VICTORIA -- The Saanich Junior B Hockey team, formerly known as the Saanich Braves, has unveiled a shortlist of new potential names for the team.

The team decided to change its name back in July, saying that it was “not respectful" to Indigenous people and did not reflect the team’s relationship with local First Nations or its Indigenous players.

Now, the team has released a shortlist of five new potential names and wants to have the community weigh in on the options.

“We’ve had an overwhelming response from the community and from the world of sports in recent weeks as we have begun the work of renaming our team,” said team owners Edward Geric and Norm Kelly in a release Friday.

“We started with a huge list of names that mostly came from the community and we’ve even had some very creative folks develop logos and jersey designs. We’ve now shortened the list to five names that we think would represent our team really well and we want feedback before we make our final decision,” said the pair.

The five proposed names are:

  • The Saanich Summit
  • The Saanich Riptide
  • The Saanich Predators
  • The Saanich Squid
  • The Saanich Defenders

The Junior B Hockey team says that feedback and opinions can be submitted to the team through the email SaanichJrBHockey@gmail.com, or through the team’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts.

Feedback will be collected until Sept. 4, after which a new name and logo will be decided on and released over the next several weeks.