Wednesday: Busy Concept Day!

Happy "Almost Valentines Day" everyone!

Is anyone else's day dragging along very slowly? You know what might make your day, and even your whole week, move along quicker? Looking forward to this weekend's Saturday post. In case you didn't know by now, Kevin W. will be joining HJC as the new Saturday writer which will mean that HJC will have new content everyday of the week! 

Also don't forget about the votes going on this week, which in case you forgot, anyone and everyone can vote on.

COTY-January vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm EST)

COTW Feb 4-10 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm EST)

Untouchables Comp Top 5 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm EST)

Busy concept day, theres 10 to get to! To the concepts!

Vancouver Canucks Concept (Jets96)

• Looks like Jets is giving the Nucks a new third jersey. He keeps the blue jersey but gives it a new logo and striping pattern.
• I like to see the Johnny Canuck on the chest, seems more like a shoulder patch but I still think it works to a degree, but it looks like it's off-center. I don't like how thick the white stripes are in the striping. It's weird how the blue and green stripes are the same thickness and the white ones are just so thick.
• Center the logo better, add a name on the back for sure. Make the white stripes thinner, either the same thickness as the green and blue stripes or thinner as a trim.

Rating: 5/10

Minnesota Wild Concept (Kyle C.)

•  I'm a little sad to see that it seems the Wild are moving away from their original look. Kyle however brings back the green and red for both the home and away and adds a bit of yellow to the equation. The home jersey reminds me of a concept Justin Cox did a few months back but the away is new to me
• I like how this new striping pattern resembles the current alternate. I'm not exactly sold on the yellow in the striping though. To me it just jumps out too much and is a bit distracting. The red and yellow outlines are clashing on the white numbers. 
• With this striping pattern, maybe yellow should be gone. Just an opinion. Like I said, that yellow really catches your eye but it's so thin on both jerseys that it's distracting.

Rating 6/10

Drexel Dragons ACHA Hockey (Phillip B.)

• After a search I found the Dragons' site, but couldn't track down any decent pictures of their current jerseys. 
• Pretty decent look. I feel the blue is a bit hard to see on the black. I think the jersey might look better with a blue base color and black and yellow striping. This is a difficult color scheme to work with.
• Definitely swap blue and yellow on the pants stripes to match the jersey. 

Rating: 6/10

Indiana University ACHA D3 (Austin S.)

• D3? I played ACHA D3 this year, but I've never played Indiana which is odd since I'm near Chicago. I'll let you read about the concept on the image itself.
• I like the idea behind the design, but it's really hard to use vertical striping on hockey jerseys. The socks look weird with the stripes stopping halfway up. I do like the use of the school's seal as a shoulder patch, something I wish my school would do. 
• Adam, if you used a traditional striping pattern and use 3 or 4 white stripes on the arm and socks, it would look better while still imitating the candy striping. 

Rating 7/10

Brynäs IF (Sweden) Concept (Jesper W.)

•  Those shoulder yokes sure are unique. Definitely something that I don't think would work here in North America. From what I've gathered the two jerseys on the left would be Home/Road and the yellow would be the alternate.
• While I don't care for the yokes, those seem to be iconic to the team and however gaudy they may be, they've gotta stay. I'm sure there's a reason for it, but the road doesn't look like it belongs because it lacks red. Not very "uniform"
• I wish the arm and hem stripes mocked the yoke. For example, on the home. Instead of going "Red Black Yellow Black Red" it would go "Yellow Red Yellow Red Yellow"  To me that would look great.

Rating: 7/10

Rockford Icehogs Concept (Jets96)

•  Nice to see someone tackling my Icehogs. Jets looks to add a little difference between Rockford and their parent Chicago Blackhawks. I like the idea because I think the AHL clubs should have their own look and not borrow directly from the NHL teams.
• I like new arm stripes on the red jersey. It better matches the socks and hem stripes, but I don't like how the hem is black now. That white hem just looks so sexy. The only change to the striping on the white jersey is the black hem which I'm not a fan of. Also, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Jets brought back the pig butt logo for the shoulders! I miss that logo so much. Being from Rockford I grew up with that logo on the shoulders.
• Keep the hems white on both jerseys. Make the collar insert on the red jersey red and you could keep it red on the white, otherwise make it white. If you really wanted to change the white jersey, swap red for black. 

Rating: 7/10

Colorado Avalanche Concept (Bastian S.) 

• Bastian ditches the current designs and adds what I'm assuming is a mountain shape on the arms. He also doesn't use black on the jerseys which is great.
• I like how the hem striping matches the arm stripes but I wish the burgundy went all the way to the bottom. 
• I think the away jersey would look a little better if the blue and burgundy switched places so the cuffs stayed blue and so blue was the main color for the numbers.

Rating 8/10

Phoenix Coyotes Alternate Jersey (Casey R.)

•  Casey makes an alternate for the Yotes that's way more traditional and similar to their Home/Road jerseys. Plus, on my screen the jersey looks dark brown which I can't tell was intended or just an issue with the image, but I dig it.
• I really like that the jersey is traditional. It fits with their identity better than their current alt. And the brown looks very nice with the brick red and sand colors. Wouldn't mind seeing a full set of Brown/Brick Red/Sand jerseys.
• Nothing to really change here. This is a very solid concept. The only issues I see would be that the name and numbers, despite the sand outline, might be hard to read on the dark jersey, same with the red Reebok logo on the back. Also, theres a spacing issue with the arm stripes.

Rating: 8/10

Atlanta Thrashers Concept (Caz W.)

•  Haven't seen one of these in a while. Caz brings back the Thrashers and simplifies their look by losing the dark red and yellow. He explains the concept on his own in the image.
• I really liked the Thrashers logos and I'm sad to see the original primary of the bird with the stick gone. (That was one of my favorite logos and I was lucky to snatch up an old practice hat with it) I do like this color scheme with the "T-Bird" though. However, I always despised the jersey Caz based this off of. 
• While unique, the different colored arms just doesn't work for me. Some might like it But I'd prefer one color for the arms. I'd say dark blue arms for both. 

Rating: 8/10

New York Rangers Concept (Tristan P.)

• Tristan doesn't do much to the Rangers' jerseys which is good, but he did however put "NEW YORK" on the away jersey, which makes total sense to me. He also added more space between the stripes on the away jersey to better match the home. Also, I don't know what's up with the collars. Looks like Tristan is trying out a new collar concept which I'm not a huge fan of, but that's because I've fallen in love with the Reebok collar inserts.
• I like that there are basically no changes to the home jersey, I love that jersey. I like the new spacing between arm stripes on the away, only problem is it now looks like a re-colored Blackhawks jersey with the Rangers yoke. I don't care fot the new blue hem of the away jersey.
• Only thing I'd change is make the home jerseys' collar blue. The white looks odd.

Rating: 8/10