by Daniel Fink | AHL On The Beat
The Manitoba Moose are in the midst of their 25th season in Winnipeg. With festivities ongoing, the Moose want to bring some of that legacy to fans throughout the campaign.
The team’s goal is to involve as many people as possible in the celebrations.
“Finding ways to layer the 25th season throughout the year, so everyone gets to be a part of it, is important,” said Colin Peterson, the team’s manager of game presentation. “Every time we have a conversation about a specific event, or something on our schedule, we add in the extra question of, ‘What does this mean for the 25th season? Is there some extra level we can add to this?’
“It’s about finding things that tie back to the main thread.”
Part of that process is coming to an understanding of how to approach celebrating the 25th season of Moose hockey. It’s an opportunity to tell new stories about the franchise, the people within it and the team’s relationship with fans.
“When we were celebrating 20 seasons, we’d only been back for a few years,” explained Raquel Payne, manager of marketing for the Moose. “Now we’ve re-established ourselves in our market. So, we’re not quite looking back as strongly on the nostalgic ‘1.0 era.’ We’re more focusing on what 25 seasons looks like more specifically within the ‘2.0 era.’ We’re focusing more on recent
accomplishments than accomplishments over a longer period.”
The Moose came to Winnipeg as members of the International Hockey League in 1996, and began play in the AHL in 2001. They relocated to St. John’s, N.L., in 2011 when the Winnipeg Jets took the ice, and returned in 2015 as the Jets’ top development affiliate
The so-called ‘2.0 era’ of the Moose now has nearly a decade of stories to tell. As one of just a handful of AHL affiliates located in the same city as its NHL team, many Moose alumni continue to have a connection to local fans as members of the Jets.
“We have direct lines to draw between current Winnipeg Jets and Moose who were here since the team returned,” added Peterson. “The fact we can tell these stories completely now gives the
anniversary a fresh look.”
The centerpiece of that fresh look is the team’s 25th season celebration jersey, which debuted on Nov. 23. The jersey merges the team’s classic “happy moose” logo with the organization’s current color palette to combine the franchise’s two eras.
Work on the celebration jersey began back in the summer of 2022 as the True North Sports + Entertainment design team worked to find the balance between nostalgia and celebrating where the
team is now. The original logo was identified as the preference for the main crest due in part to its significance for current Moose and TNSE staff.
“Everybody in our offices were just dying to see something with our ‘happy moose’ again,” said Marc Gomez, art director for the TNSE creative services team. “The ‘happy moose’ is something really important to the history of the brand. It’s something that is synonymous with many of the people who we work with and grew up with the Moose.”
The logo also has a more whimsical feel to it, which connects to the younger fans which make up a large part of the contingent at every Moose home game. It’s a connection to the history of the team that Payne hopes resonates with the team’s young fans.
“A lot of our fans tend to be of a younger demographic. So, we want to make sure it’s something that they’ll remember, and they’ll love just as much as our fans who did grow up with it.”
People are passionate about jerseys. You don’t have to look hard to see strong reactions to any jersey revealed by a team from youth sports all the way to the professional and international ranks. With any new reveal comes a little trepidation as the initial launch begins and the opinions start to come in. For Gomez, those nerves started to fade once the first jersey came out of the box.
“There was excitement, and obviously you need to keep it under wraps a little bit, but I did want to just throw it on and run through the office. It’s a great looking sweater, and I think everybody here is happy it’s out in the world right now.”
That excitement carried right to fans who quickly embraced the new sweater. Many heralded the new look as one of the best specialty jerseys produced by the team – high praise considering some of the looks the TNSE design team fashioned for the club in the past. Jerseys were all but sold out at retail by the time the team hit the holiday break.
“There’s a lot of satisfaction when we get that positive reaction,” added Payne. “To hear that kind of reaction when we rolled it out on social media. We were flooded with so much support and so much love. Hearing our supporters are just as excited as we are solidified this jersey was the right choice for us.”
The jersey enjoyed a winning debut as the Moose battled back from a third-period deficit to win 4-2 over their long-time rivals, the Chicago Wolves. The new look had players talking post-game.
“I thought they looked pretty sharp. I thought they looked great,” Moose defenseman Dylan Anhorn told reporters following the win. “Maybe we need to boost how many times we wear them this year based on the jump we had today.”
While jerseys may be in short supply, fans can purchase other 25th season merchandise at Jets Gear locations or online at TrueNorthShop.com. For more information on the 25th season of Moose hockey, including the promotional schedule, single game tickets and ticket memberships, visit MooseHockey.com.