In what seems like the worst kept secret in the hockey world, the name and logos of the FHL’s newest team began to leak late last night, revealing what had been rumored for more than a week: That the FHL’s Delaware team will be the Delaware Thunder.

We waited yesterday for an announcement that never came, and searched high and low on the US Patent and Trademark Office website, and nothing.

Well, apparently the trademarks for the name, logo and wordmark were filed on May 7, and late last night went public on the USPTO website. Here’s that link for all the details.

Two trademarks were filed by the Delaware Pro Hockey Group LLC, based out of Harrington, Delaware.

We don’t have a clean shot of the logo just yet because the team hasn’t been officially announced, but here is a thumbnail shot of the logo from the USPTO website.

A description of the logo was posted on the USTPO website, saying: The color(s) black, grey, silver and white is/are claimed as a feature of the mark. The mark consists of a stylized figure having a grey bearded, white grimacing face with black and grey shading, wearing a Viking battle helmet in grey and dark grey with black and white accents and white horns with black accents; wearing a rough hewn cloak in dark greys with black and grey accents depicting the god of thunder Thor, with Thor’s battle axes strapped in an “x” behind his back, the ax heads depicted as rough hewn hockey stick and blades in white with grey hockey tape and black and grey accents. In front of Thor is the word “Delaware” in stylized format in silver with a black border over the word “Thunder” in stylized format in white with a black border. The letters T and R in the word Thunder depict images of thunderbolts. The entire logo is outlined by an inner border in black and an outer border in silver.

Bus League Hockey was told rumor of the Thunder name last week, and had it confirmed by league sources last night, but weirdly, it was Joe Pace Jr. five days ago who kind of spoiled the name on Facebook, by posting the following thing on Carolina Thunderbirds GM Scott Brand’s Facebook page.

Here’s a close-up of that picture.

And sure enough, right in the dead-center is a pair of pins for a team called the Delware Thunder. Now, you might be wondering, well that’s not the logo you posted above, what logo is that from?

Well, turns out there was a junior team that played two seasons in something called the AEHL under the name the Delaware Thunder name from 2006 to 2008. During those two years the Thunder were actually pretty good! Going a combined 56-30-15 and finishing no worse than third, before the relocated to Philadelphia under the same name.

This is also not the first FHL team to call Delaware “home”, because way back in 2011-12 a travel-only team called the Delware Federals played 19 games after the Vermont Wild folded early in the season, but never played a home game in Delaware that season.

So there you have it! The FHL’s newest team is the Delware Thunder, we’ll have more on this for you after the team is officially announced.