Checking In With the AHL

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The Charlotte Checkers are making preparations to check into a new league next fall as they jump from ECHL to AHL. That means the unveiling of a new logo — in a way.

Here's the scoop in a nutshell. The Carolina Hurricanes want their top farm club, the AHL's Albany River Rats, to be geographically closer. So decisions were made to get the team relocated from upstate New York to Charlotte, North Carolina — a quick, 45-minute flight from Raleigh (or about three hours if you're driving).

Basically, the owner of the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers bought the Albany club and will move it to North Carolina, transferring the name of his ECHL franchise. So the Albany River Rats become the Charlotte Checkers this fall and will keep the Checkers' current logo, with some color alterations. It will now match the Hurricanes in black and red, as seen in this banner from the Checkers' AHL website.

Not a big surprise. Is the color change an improvement? More of a lateral move, in my opinion. An article on the Checkers' website discussing the move to the AHL had this to say:

The Checkers have also announced that they will change their logo and uniform colors to match those of the Hurricanes. The team went through an entire rebranding before the 2007-08 season and will simply change colors and incorporate the Hurricanes trademark. The details of these changes will be revealed at a later date.

When they say they will "incorporate the Hurricanes trademark," I assume that just means Carolina's logo will be used on the shoulder — a common affiliate practice. The logo in the banner above is likely the final artwork for the Checkers' updated logo. If anything changes, I'll let you know.

I'm keeping an eye on some other AHL jersey news.

Wolf Pack jersey design by Mike IvallThe Hartford Wolf Pack seem to have skipped a scheduled specialty jersey event last weekend.

I only bring it up because the jersey was the result of a fan contest won by a frequent Icethetics concept art contributor named Mike Ivall.

According to the Pack's website, the March of Dimes promotion and jersey auction was scheduled for (and took place) Feb. 26 and 27. Only the jerseys auctioned were not the one's Mike designed.

Photo albums posted on the team's Facebook page from the games on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27 clearly show the players wearing their standard white sweaters. I'm assuming it's those that were auctioned off following the weekend's games.

I have emails in both to Mike and the Wolf Pack about the situation. If I get any answers, I'll be sure to share them. In the meantime, if anyone else knows what's up, we'd love to hear about it.

Last bit of AHL news for the night. John writes in to let us know that during the Olympic break, a couple of American clubs wore specially-designed jerseys modeled after those worn by the United States in 1980 as a tribute to the "Miracle on Ice" team.

Admirals "miracle" jerseyInstead of USA, the Milwaukee Admirals' red, white and blue tribute duds read ADS.

But to everyone in the stands, it must've felt like they were at the Olympics too. (Right?)

The Admirals wore these special sweaters on Feb. 19 and 21 and then auctioned them off afterward to benefit the Power Play Foundation.

In case you were wondering, they were good luck as the Ads won both games, beating the Houston Aeros 2-0 on Friday and the Rockford IceHogs 4-1 on Sunday.

It's a neat tribute and it makes me wonder if it's been done before — or if they were just waiting for a nice, round-number anniversary. But then I feel like all these one-off specialty jerseys are just now becoming more commonplace in the minors. Am I mistaken about that?

Phantoms "miracle" jerseyThe Adirondack Phantoms, who recently relocated from Philadelphia, also wore similar jerseys. Theirs read ADK in lieu of USA.

Unlike the Ads, for which I was able to find loads of information thanks to their incredible and easy to use website, I can't seem to track down any details on when (if) these were worn.

I'm assuming it would've been between Feb. 16 and 28 but then again this is not a game action photo so I can't be sure. Any Phantoms fans out there that care to fill us in?

Anyway, that wraps things up for tonight. Get excited for the new logo tournaments! Voting kicks off on Monday!

The Minor League Report

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It's been a busy week for me outside of Icethetics. So I have a bunch of minor league jersey news to get through this afternoon.

Checkers and Canes join forcesOn Wednesday, it was officially announced that the AHL's Albany River Rats will be moving to North Carolina this fall, at the urging of their NHL affiliate, Carolina Hurricanes.

The club has been sold to Michael Kahn, owner of the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers. The River Rats will begin play in 2010-11 in Charlotte under the Checkers name, competing in the American Hockey League.

It's not clear what will happen to the ECHL franchise and its players. Capital District Sports CEO Garen Szablewski is efforting a team back to Albany for 2010 — hoping for an AHL franchise, using the River Rats name. I don't know the odds of that happening but it does appear there will be a couple dozen ECHLers without a team to play for when all this goes through.

Why is this Icethetics news? It will mean a new logo and jerseys in the AHL. No word yet on whether they're keeping the ECHL look, but it's a good one so they probably will.

Glads dress as Knights on pink iceSpeaking of the Checkers, they're playing the ECHL's Gwinnett Gladiators this weekend, who are knocking out two promotions at once.

It's Pink in the Rink Weekend, where the ice has gotten a nice cotton candy-colored coating. And they're celebrating minor league hockey history in Georgia's capital by wearing black and powder blue throwback jerseys in honor of the old Atlanta Knights of the IHL.

Gladiators' Knights throwback jerseyAs you can see here, they've kept the logo pretty much the same, changing only the team name, obviously. If you want to see more pictures of this one-time jersey, check out the Gladiators on Facebook.

And for the record, the Knights hold a special place in my heart as they were the original minor league affiliate of my Tampa Bay Lightning. That team saw the likes of ex-Bolts such as Cory Cross, Stan Drulia, Shawn Chambers, Roman Hamrlik, and even Brent Gretzky.

They went to the playoffs all four years they spent in Atlanta and even won the Turner Cup as league champions in their second season of existence. Why that couldn't translate to wins for the big club is beyond me. But they moved to Quebec to become the Rafales in 1996 and folded after two seasons.

I promise to be less verbose for these last two items.

Rebels specialty jerseyThe WHL's Red Deer Rebels will be wearing specially-designed jerseys on Friday, February 19 for Jerseys Off Our Backs Night.

You can see it modeled here in the photo (right) by the Rebels captain Colin Archer.

The proceeds from the jersey auction will benefit Ronald McDonald House Central Alberta. If you want to watch a brief video about the event, the Red Deer Advocate has you covered.

Fans will be able to bid on jerseys throughout the game. Winners will be led down to center ice to claim their sweaty prize following the game.

And finally, the OHL's Sudbury Wolves held their Pink in the Rink event this week with great success. They raised over $30,000 for the Janis Foligno Foundation and breast cancer research.

The Wolves' web site claims this is a photo gallery, but I can't seem to make it work. If anyone else has any luck, let me know. In the meantime, there's this.

Jersey News You Can Use

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We're going to continue our run of weird minor league jersey news in just a minute — and trust me when I tell you this one's a doozy — but first I have a few NHL items to get to.

The Boston Bruins wore their Winter Classic jerseys yesterday afternoon (January 23) in front of the indoor home crowd as they faced the Ottawa Senators.

Bergeron #37 and Alfredsson #11Interestingly, going into that game the Bruins hadn't won a home game since the Winter Classic itself when Marco Sturm netted the overtime winner. Yesterday, the jersey did not, in fact, bring good luck and simply extended the Bs' losing streak.

Anyway, watching this game only cemented the notion in my head that these gold sweaters need to Boston's third next season. They look incredible — especially when compared with the current black alternates.

They have what may well be the best home/road jerseys in the NHL. To have such an awful third is just below them. Fingers crossed, Bruins fans!

The Flyers also wore their Winter Classic jerseys in front of their fans in Philadelphia when they hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 6.

Schenn #2 and Hartnell #19They looked great as well but I think it's a foregone conclusion that these will be given regular use as the club's road jersey beginning next season. Hopefully then we'll get to see it without the Winter Classic patch.

It's strange they wore that patch for a normal regular season game but it may just have been to indicate to fans that this was a special sweater, and isn't yet ready for full-time use.

And if it is used on the road next year, I sincerely hope they fix the nameplate. It works on the orange ones, but not the white ones.

As part of their 100th anniversary celebrations, which have been going on since the beginning of the 2008-09 season, the Montreal Canadiens are scheduled to wear historic jerseys every so often throughout the year.

According to a Special Events calendar handed out to fans at the beginning of this season, last night was a scheduled Centennial Jersey Game. The Habs should've worn their red 1910-11 jersey against the Rangers. But they did not! (I posted the schedule back in October.)

I'm a little confused as to why this change was made. I haven't read anything about it, but if there are any Habs fans out there who have, please fill us in. Meantime, we'll just have to keep an eye on them and see if they make up for missing this one.

For the record, I've got a few jersey galleries in the pipeline for the Habs' centennial sweaters. Expect to start seeing them this week.

Now onto the minors. Two things.

What in the world is going on in Las Vegas?! The ECHL's Wranglers have become notorious for bizarre specialty jerseys and that streak will continue when they dress like — that's right — girl scouts!

Wranglers' girl scout jerseyAccording to the ECHL's web site, the Wranglers will wear these (right) Girl Scouts-themed sweaters on March 12 when they host the Bakersfield Condors.

Looks like they've earned their wrangling badge.

To be fair, there will be a silent auction and a portion of proceeds will benefit the local Girl Scouts organization. But isn't there some kind of line these men have crossed by agreeing to wear these to a professional hockey game?

Now normally I'd go into more detail with something like this, but Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy has already taken the liberty. He's got details from the Girl Scouts and even a television commercial about Girl Scout Night at Orleans Arena. But my favorite part is when Greg refers to the puck as a "thin mint." Do read it.

My thanks to Jeff for pointing this story out to us.

And finally, Mark writes in regarding his hometown Albany River Rats of the AHL. There could be some drama here ripe for JerseyWatch 2010.

I'll let him tell you rather than trying to paraphrase.

While I have not seen anything online about this, word is that the Albany River Rats have been sold and will be moving to Carolina next season. Seeing as how I have never seen them over 50% capacity, I can see why.

So that's an interesting development. The River Rats have been in upstate New York for two decades. They were the Capital District Islanders from 1990 to 1993.

But here's the real deal as far as what's been reported by more legitimate media outlets. The News & Observer in Raleigh says that the River Rats currently have a four-year deal in place in Albany. It ends after this season. The report goes on to say the following:

Hurricanes management in the past has expressed a desire to have an AHL team closer to Raleigh and in North Carolina, if possible. 

Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said Thursday [January 21] that he would neither confirm nor deny that the move to Charlotte will be made.

Rats owner Walter Rabb has said he would be willing to sell the AHL team but only if the franchise remained in Albany. But it appears the franchise will be sold and moved to Charlotte.

If this happens, it'll be interesting to see what it means for the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers. Canes Country reports that Checkers owner Michael Kahn may well purchase the River Rats in order to bring them to Charlotte, but does not go on to say what would become of the ECHL franchise.

The Charlotte AHL team could be named the Checkers if that franchise is disbanded or sold. If you trust Wikipedia — and I don't know why anyone wouldn't (wink, wink) — another name being considered is the Charlotte Beach Rats.

The Lesser of Two Evils

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With each passing season, I'm becoming more concerned over the unwritten rule that says minor league specialty jerseys have to make players look like clowns. I mean it couldn't be more literal than with the most recent entry into the club.

The Albany River Rats recently revealed the results of a poll allowing fans to choose which jersey design the team would wear for Ronald McDonald House Night. Perhaps it would be difficult to create a theme jersey around Ronald McDonald without looking clownish, but this is unbelievable.

Albany River Rats specialty jersey for 2009-10

I'm willing to look beyond this poorly made graphic (HOuse) but professional hockey players — grown men — will be wearing this outside the confines a McDonald's restaurant and without the security of identity-disguising make-up.

The winning design features a yellow body with white shoulders and red trim. Albany’s primary logo is emblazoned on the front of the sweater and Ronald McDonald House Charity patches are displayed on each shoulder. The jersey will be worn with red pants and with Ronald McDonald’s signature candy-cane sox.

All proceeds will benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Capital Region.

At this point you may be thinking, "Well, the fans made their own bed. They had an online vote and this is what they chose." But you don't have all the information. Why don't we take a look at their options?

 

As you can see, the fans clearly went with the lesser of two evils. "Classy" was not an option for the good people of Albany. On the second choice, I count 31 stripes! Seriously!

The first design was obviously created with Reebok Edge in mind while the other was not. Let's talk about that second one. Not only are stripes like that apt to induce seizures, but it inexplicably carries the storm flag stripe of their NHL parent team (the Hurricanes) across the mid-section. Relevance?

Given the choice of bad or indescribably bad, I would've voted the same was the River Rats' fans. But that doesn't make it right. We need to figure out a way to get minor league clubs to let Icethetics artists take a stab at these one-off sweaters if for no other reason than to avoid this kind of trainwreck on an annual basis.

We know specialty jerseys like this are a necessary evil in the minors. They don't have the kind of huge, established fan bases that NHL teams enjoy. For one thing, they tend to be in areas with smaller populations. To keep the team financially viable against those odds, they have to become a big part of the community. That means charity nights are important. 

But they don't have to look like this! This is where you guys come in. I'm challenging Icethetics readers to design a River Rats jersey with a Ronald McDonald House theme that doesn't look ridiculous. It'll be difficult, but it can be done. I'll post worthy concepts here.