Hershey Gets New Jerseys

As I mentioned last night on Twitter, there is an awful lot going on in the minors these days. Time to get everyone caught up. We'll begin with the AHL and work our way down.

The Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears have unveiled brand new sweaters for the 2009-10 season. They did so yesterday on their official web site — while I was busy with the Wild third jersey leak.

The Bears made the switch to the Reebok Edge style uniforms two seasons ago and were one of the few teams that kept changes to a minimum — HERSHEY placed diagonally down the front of the chocolate jerseys and BEARS down the front of the white ones. Those designs are no more.

Hershey Bears' new jerseys for 2009-10

The home and road sweaters will now place the team's primary logo front and center, while reserving a new text-based design for the alternate jersey. The new third takes its inspiration from the Dallas Stars' with the city name arched above the player's number.

The Bears have also announced the launch of the new sweaters will take place during their season opener in October.

The make of the jersey has remained the same, but the appearance has changed. Anyone looking to purchase one of the new jerseys can do so on opening night, October 3. As always, fans can customize their jerseys to have specific names on the back.

Thanks to James for the tip.

Moving right along now to the ECHL. The Ontario Reign will play host to the league's 2010 All-Star Game. It was announced yesterday that the logo for the event will be unveiled this Friday at 1 PM EST.

The Citizens Business Bank Arena will play host to the 18th ECHL All-Star Game which takes place on January 20, 2010. The event is sponsored by Reebok. No word on whether the All-Star jerseys will be debuted on Friday as well.

We'll finish up our look at the minors with the QMJHL. As you know the league is switching over to the Reebok Edge uniforms this season. Scotty from Hockeybums tells me the plan is for the league and Reebok to unveil all of the remaining uniforms on September 9. Not a hard date to remember — 09/09/09.

One more item now regarding the London Knights.

London Knights in their Euro jerseys

The Knights will be hosting the Euro Can Cup in which they and other participating teams will don European-style jerseys — as seen above. It's a rather awful sight. Organizers are hoping for it to be a success. I'm hoping it's not if for no other reason than those terrible uniforms.

You can read more about the event at the London Free Press. If you'd like to punish yourself by looking at more pictures of these jerseys, click here.

The Orange and Blue

In case you aren't following along on Twitter, I'll summarize yesterday's draft coverage. And if you aren't, you can check out updates in the sidebar.

First, my Bolts nabbed Victor Hedman which I am thrilled about. We have Lecavalier, St. Louis and Stamkos. While it may not seem like it, we have the scoring. What we need is someone to stand in front of Mike Smith the way Dan Boyle and company stood in front of Nik Khabibulin. But I digress in only the second paragraph.

To the No. 1 overall pick, John Tavares, the New York Islanders gave the sharp new third jersey. Being out of the loop for the most part the past few months, I questioned whether this was a signal the Isles would be taking on the retro look full time.

My reliable Icethetics sources, along with several other readers, tell me that while the team would love nothing more for the fall, the total switch won't take place until 2010 or 2011. In the meantime, this season will certainly see a ramp-up in frequency of third jersey action. We're told to expect the alternates in more than a quarter of regular season play.

So while we're talking orange and blue, the Edmonton Journal tells us the Oilers will be donning the retros a whopping 27 times in the coming 2009-10 campaign. This leaves just 14 opportunities for the dark blue sweater effectively making it the alternate this year.

The road white jersey will remain the same. As the Journal writer points out, the Oil performed better in those anyway. My thanks to PuckDrawn for pointing out this info. And allow me to once again point out what a great job Johnny has done in my absence and still continues to do.

And lastly, in case it got overlooked by anyone, I have a bit of AHL news. Well, it's really more of a rumor at this point. But with the Phantoms headed to Adirondack, the Hershey Bears are now one of only two teams left in Pennsylvania. Could they be getting a new look in '09? The fans want it. Does the ownership? I'll be tracking this story for you throughout the summer.

Stay tuned for more news and keep your eye on Twitter for regular briefings.

Heat Unveil New Logo

Words I love to write: "unveil... new... logo." Always exciting.

Yes, legitimate Icethetics news coming in today! The Abbotsford Heat, the newest addition to the American Hockey League unveiled their new logo this morning. And despite my hype in the previous graf, it is rather unremarkable. I mean, I looked at it, started writing this post, and had to look at it again to remember what it looked like.

See for yourself.

Now then, some of us may need a quick history lesson (I know I did). Who are the Abbotsford Heat and when did they join the AHL? The Heat is just another in a long line of aliases for a team I'm not entirely convinced isn't in witness protection.

This franchise began life in 1987 as the Utica Devils, the natural minor league farm club of the New Jersey Devils. That lasted only six years, until Calgary Flames took over the team in 1993, moved it to Saint John and shared its own moniker. The Saint John Flames lasted a full decade before it all hit the fan.

In 2005, following two years of absence from the league, the club was reestablished in Nebraska and were re-dubbed the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights. ("Ak-Sar-Ben" being "Nebraska" with some hyphens in your rear view mirror.) After two seasons, the franchise was relocated to Moline, Illinois and reunited with their parent club's nickname. Known then as the Quad City Flames, they were responsible for the immediate death of the UHL's Quad City Mallards, who had occupied the same arena for the 12 years prior.

Now for the worst part. After just two seasons in Moline and two stints in the American Midwest, the Flames ultimately decided that it really wasn't for them. This fall, the AHL's globe-trotting club returns to Canada once again after a zig-zagged trek across the continent. For the record, it's been 4,888 miles of relocations and counting. (If you're really bored, I've mapped it out for you.)

Now, about the logo from before that by now you've forgotten about. Go look at it again real quick. Responsible for the rather banal basketball-esque logo is a local company called Domain7.

The alleged lead designer Stephen Bau excused the drabness by saying, "We wanted to capture the essence of hockey and position Abbotsford as a destination for world-class hockey in the logo and branding."Before you assume he's about to follow up with an apology for failing, he goes on by saying "and I think we were able to do that." Out of curiosity, do you think he's actually seen it?

Furthermore, I was ready to express my sympathy for the fans of Abbotsford before I read that they voted for the name! Really? The Heat? Miami can get away with it. Your average high for the year is 74 degrees. Unless it's irony. And then it's funny. But I think we all know you aren't that clever, Abbotsford.

Not that you'll necessarily want to see it, but Heat's web site is claiming to offer a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the new brand. Someone actually wrote the following line describing this logo: "the movement of the puck looks somewhat like a flaming comet." Really playing it fast and loose with the phrase "looks somewhat like," aren't we?

Not even joking about that.

Anyway, I apologize if I've been a little harsh this afternoon on this, my first logo unveiling since the return of Icethetics. But I'm just unimpressed. I will say one thing in its favor, however. I'd sooner buy something with a "flaming comet" on it than that horrible Quad City Flames logo.

Anyone else have an opinion?

Thanks to Ian for the tip.