NHL inaugural season logos

[LadyStanley]

Some have evolved better than others

Although they cheated on the relocated teams (e.g., Colorado, Carolina) and used first in current location.

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[gstommylee]

what team was the blue C for?

edit

oh montreal canadiens.

 

[gstommylee]

Some have evolved better than others

Although they cheated on the relocated teams (e.g., Colorado, Carolina) and used first in current location.

7 teams were relocations of franchises to their current location.

 

[LadyStanley]

7 teams were relocations of franchises to their current location.

I only mentioned 2, not the whole list.

 

[rojac]

For Toronto and Detroit, they used the first logos under their current names. Detroit was the Cougars and the Falcons before they were the Red Wings. And the Leafs were the Arenas and St. Pats before adopting their current monicker. Although, one could argue that by using that logic, they should have used the logo for the 1986 Chicago team because that was when they changed their name from Black Hawks to Blackhawks.

The creator of this graphic should have probably used "Teams" instead of "Franchises".

 

[tucker3434]

Many had it right on the first try. Some have gotten worse (Anaheim).

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Many had it right on the first try. Some have gotten worse (Anaheim).

Kings blew a great opportunity to go back to their best, the first logo.

 

[LadyStanley]

And a look at obsolete logos

 

[hangman005]

And a look at obsolete logos

:coyotes:coyotes2

 

[Yukon Joe]

Some have evolved better than others

Although they cheated on the relocated teams (e.g., Colorado, Carolina) and used first in current location.

It's interesting - you realize that most logo changes are really for the better.

Putting aside O6 logos (because that's just from a different era)... Anaheim's logo is obviously better, so much so they're going back to a version of it, but is the only time I'm going to say this. Columbus - while I don't love their current logo it's clearly better than whatever the heck that CBJ logo was. Dallas - again don't necessarily love their current logo, but you really don't need to both spell out the word "Stars" plus have a giant star (I'm assuming the reason they can't just use a star as their logo is because of the Cowboys).

Florida's leaping cat just looks stupid - much prefer the current logo. The Kings - not only spelling out "Kings" but also showing the image of a King's crown. There's a reason they keep going back to the Gretzky-era look.

Both Nashville and Tampa are just much simpler and cleaner looks than the original logo - and much improved for it. Same with San Jose and Pittsburgh - just cleaned up versions of the original.

Senators - never really understood why they have a roman (or even Greek) looking fellow on their logo. Doesn't matter much whether it's the 2D or 3D version. I much prefer the really original look from when the expansion bid was announced - which was a wordmark of Ottawa and formed an image of the Peace Tower from the "Ts".

Finally Vancouver - while I know the "stick and rink" logo has it's fans - come on it's stupid. We already know you're a hockey team - you don't need to use a stink and rink to prove it to us. It's like a football team using a football as their logo. While I get that a "canuck" is kind of impossible to represent, by leaning into the west coast imagery with the orca it presents a much more powerful look.

Finally - not really represented here but I'll mention Winnipeg. While I have some nostalgia for the 70s-80s logo it's also really clunky. It not only spelled out both "Winnipeg" and "Jets", it included a hockey stick as the "J" (we get it - you play hockey), and included the image of a jet airplane too. Way too literal. The modern logo which is a play off of the RCAF roundel is a much smarter take on the name.

 

[StreetHawk]

It's interesting - you realize that most logo changes are really for the better.

Overall, I think outside of Detroit, Buffalo, and Philly, not many were great original ones.
Logo can't be too complicated as it still needs to look good on smaller merchandise like toques/beannies, mugs, pins, etc.
LA's shield logo, too much going on as the smaller the logo got, you lose details, like the Lion at the bottom wearing sunglasses.
But, some NHL teams, probably went too simple.

Never been a fan of reading your team's name on the logo, like the NBA's Lakers, Pistons, and NHL's Capitals, Oilers, Islanders, as examples. Plus, not big on changing the logo's colors, but I get needing to if you use just 1 color like the Leafs and Colts of NFL. Blues, should just go with the darker blue to match their pants/helmet vs leaving it the lighter shade on the white jersey.