Draft Day 2012 Disappoints

Over the last few years, jersey geeks like us have counted on the NHL Entry Draft to see the league's newest members sporting its newest looks. But after years of upheavel and change in team branding, I'm sorry to report that we're in for a bit of a lull in 2012.

That, of course, means the 2012 draft, held over the weekend in Pittsburgh, was kind of a disappointment in that regard. There really aren't any new sweaters coming this year apart from Winter Classic threads for Detroit and Toronto as well as rumors of a new alternate in Tampa.

Still, even if there weren't any teams debuting new sweaters, at least there were a couple new sweater patches that will be in use for the coming 2012-13 season.

On Friday, the jerseys handed to Lightning draftees featured the new 20th anniversary patch. It's a simplified version of the 20th anniversary logo that was officially unveiled at the team's draft party that night.

In addition to that, the 2013 NHL All-Star Game logo could be seen on the sweaters being donned by Columbus Blue Jackets picks. They're both nice looking patches. I don't think any other teams are planning special event patches for their uniforms this season.

It is odd that while the Lightning and Ottawa Senators both joined the league 1992, they chose to celebrate their 20th anniversaries a year apart. The Sens were marking the years while the Bolts are just counting the seasons played (we all know 2004-05 was canceled due to the international shock of Tampa Bay winning the Stanley Cup).

Depending on how the Florida Panthers and Anaheim Ducks interpret anniversaries, they could both be marking 20 years either this season or next, having both been founded in 1993. Kind of straying from the topic now. Back to the draft...

Really, the only other thing worth a mention (and that's only because there's nothing else to talk about) would be these three jerseys. The Ducks and Minnesota Wild both opted for third jerseys at this year's draft. It's nothing new for the Wild, but it was a first for Anaheim.

Also, it's the first time the new Winnipeg Jets jersey has appeared on the draft stage. Famously, you'll recall that Mark Scheifele was given a generic NHL jersey last year, only moments after team owner Mark Chipman announced the team's name. Jerseys had yet to be designed.

In past years, I've outlined which jerseys were handed out to draftees by the teams. This year, there's not much to say. All but four teams gave out their home jersey, keeping the draft nice and colorful. As reported above, Anaheim and Minnesota used third jerseys. That leaves Nashville and Colorado doling out the white road sweaters — also known as the uglier ones.

By the way, the next two draft hosts were announced as well. New Jersey will handle things in 2013 while Philadelphia gets it in 2014. Logos to come at a later date.

Hope this draft recap was as fun for you as it was for me.

Lightning Unveil 20th Anniversary Logo

The Tampa Bay Lightning officially unveiled their 20th anniversary logo today. It's very much in line with the club's new branding. And the style reminds me a little of the Calgary Flames' 30th anniversary logo from a few years ago.

You can read more about the Bolts' 20th-year plans on their website.

What's your instant read on it? Good, bad or ugly?

New Looks for a New Season

As a long summer starts winding down, we're now less than a month away from training camps across the NHL getting underway. But before that, I wanted to do a quick run-through of all the new jerseys we'll be seeing this fall. And believe it or not, I have a few surprises in store.

Edmonton Oilers

Fans have been begging for it for years, and the Oilers have responded. This new road jersey pays tribute to the original white sweater the Oilers wore from their NHL inception in 1979 to 1996.

Florida Panthers

Like the Oilers, the Panthers are fixing their uniforms as well by returning to their roots with a red home uniform. The chest and sleeve piping as also been removed from both the home and road sweaters.

Though the red sweater was unveiled at the draft, the road jersey design below is still unofficial. We know the blue piping is going away but it's not clear if the jersey will see any other changes.

Los Angeles Kings

The Kings are undergoing an identity overhaul in 2011, though they're only adding one "new" jersey. The white road sweater is based on the black alternate which launched in 2008.

Nashville Predators

The Predators are also making sweeping changes by introducing new home and road jerseys.

New York Islanders

We got our first glimpse at the Isles' new third jersey when a prototype design was leaked recently by a former team employee. But I've recently been made aware of some new details and can confirm report this is what the final version looks like. (Accidentally broke one of my own rules there. I can't "confirm" anything. That's for the team to do. However, this is an accurate representation of the final design.)

Ottawa Senators

We've known for some time that the Senators have had a Heritage Jersey in the works, meant to pay tribute to the original Senators from the 1930s for their own 20th anniversary season. You got your first look at a photocopy of the design earlier this month. This is what it looks like in color.

The shoulder patches have been the source of much of the speculation surrounding this jersey since the team itself offered up a sneak peek back in March. I can report that there are two of them, both in the shape of a shield. One reads Ottawa Senators, the other is in French: Sénateurs d'Ottawa.

Pittsburgh Penguins

The Pens will be promoting their 2011 Winter Classic jersey to alternate status this season. It replaces the light blue third which debuted at the 2008 Winter Classic.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning unveiled their new branding back in January but the jerseys still aren't available in stores. Here's a refresher of what they'll look like.

Toronto Maple Leafs

And finally, one of the worst kept secrets of the summer has been the Leafs' new third jersey. It pays tribute to the 1967 design which was only used for a few seasons. Take note of the silver inner-outline of the throwback leaf crest. Other than that, it's practically identical to the old jersey.

Obviously, the odd man out on this post are those elusive Winnipeg Jets jerseys. Plenty of you have emailed and tweeted to tell me the counterfeiters already have them. I refer you to my earlier post about phony leaks. Everyone's favorite thieves are simply manufacturing jerseys based on concept art. As I've said before, this would not be the first time. And it surely won't be the last. Be patient; don't waste your money.

For what it's worth, I can't say how close the fakes will be to the real thing as I haven't seen the final designs yet. They could be close or miles away. But since the Jets haven't scrambled to assemble a press conference on short notice, I'm guessing it's the latter. 

I also expect to have another edition of JerseyWatch posted before the end of August, but aside from one busy week, there hasn't been a lot of news this month. Hopefully this will hold you over until then.

Update on Friday · Sep 16 · 2011 | 10:40 AM PDT by Chris

Winnipeg Jets

The Jets finally unveiled their new home and road uniforms 10 days ago. Here's another look at them.

Washington Capitals

The Caps announced they will bring back their retro Winter Classic jersey for 16 road games this season.

The new season is shaping up to look pretty nice. And I don't think there will be any other new jerseys to add to this list for the 2011-12 season. You've now seen everything there is to see.

The Best Jerseys in the Southeast

Earlier this year, we began a series of polls asking readers to rate the 2010-11 uniforms worn across the NHL for the purpose of creating a fan-determined ranking. We've completed the teams in Canada and the western United States. Now we move on to the southeastern U.S.

Each group includes six teams, split up by geography. This set of polls includes Atlanta, Carolina, Florida, Nashville, St. Louis and Tampa Bay. You can rate each jersey individually with a 10, 5 or 1. (You can either love it, hate it, or be on the fence. Keeps things simple.)

After all the votes have been cast, an average rating will be calculated. These polls will remain open for two weeks, ending Thurs., July 14. When we've voted on all the teams, I'll assemble a complete league ranking of every uniform worn for the 2010-11 season. Happy voting!

Sorry, no comments on this post. Just vote!

The Big Bad Draft Recap of 2011

I can't remember the last time an NHL draft yielded so many new jerseys. Eight different teams used the 2011 NHL Entry Draft in St. Paul to showcase something new. So settle in, there's a lot to cover.

Oilers Go Full-On Retro

1 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 19 Oscar Klefborn, 62 Samu Perhonen, 92 Dillon Simpson

After 16 years, the Edmonton Oilers once again look like they did when they entered the NHL in 1979. The Oilers used the first overall pick in the draft to select Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as well as to unveil their new retro road sweater — which now matches their home uniform, with the colors reversed.

This is exactly what Edmonton fans wanted and I'm happy to see them get it. The jersey looks fantastic! On the team's website, Oilers president Patrick LaForge said, "We listened to our fans and know they will be happy to see the set complete with the new road vintage jersey." Truer words were never spoken.

The Oilers also announced that the previous road jersey is officially retired. And while they didn't say so specifically, it's likely the navy and copper third jersey will remain in use next season.

Seeing Red in South Florida

3 Jonathan Huberdeau, 64 Vincent Trocheck, 76 Logan Shaw, 87 Jonathan Racine

Earlier this month, the Florida Panthers launched their "We See Red" marketing campaign — an effort to return to the franchise's color roots. This weekend, it culminated with the reveal of their new red home sweater, which was given to each of their 2011 draft picks.

The Panthers didn't do an all-out redesign with this jersey, but more of a color swap. The sleeves are now blue, but there is no piping on — a refreshing change of pace from the old jersey. So that's a big plus. All in all, I think this is easily the best jersey in the Cats' arsenal at this point.

But that's not to say it's perfect. The elbow striping is an element of the Reebok Edge template that I just don't like. Maybe if it went all the way around the arm. I also think gold piping would've looked sharp and added contrast between the red and blue on the sleeves. But these are not dealbreakers.

I don't yet know about the fate of their other jerseys. I would assume the white road uniform will remain unchanged. They could use the old home jersey (the blue one) as a third jersey, but I think the blue alternate they already have is superior. So I'd bet the old home sweater is retired.

On Behalf of the Winnipeg Jets...

78 Brennan Serville, 7 Mark Scheifele, 119 Zachary Yuen, 157 Jason Kasdorf

The new Winnipeg franchise used the occasion to announce their new name — or should I say old name? The Winnipeg Jets are once again an NHL team. How about that. Unfortunately, while the team had a name ready to go, they couldn't say the same about a logo and jerseys.

Each of their draftees were given generic black jerseys with the NHL shield on the front. Rest assured, this will not be the uniform of the Jets come the fall. True North chairman Mark Chipman has said it may be a while before we see the new uniforms and logo.

Illegal Curve tweeted some details from Chipman yesterday. He said they wanted to have a prototype jersey ready for the draft, but were worried about knockoffs showing up before they were able to put official merchandise on sale. So production time is likely the reason we'll have to wait to see the new branding.

The team has also said that the colors "won't be completely different" from the old Jets. I take that to mean possibly a darker shade of blue and the addition of a third color such as silver. So another red and blue team, then. Fun. I may sound bitter, but at least the Thrashers and their too many colors were unique.

Earlier today, TSN's Darren Dreger tweeted, "I haven't seen the Winnipeg Jets new logo or sweater design, but I'm told it's very impressive." I'm sure it is. And I'm sure a lot of money is being spent to make sure of that. To be honest, I hope it doesn't leak so as to avoid the knockoff issues.

New Bolts Get New Blues 

148 Nikita Nesterov, 27 Vladislav Namestnikov, 178 Adam Wilcox

The Tampa Bay Lightning unveiled completely redesigned blue and white uniforms back in January. This weekend, they handed them out to their new draft picks in St. Paul.

There is one element of the jerseys that has changed since we last saw them at the January press conference. The numbers now feature an inner black outline after enough Bolts fans complained about the lack of black in the new threads. (I wasn't one of them.)

As much as I've praised these new sweaters, I was disappointed by one thing I noticed this weekend. Based on the previous pictures I've seen, I thought the blue was a lot lighter than it is. Turns out it's basically identical to the Maple Leafs' blue. Really not happy about that. Don't get me wrong, I'm still buying one, but I was hoping Stevie Y would do something to make us stand out.

Predators Decide to Simplify

38 Magnus Hellberg, 52 Miikka Salomaki

The Nashville Predators didn't have a pick in the first round this year due to the Mike Fisher trade, so we had to wait a day to see their new road jersey. As the NHL draft picked up with Round 2 this morning, the Preds gave the new sweater to their draftees, who became the first players to wear them.

While both new jerseys were sort of leaked on Thursday, we learned they weren't the final versions. Today we can play spot the differences. The biggest one (and only one that I could spot) would be the left shoulder which featured the word NASHVILLE in small text. On this version, it's only seen on the back of the collar. Everything else is basically how we first saw it.

Prior to the jersey leak, the new logos were officially unveiled, so I won't spend anymore time discussing them. I did want to note, however, that the new guitar pick logo is only used on the right shoulder of the road uniform. I suspect it will be the same on the gold home jersey.

Kings' Worst Kept Secret is Official

49 Christopher Gibson, 110 Michael Mersch

The Los Angeles Kings will have a new road uniform next season and their 2011 draft picks became the first to sport it for cameras today. (Like Nashville, they lacked a first round pick.) And for what it's worth, it was the worst kept secret of the year. We first saw this jersey way back in October!

Well a version of it, anyway. An Icethetics reader snapped a photo of what appeared to be prototype jerseys in Luc Robitaille's office at the Kings' practice facility before last season even started. To be fair, though, there's an L.A. pee wee team that's been wearing something similar for a while now.

They're nice. That's really all I can say. By dropping the purple from their palette, I think the Kings have done themselves a disservice. But the new jerseys aren't bad. But for the waist stripes, this new road sweater nearly matches the black and silver alternate the Kings have been wearing for a couple of years. It will become the new home jersey.

The old black and purple home sweater will become a third jersey and the old road sweater will be retired.

Isles, Sens Add Patches to Mark Special Occasions

5 Ryan Strome, 127 Brenden Kichton, 21 Stefan Noesen

The New York Islanders have created a new 40th anniversary shoulder patch while the Ottawa Senators will wear an All-Star Game patch for the 2011-12 season. The new add-ons were first spotted on the teams' first round draft picks on Friday night.

This is our first time seeing the Islanders' new 40th anniversary mark and I'm still waiting to get a better look. So far the above pictures are the best I've seen. The Isles entered the league in 1972 with the Atlanta Flames, but Calgary tends to only recognize the Calgary years with their anniversary logos.

Ottawa hosts the 2012 All-Star Game next season but the logo was first unveiled way back in September. The Senators are also celebrating their 20th anniversary, but it seems that logo will be trumped on the jersey this season. Perhaps they could change it after the All-Star break?

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If you've made it this far into this post, you're clearly the kind of person who will be interested in the following minutia. I'm talking about the breakdown of what jerseys were handed out by teams to their draftees.

• 21 teams gave colorful home jerseys to their draftees, 1 of which was seen for the first time (Florida).
• 7 teams gave white road jerseys to their draftees (Buffalo, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Nashville San Jose and Vancouver), 3 of which were unveiled at the same time (Edmonton, Los Angeles and Nashville).
• 6 teams gave jerseys that have never been used in a game before, one of which will never be used in a game (Winnipeg).
• And 1 team gave an alternate jersey to its draftee. And that would be Minnesota. Perhaps a privilege of being host of this year's festivities.

I hope that answers all of the jersey- and logo-related questions you had about this year's draft. If it doesn't ask in the comments and I'll do my best to answer.