Lightning, Ducks Swap AHL Affiliates

Earlier this week, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced a new AHL affiliation agreement with the Syracuse Crunch. That will lead the Anaheim Ducks to align with the Bolts' former affiliate and 2012 Calder Cup champion Norfolk Admirals in the fall.

I've since gotten a lot of questions about whether either of the Crunch or Admirals will redesign their jerseys to match their new NHL affiliates. The short answer is: I don't know. The funny answer is this...

Obviously, I just made this graphic for fun. I have no reason to believe either team will change their colors. If they were to do any sort of redesign, I don't see it happening this season. But I'll keep an eye on it, of course.

Meantime, what do you think about the new color treatments I gave the Crunch and Ads?

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?

Branding the 2012 Draft Parties

The 2012 NHL Entry Draft opens in Pittsburgh tomorrow. With that, a number of teams will be celebrating with their fans. I've never understood why teams feel the need to brand their draft day parties with special logos, but every year we always get a few.

Here are the ones I've tracked down for this weekend.

The Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders are all promoting their draft day events with specially-designed logos. I don't really have anything more to say about them, but the blog was getting a bit stale.

Update on Friday · Jun 22 · 2012 | 11:45 AM PDT by Chris

Looks like I nearly missed the Winnipeg Jets' draft party logo. Thanks @aoystreck.