New Logos Unveiled, More Coming?
The NHL and the Minnesota Wild unveiled the full version of the 2011 Entry Draft logo on Tuesday. It's very green.
The NHL set a new standard for draft logos with the 2010 edition, hosted by Los Angeles. The basic version of the mark features the word "draft" in big block letters above three shooting stars which identify the host and year.
The full version features elements that represent the host in some fashion. The Los Angeles logo, for example, features palm trees. The new Minnesota logo contains a wilderness scene. But my description hardly does it justice.
The best description can be found on the team's own website:
For those of you who live out of state, we here in Paul Bunyan's home state love us some trees, and some lakes. This logo has both, with pine trees surrounding a lake with what appears to be a brilliant sunrise coming up over the horizon. The primary color is the forest green seen in the Wild's third jerseys.
Another difference: While the full L.A. version was encased in a circle, the Minny one here is more of a shield. Will they stick with the shield in 2012 or keep changing up the shape? Not really a question that demands an answer. At least not until next year.
By the way, this was pointed out by a reader. For anyone who ever thought the Wild's third jersey looks like a baseball uniform. Guess what.
The newest member of the North American Hockey League just unveiled a brand new logo. Welcome the Michigan Warriors.
Technically they're not a new member. They were the Marquette Rangers until this week. The junior club has now made the 400-mile move to Flint, Mich. for the 2010-11 season and given us a brand new logo to enjoy.
It's a little cartoony, but it is a junior team. And to be fair, it's a solid, fierce-looking mark. You could do worse with some of the stuff teams have come out with lately. (Yes, I'm talking about the Pensacola Ice Flyers. I'm always talking about the Pensacola Ice Flyers.)
Read more about the change-over at the NAHL's website. And find more details on the team at MyWarriors.net.
One more thing. Scott K. writes in tonight to say it looks all but official that the Lowell Devils are headed to Albany — once again placing New Jersey's AHL farm club in New York's capital district.
Tom Gulitti posted the following on his blog, Fire & Ice:
It appears an agreement between the Devils and the Times Union Center in Albany to move the team’s AHL franchise back to New York’s capital will be finalized in the next two days. The Devils submitted a letter of intent last week to move the team to Albany for the next five seasons, but some details still had to be worked out about improvements to the arena that the Devils are seeking.
“Nothing is complete yet,” Lamoriello said. “Hopefully, we’ll have something by the end of the week the latest.”
So it's not full-on official, but it's looking more like they'll be the Albany Devils starting in the fall. And that means a new logo for us to drool over. Here's the thing, though. I'm betting they pull the Trenton nonsense. It's going to read ALBANY arched above the New Jersey Devils logo with devil horns on the A and Y.
Stay tuned to see what happens.
Chris
There was one other item I accidentally left out last night. A new Twitter account named @OKC_Barons popped up on Tuesday claiming that the Oilers' revived AHL franchise will be called the Oklahoma City Barons.
Haven't been able to track down any confirmation of this, or even a second source. Verifying the legitimacy of the account is pretty much impossible at this point. But I guess it's worth keeping an eye on anyway.
There have been two tweets, both posted around 8 PM on Tuesday.
OKC_Barons YOU HEARD IT HERE 1st: The Oklahoma City Barons will be the new Edmonton #Oilers AHL affiliate starting in the 2010/11 season. #AHL #OKC
OKC_Barons The official name announcement will be in a few weeks. Until then... who's excited for the Oklahoma City Barons? #AHL #OKC #Oilers #NHL
Again, can't vouch for the validity so take it for what it's worth.
Reader Comments (10)
Lowell has a nice logo. It would be nice to see something like that in Albany. If they could use the River Rats name and logos, that would be even better...
I'm amazed that the 2011 draft seems to have been finalized so early, logo and all. The 2010 draft location wasn't decided until this past December.
And I'll be honest, this 2011 draft logo seems more appropriate for 2010, because it does look like a shield (much like the Kings' alternate logos).
Why would they use a vague geographical name like "Michigan" Warriors when the league already has at least 3 other teams in Michigan. Also the logo is awful, i'm sure the uniforms will be worse.
Barons is an alright name, but what I found most interesting is that the Oilers' account wasn't following the Barons' account so it's probably worth keeping an eye on that. If the Oilers follow, it would add a lot more fuel to the fire, methinks.
I'm not sure if the Barons thing is legit or now. Why would a team create a Twitter account and make the name public there before any sort of official announcement? They even said the official announcement will come in a few weeks. Doesn't make sense.
That being said, I think that the OKC Blazers monicker coming back is a more likely option than the Barons. After all, the former ownership group of the Blazers are involved in the new AHL team, and had folded the Blazers in order to bring the new team to town.
Good lord I hate the New Jersey franchise and everything about it. Buy the Lowell Loch Monsters, rename them the Lowell Devils, give them identical jerseys to your NHL team. Next up, buy the Trenton Titans, rename them the Trenton Devils, give them identical jerseys to your NHL team, and worse than that, give them the NJ logo to boot.
Next up, take a history rich hockey city in Albany, take away the RiverRats name and call them the Devils, and we'll give them identical jerseys to the NHL club too. Good thing that red and black are such unique colours in pro sports.....
The Oilers' account, as well as their ECHL affiliate, the Stockton Thunder ARE NOW BOTH following the Barons' account. If that doesn't say official, I don't know what does.
Alan, I think you're looking at that wrong, actually. The OKC_Barons account is FOLLOWING the official Oilers and Thunder accounts, not the other way around. However, the Oilers' Web Team (Oilers_Travels) account was the first follower of the OKC_Barons. It describes itself as a "behind-the-scenes" (pseudo-official) Oilers account, which looks legitimate to me as it has photos from inside the TSN Draft Lottery studio from April 13. Interesting.
Barons is a good name for a oilers farm team, wonder if its legit? its not too close to oilers but has a similar feel (oil barons) wonder what kind of logo they will have, assuming its legit that is
A quick Google search shows of Okalahoma City Barans shows that that was the rumoured name of the Seattle Supersonics when they moved to OKC. Some pretty sweet looking rumoured uniforms back then.