Slapshot's NHL

[slapshot]

It's been years since I've posted a bunch of concepts, and I don't know if I've ever designed a whole league. That being said, this is my interpretation of my ideal-looking NHL. I've used my own template, based on the current Adidas jerseys. I'm a traditionalist, but pretty much every team has had at least a tweak or two, and some teams a major overhaul. I will give a description of what I changed for each team. The teams will be posted alphabetically by division, with a couple surprises at the end.

 

Starting with the Atlantic Division...

 

Boston Bruins

Changes: modified number font (I hate the diagonal 2). Also added a gold alternate.

 

 

Buffalo Sabres

Changes: Removed silver and front number. Added "B-sabre" shoulder patch.

 

 

Detroit Red Wings

Changes: Wheel logo is on helmet instead of word mark.

 

 

Florida Panthers

Changes: Modified crest. Changed striping to older style. Moved numbers to sleeves. Added more blue to look, including blue alternate with "leaping Panther" crest.

 

 

Montreal Canadiens

Changes: Added fleur-de-lis shoulder patch, as they currently represent all of French Canada. Single color outline on road jersey numbers.

 

 

Ottawa Senators

Changes: Return of laurel-leaf striping. Added gold color to uniforms. Used more Roman-style font (inspired by Binghamton Senators). Barber-pole alternates.

 

 

Tampa Bay Lightning

Changes: Return of silver and black. Modified crest.

 

 

Toronto Maple Leafs

Changes: 70's-era maple leaf shoulder patch. Modified jersey hem striping.

[slapshot]

Metro Division

 

Carolina Hurricanes

Changes: Added silver. Changed font. Added more visible hurricane flag striping across bottom hem. Used new hurricane flag logo for patch on home and road, made primary crest on alternate.

 

 

Columbus Blue Jackets

Changes: New striping, adds more red to uniform. Simplified cannon roundel for shoulder patch.

 

 

New Jersey Devils

Changes: Modified number font. Created new shoulder patch, which is also front crest on black alternate. Returned bottom hem striping.

 

 

New York Islanders

Changes: Added lighthouse shoulder patch. Added four stripes to neck of stick in primary crest. Jersey striping in early 80s Stanley Cup era style. Used stand-alone "NY" crest for orange alternate. NY logo goes on helmets.

 

 

New York Rangers

Changes: I always thought the current shades of blue and red were very close and vibrate next to each other, so I added an outline between them on the home jerseys, and kept this treatment on the home blues (very similar look to UMass-Lowell in the 90s). Return of Liberty Head as shoulder patch along with primary shield logo.

 

 

Philadelphia Flyers

Changes: Modified sleeve/shoulder striping. Removed contrasting nameplates. Created new Liberty Bell shoulder patch. Added black alternate.

 

 

Pittsburgh Penguins

Changes: Added gold alternate. Created new City of Pittsburgh flag shoulder patch.

 

 

Washington Capitals

Changes: Weagle is new crest. Different template. Added more blue to jerseys. Added stars to sleeves and pants. Primary logo goes on helmets. Slight modification to nameplate font.

 

[slapshot]

Central Division

 

Chicago Blackhawks

Changes: Added black alternate. Tomahawk C crest goes on pants.

 

 

Colorado Avalanche

Changes: Three-color numerals. Slightly modified number/name font. Mountain C shoulder logo.

 

 

Dallas Stars

Changes: More black trim in uniforms. Template matches AHL Texas Stars jerseys and socks.

 

 

Minnesota Wild

Changes: Home jersey changed to red. Road jersey is cream. Different jersey template and number/nameplate font.

 

 

Nashville Predators

Changes: New number font. Jersey template matches current road style. New blue alternate.

 

 

St. Louis Blues

Changes: YELLOW NUMBERS ON HOME JERSEY. Added modified trumpet logo as shoulder patch.

 

 

Winnipeg Jets

Changes: Both jerseys share template as current road jersey. More emphasis on silver.

[slapshot]

Pacific Division

 

Anaheim Ducks

Changes: Removed bronze, added jade green. New number font, similar to Manchester Monarchs (AHL). Added eggplant alternate with no orange, modified crests/shoulder patch. Pants and helmet for alternate match color scheme.

 

 

Arizona Coyotes

Changes: Peyote Coyote head is back! Southwestern trim/sleeve stripes, includes addition of green. New number font.

 

 

Calgary Flames

Changes: Back to 80s/90s style. Lighter red, slight addition of black trim.

 

 

Edmonton Oilers

Changes: BLUE primary, white road. Added new shoulder patch, modified from early 2000s word mark.

 

 

Los Angeles Kings

Changes:  Brought back purple and gold. Inspired by Manchester Monarchs of mid 2000s, including number font. Crown-like sleeve stripes. Black alternate removes gold trim, including on pants. Primary full crest moved to shoulders.

 

 

San Jose Sharks

Changes: Removed orange. More aggressive number font used. Returned jersey hem stripes. New black alternate.

 

 

Vancouver Canucks

Changes: NO MORE ORCA. Changed crest to Rink-C. Johnny Canuck/V logo is shoulder patch, always facing forward. Sleeve stripes angled like V's. Added green trim to numbers.

 

 

Vegas Golden Knights

Changes: More emphasis on black than gray, for contrast. New number font used (team currently uses this in promotional materials). Star is helmet logo.

 

 

[slapshot]

And now, the surprises...

 

Hartford Whalers

Cue up "Brass Bonanza", because Pucky is back! Changes: added silver trim. Pucky always faces forward.

 

 

Quebec Nordiques

Embracez le Français! Changes: increased red trim. Added Quebec flag as shoulder patch—the actual flag is a darker shade of blue (closer to the Maple Leafs), but I lightened it to match the team's blue.

 

 

Charlestown Chiefs

Put on the foil! Changes: modified script. Socks match jersey striping.

 

 

[appleclock]

Heck yes. First of all, that was a lot of teams all at once! To summarize my thoughts, every team looks great to me except I think you went a little nuts on Anaheim (mostly the orange D crest looks terrible) and LA is just plain insane. But I could see just about every other team working well. Good stuff.

[Section30]

Most of these are great, I would say that I'm not really a fan LA, Anaheim, Minnesota, and Philly though. Great work on the rest!

[DTConcepts]

These are all awesome! I have to say I don't like Washington, LA, Anaheim,  Minnesota, or Winnipeg, though.

[GriffinM6]

Really great jobs on this series. You managed to improve many looks while still keeping the teams' identities in tact. I have a few suggestions though...

 

Bruins - yellow socks at home

Canadiens - Fleur de lis under numbers on the road to make up for the blank space. 

Penguins - As a Pens fan, I love the current/throwback look, but I think the striping on the socks should match the bottom half of the sleeves like you did with the Blue Jackets.

Flames - On the red jersey crest, switch the black and yellow outlines to match the striping. 

 

Keep up the good work!

 

[vtgco]

Ottawa's alt is cool, though the old-timey O doesn't fit the best with the modernized barberpole.

 

Love the D logo for Jersey. That alt is nice!

Like the bell shoulder patch for Philly, and the coat of arms for Pittsburgh!

 

The Caps need more red on the away, and the Avs needs some blue on the away.

 

LA's new look is cool, looks like the flag! I think the silver's unnecessary on the home & away, though.

 

Hartford's home is nice, but I don't like the away hem stripe. It's too muddy. Maybe try green-silver-blue-silver-green rather than G-B-S-B-G.

 

The Nordiques look amazing!

 

Good work!

[slapshot]

Thank you all so far for the feedback. I will look into some of the tweaks.

 

For those of you who don't like things, what don't you like about them? Is it something that's just a minor fix away, or a more extreme change?

 

I agree the Anaheim scheme is "out there". What are some suggestions? Would replacing orange with bronze take out some of the garishness?

[seasaltvanilla]

Overall a lot of good looks. Some hopefully constructive criticism:

 

Washington - I don't like the side panels, especially as they disappear at the arm pit. It feels too close to the current, ugly template they use. I think fewer but larger stars on the pants would look better.

 

Minnesota - you reverted the most positive change they made to their uniforms which was to go back to green as the primary color. The phantom yoke returns and I don't think the font fits with anything in the brand. Full disclosure the Wild are my home team.

 

Anaheim - I get the idea of mixing the colors from the different eras, but I don't think the execution works. The D-foot logo doesn't look good in orange, and the jade looks muddy next to the black.

 

LA - Drab color scheme. I would brighten up the purple or the gold, feels very 90s right now.

 

Vegas - I think the gray and the black don't work well next to each other. I'd commit to one or the other.

[LMU]

Anaheim would be better if the orange and jade were flipped on the primary logo.

 

For the Kings... the crown striping seems like it's stuck in the '90s.  If that was toned down to a solid stripe and the gold was darkened to more of an old gold it would be much improved.

[Section30]

I would say these are the problems I have with the teams I mentioned.

 

Minnesota: I think the Wild are a team that should always be green, the shoulder yokes are there again which were the worst thing they ever had on a uniform IMO, and I think the current number font fits the team better than the one you have.

 

Philly: I'm personally not a fan of the black outline around the white and the orange between the white and black on the sleeves. But the main thing I would change would be to bring back the different colored name plates.

 

LA: Tone down the amount of gold, I think it would be better as an accent color, I would also drop the silver and the crowns. Also get rid of the shoulder yoke outlines.

 

Anaheim: I would suggest you eliminate the orange, the alternate is perfect. If you do decide to keep the orange I would tone it back to an accent color and balance the home and away jerseys, right now the home has almost no white.

[Vitalogy26]

Amazing designs man!

 

Positives:

 

FLA - Yes! Thank you for bringing a nice modern spin on their classic look! The shield stands out better that way - essentially has room to “breathe.” Love seeing the leaping panther back as well.

 

SENS - simply beautiful. Very regal look for them and uses their best logo as a crest. Amazing

 

ANA - always love seeing the radical color combos that have been on the boards as of late - combining jade and orange to actually match a mallard. And it pops so much more than thier current identity.

 

All your classic sets are perfect and black back on the Lightning, Peyote back on the Yotes, and loops on the Jackets all look amazing.

 

Points of improvement:

 

really only one:

 

LA - In my opinion, that gold and purple are just too dark. You say you were inspired by a mid-2000s look, and that drabness shows here. This is my personal opinion but: either 1) brighten the gold to more like what the saints/huskies/niners use to stand out amongst the black/gray/purple of your set OR 2) go full retro and make it Lakers gold and Forum blue. 

 

But again man: overall fantastic series!!

 

[LogoMark]

That New Jersey alt sweater is awesome!!

[Conrad.]

Hella respect for the amount of work going into this.

 

Favs: Buffalo / Florida / Ottawa / Columbus / Islanders / Kings / Quebec

[ujju2]

Awesome. Oilers could use an orange third though.

[slapshot]

I've made a few updates, and there will be more to come...

 

Hartford: modified the stripe order on the away jersey hem, and changed the cuffs on the home to blue.

 

 

Los Angeles: removed shoulder piping. Lightened purple, darkened gold. Simplified sleeve striping.

 

 

Anaheim: changed orange to gold. Changed up order of striping. Decreased angle of jersey stripes.

[slapshot]

And now, three more...

 

Washington: cleaned up the striping/piping. Added more red, reduced number of stars on pants.

 

Philadelphia: removed extra outlines. Added solid color below jersey stripe. Modified socks to match new striping.

 

Minnesota: switched red jersey to green. Reverted number font to current version.