May Minor League Report

All this work on the IceHL's 13 Weeks of R&R project has kept from doing my real job on Icethetics — updating the blog with actual news. In other words, there's a lot to catch up on.

Hartford Wolf Pack officially return to AHL

Well that didn't take long. After playing parts of three seasons as the Connecticut Whale, the Hartford Wolf Pack identity has made a glorious comeback — thanks to their NHL parent club, the New York Rangers.

The Wolf Pack were established in 1997 when the Binghamton Rangers moved to Hartford. Then in 2010, Howard Baldwin happened. His effort to recapture Hartford Whalers failed miserably with the rebranding of the franchise as the Connecticut Whale.

Connecticut Whale, 2010—2013

We applauded the judicious use of green but not the name or the terrible logo. Within two years, Baldwin was gone — which probably says more about his management style than his taste in sports branding. But we're all grateful nonetheless that the Pack is back.

And not for nothing, but the New York Rangers' AHL affiliate is now operated by the parent company of the Philadelphia Flyers, is it not? Global Spectrum is running things these days and it would seem they have two masters. Interesting.

The Rivermen are dead, long live the Rivermen

Speaking of the AHL, some craziness took place on Monday. The Vancouver Canucks who recently acquired the Peoria Rivermen franchise from the St. Louis Blues, announced the team would not operate out of Illinois next season. They don't know where exactly yet. Just not Peoria.

So it seemed the end of a brand that has existed for nearly 30 years. But the Rivermen are plucky. They won't go quietly. After 12 years in the IHL between 1984 and 1996, the franchise transferred to the ECHL for about a decade. Then in 2005, they got the upgrade to the AHL. In 2013, they move down — way down — to the SPHL, that's the Southern Professional Hockey League. (It exists!)

The SPHL is home to teams like the equally plucky Columbus Cottonmouths and the Pensacola Ice Flyers. And now it's also home to...

Bloomington Blaze switch from CHL to SPHL

The Bloomington Blaze are jumping the sinking ship that is the Central Hockey League for the equally crummy SPHL. A lateral move at best. But one they apparently feel is necessary.

The Blaze were founded just two years ago after the folding of the IHL's Bloomington PrairieThunder. (All these minor leagues you've probably never heard of.) They begin play in their new league this fall.

Now that we're on the CHL, we might as well talk about their newest expansion team.

Brampton gets Beast to replace lost OHL team

Earlier this year when we learned the OHL's Brampton Battalion were moving to North Bay, Ontario, it seemed like the good people of Brampton would be without a team. But that's when the Central Hockey League jumped in, expanding into Canada for the first time.

On April 27, the Brampton Beast were revealed to the world. Along with a very vanilla CHL-like logo. I won't pass judgment too hard since somebody was obviously trying. (I just don't know what they were trying for.) In any case, the Beast begin play in the fall. Like Peoria, hockey fans of Brampton won't miss a beat.

For the record, the North Bay Battlion also begin play in the OHL this fall. They will keep the same logo they had in Brampton.

New Sweaters Around the Minors

One after another this summer, teams across the minor leagues have been overhauling their looks. We've mostly been focusing on logos lately, so today we're switching gears. Check out some of the new jerseys that have been recently unveiled.

On Friday, the ECHL's Wheeling Nailers not only unveiled new sweater designs, but a revamped logo and color palette. Most notably, red is no longer one of the team's primary colors.

The Nailers' have been red, gold and black for as long as I can remember. But beginning in 2012, they switch to black and gold, just like their NHL affiliate, the Pittsburgh Penguins. In fact, their new home and road uniforms look awfully familiar.

The new dark jersey (right) was actually introduced as a third last season. It gets the full-time treatment this fall along with a white version to match. Of course the red isn't completely disappearing. The Nailers will wear a red alternate uniform (center) which features the old logo on the shoulders.

A bit of a downgrade here, if you ask me. Shrinking the color palette often provides a cleaner look, but in this case, it just sort of flattens the Nailers' logo. As we've seen with the Penguins, Vegas gold is just too bland to be a team's only color.

For those not familiar with the ECHL, teams wear white at home for the first half of the season and switch for the second half. The Nailers say the red jersey will be worn on Sunday afternoons at WesBanco Arena.

Elsewhere in the ECHL, the South Carolina Stingrays unveiled their 20th anniversary logo along with a pair of new jerseys for 2012. The North Charleston-based club made the announcement on May 31.

The Stingrays have done it right. These are some great-looking uniforms — even if the anniversary logo is a little too busy. Fans should be thrilled to see them hit the ice this fall. By the way, if you find yourself needing to add one of these to your collection, they're available.

And finally, the OHL's recently rebranded Mississauga Steelheads officially unveiled their uniforms last Friday. Here's a closer look at their new secondary logo.

And they'll look a lot like the nearby Toronto Maple Leafs when they hit the ice.

If you need a recap on where this team came from, see this blog post from May 31. Before the name change, the Steelheads were known as the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors. 

Now what do you think of all the new threads hitting the lower leagues this fall?

Mississauga Steelheads Unveil Logo

Earlier this month, the OHL's Mississauga St. Michael's Majors were sold to new ownership who decided the nine-syllable name was too much of a mouthful. Beginning this fall, the team will be called the Mississauga Steelheads, and will have a sharp new logo to go with the new name.

The name was selected through fan voting and announced just after the sale of the franchise. Then on Tuesday, the new Steelheads logo was unveiled.

After the previous blog post — the unveiling of the Denver Cutthroats logo — I have to ask why trout are suddenly taking over hockey branding. Is it just the names? Granted, Steelheads and Cutthroats sound pretty menacing but when your logo is a silly-looking fish... Is it just me?

By the way, just because the fish looks silly doesn't mean the logo does. I'm a big fan of this one — you know, as far as fish logos go. And it's miles beyond the Cutthroats logo. Uniforms for the Steelheads are still to come.

In other news...

The ECHL is in the middle of another one of its growth spurts. Aside from the two expansion teams beginning play this year — whose branding efforts we've been following over the past few months — the league as also picked up two more graduations from the Central Hockey League.

Joining the Orlando Solar Bears and San Francisco Bulls as newcomers in 2012 are the Fort Wayne Komets and Evansville IceMen. I don't expect any significant logo or uniform changes for these teams as the graduate into a bigger league. By the way, the Colorado Eagles made the jump from the CHL to ECHL last year and now they're hosting next season's ECHL All-Star Classic.

As of the 2012-13 season, the ECHL has 23 teams in 16 states — including Alaska!

Jets Jerseys Coming 9/6

Just past noon in Winnipeg today came the tweet we've all been waiting for.

It's true. After much waiting, the Winnipeg Jets will finally unveil their new home and road uniforms to the world in just four days — on Tuesday, Sept. 6. The team's tweet gave no other details about the event, but other media outlets were able to fill in the blanks.

The Winnipeg Free Press reports the unveiling will take place at the 17 Wing Winnipeg base in St. James. The connection to the Canadian Air Force is lost on no one, of course. The article didn't specify the time, but I've read 11 AM Central, for those interested.

RCMP bust jersey counterfeitersBut believe it or not, as far as I'm concerned, that wasn't the most exciting Jets jersey news of the week. Apparently, the RCMP busted up a ring of counterfeiters! Good for them!

It probably goes without saying, but if you were one of the misguided souls who gave your money to criminals, you probably shouldn't count on getting what you paid for.

One weird thing about the bust. RCMP said there were 40 jerseys and said they were worth $12,000. That's $300 a piece if your math skills are failing you. My guess is they're basing that figure not on what the counterfeiters were charging but on what the real authentics will likely cost. Rounded up.

Anyway, as I've pointed out many times before, True North has already said the uniforms look nothing like this and I take them at their word. After all, when the logo leaked, rather than denying it, they quickly threw together a press conference to officially unveil it.

I get the feeling the actual jerseys aren't going to be what anyone was expecting. But we'll find out for sure on Tuesday morning, won't we?

One more jersey to vote on

For the last few months, I've been conducting a series of polls to determine a ranking of NHL uniforms used during the 2010-11 season. In that time, you've voted on all the jerseys for all 30 teams. Except for one, as I discovered when trying to put together the final ranking.

I left out the Calgary Flames' Heritage Classic jersey because I actually set up the Canadian teams' polls just prior to the outdoor game in February. I feel I can't assemble a comprehensive list without a vote on this, so take a look and rate it 1, 5 or 10.

For what it's worth, there's no point to holding a poll for the Montreal Canadiens' Heritage Classic jersey as it was practically identical to their road jersey.

And sorry for the delay on this. The good news is it should be put to bed just in time for the Icethetics Season Preview in a few weeks! Can you believe it's already September?!

Royals unveil new home, road jerseys

Reading Royals unveil new uniforms / FacebookThe ECHL's Reading Royals will sport a new look for the 2011-12 season.

The new sweaters were revealed on the team's website and Facebook page back on Aug. 22. (What? I've been busy.) 

The Royals are affiliated with the Bruins and Maple Leafs but their new uniforms look rather borrowed from a team with which they share a state (the Flyers) and a team which they share a color scheme and similar identity (the Kings). Weird, right?

Still, these are solid hockey uniforms. Let's be honest, you could pick worse teams to emulate. Like almost any fellow ECHL team, for example. So my kudos to the Royals!

Knights bring back the green

OHL Knights new third jerseyThe OHL's London Knights unveiled a new green third jersey on Tuesday. And it looks absolutely stunning. Dallas Stars, are you paying attention?

The new jersey was revealed at a press conference introducing the newly acquired Max Domi — yes, that would be Tie Domi's kid. And what more is there to say about it really? It's just awesome. And a shame no one in the NHL aside from the Wild will be wearing anything like it.

You can read more details about the acquisition of Domi and see video of him trying on the new threads right here.

In other news, I have some links that some readers have shared to further share with the rest of you:

• Brock B. writes in to tell us about the WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes officially changing their logo. They've been using it on an alternate jersey, but it's getting promoted this season. And it's a blatant rip-off of the Washington Capitals' look. For shame, Lethbridge. Hurricane Watch
• John W. wants us to know that just because there's no Heritage Classic this season doesn't mean hockey fans north of the border won't be treated to some high quality outdoor hockey. The Hamilton Bulldogs will host the Toronto Marlies in the elements this winter. TSN
• And finally, I don't have a link for this, but The Hockey News published its annual NHL logo ranking this week. Naturally, Chicago tops the list. Surprisingly, the Canadiens were No. 3 and the Jets were way too high at No. 8. (It got 4% of the overall vote but that's clearly a soft number.) The Lightning's new logo was dead last. Who do I see about that?

Attack, Blaze Unveil New Looks

A minor league and a junior league team have unveiled new identities for the 2011-12 season this week.

On Wednesday afternoon, the OHL's Owen Sound Attack held a press conference to show off their updated logo and new uniforms.

The revised primary mark consists of a new text element plus a simplified version of the ferocious bear featured in the logo the Attack had used since 2000. The broken stick and the rest of the creature's hulking body have been discarded leaving us with just the growling head.

They're following the trend we've been seeing throughout hockey branding lately... simplify. They haven't gone out and rebranded from the ground up. They've merely removed the extraneous elements of the existing brand.

Owen Sound Attack unveil new sweaters / AttackEven the jerseys are highly simplified — going for the Blackhawks-style stripes instead of the claw-shaped design that was previously featured.

The release on their website is poorly written, but includes this quote from forward Daniel Zweep:

“A bunch of us saw the new design halfway through last season and we loved it,” said Zweep. “It’s definitely a lot cleaner and more traditional. We can’t wait to throw them on and get back out on that ice.”

All right, something tells me that may not be a direct quote but I digress. For better or worse, traditional is indeed the trend of late.

Is the new logo an improvement? I'd call it more of a lateral move. The old one certainly had that late 90s look about it. This one just looks like any other simplified 90s logo. No better, no worse.

The only thing that bugs me about these jerseys is really a construct of the Reebok Edge template... that silly shoulder piping. If you're going to do the piping, it only makes sense for the shoulder yoke to be a different color. And even then, I'd do away with it.

You can read fan reaction to the new look on the Attack's Facebook page.

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In the minors, the Central Hockey League's Bloomington Blaze unveiled their logo and uniforms on Tuesday, just a couple weeks after announcing their existence.

The CHL welcomed the team from Bloomington, Ill. in mid-July as a replacement for the Bloomington PrairieThunder. The Blaze will have the same general manager, coach, arena, and probably players as the PrairieThunder. However, since there's new ownership, I'm not sure the Blaze continues the PrairieThunder lineage. It's a little confusing.

The Pantagraph, a central Illinois newspaper, reported the logo was designed by "Skye Design Studios in New England." And while a Google search turns up a variety of companies (and individuals) under that name, none seem to be based in New England. I'd be curious to see what other work they've done.

The black burning "B" is not a bad logo. Bold and simple; and it manages to avoid looking like the Calgary Flames for the most part. I kind of like it. But here's where things get interesting. The jerseys...

CHL Bloomington Blaze jerseys / BlazeThis week we got our first look at the Ottawa Senators' new Heritage Jersey. We could finally put the crazy-striped third jersey out of our minds. And then the Blaze came along.

Indeed, that is the "SENS" jersey template you see there (right) with the new Blaze logo plastered on the front. That sweater will not die. I suppose the good news here is that we get to see what it would look like in white.

Guess it's time for a confession. I never really hated the Sens' third jersey. I just hated that it said "SENS" on the front instead of bearing, you know, an actual logo. It may be a little odd-looking, but you can't deny this is a killer jersey. And honestly, it seems to work with the Blaze logo.

So all in all, I don't truly have anything bad to say about the Blaze's identity. All I will say to their marketing people is this: Get your website up already! (Not that it matters anymore. The logo and jerseys have been documented now.)

If you're so inclined, you can find commentary on their logo and uniforms from fans on their Facebook page — their only online existence at the moment.

Between the Senators, Attack and Blaze, that's a lot of red and black this week. But there's going to be more. The Sens are holding a press conference to announce 20th anniversary details on Thursday afternoon. Maybe we'll get to see the new jersey in color? Or perhaps in a photograph? Stay tuned to Icethetics.