Monday: #Formthefuture Eve

*** Edit by Ryan ***

Before Jets begins with his post, we promised you a HJC Podcast on Sunday. Well we've had some issues with both the recording and the editing. We MAY have it posted by Tuesday, however you might want to lower your expectations on the production value of the whole thing. Everyone involved had a really great conversation to share, but there are some beeps and human sounds that interfere.

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Welcome to a very special Monday post!

What makes today so special? Today is the last day we won't know what the Adidas NHL will look like. With the exception of the 2018 ASG in Tampa and the Stadium Series/Winter Classic/Centennial Classic 2: Electric Boogaloo, we will have every jersey worn by an NHL team unveiled tomorrow night. Phil will have a massive recap as promised, and I'm sure Chase will only hype this more, the post happening mere hours before the unveilings, but minus any major leaks, it'll be 62 jerseys, none of which we've seen in their current form....but truthfully, my expectations of pretty low in terms of new designs.

With the exceptions of Vegas, Ottawa, Nashville, Calgary, Minnesota, Colorado and a couple others, we'll be getting a lot of the same. Basically, teams with simple designs will remain the same, and the teams most likely to change are those whose designs were templates (i.e.: Nashville, Ottawa, Columbus, Colorado). Little changes like no more grey pit stains for Buffalo or Arizona having a black collar will come and I'm sure a couple teams will surprise us, but this is not going to be as drastic of a change as we saw in 2007.

If you remember back then, Colorado, NYI, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Florida, Los Angeles, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Atlanta and Dallas all unveiled templated jerseys that were mostly inferior versions of what they had before (St. Louis, New York and Nashville are possible exceptions depending on tastes). The only teams that improved were San Jose, Boston, Washington, and to me at least, Philadelphia's away jersey, but that's it. The cookie cutter lesson was a hard one, and I don't think we'll have the same repeat of terrible designs as last time.

Interestingly, we got ANOTHER set of teasers, this time featuring shoulder patches. I'll give a list of the three options teams could go with; no patch, same patch, new patch

New patch: Vegas (duh), Minnesota (M logo from their alternate script), San Jose (Los Tiburones)
Same Patch: Washington, Chicago (finally showed their jerseys), Nashville, Dallas, Colorado,  Anaheim, Boston, Calgary (sigh), Vancouver, Winnipeg, Arizona (could be different on the road jersey), Columbus
No Patch: Detroit, NYR, Florida (though they will likely have their logos on the arms, Buffalo, Carolina, New Jersey, Edmonton, St. Louis, Montréal, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, NYI

Nothing from Pittsburgh in terms of a video, but we know for sure this jersey is going to be nearly identical to what they have now. As for Toronto, we have seen NOTHING from the team but again, I'd assume we get something the same from the Maple Leafs. but to get near full previews in terms of logos and general colour layout for 29/31 teams is not bad.

Overall, I had predictions that these shoulder patches either ruined or made me thing we're not going to get as much change as I thought (COUGH COUGH CALGARY COUGH COUGH).

The HJC Open is ON! The Round Robin phase is on until Friday. Anyone and as many people are able to enter, but ONLY 16 get to move on. Put your best foot forward and get ready, if you are one of the 16, to have never published concepts ready to go against the rest of HJC's best. For those curious, Voting will be top 5 and how ever many of each vote you get will determine (likely some form of point system).

There's also the XTREME COTW vote, where Brooks' XTREME 90s concepts go up against each other and Noah's classic Cowboys concept.

COTW June 9-15 vote (ends Friday @ noon ET)

HJC Open Round Robin entries (due Friday @ noon ET)

On with today's concepts!

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Vegas Golden Knights Concepts (By: Patrick N.)

+ Right way I think you nail the colour lay out pretty well as to what we'll see tomorrow

+ Some may not like it, but the Vegas font works okay above the script, even better than LAs did 

+ Good logo choices

+ Decent execution

- While this is a possibility of happening, I'm not a fan of the gold helmet, and without logos it looks bare

- Someone in the comments mentioned that they were not a fan of the coloured arms on white jersey as an overused trend in concepts, and while this doesn't look bad by any means, I would have preferred the striping look closed to the hem and socks with a black stripe in-between the red and gold rather than the coloured arms

- Not a fan of LA's numbers 

- Primary logo is slightly too small and the script is slightly too big 

Rating: 6.75/10 

Vegas Golden Knights Concepts (By: Christian L.)

+ Those subtle Vs on the arm with the stars in them look great

+ Love the big bold gold hem stripe and arms on the grey jersey

+ Black gear and lower hem stripe tie the jerseys and gear nicely together 

+ Great execution and layout!

- Again, not a fan of the colour arms, but at least there's coloured arms on both jersey but I would have preferred taking that colour and putting it on the cuffs

- Not a fan of the tie downs 

- No helmet numbers 

Rating: 8.75/10 

Vegas Golden Knights Concept (By: Burkus Circus)

+ I wouldn't think the secondary logo would work as a primary logo, but with lots of red it doesn't look half bad

+ While Vegas Gold is hard to work with as a primary colour for a jersey, but this doesn't look half bad so long as the gear is black

+ Good execution

- While this striping would have be so refreshing in 2007 (especially on Dallas's away) it looks especially dated now, and is not something Adidas would do

-Black numbers would look much better 

- Speaking of the numbers, the LA font doesn't work 

- Shoulder patch is slightly too small and thin 

Rating: 6.75/10 

Vegas Golden Knights Concepts (By: Anthony C.)

+ I've said it a couple times, the Vegas logo looks fantastic with a chest stripe

+ Great colour balancing

+ Love the use of the negative space from the V in te logo for a pant logo

+ Alternate is a little similar to Boston, but wow does it work, again with the large horse collar and lots of white it really pops

- Striping on all 3 jerseys would look good with some red 

Not a negative, but the other writers have mentioned you've sent in a ton of good but not great concepts, and then THIS stuff comes in and I'm blown away. This is and that Panthers concept are HJC Open/COTW winners. Keep using this template and making these high quality concepts instead of the generic concepts that are good but not great.

Rating: 9.5/10 COTW Nom from me! 

San Jose Sharks Concepts (By: Christian L.)

+ I would not have thought that the 90s Sharks throwback striping would work with the Los Tiburones logo, but wow! 

+ Black numbers, black cuffs and teal yoke are all great addition 

+ Love the addition of the small orange stripe

+ Great execution

- Pants need something on them, there might be something there but I can't see it 

- No helmet numbers 

Rating: 9/10 

San Jose Sharks Concepts (By: Justin B.)

+ When I think of a jersey with the Los Tiburones logo, this is what I picture, it's completely ideal and realistic to give them a new look

+ Black numbers look great on the white jersey

+ Good colour balancing 

+ Great execution 

- Sock striping would look better if it ended before the skates 

- Small thing, but the collar on the white jersey should be teal with a black insert 

- Again, small thing but I'd prefer a teal helmet over the black one 

Rating: 8.5/10 

San Jose Sharks v. Hartford Whalers Game in China Concept (By: F.C. Macbeth

+ Nice to see a good colour layout on the Sharks concept

+ If the jersey was a little more subtle, I would like the the New England style barber pole on the arms and pants 

+ Execution is getting there, but still needs some work

- I understand you like the WHA Whalers logo, but it does not go with NHL colour scheme nor the barber pole stripes on the arm 

- Hurricanes numbers don't really go with it either, there's 3 jersey ideas here that would work on their own, and maybe two of them could go together but all 3 look convoluted 

- Logos on the Sharks jersey are too small and the NOB is too large

- Teal in the Sharks numbers on the back is a different shade then the teal around the rest of the set

- The socks are a neat idea, but I think the black should end much higher and the striping/white should start much higher 

- Collar needs more colour to it 

Rating: 5.25/10 

Calgary Flames Concept (By: Burkus Circus)

+ Nice to see the previous Calgary alternate numbers and recoloured logo, they look good

+ Striping is decent, a little thin, but I think you have the layout here 

+ Good execution

- Thicken the yellow and white on the stripes

- Would have preferred the C mountain roundel on the shoulders to the standard home jersey logo 

- The pinker shade of red used in the primary logo similar to that of the late 90s jerseys does not match the rest of the red, and it sticks out a lot 

Rating 6.5/10 

Nashville Predators Concepts (By: Ryan C.)

+ The striping is like a mix of their original jerseys in the yoke, a more traditional hem stripe, and those arm shields from the Sens/Pens/Lightning template, but it works as it looks kind of like a tooth

+ With the ditching of the Music City theme, I'm glad the NP logo is on the shoulders

+ Good execution

+ Good colour balancing 

- I'm not totally against the ditching of the music city the, but I would have preferred the current numbers (these aren't bad, and I get why you'd want to ditch the current numbers without the guitar strings)

- Helmet numbers need an outline 

- Would prefer blue numbers to white ones on the yellow jersey

Rating: 8/10

Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins AHL Concepts (By: Anthony C.)

+ A good way to make the farm team different from the major league team is to use a colour the NHL team doesn't in their primary jersey, and yellow looks great here

+ Great colour balancing 

+ Alternate is pretty similar to the Bruins, and the Pittsburgh Hornets, but even as that it still works, and I like the idea of tying the Hornets to the Baby Pens

+ Good logo choices

+ Good execution 

- No helment logos, it's such a simple thing that can make a concept looks much better

- Aside from the colour swap, there really isn't much different from any number of Pens jersey and these, even adding a small amount of red like the team did 20 years ago 

- Again, it's good, but not great, there's nothing here that really makes things pop, it's ideal though

Rating: 7.75/10 

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