Connecticut Whale: When Branding Goes Wrong

Oh boy! If you remember when the Hartford Wolfpack left the AHL in 2010, many people were excited with the possibility of a Whalers like identity returning. While I quite like the Wolfpack identity now, in 2010, I was totally ready for the return of the Whalers. The rumours began swirling about the return of the Whalers name, and while the Hartford Whalers name was already understood not to be an option, people clued in on the Connecticut Whalers name, then a logo was unveiled that looked quite good. It was not to be however due to naming rights....and the is where the story goes very hilariously wrong.

Photo from sportslogos.net

The colours were little too bright for my taste, but the script and logo itself looked good. Thankfully the NWHL used something similar and made it better by replacing the fluke with a cartoony simple whale and a much wider and vintage looking C. However, the nameless New York Rangers AHL franchise later unveiled a new logo and identity in September 2010. One that gave a lot of hockey fans, logo fans and designers a pretty good laugh. It wasn't the worst thing to come out, but I will warn you, this isn't the worst thing to come out for the Whale.

Photo from sportslogos.net

The C is squished and is such an off font that makes the 80s font of the Whalers look more in date. The colours are really nice I won't lie, but the big blue whale with the hockey stick is just plain silly. I'm all for silly minor league logos, but this logo doesn't work well on a jersey. It was not a professional logo to say the least. I feels more like it fits on a New England breakfast cereal box or a kid's peewee team rather than the level directly under the top professional hockey league in the world. But hey many teams have had crappy logos but are saved by at least a decent jersey. Maybe we'd see the return of the Whalers striping from the 80s or even the 90s. In the late 90s & early 2000s, many hockey teams began replacing their classic logos with angry mascots holding hockey sticks angrily while angrily posing against something. Look at the Brandon Wheat Kings' attempt, New York's classic failure, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many AHL teams, and more I'm missing and not even counting ones where the stick is being eaten or modern attempts. The point is this trend was dated by 2004, and to see a logo in 2001 to attempt this, a crappy attempt at that...it was a miss to say the least.

Another issue arrises with the lack of S at the end, something rare in sports. Things like Avalanche, Wild, Lighting, Thunder, Rush, Beast, Chill, Reign, Pride, Storm, Blizzard, Walleye, Heat, Express, Moose, Ice, Wolfpack make sense because the names are either too vague or plurality is implied in the name. Is the team just one whale? Most team names are plural as each player is a member of that plural; A Habs player is sometimes called a Hab, a Leafs player a Leaf, a Rangers player a Ranger etc. Now it would make sense with names like Barracuda where the name would sound weird in plural, Whales sounds fine. Perhaps Whalers would have made things easier but none the less this has always bothered me since the first time I saw the name.

The jersey were not stereotypical hockey jerseys. We didn't see striping ripped off from hockey's classic teams like Toronto, Montréal or Chicago, we didn't even see a copy of the Rangers or a recoloured version of the Wolfpack's jerseys...nope, we got something much worse.

Photo from howlings2.wordpess.com

Another trend the Whale bought into was double blue without double blue being a part of the colour scheme. Columbus & Florida did the same thing that season, but the Whale really were the worst example double blue for double blue sake. The logo has green in it; a secondary colour to use with the darker blue chosen, it would look great. But no, the Whale wanted to go for a water theme on the jersey, opting for waves instead of stripes. I'd be fine with this, the recently unveiled NWHL Whale design proves waves can work on a jersey...but these look like they were design in KidsPix or Paint. The shoulder patch is a block H with 35 written on it, 35 years since the Whalers were in Hartford  Civic Centre, which had the same colour layout as the logo with Green being the main colour and made it stand out even move on a greenless jersey. On top of that having a white collar on a white jersey is never a good design choice, leaving just a thin sliver of darker blue on the top of the collar. Like the Buff-a-slug, the Whale attempted to appeal to nostalgia by wearing a New England Whalers warm up throwback jersey (not even in game or as an alternate) on Howe Family Night, March 26 th 2011. The Whale also introduced a green alternate which looked slightly better, and in the 2011-12 season, the Whale would wear this jersey as their full time road jersey, and swap the light blue for green on white jersey.

Photo from ctwhale.com

This was an improvement, and the green jerseys are STILL available on the online AHL shop (I'll be in XXL which is what I call Hip Hop Music Video sized). They still had the same issues with the wave striping and primary logo, at least the team finally started using green. The H35 patch was scrapped with this change, which was a shame since the H looked great

Photo from collinsvillepress.com

The white jersey suffered a colour balancing issue on with regards to not swapping the blue and green in the striping. It made blue the dominating colour on the jersey aside from white. I get it's supposed to look like water and water isn't supposed to be green outside of Shrek's swamp, but it throws the jersey off at least to a jersey snob like myself. When you're talking Hartford, the more green the better, and anything to forget the 90s.

After two seasons in these garish uniforms, the Wolfpack announced their return, and retired the Whale jerseys forever (or at least until Throwback to 2010 night in 2020). The Wolfpack stuck to their pre-2010 edge jerseys before switching to a Rangers Stadium Series for the 2016-17 season (including a sharp red jersey). The 'Pack have used the same logo since 1997, and an update might do the team some good. However this is a good lesson for those who crave nostalgic designs "old for old sake". Of course having the Hartford Whalers in the AHL would be amazing, and few people would disagree, but with the NHL owning the license to the name, it'd take negotiation magic to get that to happen. Similarly to the Manitoba Moose, Hartford got a new identity, one to make their own. Sure the Moose have a better logo, but that's beside the point, hockey is hockey. Imagine the Manitoba Jet coming out in 2010 to replace the Moose....Oh....No...don't imagine that. None the less, if you can't have Whalers, settle for Wolfpack, don't meet in the middle with Whale. 

Whales of Wolves

Delusions are weird, in that some you can control and others you simply can't. I'd like to consider myself a realist on many subject, and cities getting NHL teams are one of those things you have to be careful not to get people's hopes up over. Cities like Halifax, Nova Scotia, Milwaukee ,Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Ohio or Hamilton, Ontario aren't made for NHL hockey. Pretending in NHL 17 is all well and good but once expansion/relocation rumours come around and people are getting mad that these markets are not getting teams...well that's on you for putting that in your head.

Instead of photos of the teams, enjoy the jersey designs I've come up for them 

I wouldn't say Hartford lucked out when they were chosen in the WHA/NHL merger, but the 3 Canadian teams were MUCH stronger choices. Even with Winnipeg's early struggles in the NHL, Québec City & Edmonton were competitive right away and were always competitive until the 3/4 WHA teams moved starting in 1995. The teams passed up, Cincinnati Stingers & Birmingham Bulls lost out since Southeastern NHL hockey had failed in Atlanta and wasn't tested anywhere else and the Cleveland Barons failed upon relocation from California, turning the NHL and investors off from those markets. It would take until 1998 and 2001 respectively for NHL hockey to return to Dixieland & Ohio respectively. I wonder how Cincinnati would have faired in the NHL. Having Mark Messier as a star would have helped and given the team had a history, would fans have accepted the team more than the rehashed Golden Seals in Cleveland that were, like Cleveland itself, the definition of stereotypical bleh. Birmingham was a mixed bag. It may have been great, but no surprise if it failed. No NHL or AHL team has returned to Alabama since, which does make you wonder how bad things must have been not for even a desperate mid 90s-early 2000s AHL bid for the Thrashers would have been.

When the Whalers left the Hartford Civic Centre in 1997, the Hartford Wolfpack were quick to replace the team in the AHL, similarly to the Manitoba Moose in the IHL turned NHL. Minor league hockey jumped on the new markets. Québec rejected the Citadels, Winnipeg welcomed the Moose with open arms (which is why they came back to be the Jets' AHL franchise) and Hartford has been apathetic to the Wolfpack. Sure, they have their fans, and I will say good for them! These people really want Hartford hockey no matter the team. I frankly like the Wolfpack identity in both the literal wolf and the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) submarine. The Connecticut Whale (I may do a post on what a mess that rebrand was) made many appreciate the Wolfpack name compared to forcing the a whale and shoehorning the Whalers branding without actively using it. 

Designed by yours truly: Still a fan of these 3 years later!

If the hockey fans of Hartford wanted hockey...why would you be so picky? The Wolfpack aren't exactly a failure, but the people seem to be apathetic to the team. Why? Because the team is tied to the Rangers, and regional rival to the Whalers. Sure, this is also why the Abbotsford Heat failed as a Flames farm team in a Canucks fanbase and the Québec Citadels failed as a Habs farm team, but it certainly doesn't look good for an expansion market. Some are actively campaigning for the Wolfpack to fail in vain hope the Rangers will ditch the team after what will be 20 seasons next year and another Metropolitan division team will pick them up. In the world of AHL, second chances don't happen all too often.  The Wolfpack first and foremost need to replace the Civic Centre (XL Centre). It's still the Whalers arena, and that's being nice. The arena is 41 years old, and while I do like old arenas, the 70s & 80s were not good years for arenas (see also Sleep Train Arena, Izod Centre). It's no Cow Palace! Furthermore, it's only 15'635 people for hockey. Those are very small NHL numbers the only arenas smaller in the NHL is MTS arena...and that sells out every game give or take and plus...the Jets fan base is one of the most faithful in the NHL.

In 2015-16 the Wolfpack, who finished 22nd in attendance, averaging 4440 fans a game, more than 1'500 fans below the league average (5'982) In a year where the AHL was as popular as it was during the 2004-05 Lockout season. The sad thing is the Wolfpack won the 2000 Calder Cup, usually something that acts as a big boost in attendance for years to come, only average attendance went down more than 1000 per game in the two prior seasons. However most will say that was 16 years ago and they are right...but when the Wolfpack make the playoffs every season from 1997 to 2009 and then only missing half the seasons (one of those seasons as the Connecticut Whale) after (which like in most minor league teams is inevitable since the Rangers got good and their prospects got promoted) you'd think people would still attend to watch a contender. However that average attendance number is the 2nd highest since the return of the Wolfpack name.  Between 1997 & 2002, the Wolfpack averaged more than 6'000 fans a game. By 2006, that number was down to 4563, at its lowest reaching 4188. Seeing as in 2006 the relocation rumours in Pittsburgh began, one would think these numbers would increase

I will level with you...from 1979-1992, the Hartford Whalers were a decent team with a good look and while never an amazing roster, they were memorable and a thorn in the Montréal Canadiens sides during this era, creating a good rivalry many still remember to this day. Once the team swapped bright green for navy blue and grey....the passion was gone. The team never made the playoffs in those colours, and it's..simply....depressing looking at the team after that period. They were a ticking time bomb for relocation. The 3 Howes made the Whalers, the 80s embraced the Whalers, and the 90s lost the Whalers. They were the one team in the relocation era that was no surprise to anyone. Maybe it's a surprise they ended up in Raleigh, but not that they left Connecticut.The fact they stayed longer than Minnesota, Québec or Winnipeg is a surprise.

This isn't meant to be a disrespect to Whalers & Wolfpack fans. If you are part of those average 4440 fans, good on you. You care more about Hartford hockey than the who abstain from the AHL and the 'Pack because "I miss the glory days with the Whalers" when they likely abandoned the Whalers in 1994. So if you tote the "Bring the Whalers Back" banner, I'm calling you out, go to Wolfpack games, support the Wolfpack, get them into the top of average fans a game in the AHL. To even get into the conversation of relocation. But sitting around commenting on the Brass Bonanza videos on youtube about how great things were in 198x and how Bettman only cares about money...as if he shouldn't and only listen to 54 year olds on the internet.