of the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s inaugural teams hit the ice with nothing to decorate a banner save for the names of their host cities and official colors. (Minnesota’s are purple, black and white.)
League officials said official monikers and logos will likely come sometime in August.
A few Star Tribune staffers got restless, so we’re offering our suggestions. Here are 10 of the best from our brainstorming session. If you have one to add, send it to eder.campuzano@startribune.com.
10. Laser Loons
Look, we know there’s already a pro team in town named after Minnesota’s state bird. But until someone finds a way to play soccer on the ice, we’re probably OK on this one.
9. North Stars
Dallas has taken so much from us. It’s only fair we take something back. (Besides, we had it first.) This throwback and rebrand wouldn’t even require PWHL Minnesota to adopt new team colors. A white star on royal purple uniforms would look phenomenal.
8. Ope
Don’t mind ‘em — they’re just gonna skate right past ya there. As for the mascot, why not a wood-paneled station wagon. And instead of defense, the crowd can chant “hot dish.” I’ll see myself out ...
7. Minnesota Nice
Alternately, you could even call them the Minnesota Freeze. It’s kind of wild to think that it took the team less than five years to get acquainted well enough to work together and notch that championship. Plus, think of all the ice puns you could dispatch with this one.
6. Gray Ducks
Minnesotans are mighty proud of the fact that they’re the only folks in the U.S. who refuse to play the game everyone else calls “Duck, Duck, Goose” and instead instigate a chase by calling “gray duck.” So why not adopt the name and mascot for one of the state’s two pro hockey teams?
5. Superior
Okay, we’re getting into the viable suggestions now. The Athletic reported back in October that the PWHL filed applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for six potential team names. Among them: Minnesota Superior. It’s a fitting homage to the Great Lake that beckons many a Minnesotan north to fish, hike around and stare at. It would also make for a nifty logo — high winds make for impressively tall waves when the weather’s just right on the North Shore.
4. Agates
The Lake Superior agate has been Minnesota’s state gem for more than 50 years. And there would be no better way to honor that legacy than to make it the professional women’s hockey team moniker. They’re strong. They’re flashy. They’re the Agates. (Even though agates aren’t exactly purple.)
3. Valkyries
Minnesota is proud of its Norwegian and Swedish roots. Add the fact that the NFL team already pays tribute to its early founders and it makes sense that these mythical Norse warriors would join the roster of mascots representing the North Star State on the international sports stage.
2. Whitecaps
The Whitecaps walked so PWHL Minnesota could run. The state’s previous pro women’s hockey team consistently made it to the playoffs and finals in not just one but two now-defunct leagues: the Premiere Hockey League and the Western Women’s Hockey League. A rebrand under that banner would be a fitting tribute to the storied Minnesota franchise that ran for nearly two decades.
1. Purple Reign
This moniker makes sense on so many levels. Does any Minnesotan command the same reverence Prince evokes both within the state and beyond? Also, PWHL Minnesota’s team colors already include purple. The logo is also a no-brainer. Imagine a cumulonimbus incus — also known as an anvil cloud — in the shape of Minnesota shedding a lightning bolt beneath it.
C’mon, PWHL. This one’s a no-brainer and we’re not the only ones who think so.
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