6 Things To Watch For at the Draft

Currently, I'm tied to my desk at work with no access to the draft feeds on either Versus or TSN. So I'm going to have to follow along on Twitter and catch up later. But in between my bouts of productiveness, I've found a moment to update the blog.

Here are six things we're expected to see at the draft, which gets underway shortly:

1. Edmonton — The Oilers have the first and 19th overall picks. They haven't said so specifically, but I wouldn't rule out the possiblity of seeing their new road sweater on the backs of their newest players. It's widely expected they will launch a new white jersey to match the blue and orange home threads.
2. Florida — The Panthers pick third and will be using that occasion to unveil their new red home uniform. It's already out there on Twitter if you're dying to see it. I'll have pictures on the blog later tonight.
3. Winnipeg — The recently relocated club will reportedly announce the team's new name just prior to announcing its first ever draft pick, 7th overall. TSN and other sources are reporting that they will be the Jets. No big surprise there.
4. Los Angeles — The Kings would've had the 19th overall pick, but they handed it over to the Oilers. Still, the new white road jersey is making the rounds on the draft floor. See the Icethetics Twitter feed for a look at it.
5. Nashville — The Predators would've picked 21st if they hadn't traded it for Mike Fisher. Still, the team will apparently unveil its new road jersey at some point tonight. Yesterday, we got a look at prototypes that I'm told are pretty close to the final version.
6. Tampa Bay — The Lightning will pick 27th overall and should give the new blue jersey to their draftee. The Bolts' new threads were unveiled back in January but won't hit the ice until the fall.

Obviously, trades are still possible and Los Angeles and Nashville could back first round picks that way. Be sure to tune in to see what happens. A very exciting night ahead!

Comments

[J]

Edmonton's new roads are beautiful!

[Joe McGrath]

Oil unveil the new road sweaters...and good God are they magnificent.

[Dreu Theran]

Panthers new reds look pretty decent in my opinion.

[Chris.B]

The Florida jersey looks good. The best part is that I see no piping!!! The problem now is that there are 3 (4 teams if you count Winnipeg) that will have red jerseys in the South East division. I love red it's my favorite color but it will be a red overload!

[addam]

saw a glance of a kid wearing the nashville jersey looks good and like the leaked ones and the oilers and panthers both look good

[kevin]

i just saw the new panthers red jerseys via twitter. seriously? this can not be their new jerseys, and if so, someone needs to get fired.

[Mike]

Dang, I was hoping for the new Senators jersey to show up. Oh well. Least they had the surprisingly large-looking All-star game patch sitting on the chest. Wondering if it's going to stay there for the season or whether it will be a shoulder patch. I love the design but I was surprised to see it on the chest. Maybe it was for advertising purposes. ;)

[ME]

just ME, or were the bolts' jerseys a lot darker of a blue?
i really liked them!!!!

and i really liked them before too :P

[Daniel]

I have to say, I love the new Panthers home jersey. It's not much different from their old one in terms of the basic design, but just taking out the pinstripes on the front makes it look so much cleaner. Even the half-stripes on the sleeve don't really bother me anymore. And I also fully support the switch back to red. Navy is kind of a boring color - too close to black.

I know I'm in a very tiny minority when I say this, but I really think the Oilers need to stop it with the classic jerseys until they can put a team on the ice that's worthy of them. It almost seemed kind of blasphemous to see the atrocious 2010-11 Oilers wearing the jerseys of Gretzky, Kurri, Messier, etc. I do agree with the majority that their initial Edge jerseys were hideous, but surely they can come up with some sort of compromise. The color scheme of navy, bronze, and red is good. It just needs to be done right. My personal favorite is the white jersey they wore in the 1996-97 season with the bronze and red and the navy shoulder yoke. But anyway, I digress...

I'm really really REALLY hoping that the Preds' gold jersey isn't too good to be true. The NHL hasn't had a legitimate-looking yellow jersey (i.e., one that wasn't the color of snot or had a bear on the front that looked more like a pig) since the Canucks in the late '80s, and it's about time :-)

[Dave]

The red panthers jersey was down right awful!!

[Jerseyman]

oilers - nice to see the 'old' white jersey back, glad they ditched the 'warm-up' jerseys!

panthers - ah, guess they now have the 'warm-up' jersey instead, the new red jersey is too plain, needs a blue & yellow stripe round the bottom to fix it. at least there was no stupid piping on it.

jets - errrm, guess we will wait & see.

kings - new white jersey is not as plain as i thought, obviously looks better with name / number on.

[Jon W | California Wave]

I hope the Jets jerseys are similar to their old ones, but with that light Thrasher blue in place of regular blue they used to use. But I have a feeling they won't since it seems they've been completely rejecting everything that was the Atlanta Thrashers.