Thursday: Bright Yellow Helmet

Hello everyone, welcome back!

Today we have a few pieces of news to report, and first up: the Albany Devils will be moving the Binghamton next season.

Now the piece of news from this that's important to us as uniform enthusiasts: they will be named...brace yourself for this one...the Binghamton Devils. How creative. But really, this makes it quite possible that the logo will be a horned and tailed B, similarly to the current Albany logo.

Next up, the Pittsburgh Penguins unveiled their entire Stadium Series uniform today, after previously just showing the jerseys, and even though some of us could see this in NHL 17 after their last update. (Photos via @penguins on Twitter)

The socks have the expected yellow base and (fortunately consistent) single black stripe, and the pants are expectedly black, and they're actually plain black, you can't entirely tell from the pictures. But the biggest takeaway here is, as Bryan Rust calls it, "the bright yellow helmet." I feel like yellow helmets are usually a love-it-or-hate-it type of ordeal, and personally I'm a fan. Similar to Rust's comments in the tweet I'll embed below, it's a nice change from the ordinary black helmets, and it also has a nice look to it, in my opinion. I'm not sure I'd want to see it with their primary uniforms, though.

I also think the jerseys themselves look much better on the full uniform than they do on their own, because the hem looks oddly empty on its own, but the contrasting pants help to balance out the empty hem.

One last piece of news that's related to the previous: Marc-André Fleury has unveiled his mask design for the game.

Photo via @PensDieHards on Twitter

The mask has depictions of his favorite friends and teammates through his Penguins career, including the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis, Jordan Staal, Max Talbot, and Mario Lemieux. As a lifelong Pens fan, I love this mask and I love this idea, and it's also a bit saddening since its very likely that he will be dealt by the trade deadline to avoid issues with the upcoming expansion draft.

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This week, we have the COTW vote and the St. Louis Eagles competition, and we also have the vote that the entire year of 2016 comes down to: THE COTY VOTE!!! We have two of the best concepts by two of the best artists going against each other to be crowned the best out of all of the concepts submitted to both posts here on HJC and competitions. This is a big one, so go drop a vote, then stop by the COTW while you're at it, because it only starts with a COTW victory.

2016 COTY Final vote (ends Friday @ noon Eastern)

COTW Jan 20-26 vote (ends Friday @ noon Eastern)

ST. Louis Eagles entries (due Friday @ noon Eastern)

No new Eagles entries as of 2pm Eastern, so either this isn't a popular competition, or you guys are really waiting to submit these until the last minute. Hurry, though, the deadline is tomorrow at noon.

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Brian B. - Super Bowl LI

+Even if I'm not a fan of the aesthetics as far as hockey goes, this is a pretty accurate crossover of their football uniforms, with a few changes to spice it up and keep it from being too plain, good work.

-Though, in the case of the Falcons, I think it would look cleaner if you kept the design just like the football uniforms, which in this case would mean to have stripes of red-white-black (you have red-black-white-black currently) and thicken the white stripe.

-Keeping their drop shadow on the number would be a nice touch.

+In the case of the Patriots, I think you did a much better job crossover wise, even though I think the design itself is pretty bad.

+The extra white and red stripes here really work to keep the jersey from being too plain.

-The white and red would probably look better (on the stripes) if they were switched, so the red is surrounded by white and gray, creating more contrast between both the red/blue and the white/gray.

-The pants would look better if they matched their football pants, since the jersey really isn't too busy.

Overall: 7.5/10

Jay S. - New York Rangers

+I can dig seeing the primary on the front, even though it may not be realistic.

+I actually quite like this color scheme...

-But it doesn't work well on the numbers where the gray and white touches.

+But good job keeping the white and gray from touching in most places.

-Speaking of the numbers, they're spaced out way too much (on the back). Bring them a bit closer together.

-I'm a bit torn on this one, because I understand you're referencing the Rangers' primary jerseys, but I don't think the skewed C patch works on this one. Without the skewed diagonal wordmark it just looks out of place.

+I love the return of lady liberty, but I think it might work better on the front rather than the shoulder.

-Execution wise, the shadows on the jersey are pretty rough and pixelated.

Overall: 8/10

Jay S. - Vegas Golden Knights

+Vegas could really do well with a modern jersey design, as their brand has a much more modern look.

+Now this is how you make Vegas gold look good.

+Good color balance.

-But the white jersey could use a little more black. I almost want to say use the same arm coloring as the black jersey, but that may be too similar to the Penguins.

+I like the alternate jersey, and the addition of the slight red accents.

-The red starts to bleed in with the gold slightly. It might not be a bad idea to isolate it from the gold.

+That font is a really nice fit.

Overall: 9/10 and my COTW Nomination

Lucas D. - Ottawa Senators

+Definitely an improvement on their current look. Then again, that isn't hard to do.

+Borrowing from their classic barberpole look is always a good place to start.

+I actually like the return to a black primary jersey, I think the red and white really pop on it.

+Using the unused side profile senator is always a smart move.

+Good color balance.

-Maybe it's just me, but I think the O alternate logo would look much better without the rectangle in the background. You would have to recolor it in this case, though.

-Presentation note: I would lower the opacity of the logo in the background. I think it's a little too prominent as it is; you want all attention to be on the jerseys themselves. You could even put it in one color too, I think those would both be a big help.

Overall: 9/10

Lucas D. - Vegas Golden Knights

+Another solid Vegas concept today.

+The upper arm fill has become a trend after the Pens first brought it back in 2014, and it works well here, giving the jersey a modern look.

-I think the black and gray fight a bit to be the primary color here (aside from white), so I'd change the gray to black, or the black to gray. Whichever you want to be more prominent.

-I'd also love to see the accompanying dark jersey to this set.

+I think plain pants are a good choice here.

-Same comment about the presentation.

***Update***

As Lucas' comment has made me aware of this, wow, that chainmail pattern is great. I never would have thought of that. I guess that's what happens when my screen isn't quite bright enough and the image isn't exactly gigantic when I review it. It's a great idea and a great touch, but my comment about the color balance between the gray and black still applies, especially because that pattern wouldn't even be noticeable from a distance.

Overall: 9/10

Zack H. - Ottawa Senators

+Another good looking design from Zack's NHL series here.

+As I said with Lucas, you can't go wrong using the side profile senator.

+Simple, bold stripes often work well for the Senators.

-I think the shoulder yoke makes the jersey look a bit too busy. The shoulder patches themselves would do just fine.

-I have the same comment here about the shoulder patches as I told Lucas.

-I think the font choice could be improved.

Overall: 8/10

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That's all for today's post. I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all again next week!