VANCOUVER — Cara Gardner Morey admits she’s not great at keeping secrets.
For the general manager of Vancouver’s Professional Women’s Hockey League expansion club, staying mum on the new branding was no easy feat.
“There was times I tried to forget what it was because I was scared it would slip out,” she said. “It was definitely difficult.”
Gardner Morey finally broke her silence Thursday as the Vancouver Goldeneyes name and logo was released into the wild.
“Just finally having an identity and something that not only the fans can rally behind, but the players and the staff it just feels real,” she said.
The new brand was unveiled days before the Goldeneyes are set to gather in ahead of their inaugural season.
Vancouver’s training camp begins on Monday and the team is set to play its first-ever game when it hosts fellow expansion side the Seattle Torrent on Nov. 21.
The anticipation of getting started has been steadily building around the team for months, said defender Ashton Bell.
“With (the name and logo) and the jerseys, we’re just itching to get out onto the ice this weekend and start camp on Monday with all the girls coming into town,” she said Thursday, wearing a new blue T-shirt with “Vancouver Goldeneyes” emblazoned across the front.
“It’s definitely starting to feel real, and we’re getting excited to get the group together and to get things rolling.”
Picked first overall by Vancouver in June’s expansion draft, Bell has been part of many firsts for the fledgling team.
“I thought the unveiling of the jerseys was top for me, but this one definitely one ups that,” said the former Ottawa Charge standout. “Just having a name and a brand and the logo to get behind, and now that our city and our fans and our group can kind of start rallying around and creating an identity, I think, is pretty special.”
Now players are looking forward to another special moment.
On Monday, they’ll finally get to skate at Pacific Coliseum — the lone PWHL venue that will have the team’s logo at centre ice. Unlike the league’s other teams, the Goldeneyes will be the prime tenant at the stadium.
“We’re the only team that’s going to have this and I think it’s very monumental,” said Vancouver defender Mellissa Channell-Watkins, who joins the new club after winning back-to-back Walter Cups with the Minnesota Frost.
“And it kind of goes to show, we deserve to have our own barns, and we deserve to go out there every day and have our logo at centre ice so fans can see it. So I’m really excited to see the unveiling, and then just being able to play there every day.”
While Channell-Watkins and her teammates will see the blue, rust and gold of the Goldeneyes logo on the ice, the crest won’t be front and centre on their jerseys.
Instead, for its inaugural season, the team will wear sweaters with “Vancouver” stitched horizontally across the front.
Gardner Morey said she believes the Goldeneyes logo will be added to the jerseys in some way, but it wasn’t possible to get logo jerseys made in time for the season’s start.
“Truthfully, the way production goes, you have to order stuff years in advance to get them in on time,” the GM said. “So it was just a timing issue with getting things branded, versus getting things in production and getting here in time for the season.”
Channell-Watkins doesn’t mind.
The jerseys still feature the team’s colours of rich blue, rust and off-white.
“We might not have it on our jerseys, but fans will have it in the stands, it’s going to be at centre ice. So there’s going to be the logo everywhere in the arena.”
There’s still ample work to be done before the Goldeneyes skate out for puck drop in just over two weeks time, said head coach Brian Idalski, but seeing the team’s new brand out in the world is an exciting development.
“It’s just another step closer to being for real and getting on the ice and getting after it,” he said. “As an expansion start up, these are some of the steps through, so we’re happy to have that. And for me, it’s lets get on the ice and get after it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2025.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
