Vancouver Canucks Will Be Renamed ‘Vancouver Americans’ for 2017-18
The Vancouver Canucks are an iconic brand in Western Canada — but many Americans don’t even know what the name means.
The 2016-17 season has been another year to forget. But, with promising young players like Bo Horvat, Troy Stecher, Brock Boeser and Olli Juolevi in the organisation, the Vancouver Canucks believe they have what it takes to be successful in the near future. Because of that, the franchise decided to ring in a ‘new ice age’ in 2017-18 — starting with a full rebranding and even a name change.
“Seriously, what’s a Canuck?” is a question we hear all too often, at least when talking to people from south of the border. And since the National Hockey League is an American company that features just seven Canadian organisations, the Canucks decided to make some necessary adjustments to finally be recognised and respected all over the continent.
“We already have the best fans in the league,” says Canucks president Trevor Linden. “But we want to expand our reach past Seattle.
“Plus, Montreal is already called ‘Canadiens’, so we wanted to be more original than ‘Canucks’.”
So, the club decided to execute a full-on rebranding, starting with a new name: the Vancouver Americans.
“We have been the Canucks for more than 70 years, which was enough to build a large fan base up here,” Linden explains. “But seeing how few non-Canadians know the meaning of ‘Canuck’, we figured it was time for a change.
“We also considered ‘Vancouver North Americans’ because Team North America was really popular at the World Cup. But that wouldn’t sound as nice.”
Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins, a native of Climax, Saskatchewan, seems to be fine with the new name: “There is obviously some rivalry between Canada and the U.S., especially in hockey, but I think our new name is real good.”
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Along with the new name, the Americans will of course get a new logo, mascot and jerseys. Details have yet to be released, as the team is working closely with Adidas, the new jersey manufacturer. But, sources tell us the Americans’ crest will feature a bald eagle.
“Non-Canadians don’t know what the team name means and nobody really knows why our mascot is an orca,” says Linden. “We feel the new branding makes a lot more sense.”
Luckily, the Canucks don’t quite want to go all-in on the American branding, though. Instead of adopting blue, red and white as the club’s colours, the Americans will simply go with red and white — and maple-leaf shoulder patches.
“I think that’s a real good connection between our Canadian tradition and our ‘Americans’ future,” thinks Desjardins. “It’s gonna look real good.”
As to the players, they aren’t quite happy.
“I would have preferred the ‘Vancouver Swedes’,” says Daniel Sedin (or Henrik? I don’t know). “Blue and yellow just look so nice together.”
Sven Baertschi, on the other hand, loves the idea of playing in red and white, but he isn’t quite happy with the rumoured new crest: “I wish it was red jerseys with a white cross. That looks sick, seriously.”
And me? I love the good ol’ black, red and yellow of the flying skate jerseys; they would work so well for Team Germany.
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But I’m also fine with the Vancouver Canucks and their orca. Because that’s our team — and it probably will be for a long, long time.
Happy April Fool’s Day, Canucks Nation!