NHL Logos
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7correct to beat the crowd
40 free NHL Logos trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
A hockey sweater is built around its crest, and the best crests carry a story. Some hide a letter or a landmark in plain sight, some were sketched by a relative of the owner, and a few were borrowed from places that have nothing to do with ice: a cycling club, a military badge, a set of bones dug up on a building site. This quiz covers the emblems of the National Hockey League, from the oldest clubs to the newest expansion teams, along with a few franchises that moved or folded. Each question describes a crest in words or asks where a design, a color or a name came from, so no pictures are needed, and every answer comes with a short explanation. It is written for fans who can name a team from a glimpse of a shoulder patch, and for quiz hosts who want accurate questions with the answers ready to read out. The questions run from household emblems to details only a uniform obsessive would know.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which French word do many fans wrongly think the 'H' in the Montreal Canadiens' 'CH' logo stands for?
Habitants
Habitants, the old name for French settler farmers, gave the team its nickname 'Habs', but the letter really stands for hockey. The club's full name is Club de hockey Canadien.
Q 02Which Original Six team's logo was adapted from the emblem of a Montreal athletic club its owner once joined?
Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings got their winged wheel from the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association, the 'Winged Wheelers'. Owner James Norris, a former member, thought a red version suited the Motor City.
Q 03Which entertainment company founded an NHL team in 1993 and gave it a duck-shaped goalie mask for a logo?
Disney
Disney named the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim after its own 1992 film about a struggling youth team. The company sold the club in 2005, and the mask logo was dropped a year later.
Q 04The Nashville Predators' logo honors which Ice Age animal, dug up beneath downtown Nashville in 1971?
A saber-toothed cat
A saber-toothed cat skeleton turned up when builders dug the foundations of a bank tower. The team's mascot, Gnash, is one too, and fans flash 'fang fingers' during every power play.
Q 05Which team's logo hides a forest, a river and a guiding star inside the silhouette of an animal's head?
Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild's beast has the North Star for an eye, a nod to the state motto, and the Mississippi River for a mouth. Logo fans have long debated which animal it is meant to be.
Q 06The Los Angeles Kings switched to silver and black in 1988, the year they traded for which superstar?
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Gretzky arrived from the Edmonton Oilers on August 9, 1988, and pulled on the new colors. Owner Bruce McNall had just retired the purple the team had worn since 1967.
Q 07The St. Louis Blues, who wear a winged musical note, are named after a song by which composer?
W. C. Handy
W. C. Handy's 'Saint Louis Blues' gave the team its name, and the 'Blue Note' crest has been worn since the first season in 1967. The arena organist plays Handy's tune in full before games.
Q 08Which team's eagle logo forms a letter 'W' and hides a domed government building in the space below?
Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals' 'Weagle' holds the outline of the Capitol dome in the blank space beneath the bird. It arrived in 2007, when the club returned to red, white and blue.
Q 09The eight spokes of the Boston Bruins' 'spoked B' logo nod to which old nickname for the city of Boston?
The Hub
The Hub is the middle of a wheel, which is where the Boston 'B' sits. The first version, made for the club's 25th anniversary season, flanked the letter with the numbers 24 and 49.
Q 10Which team's logo, drawn by artist Sam Ciccone, is a winged letter 'P' with an orange dot for a puck?
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers' crest was drawn to suggest speed, and so were the stripes down the shoulders and arms of the jersey, which stand for wings. Ciccone's rejected sketches included a winged skate.
Q 11Which team's 1997 logo shows a Haida-style killer whale bursting from ice in the shape of a letter 'C'?
Vancouver Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks' orca replaced a speeding skate logo, and it arrived while the team's parent company was called Orca Bay. The company has since been renamed, but the whale stayed.
Q 12Which team's short-lived 1995 logo showed a fisherman in a rain slicker holding a hockey stick?
New York Islanders
The New York Islanders' fisherman looked so much like the mascot of a frozen seafood brand that rival crowds chanted for fish sticks. The old Long Island crest was fully back within two seasons.
Q 13Which team's navy alternate jersey, worn from 1996 to 2007, featured the head of the Statue of Liberty?
Q 21The Colorado Avalanche's original shoulder logo, worn from 1995, was the foot of which legendary creature?
A yeti
A yeti's foot sat on the shoulders for twenty years. In 2015 the team swapped it for a mark based on the 'C' of the Colorado state flag, recolored to match the uniform.
Q 22Which team would have swapped its igloo logo for a Siberian husky in 1995 had it not moved to Denver?
Quebec Nordiques
The Quebec Nordiques also planned to drop blue, white and red for teal, black and navy. The owner could not find the money to stay, so the igloo never gave way to the dog.
Q 23The Buffalo Sabres' 2006 bison logo earned a mocking nickname that blends 'Buffalo' with which creature?
A slug
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers' 'Lady Liberty' sweater set the letters NYR beneath the statue's crowned head. The club brought the design back as a 'Reverse Retro' uniform in the 2020–21 season.
Q 14Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe said the team's blue stood for Canadian skies and its white for what?
Snow
Snow was the poetic answer, but the colours had a plainer source too: the trucks of Smythe's sand and gravel business were painted the same blue and white.
Q 15Which color did the New Jersey Devils drop from their red uniforms in favor of black in 1992?
Green
Green was picked in 1982 because New Jersey is the Garden State. It left the uniform a decade later, partly because the shade was hard to match between the logo and the jerseys.
Q 16The Ottawa Senators' logo shows the helmeted head of a general from which ancient power?
Rome
Rome and its Senate inspired the crest, which its designer described as a strong and prominent centurion figure. The team's mascot is named Spartacat all the same.
Q 17What color is the sea monster's eye on the Seattle Kraken's 'S' logo?
Red
Red, a shade the team calls 'red alert', lights the eye above a tentacle that fills the hollow of the 'S'. The crest was unveiled in 2020, more than a year before the Kraken's first game.
Q 18For years, Calgary Flames alternate captains wore the old logo from the team's eight seasons in which American city?
Atlanta
Atlanta's flaming 'A' doubled neatly as the letter that marks an alternate captain. The name recalled the burning of the city in the Civil War, and the owner who moved the team in 1980 kept it.
Q 19The Winnipeg Jets' 2011 logo is patterned on the roundel of which national service with a base in the city?
Royal Canadian Air Force
The Royal Canadian Air Force roundel frames the silhouette of a CF-18 Hornet fighter. The design honors 17 Wing, the air base in Winnipeg, where the game uniforms were first shown.
Q 20Which Civil War weapon appears on a Columbus Blue Jackets crest and is fired inside the arena at home games?
A cannon
A cannon, a hand-made replica of an 1857 Napoleon, has stood in Nationwide Arena since 2007. The team's name honors the part Ohio and its soldiers played in the war.
A slug, specifically the banana slug, gave the 'Buffaslug' its name. The sweaters sold all the same: five of the league's ten best-selling player jerseys early that season were Sabres ones.
Q 24The NHL's own shield logo, redrawn in 2005, made silver its main color as a tribute to which trophy?
The Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup's silver took over the shield when play resumed after a season lost to a lockout. The letters were also redrawn to read upward, meant to project a vibrant, optimistic image.
Q 25The Anaheim Ducks' 2006 wordmark logo replaced the letter 'D' with which part of a bird?
A webbed foot
A webbed foot shaped like a 'D' arrived with the shorter team name and new colors of black, gold and orange. The 'webbed D' on its own became the main jersey crest in 2014.
Q 26The Vegas Golden Knights' primary logo is which piece of armor, drawn with a V-shaped opening?
A helmet
A helmet of the open-faced barbute type sits on a black and gold shield, and the gap in its face makes the 'V'. The secondary logo crosses two swords behind a red star.
Q 27The Carolina Hurricanes' secondary logo hangs which weather signal from a hockey stick?
A warning flag
A warning flag in red and black, the coastal signal for a dangerous storm, tops the stick. The same red and black flags have also dotted the hem of the team's jerseys.
Q 28The Chicago Blackhawks are named, by way of an army division, after Black Hawk, a leader of which nation?
Sauk
Sauk leader Black Hawk gave his name to the 86th Infantry Division, in which team founder Frederic McLaughlin led a machine gun battalion. The club wrote its name as two words until 1986.
Q 29Todd McFarlane, designer of the Edmonton Oilers' 2001 third-jersey logo, created which comic book antihero?
Spawn
Spawn's creator was a minority owner of the Oilers at the time. His crest, a flying set of gears topped by an oil drop, left the classic Oilers logo off the jersey altogether.
Q 30The Phoenix Coyotes' 1996 logo drew a hockey-playing coyote in the style of which Native American art form?
Kachina figures
Kachina figures inspired the angular coyote that arrived with the team in Phoenix. Retired from the main uniform in 2003, the crest returned as the primary logo before the 2021–22 season.