NHL Unveils Classic Logos!

The NHL released its 2010-11 schedule today and, in a graphic posted to NHL.com (above), also unveiled some new event logos for the season. You can see the Ovechkin and Crosby staring deep into each other's eyes with only the 2011 Winter Classic logo between them on the top right. And bottom left, it's Mike Cammalleri facing off against Jarome Iginla on either side of the new 2011 Heritage Classic mark.

Also included in this graphic are the NHL Premiere logos for the games taking place in Helsinki, Prague and Stockholm to open the season. They're nothing more than carryovers from previous European Premiere events. You may also note that one block of the image features only a Carolina Hurricanes jersey, implying that the 2011 NHL All-Star Game logo isn't yet ready for public consumption.

But that's not the only thing I wanted to mention this afternoon. Friday is the NHL Entry Draft, but it's also a day for parties and jersey and logo unveilings.

Islanders to unveil new road jersey

Isles unveiling new sweaterThe New York Islanders will officially unveil their new road sweaters at a draft day party on Friday at 5:30 PM Eastern.

An ad appearing on their website (right) serves as a pre-order form for fans not wanting to wait for theirs. Season ticket holders get 15% off.

I don't think it's any secret that this new jersey will be a white version of their royal blue third jersey — which is expected to become the new home uniform this year.

All will be revealed Friday night. But wait, do you see that in the draft party ad? Is that a logo for the 2010 New York Islanders Draft Party? Join me in the next story...

Draft Party logos? Really?

Islanders 2010 draft party logoYes, it seems at least three teams have kept their graphic artists busy at season's end, designing official draft party logos.

As seen above, the Islanders are all about it. Maybe its intent is to carry over the excitement from last year's draft when they had the first overall pick and everyone went crazy over John Tavares. They're down to 5th this year. All I'm saying is I'm just not sure people are going to be buying their 2010 Draft Party t-shirts in droves or anything.

Rangers and Oilers draft party logosBut as I said, the Isles weren't alone in this. Both the New York Rangers and Edmonton Oilers are also promoting their draft parties with special logos.

The Rangers came up with something very open and simple. The Oilers pretty much based theirs off of the NHL Entry Draft logo — at least the text part of it.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it and none of these teams made the playoffs, so it's not like the designers have had anything else to worry about since April, but I just found it a little strange.

Other teams hosting draft parties include the Blue Jackets, Predators, Thrashers, Sabres, Blues, Hurricanes, and Coyotes. And of course the Kings are hosting the biggest draft party of the year — the draft itself.

Anyway, that's not all that's going down on Friday...

Greenville to unveil newest ECHL team

The ECHL's newest member, based in Greenville, S.C. finally reveal all on Friday when they unveil the team's name, colors and logo!

The team accepted name submissions from fans but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. This team, formerly the Johnstown Chiefs, was relocated to South Carolina this summer and will begin play in the ECHL's 19-team 2010-11 season. They'll take on my Florida Everblades in their home opener on Oct. 21.

You can of course count on Icethetics for full coverage of the unveilings both on Long Island and in Greenville. So check back for all that late on Friday.

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.

Update on Thursday · May 6 · 2010 | 10:29 AM PDT by 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.

Draft Lottery Tonight

2010 NHL Draft Lottery logoOver half the league is preparing for the playoffs which finally start tomorrow. Best time of year for hockey fans! Meanwhile, the LG NHL Draft Lottery takes place tonight at 8 eastern.

It will be televised live on Versus in the U.S. and even has its own logo and sponsorship. A bit odd, but I guess it's a spectacle now that it's on TV. I want my Draft Lottery 2010 t-shirt now.

So who's up for that No. 1 pick? The best my Lightning can do is No. 2 after finishing 25th overall. Edmonton (25%), Boston (18.8%), Florida (14.2%), Columbus (10.7%) and the Islanders (8.1%) have a chance. Anyone else wins the lottery and the top pick goes to the Oilers automatically.

So why is Boston so high? Despite finishing with the 6th spot in the playoffs, they did trade Phil Kessel to the Maple Leafs this season in exchange for their 1st round picks this year and in 2011. Too bad for Toronto.

If you're unable to watch the drawing, check back later tonight as I do plan on posting the selection order. Any excuse to post a list of NHL logos, I guess.

Update on Tuesday · Apr 13 · 2010 | 11:30 PM PDT by Chris

Okay, so I did something I don't usually do and knowing most of you, it's not going to be popular, but I'm used to it by now. I've injected my pathetic, ill-informed opinion into the blog, cobbled together from the CSS ranking and other random things I've read. Feel free to ignore it or tell me why I'm wrong.

Otherwise, below is a list of the teams getting the top 14 picks at the L.A. draft in June. Also included in the table is an at-a-glance look at where each team was placed in last year's draft and who they took in Round 1. TMI? Maybe.

	Draft Rank	Team	My Lame Prediction 2009 1st round picks
	1	Edmonton Oilers	Taylor Hall(10) Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson
	2	Boston Bruins	Tyler Seguin(25) Jordan Caron
	3	Florida Panthers	Cam Fowler(14) Dmitri Kulikov
	4	Columbus Blue Jackets	Brett Connolly(21) John Moore
	5	New York Islanders	Erik Gudbranson(1) John Tavares (12) Calvin de Haan
	6	Tampa Bay Lightning	Mark Pysyk(2) Victor Hedman (29) Carter Ashton
	7	Carolina Hurricanes	Emerson Etem(27) Philippe Paradis
	8	Atlanta Thrashers	Brandon Gormley(4) Evander Kane
	9	Minnesota Wild	Ryan Johansen(16) Nick Leddy
	10	New York Rangers	Derek Forbort(19) Chris Kreider
	11	Dallas Stars	Austin Watson(8) Scott Glennie
	12	Anaheim Ducks	Alexander Burmistrov(15) Peter Holland (26) Kyle Palmieri
	13	Phoenix Coyotes	Nino Niederreiter(6) Oliver Ekman-Larsson
	14	St. Louis Blues	Stanislav Galiev(17) David Rundblad

Wild to Host 2011 Draft

2011 NHL Entry Draft logoThe NHL announced on Saturday that the Minnesota Wild will host the 2011 Entry Draft on June 24-25 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

A logo for the event was also revealed via the Wild's official website. Not sure if it's the final version or just a preliminary generic version for the press conference. It is similar to the 2010 draft logo but lacks any distinguishing characteristics such as the palm trees in this year's Los Angeles edition.

Wild owner Craig Leipold made an interesting comment quoted in the NHL.com article regarding the team's intention to host a future Winter Classic.

"One of the missions by our owner, Craig Leipold, is he wants our organization to be viewed more globally across North America and internationally," Robertson said. "This event helps us with that goal. We are heading to Finland this fall to play Carolina to open the NHL regular season. In 2011 we are going to host the NHL Entry Draft. It's our hope in 2012 or 2013 to host the Winter Classic."

Possible venues for an outdoor game in the Twin Cities include Target Field, the new home of the Minnesota Twins, which opens next week, and TCF Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team.

As you can see, he also mentions that both the Wild and Hurricanes, who were just awarded the 2011 All-Star Game earlier this week, will face off in the annual NHL Premiere in Europe.

In February, the NHL announced that it would return to three European cities to open the 2010-11 season, all of which previously hosted NHL Premiere games. The Wild and Canes will meet in Helsinki on Oct. 7-8. The Blue Jackets and Sharks will play in Stockholm on Oct. 8-9. And the Bruins and Coyotes will hit Prague on Oct. 9-10.

The NHL Entry Draft was previously held in Minnesota in 1989 when the North Stars played in Bloomington.