Wednesday: The Future is Formed

*** Edit by Ryan ***

Yesterday I gave you an Adidas template and now, by request, here is another! This one is based off of Steven G's hybrid template. I think a lot of you will like this and find it easy to use. As for collars with laces for both templates, you'll have to wait or make them yourself.

Click & save

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It's the blog post everybody has been waiting for: The day after the big reveal.

NEWS: So let's get straight to it with the reveals in geographical alphabetical order.


Anaheim: No major changes

Arizona: No major changes besides ownership giving a big f*** you to Shane Doan

Boston: Font changes so that there's no more black separating the white outline from the yellow characters. Also the HISTORIC yellow socks are thrown away in favor of black ones that match the striping.

Buffalo: Dumb piping is gone, dumb numbers on the front remain

Calgary: Dumb piping is gone, dumb side panels remain. Font no longer italicized.

Carolina: Arguably the biggest winner here from the Adidas rebrand. There's now more black on the jerseys, the Warning Flags are back by being beautifully sublimated into the red hem stripe. I can't wait until their away is unveiled

Chicago: No major changes

Colorado: The other big winner. The mountain striping is back though sans black trim. Font changes slightly.

Columbus: Font changes slightly

Dallas: No major changes

Detroit: No major changes

Edmonton: A more perfect orange inverse of the Oilers previous set, with numbers on the sleeves. Navy overtakes the royal blue.

Florida: No major changes

Los Angeles: No major changes

Minnesota: A new green jersey that draws upon the previous alternate. Red now separates the cream striping, the primary logo replaces the wordmark logo, the M from the wordmark logo becomes a shoulder patch, and a cream chest stripe lays on the front of the jersey behind the logo, but ONLY on the front, a la Florida.

Montreal: No major changes

Nashville: One of the bigger disappointments. Nashville loses the upper blue stripe on all aspects of the jersey, as well as the blue arch pattern near the yokes and the white piping that surrounded it and continued down the jersey.

New Jersey: The other big disappointment as their hem stripe is replaced by black hem trim. The white on the arm striping also thickens.

New York (I): White jersey now has a blue logo outline instead of the white outline that blended into the jersey.

New York (R): Added silver on the collar of the white jersey

Ottawa: Reebok Edge pattern squared off and transferred onto the new Adidas template.

Philadelphia: Shoulder/arm pattern slightly more rigid as it goes down the arms

Pittsburgh: No major changes

San Jose: Los Tiburones logo on the shoulder now of the teal jersey, with the SJ Tiburones logo on the shoulder of the white.

St. Louis: White and gold swapped on the numbers, now white numbers with gold and blue trim.

Tampa Bay: No major changes

Toronto: No major changes

Vancouver: No major changes

Vegas: Grey jerseys, upper arm black followed by gold and a small red stripe before going back to grey. Hem will be black with a thin gold stripe above it. White jersey replaces the black with grey. black collars on both. FALSE ALARM: No white gloves, they will be gold. Helmets grey.

Washington: No major changes

Winnipeg: No major changes

Overall a subpar reveal, though a few standouts that make me happy, and a lot of stuff unchanged as it goes to the new template, which after we saw from the Reebok Edge switch, it's probably for the best.

One thing I want to point out is that as bad as we thought the collars would be, the laces are even worse. They look forced and not classic the way that they should on a jersey like the Leafs, Habs, Bruins or Rangers, or even the new Hurricanes jersey.

COMPETITIONS: The HJC Open is open for business. Send in your concepts, but make sure you're ready for the next rounds just in case.

VOTES: Concept of the week only this week.

REMINDERS:

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

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

ON TO THE CONCEPTS!


Anthony C: Tulsa Jr. Oilers (WSHL) Concept

One could argue that the Jr Oilers have a better logo than the professional side in Tulsa, and Anthony tries to make sure they have better jerseys than their professional counterparts too. Clearly based on the Edmonton Oilers design for the main set, we have an orange and navy scheme here, with the orange dominant on both the home and away, meanwhile the alternate gets a more classic treatment, eliminating the white outside of the logos and font. Great stuff. Maybe get the pants to better match the striping?

Rating: 95%


Anthony C: Utah Outliers (WSHL) Concept

After looking this team up, Their current jersey is the grey jersey presented here, but with the black and grey swapped, plus a matching hem stripe instead of the solid neon yellow hem they currently employ. A decent switch, combined with a much needed logo outline on the grey jersey. No design idea issues, but execution kills this, as the sock stripes look to be floating around the sock instead of part of it.

Rating: 79%


Burkus Circus: Florida Panthers Concept

I have never been a fan of how Florida employs the gold in their jerseys, creating an awkward blend between the white and red from afar. Personally I'll have to take a hard pass at this because it looks like their original jerseys merged with the Edge system and their new logos. Name and number on the back need a bit of breathing room from the yoke and from each other. Also slightly awkward due to the size of the numbers

Rating: 60%


Burkus Circus: Los Angeles Kings Concept

With this concept, you take a decent step in the right direction. A grey alternate looks good with LA, and this has a bit of a retro feel everywhere except for one place: The logos on the yoke. If you were able to find a way to better modernize the logo, such as using the current fonts LA employs in their branding scheme, then I'd be happier with this concept. Name and number on the back look pixelated so I recommend downloading this set of NHL team fonts put together by Ryan on the templates page.

Rating: 63%


Cody R: Norfolk Admirals (ECHL) Concept

It was only a matter of time before we started seeing concepts from the relegated Admirals. Now that they are completely unaffiliated from Edmonton, the Ads have a new logo (though the two are not necessarily related) without the mess of colors they previously had. Simply navy blue and gold. Clean, professional looking set that for the most part avoids YOWS (yellow-on-white syndrome), with the exception being the numbers on the white jersey and the anchor logo. Pure class. Again, maybe have the pant stripe match the main set?

Rating: 95%


Lucas D: Quebec Nordiques Concept

As is done many times on this blog, teams from the dead get new life from the artists that contribute here, such as Lucas with this Nordiques concept. With such a classic logo, it's hard not to. A more uniform look here as opposed to the original set, combined with clever use of the new Adidas collar, presents arguably the best look I have seen created for the Nords. I wonder how the logo would look on the blue jersey if left unchanged from the actual primary logo. Regardless, it looks great as is. Just more of a "what if".

Rating: 97%


Snow Monster: Colorado Avalanche Concept

An Avalanche concept from a guy called snow monster and no yeti logos? Jokes aside, this is a decent idea that needs a lot of clean up work before it can go places. Firstly, the shoulder logos need to be cut off at the template lines. Secondly, there's so much unnecessary shadow effect surrounding all the colored areas that it ruins the striping pattern and the effect the pattern itself creates on the jersey. Finally, the TV numbers are pixelated. Despite only three major issues, it shows you how extensive these issues are before it can be viewed as a clean concept worthy of COTW.

Rating: 59%


TC Moore: New York Islanders Concept

A Rangers fan creating an Islanders concept, oh joy. Anyway, this concept has a couple of things that I want to point out. First, there's the common theme of four major stripes to commemorate the four straight cups that many Islander fans like to employ. I've kind of grown sick of it personally, because of how overplayed it is for two reasons: one, it's already commemorated in the logo, and two, what would happen if the Islanders did something like that and then won the cup the following year? The next thing I want to point out is the alternate logo, featuring a semicircle with the letters NY overlapping, though separate, next to the Statue of Liberty with the New York City skyline in the forefront. The irony is too much for me considering the Rangers Lady Liberty logo. The final thing I want to point out is the color balance problem. There's clash for dominance between the secondary and tertiary colors on each of the jerseys, as the white fights the orange on the blue jersey, the orange fights the blue on the white jersey, and the white fights the blue on the orange jersey (did I confuse anyone yet?).

Rating: 75%


The WINNER of my concept of the week nomination is:

I have two ideas but I can't decide so send help

So with the NHL jerseys unveiled, what do you think about them? Which ones are you interested in buying just as a collector, not even as a fan? Who's going to Vegas tonight in the expansion draft? WHY HAVEN'T YOU HELPED ME DECIDE WHO GETS NOMINATED FOR CONCEPT OF THE WEEK TODAY?

Hopefully next week I can relax a bit now that the news has basically been churned out all at once and maybe I'll be less indecisive. See you then!