Mississauga OHL Team Re-named Steelheads

The Ontario Hockey League‘s Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors will have a new name for this upcoming 2012-13 season, the Mississauga Steelheads.

The Steelheads name was chosen by the fans in an on-line vote held over the past seven days. The other options in the vote were Lakers and Helmsmen . “Hurricanes”, a write-in vote presumably in honour of longtime Mississauga mayor, 91-year-old “Hurricane” Hazel McCallion, was the runner-up to Steelheads.

The Steelheads name is in reference to steelhead trout, a fish native to the Mississauga area.

“There were strong cases to be (made) for each of the names and a lot of write-in votes as well,” Steelheads VP Scott Rogers told the Mississauga News. “I think Steelheads ties in nicely with the heritage of Mississauga and it’s also a strong name. The fish represents resilience and power and when you’re rebranding a team, those are important.”

The terms of sale from former owner Eugene Melnyk to Landmark Sport Group dictated that the “St. Michael’s Majors” brand could not be used by the team any longer.

This move by Melnyk forces the junior hockey fans of Mississauga, Ontario to embrace and accept their third different brand since 2007. The Majors had moved into Mississauga in 2007/08, replacing the Mississauga Ice Dogs who had moved to St. Catharines just a few months earlier.

“The hockey fans in Mississauga deserve to have a team they can call their own and we are thrilled with the response we received from the community,” majority owner Elliott Kerr said in a news release. “The name-the-team contest is just the first step in engaging our fan base. Our players and staff will be out in the community, helping to continue to grow minor hockey and support the city of Mississauga.”

The logo is not expected to be unveiled for a couple of weeks.