Conn Smythe decided the name maple leafs because the name was chosen in honour of the Maple Leaf Regiment from World War I. Conn Smythe also wanted the logo to be the maple leaf because it represents Canada.

Great list

Big fan of the lighting brother 💡

Well, guess what, there are just over 200 panthers left in the wild East of the Mississippi and they all reside in the state of Florida real close to the hockey arena in Sunrise. If there's one team that deserves to have that name above all others, it's the Florida Panthers.

The e in Canadiens is because they play in the province of Quebec which is mostly french

The Golden Knights did a tremendous job building their brand from the start. They deserve to be at the very least where you put them. The Kings at #2 I disagree with and some of that comes from their terrible look since at least the Gretzky era ended (ironically they are about to bring that back full time). Hated their boring and very lame "home plate" logo. If they embraced the royalty character of a king a lot more, then I can see Kings among the better ones. Coyotes deserves to be above them in names as you said you rarely hear the name outside of the NHL team. After seeing your list, now I'm starting to find a lot of the names by themselves as really boring. Also lost interest in the Kraken logo, but the name is good. Should have tried an octopus logo.

Blue Jackets should be last.