The Niagara IceDogs are a major junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), based in St. Catharines, Ontario. The franchise began as the Mississauga IceDogs in 1998 and relocated to the Niagara region for the 2007-08 season.[1] The team’s visual identity centers on a bull terrier mascot rendered in hockey gear, a design that has remained the core of the brand since the move to Niagara.
Design and History
The current primary logo features a white bull terrier wearing a red hockey jersey and holding a hockey stick. Around the summer of 2016, the team removed the wordmark from the logo, leaving the dog figure as the standalone primary mark.[2] The bull terrier character is widely described as modeled after Blue, the famous dog of former team part-owner and hockey commentator Don Cherry.[3]
For the 2016-17 season, the team unveiled a 10th anniversary logo marking a decade in Niagara. The anniversary mark featured the iconic dog appearing over a pair of crossbones, a design intended to be reminiscent of the Roman numeral “X” symbol for 10.[4]
The team’s colors are red, black, and white.[1] The home jersey is black with red, black, and white sleeves, featuring two crossed dog bones on each shoulder. The away jersey is white with the same sleeve treatment and shoulder patch.[1]
Meaning and Symbolism
The bull terrier mascot, named Bones, is the central figure of the IceDogs identity. The character is modeled on Blue, Don Cherry’s dog, reflecting the franchise’s ownership history during its Mississauga years.[3] The crossed dog bones used on the jersey shoulders reinforce the canine theme of the team name.
The 10th anniversary logo’s crossbones element was explicitly designed to evoke the Roman numeral “X,” tying the visual to the team’s decade milestone in Niagara.[4]
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