Wednesday the 25th

Hey hey everybody! Hope you're enjoying your weeks and the fact that the NHL season is just around the corner! And with that comes Fantasy Hockey! How many of you are in leagues? I actually have one draft tonight and one over the weekend so I'm hoping that goes well.

Also, if you've read the posts this week you'll know this, but just in case, HJC is looking for a new Saturday writer! So if you've already applied to write for the site, and didn't make it, try again!  Just click the banner at the top of the page and submit a mock post.

Also, as always, don't forget to vote this week. Voter turnout for COTW was pretty bad, and we can do better. I'll be emailing in my vote this week and so should you. It's your right and privilege....as an HJC reader...

USSR Comp To 5 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

COTW Sept 16-22 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Vancouver Canucks Concept - Brady S.

Brady transfers the Canucks over to the Nike Swift uniform and tweaks their identity. He gets rid of the orca whale but promotes the stick in rink to the main crest. Good move, I like seeing this updated stick in rink on the front of a jersey as opposed to a shoulder patch. The new striping looks fantastic in these colors. A classic design for a team that has a history of bad design choices. If the team wore something like this is might excuse all of those bad decisions. Only thing that should be done to this concept for improvement would be to make the numbers a bit bigger to fill out that back panel.

Rating: 9/10


Minnesota Wild Alternate Jersey Concept - Brian B.

Not much of a "concept" from Brian here. More of a tweak to their current alternate. He simply added shoulder patches and got rid of the "phantom yoke" outline by giving the jersey the same cut as the new away jersey. Jersey looks good. Execution is great. But again, it's not a creative concept and the rating will suffer because of it. I don't blame him for not really changing anything though. The jersey is really solid and the only thing I'd ever want to see changed is swapping out that wordmark for the Bear head.

Rating: 6/10


New York Islanders Concept - Caleb F.

Caleb gives the Isles a new set of jerseys including a heavy use of black as the team gets ready to head to their new home in Brooklyn in a couple seasons. The first thing I see in this concept is potential. This jersey is headed towards being a pretty realistic concept but it's not there yet. The black and blue in the striping has virtually no contrast so the striping looks like one big rectangle. I think the striping overall is way too thick. The orange is fine but the black and blue should be thinned out. I don't like seeing the logo in black either. I don't mind the black jersey but I think I'd want to see a blue version as well. So then they could use the black as an alternate. Basically, just fix these color and striping issues and this concept would be really sharp. Also, I don't like how the number font is different between the two jerseys.

It's also weird seeing Clutterbuck's name on anything other than a Wild jersey. Too bad he's out for awhile after being lacerated by a skate.

Rating: 7/10 but shows real promise of being higher with some tweaks


Pittsburgh Penguins Alternate Concept - Devin S.

Caleb would like to see the Penguins in a gold jersey, and I know he's not alone. This concept suffers from the presentation. It's very clearly an "nhluniforms.com" image being doctored in an editing program. The image quality isn't the best, and the bottom two thirds of the image are blank. There's some black pixels next to the TV numbers as well that didn't get changed to gold. Outside of those errors, the jersey itself isn't terrible. I don't like those odd, black, apron stripe things. I don't even know what to call them honestly besides ugly. A pure color swapped version of their current jerseys would be just fine. Though, I do like the cuff stripes. The socks weren't changed to gold which I'm not sure if that's just a mistake or a design choice but I'd still rather see them gold. The Bruins do that with their black jerseys and yellow socks and I hate it.

Rating: 5/10


Toronto Maple Leafs Concept - Dylan W.

Our good friend Mr. Wonka, or as I like to call him, "Other Dylan" submits his take on a Toronto Maple Leafs alternate jersey. I like the idea behind the jersey. It basically blends the Leafs' jerseys used from 1967 to 92. I've always preferred this Leaf logo as well so it earns points in my book. Two things I have an issue with. Something looks off about the all white collar. Maybe make it a two-toned collar. Also, I'd shrink the TV numbers so they fit in the white stripe instead of bleeding onto the thin white stripes.

Rating: 7/10


Johnstown Tomahawks (NAHL) - Jake88

Jake88 brings us another concept for a team you probably didn't know existed. I'm familiar with the NA so I'm aware that the team's current jerseys are like the white jersey in this set, with the blue and red swapped, plus a blue version. Both jerseys look really good but part of me would want to see a set following the same striping pattern, but when both jerseys look as sharp as these, using similar striping patterns I can let it slide. I like the logos and the yoke striping as well.

Rating: 8.5/10


Oklahoma City Vipers - Matt R.

Matt doesn't seem to think the Islanders will actually move to Brooklyn. He has them moving to Oklahoma instead and rebranding as the Vipers. I'm not a fan of that move, but I'm a fan of these jerseys. I don't think the NHL and Oklahoma is necessary, it'd probably be another Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes situation but that aside, I like the color scheme a lot. And the jersey striping is interesting. My only note would be to add some white for contrast. The numbers, I feel, could be hard to see on any of the jerseys in some situations.

Rating: 8/10


Vancouver Canucks Vintage Concept - Matt R.

Matt's not done though, no no no, he's got a great throwback concept for the Nucks. Using a recolored Millionaires logo and some vintage white he manages to make a really great jersey. I'm not a fan of the brown equipment, I feel that regular blue equipment would look miles better, but this would look great in a Heritage Classic. I really like the chest stripe. Nothing else to say but bravo. I would vote this in for COTW but I just can't do it with the brown equipment. I'm sure someone will do it though.

Rating: 8.5/10


New York Islanders Alternate Concept - Tom V.

Our last concept of the day brings back the teal in the Islanders brand, and I am a huge fan. I think the team should work it back in full time for their move to Brooklyn. I'm not a very big fan of the teal in the logo, at least how it's used here, and the yoke. But the rest of the jersey I'm ok with. I feel that it would look better and be received better if the striping wasn't wavy but whatever, this is just an alternate. At least the name and numbers aren't all wavy.

Rating: 7/10

Well that wraps up another day here at HJC. Nominate a concept if you really love it and don't forget to vote! Anything above you agree or disagree with? Talk about it in the comments!