Sweater Switch '09: Part 4

First, check out Part 1: Pronger, Havlat, Tavares, Hedman, Ashton, Part 2: Bouwmeester, Ohlund, Walker, Cammalleri, Gomez, Smyth, and Part 3: Gaborik, Mara, Moen, Gionta, Gill, Spacek.

It's been nearly a week since the previous edition, but the summer blog series trudges on with another handful of players who are getting new jerseys this off-season. We'll begin with a picture that's been out there a while.

Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky

Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky were introduced to the Windy City last week after Part 3 was posted and I've been hanging on to this picture ever since. Both players carry over the sweater numbers they used with the previous red Original Six team they played for.

Hossa wore No. 18 for all of the first 10 seasons of his NHL career, which began in 1997, including seven with the Senators, three with the Thrashers and a dozen games with the Penguins. He joined the Red Wings in 2008, but had to swap his digits for veteran Wings winger Kirk Maltby. Hossa will be forced to keep No. 81 in Chicago as his preferred No. 18 has been retired by the Hawks in honor of Denis Savard (a former Bolt!).

Tomas Kopecky played his first NHL game with Detroit in the 2005-06 season, wearing No. 32. The following year saw him in No. 28 for a couple dozen games, and in his first full season he relinquished No. 28 to Brian Rafalski for the opposite, No. 82 — also his birth year — which he's been wearing since. No. 28 is available in Chicago, but Kopecky is opting to keep No. 82.

Enough blocks of text... more pictures!

The Philadelphia Flyers signed a pair of new goalies this summer, and gave them their new sweaters to debut at the announcement of the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park.

Brian Boucher is actually returning to the club that drafted him in 1995 and will return to the No. 33 he first wore as a rookie in 1999. Since leaving for Phoenix in 2002, Boucher has logged a lot of miles. He managed to keep his number there and for three games in Calgary, but lost it in 2006 to Adrian Aucoin in Chicago and then Fredrik Modin in Columbus, where he donned No. 31 and No. 35, respectively. He finally got it back with San Jose two years ago.

Ray Emery made his NHL debut with a few games in the 2002-03 season in Ottawa, wearing the traditional No. 1. He kept it for all of his five season in the capital city before spending a year in the KHL. Now in Philly, Emery has opted for No. 29 since Bernie Parent was honored with the retiring of No. 1 by the Flyers in 1979.

Ian Laperriere with GM Paul Holmgren

The Flyers also added winger Ian Laperriere who's known more for penalty minutes than anything else. Though it's not clear in this picture, Laperriere will wear No. 14. He debuted with the St. Louis Blues in 1994 with No. 22 on his back, keeping it during a brief stint with the Rangers in 1995 and during his nine-season tenure with the Kings. Following the lockout, Laperriere joined the Avalanche where No. 22 belonged to Steve Konowalchuk. He's worn No. 14 since then.

That brings us to one of the most recent free agent additions of the summer. The Ottawa Senators swiped Alex Kovalev from the Montreal Canadiens and they've already put him in front of the cameras with his No. 27 sweater — all three of them, in fact.

Alex Kovalev

From his rookie year with the Rangers, Kovalev has worn No. 27 throughout his 17-season NHL career. He has since played for the Penguins before a brief return to Manhattan, and more recently, he was a member of the Canadiens. No surprise to see him keep the same number.

That's all I've got for Part 4 and I'm a little concerned it may be the last one for a while. We'll see if any other teams get their new signees into new uniforms anytime soon. August may be a slow month. But we've got the return of the IceHL to follow as well as any third jersey-related developments.

The IceHL: Recap

Since the return of Icethetics, readers have slowly been making their way back. That's good news because it means the revival of one of my favorite projects. Many of you have asked about it. Now we're finally ready to pick up where we left off.

But before we can do that, I need to catch everyone up. There are as many new visitors has those returning. That means recapping the history of the IceHL. I'll try to make it as brief as possible.

The IceHL is a fantasy hockey league that Icethetics users decided to build and brand from the ground up. That means coming up with names, creating logos and designing uniforms. Icethetics readers would vote on every decision-making step of the process, from the very beginning.

Project Intro

It began nearly a year ago, August 10, 2008, after the completion of the IHA project (our first fantasy league project). I announced that we would be building and branding an entire league from scratch. Readers were very happy about this. Why? It would give them an outlet to express themselves creatively, designing logos and uniforms for teams that didn't already have a logo or colors.

Creating the League

The first decision would be about geography. Do we want a North American league or a global one? After a week of voting, 59% of users opted for a league restricted to North America. I then set up five options for league size and breakdown, ranging from 24 to 36 teams. The 30-team option secured the most votes, with 34%.

The Ground Rules | Divisional Alignments

After setting the ground rules for how the rest of the project would play out, users voted on five divisional boundary alignments. Basically, maps of the U.S. and Canada with blue lines dividing up geographical regions. The idea was to determine how users wanted the teams to be spread out.

After a week of voting and garnering 33% of the vote, Aligment A was selected, as seen below.

Selecting Cities

The next step was to determine which cities would be awarded franchises. Users voted on the available locations from the above lists, two divisions at a time. Each of the six divisions would be narrowed from 12 available cities to five.

Voting on the Pacific and Central Divisions ended a week later. By this time it was the first week of September and nearly a full month into the project. For the Pacific Division, voters chose Anchorage, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver. In the Central Division, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and St. Louis garnered the most votes.

The following week, final locations were released for the next two divisions. The Northeast Division would be made up of Boston, Montreal, New York, Quebec City, and Toronto. For the North Division, users selected the only all-Canadian group, comprised of Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg.

The final two divisions were announced the next week. In the South Division, readers picked Dallas, Denver, Houston, New Orleans, and Salt Lake City. And finally, the Southeast Division would include Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.

Selecting Nicknames

With all 30 cities now in place, the fantasy league, which had yet to be officially named, was finally christened, the IceHL. The Icethetics Hockey League, or as one reader suggested, the Icethetics Continental Elite Hockey League (thanks, Vic DiGital).

As soon as each divisional breakdown was officially announced, readers were given the opportunity to submit nominations for team names. This was a chance to be creative, though some restrictions were put in place to assure originality. For each division, team name nominations were accepted for one week, followed immediately by a week of rating each entry in the long list of names for each team.

At last, one week at a time, the official names for each of the IceHL's 30 teams were released. Finally, we had a real league. The following team names were selected:

• Pacific Division: Alaska Huskies, California Wave, Portland Pioneers, Seattle Aviators, and Vancouver Lumberjacks
• Central Division: Chicago Hitmen, Detroit Motorheads, Milwaukee Lagers, Minnesota Mammoths, and St. Louis Archers
• North Division: Calgary Cavalry, Edmonton Kodiaks, Regina Renegades, Saskatoon Sharpshooters, and Winnipeg Winterhawks
• Northeast Division: Boston Colonials, Hamilton Steelcats, Montreal Olympiques, New York Guardians, and Quebec Armada
• South Division: Boulder Beasts, Dallas Outlaws, Houston Hellcats, New Orleans Gators, and Salt Lake City Scorpions
• Southeast Division: Atlanta Arsenal, Baltimore Blue Crabs, North Carolina Nighthawks, Tampa Bay Barracudas, and Washington Sentinels

It was nearly the end of October by the time all of the teams were officially named. From the announcement date, each division was open to logo submissions for three weeks. Designers were to submit primary, secondary and script marks for as many or as few teams as they wished.

On November 1, the brand new Icethetics.info was officially launched, and along with it, readers began rating each of the accepted logo submissions. For each team, a different number of logo sets were submitted so it was determined that each set would be narrowed down to three by having Icethetics readers rate each one. Those three would then be voted on. The logo set with the most votes would be the final design.

That's where the project currently stands. Our next step is to have you vote on the Top 3 logos for each IceHL team. I will reveal the Top 3 for the Eastern Conference on Thursday and the Western Conference on Friday. Voting for the first team will begin on Saturday.

To see the Top 3 and to vote when polls are posted, the IceHL tab will soon return to the top of the page, giving you access to everything related to our fantasy league. I hope you guys are as excited about this as I am! Weigh in with a comment.

Wild Unveiling 3rd in September

We've got some exciting third jersey news in this afternoon. I use the term "exciting" loosely, as any news is pretty "exciting" at this point in the summer.

Icethetics reader Josh used that ubiquitous new medium, Twitter, to gather some new information with regard to the Minnesota Wild's new third jersey. He asked Star Tribune beat writer Michael Russo if there was an announcement of some kind in the works.

According to Russo, the unveiling will take place during training camp, which is typically in early to mid-September. (The Wild's preseason schedule kicks off on September 15 in St. Louis.) He says he's seen them and he likes them. I think it's safe to say that bodes well for everyone.

Russo went on to tell Josh that, based on the pictures he's seen, the new sweater will, in fact, be green with a "cursive" script across the front that reads "Minnesota Wild." In other words, NOT what previous "leaks" would have you believe.

Stick with Icethetics for all the newest information as we continue to track third jersey news throughout the summer (and fall if necessary).

The Annual Facelift

As you can see, Icethetics looks very different tonight. I just finished up with the annual redesign. From the few comments I've seen already, it sounds like most of you like it. If you've got anything to add to the facelift discussion, leave a comment here.

Update on Thursday · Dec 24 · 2009 | 9:12 PM PST by Chris

This is an update for posterity. It's Christmas and Icethetics has endured yet another redesign. In case you've stumbled across this post and are wondering what the July 2009 redesign looked like, here's a sample.

Screen shot taken just before the Christmas redesign

Panthers Reworking Logo?

There's a question that's been nagging at me for a few weeks now. I want to see what the rest of you think. Are the Florida Panthers in the process of covertly adopting a new logo?

I noticed recently that the Panthers' official web site was redesigned to feature a legless panther logo in the banner. See the following graphic.

Panthers' official web site banner with altered logo

At first, I didn't think much of it. Maybe they were just cropping the legs off to improve the aesthetics of the logo in the banner. But this was more than just a simple crop. Special effort was made. The white fur on the panther's chest had been completely changed.

But then it started showing up all over the web site. Every page has its own custom banner with the altered panther logo.

The club's Twitter avatar even got the same treatment (left), but this time with an added text element. You can see a larger, more detailed version as the custom background on the page.

But that's not all. Like many teams, the Panthers have an official Facebook page for fans to join. It contains an image gallery that features two different logos. The new one I'm talking about (left) and the regular one with the broken stick — and text (right) can be seen below. 

So is this just a simple alteration for web use? Or are the Panthers covertly launching a new logo this year? I don't have a solid answer for that just yet, but it seems the new symbol has made its way to an offline location.

A reader named Brett wrote in to say that he was watching a video about NHL 10 on IGN when he noticed this altered Florida logo and grabbed a screenshot (below).

NHL 10 screenshot via IGN.com

So clearly this new logo is being distributed for uses not related only to the web. Why is it being introduced? Why lose the big cat's legs? Why add a new text element to 15-year-old logo? Will it be replacing the full-body panther logo on the home and road jerseys? That, I very much doubt, but I honestly don't know.

Still, many questions and no answers. So that means everything that follows is guess work. The Panthers are one of a handful of teams expected to release a third jersey this year. Could this logo be meant for that? Perhaps this logo may never even make it onto a sweater. I really can't say.

If anyone reading knows anything about what's going on with this new Florida Panthers logo, I'd love to hear about it. Drop me a line and we'll keep everyone here up to speed.

In the meantime, sound off in the comments. Do you like "new" legless panther? Or do you prefer the leaping, text-free version?

Update on Sunday · Jul 19 · 2009 | 10:02 PM PDT by Chris

Now that I've had a day to read through some of the many comments and emails I've received on this story, it's time for some clarifications.

First, some new information I didn't have before writing this post. As commenter Alex points out, Miami Herald writer George Richards claimed back in March to have gotten some inside information on the Florida Panthers' new third jersey, due this fall.

According to my source ([fellow writer/columnist] David J. Neal), the new jersey is fairly similar to the Wild's third jersey.

The main color is dark blue with light blue (no idea where that's coming from) on the sleeves, shoulders and bottom. Kind of looks like the Penguins.

The leaping cat logo is replaced on the front by a logo similar to the Wild. Florida on top; Panthers on bottom, the Panther head in the middle.

The Panthers say the jersey that was spotted today at Incredible Ice by David J. is not the final jersey and may just be some kind of prototype. That might explain the inclusion of the light blue. We still have to wait and see what the new jersey will look like, but this helps.

This description makes it all the more likely that the Panthers are testing the waters with an altered logo to be used on a new sweater. That's assuming it's true. As he says, we'll have to wait and see.

Now to reply to some comments. First, Johnny Griswold:

Do you think it's just a variation of their regular logo that they use for horizontal banners and graphics that they don't have a lot of depth to play with?

As I said, that was my initial assumption, the reason it took me weeks to write up this post. The problem is, they already have a logo similar to that, so why make a new modification?

Then Six Zero comments:

I'm surprised no one's commented on the fact that this logo isn't entirely new. The leg-less Panther is as old as the franchise, just hasn't been seen since perhaps their first two years in the league. I've even seen it without the stick.

What's most interesting is how it changes the imprint of the entire mark, meaning its shape and orientation. The leg-less logo is landscape, while the previous is more of a portrait orientation. It'll be interesting to see how different a jersey might look with a logo that is wider than it is tall.

Being a Floridian myself, I feel like I've managed to pay pretty close attention to what the Panthers have done over the years. This isn't the first time they've had a half-panther/half-text logo, obviously. But this one is different.

As you can see in a side-by-side comparison, the new one is holding a broken stick, while I don't recall the old version ever incorporating that element. The new logo also doesn't include the text enclosure and has some color variations. But mostly, that white fur on the chest has been modified to stand alone better.

Basically I'm curious as to their reasoning for reinventing the wheel. Perhaps it's as simple as easier separation of individual elements, as seen in the web site banner. In this new logo, the text is not inextricably tied to the logo.

Or maybe I'm just making something out of nothing. But while we're still on the topic, let's look at some other Panthers logos.

First, without the stick, then with the stick, then with two sticks. The first two have been largely interchangeable throughout the years. The stickless panther has commonly been seen on home and road sweaters while the cat with the broken stick has traditionally made an appearance on the third jersey.

The double-stick logo has been around since the franchise first came into existence. Notice it says "hockey club" at the bottom of the circle, for people who weren't sure. It's quite reminiscent of the Wild's home jersey crest, but I wouldn't expect to see it on a new alternate jersey for the Panthers. They'll almost certainly go with something new.

That nearly wraps this post up, but I do have a bit of concept art to share from Gary.

His third jersey design is solely based on this new logo, and not on the earlier account of a potential leak. Still, it would bring a vintage look to the team for the first time. Though I think a lot of Panthers fans would appreciate the return of the classic red sweater. It went by the wayside (converted to a third jersey) even before the Age of Reebok.

Now what do you make of all that?