The State of Hockey

The Minnesota Wild are the subject of the newest Icethetics concept post. Our artists have come up with a slew of unique designs for Wild jerseys — all of which are worth a look.

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Brian Brideau	First up, how could the Wild look better on the road? After all, they are 9-19-2 right now. Brian may not be able to offer any legitimate tips on improving play, but maybe a new away jersey instead. He's put the Wild's wheat color to good use by creating a reversal of the red home jersey. Is it better than what they have now? I don't know.
Adam L'Italien	Adam has a different idea. He's keeping the white and the primary logo but making it look more like that red jersey. It's a good jersey and it's been copied a lot but do we really want to oversaturate it? I liked it better when it was an alternate sweater.
Glen Cuthbert	So speaking of third jerseys, can we improve upon their current one? Glen liked the M but not much else. He stripped down the text-based crest and added the primary logo to the shoulders. For better or worse?
Jake Slavik	Jake's got a little off the beaten path, both in jersey design and customization. Probably the only time you'll see a Guillaume Latendresse jersey on these pages. But it's the funky striping that really gives me pause. It's just so... strange. Notice I didn't say "horrible."
Brian Brideau	Now we switch gears and pretend to go back into the past. The Wild played their first game in 2000. But imagine if they existed in the 1980s. Brian thinks they'd be a lot more brightly colored — and that somehow they'd still have a goalie named Backstrom. Even better, what if the Wild were around in hockey's early days along with the Montreal Canadiens. Would a 1910s Wild sweater look like this? Would Derek Boogaard's great grandfather be a member of the club? For sure, the color saturation would be much less than in the 80s. Very creative. This is the sort of stuff I love to see.
Matt Marczel	And as a bonus, let's go back into legitimate Minnesota hockey history — but in present day. Confused? Just look at these concepts for the team formerly known as the North Stars. Matt's taken the AHL's Iowa Stars logo and given it a shot on the Dallas uniform. While I love the heavy-handed green and total lack of black, I'm not sure it's an improvement. Thoughts?
Ryan Haslett	Lastly, Ryan has come up with a simple black jersey that calls back to the Stars' earliest days in Dallas. Unfortunately that's the Dallas Cowboys' logo painted green and gold. The stripes are great, though.

Hoping to not wait so long to get the next batch of concepts up. Been hard at work on new jersey galleries. Almost time to start getting the home and road sweaters on there.

By the way, Elliott Strauss' NHL Rebrand series will be picking up soon with the last half of the league. Stay tuned for that.

Midwest Modifications

It's Super Bowl Sunday so that means a super-sized concept post. (Also I haven't put up anything new since Wednesday, so I owe you.) Normally I'd make the big game the theme, but as there are no NHL franchises in Indiana or Louisiana, we'll have to settle for the Central Division.

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Matt Marczel	Lately, I've been seeing a lot of great Blackhawks concept art. This one has to be one of my favorites. Matt has ditched white for "vintage white" and it's made all the difference. I love the color combination and the use of color in this uniform set. He's got home/road/third jersey, in that order, and I have to say the third may be the best. If that was ever a real NHL sweater, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. No question. Very nice work here, Matt!
Brad McPelican	One thing you don't seen an awful lot of in hockey is striped shoulder yokes, the assumption being that it would look terrible. I think this design proves the opposite. I think Brad's design is a winner right up until the third jersey. I just don't think that trumpet logo ever worked for the Blues. Just wasn't meant to be. I think the Blue Note represents the club much better than a literal logo. So what about the third jersey then?
Mike Bell	Mike has this to offer and I think he hit the nail on the head. Throwbacks work for some teams and not others. For example, it was bad news for the Flyers at the Winter Classic but good news for the Blackhawks at the Winter Classic. The Blues would look great in those vintage colors and stylings. All we need is that nameplate.
Ryan Haslett	But if your idea of a third jersey is something completely different, Ryan has the answer. I didn't think I'd like a gold Blues jersey. This has changed my mind. Great colors and striping. That is a hockey sweater.
Jeff Kennedy	One team that has struggled with their identity for the last decade — no, not the Canucks — is the Blue Jackets. I think they've finally settled on a good solid look. So that's a plus. What they don't have yet is a third jersey, so Jeff has taken it upon himself to put forth a couple ideas. They're certainly unique, but I'm not sure I'm sold on these.
Josh Gagnon	So how about this one? Many of you will say you don't like the sweater number on the front, but it is presented in a unique way. However, I'm not sure the vintage white works with such bright shades of blue and red. Maybe something a bit muted. To be sure, the last thing the Jackets need is to introduce yet another new jersey logo. So we'll just wait and see if 2010-11 is the year the alternate uniform returns to Ohio's capital.
Ryan Haslett	We can't leave out the winningest team in the Central Division. Ryan's made some minor changes to the Red Wings' unis. Not sure about the shoulder piping or the repetition of the winged wheel, but the rest of the striping works.
Matt McElroy	We'll finish off the division with the Predators. Actually, Matt has given us simplified jerseys and primary logos for both the Preds and the Wild. It sort of works for the Wild, but the saber-toothed tiger just looks washed out. And the jerseys may be a little too simple. But let this final graphic today serve as a bit of foreshadowing to the next concept post.

I'll have new artwork up in a day or two featuring the self-proclaimed State of Hockey.

Sticks and Sunshine

California seems like an odd place for hockey, doesn't it? Though I guess it's no stranger than Florida. But today we visit the Golden State, which also tends to see the sunshine year-round. What do our illustrious concept designers have in store for SoCal?

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Matt McElroy	Matt thinks the Kings could be well-served by a permanent transition to the third jersey. Here he's added a white version for our enjoyment. Me? I'm a fan of the purple. So many readers find black jerseys to be boring. Imagine if they had no other color in them. Well actually, you don't have to. I'm looking at you early '90s Kings.
Ryan Haslett	But wait, Ryan has another idea for a white version of that third. Is this a popular concept? Are we so nostalgic for the Gretzky years that we'd want to abandon one of the best-looking identities in the NHL? The purple works. At least I think so.
Chris Fraterrigo	I've often theorized that one of the things that could save the Ducks' current/dreadful identity is a bit of green. But this is not what I had in mind. While this designer has the home and road crests right, I worry the overload of green — and an ugly green at that — might not be the best plan. Back to the drawing board.

Update on Thursday · Feb 4 · 2010 | 10:34 PM PST by Chris

While the Kings are no doubt dominating the conversation in the comments, the designer of the Ducks concept took another pass he wanted to share.

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Chris Fraterrigo

The Ducks' biggest problem isn't their colors. Though orange and green would be a unique color combination in the NHL, let's be honest, so is orange and gold. The biggest problem is the wordmark passing as a logo on the chest of every Duck. Shameful. At least this is a real logo. And the use of orange in a manner beyond mere piping is also pleasing. Well done, Chris. Hope to see more.