Thursday: Moving Down South

Hello everyone, welcome back!

The only bit of news for today is that the Evansville Icemen are moving to Jacksonville Florida. The logo is staying exactly the same, other than the city being changed. Not much more to talk about when it comes to that as I haven't seen anything about the jersey designs, though one could assume that they'll be the same.

But now, we have a few orders of business to get to.

First of all, huge congrats to Avi on the COTY win! It was such a close vote and for good reason, either of those concepts could have won, which goes to show the quality of concepts on the blog. Great work to everyone, and again congrats to Avi!

Next, as usual, we have the voting. The pairs competition officially starts Friday, so if you have a paring, make sure one of you guys declare your pairing and division. Along with that we have the usual COTW vote and the St. Louis Eagles competition to vote for, so go leave a few quick votes!

COTW Jan 27 - Feb 2 vote (ends Friday @ noon Eastern)

St Louis Eagles Competition vote (ends Friday @ noon Eastern)

Please declare your Pairs Competition team and division

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Jay S. - Jacksonville Evansville Icemen

Man...how ironic for this one to be featured today...

+This design really reminds me of something Tampa Bay could do, and reminds me of their original jerseys as well.

-Not really sure what the hem pattern is supposed to be though, unless you were going for an icicle. It looks more like lightning bolts to me.

+Good color balance on the home and third jerseys.

-On the road jersey, the black and blue compete for the primary color, though.

-The blue and black somewhat don't contrast well enough either. This is especially evident on the alternate's captain patch.

Overall: 7.5/10

Lucas D. - St. Louis Blues

+Solid reversal of the Winter Classic uniforms, as evidenced by the shoulder patch and background.

-This isn't necessarily bad in general, but this looks less like a vintage jersey and more like something they'd wear today. 

-The addition of the navy blue doesn't help that, I think it would look more vintage if you dropped the navy.

+Ignoring the vintage aspect, I love the way you used the navy blue. It's a nice accent to the design, compared to how prominent they currently have it.

-The shoulder patch looks a bit big, as do the TV numbers.

Overall: 9/10 and my COTW nomination

Matt C. - New York Rangers

First I reviewed the Wild set (from this topic), now I get to review the Rangers one. It all comes full circle.

+As I mentioned briefly in the topic, I think this is an overall solid design that I wouldn't mind seeing on the ice.

-As I also mentioned, it's definitely not realistic without the diagonal script.

+Aside from the logo, it fits pretty well into their jersey history. The white's shoulder stripes look nice.

+Good job separating the red and blue from each other so they don't clash.

+I actually like the numbers on this one, they fit surprisingly well with their identity.

-The TV numbers look a bit big.

-The vertical stitching should stop at the hem stripes.

Overall: 8.5/10

Mike F. - U.S.A.

+These jerseys all look like they'd fit well in NHL 17.

-Still not a huge fan of that logo, but I will say that it fits well with EA NHL type branding.

+The "primary alternates" are both nice and simple, but not something I'd love to see in real life.

+The other two alternates do have a good vintage look, and even vaguely remind me of the New York Americans' jerseys.

-The namebar on the white one really just clutters it up, though.

+Great color balance throughout all uniforms here.

+I like the red pants on the third alternate.

Overall: 8.5/10

Ryan C. - Buffalo Sabres

+I'd love to see the Sabres take on a yellow third jersey.

+Good color balance, and good consistency in the striping.

-The hem stripe should be a bit curved on this template. It looks strange being just straight.

-It's not bad, but I'm not sure the the B/sword logo is the best fit as a front logo here.

-The pants logo looks gigantic. If it was intentional I think it should still be sized down a bit.

-I'm not a fan of the gray here. I think white would pop so much more, just as long as you make sure it didn't clash with the yellow.

Overall: 8/10

Zack H. - Toronto Maple Leafs

+A classy, consistent design is what the Leafs would look best in.

+Throwing back to the 1967 design but with the new logo creates for a great, historical look.

-I'm not sure why you moved the stripes up to the yoke and cut them off, though. Move them down to the arm and let them go all the way around, as this also makes the yoke area/tv numbers look much less cluttered.

-The numbers and names look horizontally squished, just keep them wider and they'd look much better.

Overall: 8.5/10

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