Monday: HAHA Whiteout

Welcome to the Monday post, and another week on HJC!

We'll begin in the AHL where just an hour and a half ago, the Utica Comets, one of my favourite AHL identities, unveiled a throwback alternate to honour the Clinton Comets, a team who played in various minor leagues from 1927-1977, and next year being their 90th anniversary. This jersey may look familiar, but remember the era this jersey came from.

Photo from Utica Comets official Twitter

These jerseys are based on what the Comets wore in 1963-64. These jerseys are quite similar to what a lot of minor league teams wore in that era, like the Regina Pats for example. I quite like this jersey, it's plain, but I like the idea of teams doing this. Wilkes Barre Scranton did this for the Pittsburgh Hornets, and Marlies do it currently with their alternate and probable new set, the Lake Eries Monsters of Cleveland do it with their current Crusaders/AHL Barons alternate, and they specialty NHL barons jersey. OF course other teams will do it and have done it, but I am ALWAYS in favour of teams doing this.

Rating: 8/10

I may have gotten off track with the whole best of/worst of series, but we'll start back up, fittingly enough with the most recent team to redesign....Toronto.

Best:  1958-67 Home/ 1999-2011 Alternate

Photo from ice hockey.wiki.com

This jersey has undergone minor changes over these years from template to a logo outline, but when I think Maples Leafs historically, this is the jersey I think of. A successful team, a great striping pattern and the blue yoke, despite being so simple, adds so much. The modern revival was just as good (even if the teams weren't after 2004), but it's nice to see the Leafs go back to this after years of looking like it's 1970.

Honourable Mentions: Current jerseys, 1922-25 St. Pats, 1997-2004 jerseys 

Worst: 2007-2010 Home 

Photo from thestar.com

How hard was it for Reebok to make decent jerseys. The team was already terrible, why degrade them more but making the jersey look like a glorified practice jersey from most angles. It is sad, this is one of the few examples of an Original 6 team having a BAD jersey, but this is BAD. It's like something you'd see in the 30s to save money and again, the teams were HORRIBLE. Just to make this point clear: Pavel Kubina, Jason Blake, Luke Schenn, Vesa Toskala, Jeff Finger, Ben Ondrus, John Pohl, Andy Wozneiwski, Wayne Primeau, Jamal Mayers, Anton Stralman, Jay Harrison, Bates Battaglia, and of course.....the one and only.... Staffan Kornwall

Dishonourable Mentions: 1927 Green Leaf, 1927-34 away, 1988-92 (because by then Darryl Sittler's charm wore off those jerseys) 

Agree, disagree, wanna mention anymore obscure terrible Maple Leafs, go right ahead in the comments. 

Let's look at some of the White Jersey entries that have come in since Caz's post!

Brooks F.

'

Connor L.

Alan S.

William B.

Lucas D.

Alan H.

Jack S.

Ben S.

Hayden D.

Danny R.

Nice stuff, hey, while you're working on your entry, why not take sometime to vote for COTW and COTW January. Now that last year's COTY has been crowned, time to work on next year's vote, and that takes all of you voting for COTW....yes, even you!

COTW-Jaunary vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm EST)

COTW Jan 31-Feb 6 (ends Friday @ 11:59pm EST)

White Jersey Comp entries (due Friday @ 10:59pm EST)

On to today's 8 concepts!

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Milwaukee Admirals Concept (By: Chase C.)

+ Nice custom font
+ The yoke shape has a nautical vibe to it, I'm not sure why but it goes with the primary logo
+ Always a fan of angled striping
+ Decent execution

- The angled stripes on the hem are on such an angle there's very little blue and the grey & white bleeds into the grey
- The primary logo itself is sick quite low
- Tv numbers are too small
- Numbers on the back are much too large, making the NOB is set too high

Rating: 6.75/10

Halifax Mooseheads Concepts (By: Jonathan H.)

+ I'm a huge fan of adding more green to the Mooseheads Wild copy jerseys
+ Decent colour balancing
+ Similar to the Mickey Mouse Devils jerseys, which are nice jerseys

- Lots of execution errors: no tv numbers, pixelated LMJHQ logo, primary logo is too large
- The biggest error is the collar and yoke. The collar is way off centre from the insert and looks unfinished. The yoke is really just two lines and it doesn't lead anywhere
- There are lots of lines on the inside of the collar that look like unfinished edits

Rating: 6/10

Valparaiso NCAA Concepts (By: Chris W.)

+ Valparaiso's current logo set is one of the nicest, and these jerseys add to this, especially with the colours (aside form one this that I get why Chris did it, but I'll get to that later)
+ The logo choices a re perfect, the V shield makes a great shoulder patch, and the alternate is quite nice and vintage NCAA hockey
+ I get a Pens vibe from this
+ Great execution, aside from two things

- The stitching should stop at the hem stripe
- The numbers on the back are too large on the home and road
- Chris, taking inspiration from the Pens, kept the upper arms as yellow on both jerseys, which makes the white jersey too yellow, switching the two would look great

Rating: 9/10 COTW Nom. from me!

Albany Devils Concepts (By: Jimmy T.)

+ If the Leafs alternate and current Devils jersey were to mix, this would be it and it works
+ I like the amount of red on the white jersey, there's much more than previously
+ Good job balancing the Devils's current identity and being unique
+ Decent execution

- Primary logo is WAY too small
- TV numbers are too close to the rm striping and are slightly too small
- Pants logo?

Rating: 7.75/10

Columbus Blue Jackets Concepts (By: Dylan T.)

+ Cannon logo and alternate numbers look excellent, I'm really warming up to using this as a primary
+ Also like using the current primary as a shoulder patch
+ Good colour balancing
+ Love this idea of the beveled star on the stripes

- Execution needs a lot of work: NOB & numbers are too large, the logos are very pixelated
- The hem stripe is too small compared to the arms
- One problem with the layout of this concept, the Cannon logo on the top is WAY TOO large and almost takes up as much room as the concepts, which are barely visible. If you mad the logo the same size as the NHL shield or signature, then the concepts would pop more and you'd have room for gear

Rating: 7/10

Minnesota Wild Concepts (By: BRX)

+ 2 matching sets....sort of but it'd be nice to have matching sets
+ Always love the trees, and a tree hem adds to an otherwise boring jersey
+ BRX solves the whole "Vintage or True white" problem Minnesota has
+ Decent execution

- Logos are pixelated, the bear head looks better with yellow
- These jerseys desperate need shoulder patches and pant logos
- TV numbers are too high up

Rating: 7/10

Arizona Coyotes Concepts (By: Dylan T.)

+ Arizona's current jerseys are really growing on me, and I like the addition of black
+ Best striping pattern the team has had since 2003
+ Like the addition of green for the most part
+ Good execution

- Needs a shoulder patch
- Striping is too thin on the hems
- Primary logo is too large
- The Coyote looks weird with green eyes, it looks good on the nose and mouth but not the eyes

Rating: 7.75/10

Drummondville Voltigeurs Concepts (By: Jonathan H.)

+ Glad you kept the V on the hem
+ A good simplification from the current slightly cluttered jersey
+ This arm pattern works a lot better

- Same execution problems as the previous concept

Rating 6.75/10

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That's the post!

Don't forget to vote in both votes, do it now!

Also don't forget to work on your white jersey contest entries

Have a great week

Go Moose, Mooseheads & Jets