Identities Matter

Choosing a team name for an expansion franchise usually happens before jerseys are debuted in order to have the franchise's new logo based on the name affixed to said jerseys. As we know, the PWHL didn't do that with their first six franchises, waiting over a year to actually attach names to those teams. The six names chosen still seem rather ridiculous, but the PWHL made it through Year Two as the Minnesota Frost celebrated their second Walter Cup victory over the Ottawa Charge. Knowing two expansion franchises were joining the league this season, it was expected that PWHL would have all the details finalized for these two new teams before unveiling their jerseys.

Except that didn't happen on Tuesday.

The PWHL went ahead and created jerseys in the same style as the other teams wore in Year One for both Seattle and Vancouver, and it appears that they'll play as "PWHL Seattle" and "PWHL Vancouver" this season. Giving these two teams an identity right off the bat apparently was a task too difficult to accomplish despite knowing these teams were joining the league for the 2025-26 season, and it once again pushes a beer-league look on the PWHL as opposed to being the top professional hockey league for women.

I'll address that further below, but here's a side-by-side of PWHL Seattle star Hilary Knight showing off that team's new jerseys.

There's nothing wrong with the colour scheme chosen for Seattle's women's team. It seems they're going with similar colours to those of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks minus the green. The dark jerseys don't go as dark as those of the Kraken, but they do have the same scheme as the WHL's Seattle Thunderbirds without the green. Creative? No. Fitting into the Seattle sports colour scheme? Absolutely.

Why, though, does this team wear off-white? It's not like there is a deep history of women's hockey upon which the team is drawing with these jerseys. It just makes it looks like the team doesn't know how to do its laundry. Trying to create nostalgia artificially is never a good idea, so why can't the Seattle team just wear white? This is a trend that needs to end sooner than later, and it would serve Seattle well to move off their off-white cream colour to normal white.

Knowing that they won't make that change, these Seattle jerseys work fairly well and will set them apart from the other seven teams.

The other team joining the women's circuit this season is PWHL Vancouver, and they brought out their new look yesterday as well.

Initially, these jerseys gave an immediate Winnipeg Blue Bombers vibe from the CFL, but this blue-and-gold combination isn't commonly seen in hockey. There's nothing overly notable about these jerseys, but they work on the idea of being simple - clean striping, good contrasts, and a good colour scheme. In short, those are the required ingredients for a solid jersey. Vancouver should look good this season.

Again, the jerseys aren't the problem here with both Seattle and Vancouver. The PWHL knew these teams were going to be playing this season before even announcing the two new franchises, and they're now going to start the 2025-26 season without identities. It's not like this had to be difficult considering the other six team names and how regrettable those are. There are literally dozens of trendy words that could have been chosen and used for these two teams' identities.

We've seen the ECHL expand year after yar with multiple teams joining at times, and all of those teams began play with team names and identities. If the ECHL can do it as a developmental league for the NHL, the top professional women's league should be able to do it as well. We saw them play an entire season before the original six teams got team names, and now we'll see the new expansion teams play a full season without getting team names. At what point does this league and its eight teams start acting professionally?

Over and over again on this blog, I have written about how important brands are to sports franchises, and the PWHL seems hellbent on going against those ideas. Yes, fans can say, "I'm a PWHL Vancouver fan", but it carries a lot more weight when one says, "I'm a Seattle Tsunamis fan!" That branding and team identity changes the entire statement. I want to cheer for the team, not the corporate identity.

I'll still cheer for the players as they're the reason to watch the PWHL, but the people that are running this league cannot be removed from the decision-making processes fast enough. They deserve credit for getting the league off the ground, but everything that has followed has been beer-league level management. Frankly, the players and the fans supporting this league deserve better.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!