Phantoms Sport the Retro and Ridiculous

Last week the AHL's Adirondack Phantoms busted out a couple of specialty jerseys. Nothing new in the minors. But these deserve a special look for two very different reasons.

AHL club returns to Philly in throwback threads

On Friday, Feb. 22 — for one night only — the Phantoms hit the ice at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia — sporting retro purple-infused threads just like they did back when they called Philly home from 1996 to 2009. The club moved to upstate New York when their arena was taken down.

Photos from Adirondack Phantoms (via Facebook)

The Phantoms faced their former in-state rival, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a game which drew one of the largest crowds to watch an AHL game indoors. Borrowing their NHL affiliate's arena was certainly helpful there. But the Phantoms ended up falling to the Penguins, 2-1.

It's always neat to see classic minor hockey sweater make a comeback — even if only for a night.

And then there's this disaster.

Phantoms celebrate mascot's birthday with silly sweater

I guess this is a situation where the universe required balance. The only way to allow an awesome jersey to be worn is to follow it up with an awful one. The Phantoms returned home two days after their trip to Philly to celebrate the "birthday" of their mascot, Dax.

Photo from Adirondack Phantoms (official website)

Last Sunday, grown men — professional hockey players, no less — wore these silly numbers with Dax's cartoon head replacing the classic Phantom crest. If ever there was a specialty jersey squarely meant for the kids, folks, this is the one. It's incredibly dorky and yet somehow charming.

Surprisingly, the Phantoms won while wearing it. They beat the Binghamton Senators 2-1. Still, let this not be a common occurrence. Maybe next year you just get Dax a gift card or something.

Photos from Adirondack Phantoms (via Facebook)

I'll leave you with these close-ups of the jersey. Recognize that awful number font? Remind you of something "Mighty" from way back when?

Lehigh Valley & The Mustachioed Phantom

The AHL's Adirondack Phantoms will have a new name and color palette when they move back to Pennsylvania in 2014. They will be relocate to Allentown, Penn. and be known as the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. And their iconic purple will be replaced by electric blue.

All of this comes from a report in the Lehigh Valley newspaper, The Morning Call. But it's no surprise. It was always intended for the Phantoms to head back south after they left Philadelphia in 2009.

Photos from ShopPhantomsArena.com (official website)

The first move came when it was announced in 2008 that their arena would be demolished to make way for a new entertainment district. The Philadelphia Phantoms temporarily relocated to Glens Falls, New York and assumed the Adirondack moniker.

After a five-year stay in upstate New York, the team will move back to Pennsylvania to start the 2014-15 season and be named the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. See? It's not all that confusing.

But wait, there's more. If we leave the future and head back to the present, we find the Phantoms will be wearing a special Movember jersey next weekend. (You know, Movember, where you grow a mustache to remind everyone that dudes get cancer too.)

We actually get two mustachioed Phantoms logos with this event. The team will actually wear this jersey on Saturday, Nov. 24. They'll be auctioned off after the game with the proceeds going to medical causes.

So, what do you think? Both about the Phantoms coming name and color change as well as these Cancer Awareness Night jerseys? Is this the next pink-in-the-rink fad? Putting mustaches on your jersey? Can I fit in one more question mark?

Loose Threads: New in the Minors

Been a bit slow news wise, lately. But there have been a few new jerseys introduced around the minor leagues I thought you guys might want to talk about. One of the best alternates in the minors has to be this one.

The ECHL's Toledo Walleye have long been mocked for their joke of a '90s-style logo — a toothless fish angrily wielding a hockey stick. (Not really helped by the addition of a Santa hat, currently seen on their website.) But I think they nailed it with this new alternate sweater. Great use of their colors and a classic design inspired by everyone's all-time favorite — the Chicago Blackhawks, who are also their NHL affiliate.

Over in the AHL, former Icethetics concept contributor Aaron Masik designed this specialty jersey for the San Antonio Rampage.

As the team's designer, Masik designs a lot of the Rampage's specialty sweaters. This one (right) was for the club's 8th annual Salute to the Badges Night.

It was worn Sat., Dec. 10 against the Peoria Rivermen, a game which San Antonio won 2-1.

Elsewhere, following the NHL Winter Classic between the Flyers and Rangers (really enjoying this season's installment of 24/7 on HBO, by the way), the sheet of ice at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia will be used once more by the AHL.

The Adirondack Phantoms and Hershey Bears will meet on Jan. 6 for an outdoor game. According to the Phantoms' website, both teams will wear special jerseys to mark the occasion.

The Bears unveiled theirs last week. You can see a rendering on their Facebook page. As for the Phantoms, I haven't been able to track down anything yet. Feel free to share a link if you've got one.

Checking In With the AHL

The Charlotte Checkers are making preparations to check into a new league next fall as they jump from ECHL to AHL. That means the unveiling of a new logo — in a way.

Here's the scoop in a nutshell. The Carolina Hurricanes want their top farm club, the AHL's Albany River Rats, to be geographically closer. So decisions were made to get the team relocated from upstate New York to Charlotte, North Carolina — a quick, 45-minute flight from Raleigh (or about three hours if you're driving).

Basically, the owner of the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers bought the Albany club and will move it to North Carolina, transferring the name of his ECHL franchise. So the Albany River Rats become the Charlotte Checkers this fall and will keep the Checkers' current logo, with some color alterations. It will now match the Hurricanes in black and red, as seen in this banner from the Checkers' AHL website.

Not a big surprise. Is the color change an improvement? More of a lateral move, in my opinion. An article on the Checkers' website discussing the move to the AHL had this to say:

The Checkers have also announced that they will change their logo and uniform colors to match those of the Hurricanes. The team went through an entire rebranding before the 2007-08 season and will simply change colors and incorporate the Hurricanes trademark. The details of these changes will be revealed at a later date.

When they say they will "incorporate the Hurricanes trademark," I assume that just means Carolina's logo will be used on the shoulder — a common affiliate practice. The logo in the banner above is likely the final artwork for the Checkers' updated logo. If anything changes, I'll let you know.

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I'm keeping an eye on some other AHL jersey news.

Wolf Pack jersey design by Mike IvallThe Hartford Wolf Pack seem to have skipped a scheduled specialty jersey event last weekend.

I only bring it up because the jersey was the result of a fan contest won by a frequent Icethetics concept art contributor named Mike Ivall.

According to the Pack's website, the March of Dimes promotion and jersey auction was scheduled for (and took place) Feb. 26 and 27. Only the jerseys auctioned were not the one's Mike designed.

Photo albums posted on the team's Facebook page from the games on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27 clearly show the players wearing their standard white sweaters. I'm assuming it's those that were auctioned off following the weekend's games.

I have emails in both to Mike and the Wolf Pack about the situation. If I get any answers, I'll be sure to share them. In the meantime, if anyone else knows what's up, we'd love to hear about it.

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Last bit of AHL news for the night. John writes in to let us know that during the Olympic break, a couple of American clubs wore specially-designed jerseys modeled after those worn by the United States in 1980 as a tribute to the "Miracle on Ice" team.

Admirals "miracle" jerseyInstead of USA, the Milwaukee Admirals' red, white and blue tribute duds read ADS.

But to everyone in the stands, it must've felt like they were at the Olympics too. (Right?)

The Admirals wore these special sweaters on Feb. 19 and 21 and then auctioned them off afterward to benefit the Power Play Foundation.

In case you were wondering, they were good luck as the Ads won both games, beating the Houston Aeros 2-0 on Friday and the Rockford IceHogs 4-1 on Sunday.

It's a neat tribute and it makes me wonder if it's been done before — or if they were just waiting for a nice, round-number anniversary. But then I feel like all these one-off specialty jerseys are just now becoming more commonplace in the minors. Am I mistaken about that?

Phantoms "miracle" jerseyThe Adirondack Phantoms, who recently relocated from Philadelphia, also wore similar jerseys. Theirs read ADK in lieu of USA.

Unlike the Ads, for which I was able to find loads of information thanks to their incredible and easy to use website, I can't seem to track down any details on when (if) these were worn.

I'm assuming it would've been between Feb. 16 and 28 but then again this is not a game action photo so I can't be sure. Any Phantoms fans out there that care to fill us in?

Anyway, that wraps things up for tonight. Get excited for the new logo tournaments! Voting kicks off on Monday!

Update on Sunday · Mar 7 · 2010 | 7:48 AM PST by Chris

Phantoms goalie in 1980 USA replicaDoes Icethetics have the best readers or what?

A commenter called chaosof99 added a link with details and even a photo showing the Adirondack Phantoms in action wearing their 1980 Olympic throwback jersey.

The Phantoms wore that jersey in a 3-2 win over the Norfolk Admirals on the 26th of February. Broad Street Hockey got an action shot too.

Good to know.

Another Icethetics reader told me he thought the Lake Erie Monsters either did something similar or plan to, with regard to this 1980 USA throwbacks.

I can't find any details to support that, but I can tell you the Monsters' Pink in the Rink night is March 19.

Update on Monday · Mar 8 · 2010 | 7:20 AM PST by Chris

A representative from the Hartford Wolf Pack tells me that Mike Ivall's contest-winning specialty jersey will now be worn on April 10 for the last home game of the season.