Historic franchise rebrands and relocates and fans are not happy

This just in, the KHL's Kunlun Red Star have announced that they're moving permanently to Shanghai, China and are rebranding as the Shanghai Dragons.

Red Star were the first Chinese based professional hockey team in the world, but they haven't played a game in China since 2020. While they were initially based out of Beijing, China they moved to a suburb of Moscow, Russia in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and haven't played in China since. This move now brings them back to China, with a new home and a fresh new rebrand.

The problem is... the logo and name sucks.

Say what you will about this team, but I personally think the Red Star branding was pretty cool. Shanghai Dragons? C'mon... what is this? An EA Sports franchise? Show a bit of creativity...

The team was initially introduced in 2016 in the lead up to the 2022 Beijing Olympics as a way to generate interest in the sport in China. The results were mixed and it's safe to say that the KHL's experiment in China didn't go exactly to plan. Of course, COVID-19 can be blamed for a lot of what has gone wrong with this franchise. But with a new start in Shanghai, there's renewed optimism for the growth of hockey in the world's biggest sport market.