Tuesday: Last Post of 2013 ! ! ! ! !

Hey Ho Everyone! Hope everyone's enjoying their LAST DAY OF 2013!!! We've seen some pretty good hockey design over the last year, whether it be here on the site, or out on the ice. We've also seen some that we hope stay in 2013....Ahem, Buffalo....

Within a few weeks we'll know who holds the title of Concept of the Year 2013 here on the blog but we still have a few votes to get through. So get votin'!

COTW Dec 23-29 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Don't forget to get your Delaware Pioneers' jerseys in for the competition by Saturday

Delaware Pioneers Entires - Saturday, January 4, 2014 @ 11:59am Eastern

Speaking of, we have 4 entries today, so go ahead and take a look...

Caleb F.

David K.

Dylan W.

Rob C.

And now.... The last batch of concepts for 2013!

New York Rangers Concept - Stephen T.

Nothing new here. The blue jersey's striping has been changed to match the white jersey. I'm pretty sure this has been done a few times on the site. Execution wise, pretty well done, except that the TV numbers are wrong. The back says 18, but the arms say 81.

Rating: 4/10


Braunschweiger Penguins Jersey - Martin L.

Martin creates a jersey for his team. The jersey design is very simple. The three stripes are placed very far apart from each other and I wish they were closer. And I can't tell if my eyes are playing a trick on me or if some of the green lines are crooked compared to the black ones. Nothing really says Penguins about the jersey but I might know why things seem overly simple here.....

and BAM... Martin actually handmade the jersey in the concept. Perhaps he knew he was going to have to replicate everything he made on the computer so he wanted to keep it simple. Obviously there are some issues with the logo and numbering shown, it's off center and the line thickness varies. But the effort put into this concept is what wins me over. Not very often have we seen our artists handmake their concept and turn it into reality. Bravo Martin

Rating: Design-wise... 5/10 - Very simple and the striping seems bare because of the space between the stripes, but the Effort and creativity rating: is a 10.

Now everyone go make jerseys.

Creighton Blue Jays (NCAA) Concept - Caden P.

I may be wrong, but this may be the first Blue Jays concept I've seen on the site, or at least the first I can think of... Anyway, the logo was just named "Best New Logo of 2013" By Sportslogo.net and I have to agree, so it almost doesn't matter what the rest of the jersey looks like, the logo makes it look good. Some more striping would be good though. This is very Columbus Blue Jackets-y... boring. The striping that is there sort of resembles the outlines in the "C". I don't mind seeing the arm length yokes but something extra, at the very least a hem stripe would help. I'd also keep the arm yoke dark blue on the white jersey. To liven it up a little. The logo is overly pixelated on both jerseys.

Rating: 6/10


Ottawa Senators Concept - Stephen T.

A callback to the Senators' first jerseys. Stephen uses much thinner stripes than the Sens did, as well as a matching hem stripe, which I like. I'd like to see a lighter shade of gold used on the logo so it stands out more on the black jersey. I wouldn't mind seeing the red stripes either thicker, or placed closer together.

Rating: 6/10


St. Johns IceCaps Concept - Jets96

Our very own Jets makes use of the new IceCaps logo for the AHL affiliate of his Jets. First off I like the logo, and it looks good on the jersey, I also like their current primary so I do miss that. The color scheme here is slightly different from the current Caps. I'd rather see their current color scheme, or the Jets' color scheme for that matter. The light blue here is a little too vibrant for my taste. I'd replace it with the light blue the team currently uses. 

Rating: 7/10

Carolina Hurricanes Third Jersey Concept - Dylan W.

Dylan used a design similar to this a few months back for the Lethbridge Hurricanes, and I'm glad to see him use it here. He altered it a little bit to fit with this Hurricanes' logo. I like the hem stripe a lot, but something seems off about the arms. I want to see more black. Maybe just keep the cuffs black. Rest of the jersey though is great.

Rating: 8/10 - Change the arms and cuffs up and boom, 9 for sure.

Detroit Red Wings Concept - Jack H.

Jack tackles the "untouchable" Red Wings. The striping is thinned out and duplicated. Nothing to complain about. Very basic look here, which is preferred for any of the untouchables. One thing though, I would like to see the white jersey with red arms. It just makes too much sense not to do it. One execution note, there is a gray stripe under the red on the white sock, I'm sure that's not supposed to be there.

Rating: 8/10


Minnesota Wild Concept - Jack H.

I love this striping. Another interesting move is the lack of white from the entire uniform set. Of course, the Wild in a wheat colored jersey isn't unheard of on this site, but normally white is somewhere. Back to the stripes, from further out, it looks like the striping is actually a gradient, from wheat to red on the dark jersey, red to green on the light jersey. I love when jersey striping appears to be a gradient but isn't actually a gradient. Big props to you Jack. I would like to see a white jersey though, I feel the "gradient" would look pretty sharp.

Rating: 8.5/10

Chicago Blackhawks Third Jersey Concept - Dylan W.

Aaaand finally, the final concept of 2013.

I can see a mix of eras here which is good. A lot of concepts I've seen for the Blackhawks normally pick on just one era and alter it. You can tell I like Dylan's work because this is one of the few Blackhawks concepts I actually like. I'm curious as to what it would look like if the arms had the two extra stripes under the red stripe, just for continuity. I like the alteration done to the shoulder C.

Rating: 9/10

And a COTW Nom!

That's it folks, the final post of 2013. I hope you all have a very Happy New Year and that 2014 treats everyone well.

I want to thank everyone who's involved in the site, from the concept artists for giving us content, the readers to make us feel like someone's paying attention to our ramblings, to fellow writers for helping keep the site running, and especially to Ryan for making it all possible.

2013 was a great year for the site, and there's nothing stopping 2014 from being even better... Here's to that!!! 

See ya next year everybody!