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.