Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Ltd., the group who owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, last month filed a trademark registration with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for a centennial “Leafs Nation” logo to be used throughout 2017 (application number 1568062 – look it up for yourself).
This logo has yet to be unveiled by the club but should be within the next year.
It’s very likely that this logo will be used only to celebrate the vast Maple Leafs fan base during the franchise’s 100th season rather than be the logo the club uses to celebrate the anniversary of the team itself… at least we hope so. If this is the team centennial patch, I gotta say it’s a very weak logo for such a large anniversary.
The Toronto Maple Leafs franchise can trace their roots back to the 1912/13 NHA season when they began as the Toronto Blueshirts (which would make the upcoming year a centennial season as well). After a dispute between the league and the owner of the Blueshirts the other team owners started the NHL just to get away from him; Blueshirts players made up the Toronto entry in the new league during the 1917 season.
After a season as the Toronto Hockey Club and another as the Toronto Arena Hockey Club the franchise was disbanded and another franchise was created known as the Toronto St. Patricks. After 8 seasons as the St. Pats the team was re-named as the Maple Leafs in 1927.
Despite the disbanding after the 1919 season the Toronto Maple Leafs recognize that first season in the NHL (1917/18) as their inaugural year. In reality the link to that 1917/18 team is the same as the link to the 1912/13 team, why the Leafs choose to acknowledge one inaccuracy and not the other has never been explained.
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