Everyone hated the names of almost every new team in my lifetime (minus the Jets but hey, that's different).
Hurricanes (mostly the aesthetics i guess)
Coyotes (again, most aesthetics)
Wild
Predators
Blue Jackets
Thrashers
Golden Knights
Kraken
Whatever team name Utah goes with, after a while people will get use to and won't care anymore
EDIT :
Did the Stars get hate from Minnesotans?
Hurricanes - tbh honest at least it was plural. I always associate Florida more with hurricane season but really nothing would meet my approval as they should still be in Hartford and the Whalers (and I hate hate hate that Karamanos brings that out now but I digress)
Coyotes was always an excellent choice and played well off the hockey history of the minors team that was there being the Roadrunners.
Wild. Nailed the two-way logo. Terrible name. Singular names are terrible in general.
Predators was fine - the link was on the obscure side being named for a fossil and though I don't like the color I give massive respect to them for picking the distinctive look in a sea of hipster colors and black.
Blue Jackets is unweildly but ultimately I give them a pass because it is nice that a team for once honored the WINNING side of the Civil War
Golden Knights. I though a bit of a mouthful tbh but since they couldn't be Black Knights I get it. Coulda been worse. (Side note the contention over using Black Knights - because Army - shows why all the duplicate names won't cut it in Utah. Raptors and Grizzlies are NBA names (and Utah's owner wouldn't do that to partners). Saints is already NHL. It has happened (hell Carolina Panthers and Winnipeg once and future Jets) but hard to stand out with a recycled name).
Kraken. Knew it was fate that this awful name would be picked but again boo on the singular names. Utah will surely go down the same awful road.
The Stars got hate from Minnesota but really the other contending logical name would have been Lone Stars - but too easy to make jokes on that.
Sharks stands out as a perfect example of getting it right - perhaps all the more surprising as that was done 100% via marketing/branding research types.
I am proudest as a Devils fan that the team kept that dumb Disney name off the Cup. Glad that franchise in Anaheim rectified that later.
Devils won a contest and was an excellent choice. Way better than what the owner wanted (the process basically got hijacked by a local newspaper contest that wasn't asked for). For all the years McMullen owned the team my invoice envelopes always bore the corporate version of name that he really wanted to give them: Meadowlanders Inc -- thank you for bailing us out newspaper contest!
