The Leafs Did What!?!

The Maple Leafs whipped out their Babcock today. No no no no wait.....They signed Mike Babcock. The coach.... I don't know who's more upset by the news, Red Wings fans or Tuesday's writer Dylan Nowak.... I guess we'll find out next Tuesday.

Can't blame the guy, for $50 million dollars, I'd disappoint Nowak too. The consensus seems to be that Babs' career is basically over though.

Anyway, You should vote and get your IceCaps entries in

COTY-April vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

COTW May 10-16 vote (ends Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

IceCaps entries (due Friday @ 11:59pm Eastern)

Speaking of those entries...here's some!

Daryl D.

John E.

Phil B.

And now some regularly scheduled concepts!

Minnesota Wild Alternate Jersey Concept - Brandon C.

I'm surprised that the Wild have never had a chest striped jersey. A lot of their jersey, especially lately, lean on classic jersey design. I think they could pull it off. I don't think you're quite there yet Brandon. The color scheme is always nice, but the red and green don't contrast enough, the red stripes don't pop off jersey and get kind of lost. There's also too many sets of stripes. With the chest and sleeve stripes, there's no need for the cuff and hem stripes other than cluttering up the jersey. If you got rid of the tiny stripe sets on the hem and cuffs the jersey already looks better.

Rating: 6.5/10


Premier League Crossover Series - Aston Villa - Phil B.

I really love Aston Villa's color scheme. The one thing I wish you had done here Phil, is play off the team's actual dark jerseys. The result would have been a Red Wings look alike, burgundy torso with light blue sleeves, but then you could add some of the sublimated stripes or checkerboard patterns around the jersey as needed. It also looks like a lot of the light jerseys are primarily white and burgundy. Granted, this is your concept and there's no need to play it that closely to the source materical, but damn it would have looked nice. There's nothing wrong with these, basic striping, nothing we haven't seen. The only thing I would change without changing the overall design is swapping burgundy and blue on the light jersey.

Rating: 7/10


 Premier League Crossover Series - Crystal Palace Concept - Phil B.

Crystal Palace's uniforms are mostly red and blue with some yellow trim. Phil ditches the yellow, which is a shame because a little yellow would pop really nice here. The striping looks really modern here, which does go with the logo, but not enough. I think the striping is too busy. The font is meh with me too. I feel like some people will really like this and others won't care for it.

Rating: 7/10


Chilliwack Chiefs (BCHL) - Vaughn R.

This is one of my favorite color combos. The striping here isn't too different from their actual jerseys, just some white added in there. The white jersey looks really good. I think the dark jersey however, would benefit from the white and gold being swapped. The white yoke just isn't doing it for me, gold wouldn't look too good either. Probably better to keep the yoke maroon. Also, I'd keep the TV numbers and back numbers the same color. The spacing between the numbers is odd.

Rating: 7.5/10


Chilliwack Chiefs (BCHL) Alternate Jersey Concept - Vaughn R.

A gold jersey would look great, but this suffers from Dallas Stars Disease. The jersey is too boring. There's nothing to it. When the Stars wore jerseys like this, they were regarded as some of the worst and most boring in the league. There's got to be more maroon and white in the striping, put some stripes on the hem. There's something wrong when the font of the numbers is by far the most interesting part of the uniform.

Rating: 5/10


New York Islanders Alternate Jersey Concept - Jarrett T.

Word on the street is that the Isles will sport a black/white jersey as a nod to their new roommates, the Brooklyn Nets. Jarrett suggests an alternate to that possibly boring jersey. I would like to see the Isles rock an orange jersey. No one does it regularly, and they could pull it off. The jersey here is pretty basic when it comes to the striping, but with a unique color like orange, why push it? I really like the NY logo but I'm not sold on it being paired with a wordmark. The shoulder logo looks way too close to the collar.

Rating: 7.5/10


And there it is! We're done! Go Home!