spartacat_12

Personally I think the shoulder striping has aged pretty well with the changing cuts of jerseys. It's allowed them to avoid the awkward half-stripe that teams like the Steelers have had to use as sleeves have gotten shorter/eliminated.

Yeah, not a chance they do any sort of rebrand while Ovi is still playing.

You know it's bad when even the casual fans who react to every new jersey with the fire emoji are pissed. ESPN has posted a follow up article with a bit more info. I guess this means a team like the Ducks are stuck in their current look for at least a few more years, unless they've already started the rebrand process in time for next season.

They could always retire 34 & hang banners for each notable guy who wore it. There are plenty of teams who have retired the same number multiple times. Raptors are a tricky one. They might fall under the category of a team that doesn't have a right uniform. They've been a red & black team for longer than they've been a purple team, but the throwback stuff is still very popular. The championship season uniforms could be considered right, except that they lifted the trophy wearing a city edition alternate that became the basis of the current uniform.

I know most of the "Bettman is going to gift Bedard to the Coyotes" narrative is tongue-in-cheek, but it's pretty sad that there are people who actually believe it. If the league had the ability to rig the lottery, McDavid would be playing in Toronto & Matthews would already be in Arizona.

I'm still of the belief that Arizona still hasn't had a proper shot. They started off playing in a basketball-specific arena that was in a decent location, but had an awful setup with poor sightlines & the jumbotron over the blue line. Then they completely shot themselves in the foot by moving west & committing to the city of Glendale. I am realistic about the situation, and am fully supportive of the Yotes finding a new home if they can't get this new arena approved. However, people seem to think the league/owners should just rip the team out of Maruelo's hands and move it unilaterally, which isn't how it works at all.

Well the Rogers deal is in Canadian dollars, so it works out to roughly $3.822 billion USD, and it is spread over 12 years. And the new US deal is actually ~$625 million per year from ESPN & TNT for 7 years, which $4.375 billion total. I've never disputed the fact that the franchise became more valuable when they moved to Winnipeg, but my point is that they are only marginally more valuable now, and unless they become the sport's next dynasty, they've pretty much hit their ceiling in Winnipeg.

I don't know if it's contrarianism if I'm parroting the same talking points that the league has brought up in regards to where they put franchises. I also haven't once said I support the league going back to Atlanta again, because I don't see it working on the third try. It seems like a rumour that is based mostly on the fact that TNT is a broadcast partner now. At the end of the day, Canadian franchises (other than Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver) are high floor, low ceiling opportunities for the league, while the large southern markets are low floor, high ceiling situations. Atlanta was the 29th most valuable franchise in the league before they left, and are 27th now after a decade in Manitoba. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay was 28th in franchise value at that same time, got a new owner who invested in the team/market, and is now the 14th most valuable team in the league now.

The league is well aware of how important the sport is to Canada. People like to bash Bettman, but he fought to keep teams in Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa when there was a realistic possibility of all three following the path of the Nordiques & Jets 1.0. Having said that, the league isn't obligated to leave money on the table to nurture the inferiority complex a lot of Canadians. There are still hundreds of minor league/junior teams all across the country. It's just odd because you don't see this narrative in other sports. American football plays a huge part in Southern culture, but you don't see people complaining about how Birmingham, Alabama deserves an NFL team more than London.

The fact that Halifax can't even get their act together to bring in a CFL team (which only requires selling out 9 home games) should be a good indication that they're nowhere close to an NHL market. At the end of the day the NHL is a for-profit pro hockey league, not some cultural institution that exists to preserve the history of the sport. Hamilton has made attempts at getting teams in the past, and it's usually the Leafs & Sabres who have issues with another team setting up shop right in between them. I'm sure Quebec City wouldn't lose money, but considering it's an even smaller market than Winnipeg, I can't imagine they'd have the corporate support to be a top 20 team in the league financially. Association football is basically a religion in South America, but players can still make more money in MLS than they can in the top Brazilian or Argentinian leagues.

To be fair, the A's are already the fourth fiddle in the Bay Area. At least in Vegas they'd have a proper stadium. And the rush of pro teams popping up in Nevada isn't exactly unprecedented. Los Angeles got the Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, and Kings in a span of less than 10 years.

Your argument lost all validity when you mentioned Saskatoon & Atlantic Canada. Quebec City & Hamilton (or somewhere else in Southern Ontario) are the only markets in Canada that could reasonably support a franchise. I understand the romantic desire to have more teams north of the border, but you have to be realistic when it comes to the economics. The league's return to Winnipeg has gone about as well as anyone could have hoped, and yet they're still ranked 27th in the league when it comes to franchise value.

Refreshing to see an athlete express some rational criticism about their team's uniform rather than just towing the company line. Still crazy that a team who calls themselves the "Reds" thought wearing charcoal at home & grey/white on the road was a good idea.

If it were symmetrical and they had the jaguar leaping from the collar to the sleeve on both sides it might have worked. Instead they decided to give the logo the Stretch Armstrong treatment.

There are plenty of players in the league who are more than happy to support the league's LGBTQ+ initiatives, so I wouldn't generalize them based on a few bad eggs.

I mean North Carolina gets hit with more hurricanes than almost any other state, so the name does fit the region. It isn't like Lethbridge of the WHL. The colours came from a combination of the hurricane warning flag, NC State, plus the fact that Peter Karmanos was a Detroit guy, which explains why they wore red pants & helmets rather than black. I think the inaugural uniforms actually did a pretty good job standing out from the other red/black teams by including silver & having the flag pattern along the hem.

The rumour is that they'd be looking at playing somewhere in Alpharetta. I'm not exactly sure where the majority of Thrashers fans came from, but putting an expansion/relocated team in a suburban arena seems like a step back.

Another team sabotaging the league's inclusion efforts. Disappointing, but not surprising when you know the owner's political stances.

I wish I could find a picture, but growing up the main football we played with was a Jacksonville Jaguars ball featuring their unused logo. It had alternating teal & gold panels with the leaping jaguar. It's probably still buried somewhere in my parents' garage.

Is an Astros jersey really Clemens's right uniform? Sure, he helped them get to a World Series, but when someone mentions his name I think of the Red Sox or Yankees before I think of Houston.

Oof, that is not good. The only positive thing I can say about the jersey is that it's just red & white with no black, Unfortunately the lack of black in the jersey just makes the awful cap logo stand out even more.

Well Reebok was already producing the uniforms for the NHL in 2006, they just hadn't adopted the Edge template. I feel like the Sabres & Ducks had some inside info about what the new template was going to look like before they rebranded, since neither team had to make any drastic changes. Buffalo didn't even have to switch their collars, they just added the NHL shield.

I mean he had a full no-trade clause & made it pretty clear that the Rangers were the only team he'd be willing to waive it for, so Drury had the Hawks bent over a barrel. I suppose they could have kept him out of spite & lost him for nothing in the summer, but that just hurts everyone involved.

I purposely left him out. He's become the poster boy for hockey players coming from non-traditional markets, so I mentioned some others to show that it isn't a one-off. It will also be interesting to see how ASU's hockey program grows over the next 5-10 years. You would think they'd have the inside track when it comes to recruiting once they get a bit more established. Pretty easy to sell a kid on playing in Tempe compared to somewhere like Bemidji, MN. I mean if the city wants any sort of development on the site they're going to have to remediate it one way or another. But it sounds like the NIMBYs are fine with it just staying as a landfill.

Looks good, but I'm surprised they didn't go with the guitar pick shape for the shield. Also, they continue the tradition of incorporating the fangs into every anniversary ending in a 5.