JOHNSTOWN —
The name Chiefs will remain in the ECHL, not Johnstown.
The only North American Hockey League Jets skating on Cambria County War Memorial Arena ice next season will be from Janesville, Wisc.
What’s in a name?
Johnstown’s new NAHL team will find out sooner than later.
“We’re going to try to get the name knocked down this week,” said James Bouchard, chairman of Johnstown Sports Partners LLC, which on Thursday officially announced its acquisition of the Alaska Avalanche franchise that will move to Johnstown.
“We’ve been getting a lot of input from community members. We’ve vetted it down to about five names. We hope to have that done in the next five days.
“We need to order jerseys this week so that we have them on time. Hockey sticks, gear, all that stuff has to be ordered. We’ve got to start moving pretty quick so we hit all of our time frames.”
Ideally, Bouchard would have preferred to hold a “name-the-team” contest involving fans. But the NAHL’s
56-game season – with 28 home dates – begins in September.
“We’re not going to have enough time to do a contest,” said Bouchard, who heads the private investment firm Esmark Inc.
“Literally we have to get a name this week. We haven’t picked a color yet. That needs to be nailed down this week. I’d say by next Friday we’ll have a name, colors and equipment.”
New owners welcomed to Johnstown
Two historic and sentimental choices for the team name were eliminated from the running.
“There’s a Jets team in the league already,” Bouchard said of the Janesville Jets.
“We tried to get the Chiefs name back but we could not get the name back because it’s owned by the ECHL,” he added.
“The movie rights for ‘Slap Shot’ are owned by Universal. We did explore that. Some of the names coming
back are legacy type names that
I think Johnstown folks will be more happy with versus some crazy new name.”
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