AJIHL

The Melbourne Red Wings were founded 18 September 2012 following the announcement by Ice Hockey Australia of the formation of the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League.^[1] The team is controlled by the Victorian Ice Hockey Association.^[1] On 14 October 2012 it was announced that Warren Porter had signed on as coach for the 2012–13 AJIHL season with Michael Flaherty as his assistant.^[2]

The first team in club history:

For the 2012–13 AJIHL season^[2][3]

#	Nat	Name	Pos	Date of Birth	Acquired
10		Dylan Black	F	11 January 1992	2012
3		Peter Colosimo	D	28 March 1996	2012
4		Chris Fahy	D	27 January 1993	2012
5		Nikolaos French	F	26 September 1996	2012
15		Liam Hayes	D	30 November 1995	2012
8		Daniel Hotriem	F	26 April 1993	2012
6		Brendan Knox	F	29 July 1993	2012
7		Brendan McDowell	F	12 March 1992	2012
20		James McKendrick	G	28 April 1993	2012
19		Damian Pandolfo	D	10 March 1995	2012
14		Kurt Payne	F	13 September 1994	2012
18		Thomas Roberts	D	1 April 1993	2012
11		Matt Stringer	F	4 May 1993	2012
9		Julius Vitikka	F	28 June 1992	2012
2		Daniel Williams	D	30 June 1992	2012

AJIHL Expansion

The follow-up season in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League saw a lot of change via expansion and renaming of its existing teams. The Melbourne Red Wings were renamed the Melbourne Glaciers on 22 August 2013.^[4][5] The changes were made in response to the National Hockey Leagues concern about the AJIHL using their team names and logos but also recognised the opportunity to create a new history for the teams through creating their own identity.

In October 2013 the league expanded to six teams with two teams from Perth, the Sharks and the Pelicans, joining for the start of the 2013–14 season.^[6]

2012-2013 Melbourne Red Wings

Melbourne Red Wings used this logo between 2012 and 2013

In their first year, and the inaugural AJIHL season, the Melbourne Red Wings wore a uniform that resembled the NHL namesake Detroit Red Wings. The jersey design and uniform bore close resemblance to the Detroit Red Wings design, with the AJIHL logo used for shoulder crests.^[7]

2013-present

On 22 August 2013 it was announced that the Melbourne Red Wings would change their name to the Melbourne Glaciers, which avoided the close resemblance with the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL after the NHL had made complaint about a breach of copyright and it also allowed the team to develop its own brand identity.^[8]

The renaming to Melbourne Glaciers was carefully chosen to reflect Australia's rich hockey culture. The name Glaciers is a tribute to the Melbourne Glaciarium,^[8] which was the first place that an ice hockey game was played in Australia on Tuesday 17 July 1906.^[9] The Melbourne Glaciarium was also home to one of the original 4 ice hockey teams in Australia called the Glaciarium, who were founded as part of the formation of the Victorian Ice Hockey Association (VIHA) in 1908.^[10]

On 13 September 2013, the new Melbourne Glaciers logo design and branding was created by Ross Carpenter and his son, Jack Carpenter, who was largely involved in the creation of the uniform design.

The suggestion to use Glaciers as a new name for the Melbourne Red Wings was made by Michael Flaherty and the reasoning behind it was to honor the Melbourne Glaciarium, the location of the first game of ice hockey game played in Australia. The league made the decision to continue using a predominantly red jersey and provided a limit of 4 colors. The decision to use red as a base colour is thought to honor their patron of the time, Basil Hansen, who first played for the VIHA Red Arrows in 1947. The colors used were charcoal grey, a blue-grey and white to create a palette with glacial coloring.^[11]

Melbourne Glaciers logo as of 13 September 2013. Designed by Ross and Jack Carpenter.

The team logo is a stylised representation of a deeply crevassed glacier, grinding its way down around snow-capped peaks, while the half-round (Diocletion) window of Melbourne Glaciarium and a speeding puck symbolize the birthplace of the Australian game.

— Ross Carpenter

^[11]

The Glaciers nameplate design sprang from that kind of gothic blackletter script that somehow looks at home with icy peaks, pick axes and frozen rivers. This first rink at the main gateway to Melbourne was "the oldest rink in the Empire" by 1939. Although long gone, it was the cradle of national ice sports, and it seems fitting that its spirit can live on here in the red jersey worn by successive generations of Victoria's most promising junior players.

— Ross Carpenter

^[11]

The Melbourne Glaciarium was situated on the bank of the Yarra River, facing Melbourne city which is currently referred to as South Gate. When it was built in 1906 it was the third largest ice arena in the world and seated 2000 patrons, though peak attendance could see up to 5000 patrons in the venue at one time.^[11]

Current roster

For the 2016–17 AJIHL season

#	Nat	Name	Pos	Date of Birth	Acquired
2		Timothy Breedveld		30 October 1996	2016
4		Corey Stringer	D	10 August 1997	2013
6		Tim Vanderwolf	F	1 May 1998	2014
7		Harrison Jaunozols	F	19 September 1997	2016
8		Edwin Johnstone	F	3 June 1999	2015
10		Gavin Birchler	D	25 October 1998	2014
11		David Foster	F	6 February 1997	2013
12		Fintan Paisley-Gunn		9 April 2000	2016
13		Taras Cheprakov	D	18 January 1996	2016
14		Bryan Birchler	D	6 June 1996	2015
15		Jacob Haley	D	13 July 1999	2015
16		Simeon Lira		22 December 2000	2016
18		Elijah West-Testa		22 February 1999	2016
1		Michael Breedveld	G	24 December 1999	2016

Captains

The first team Captain for the Melbourne Red Wings in the inaugural year for the AJIHL was Brendan McDowell, his Alternate Captains were Matt Stringer and Chris Fahy.^[12]

• 2012–13 Brendan McDowell (C), Matt Stringer (A), Chris Fahy (A)
• 2013–14 Mitch Humphries (C), Jack Carpenter (A), Daniel Szalinski (A)
• 2015–16 Caleb Butler (C), Corey Stringer (A), David Foster (A)
• 2016–17 Corey Stringer (C), David Foster (A), Taras Cheprakov (A)