Let’s play a quick imagination game. Imagine you’re given ownership of an expansion franchise and you’re told that money and geography are no object. How exciting! You can put your new team anywhere you like and call them anything you want. You’re also responsible for signing off on the team’s colors, uniforms … and logos. The first two are fairly easy, but the logo is trickier. Doesn’t it feel like you have endless possibilities now? The only limit is your imagination! We’ve probably all spent time doodling logos on notepaper or thinking of clever names for sports franchises that’ll never exist, but now you get a chance to do it for real!
Sadly, it’s still just a hypothetical, but it speaks to the importance and beauty of sports logos. Logos mean something to us. We wear them proudly on hats, shirts, jackets and jerseys. We speculate for weeks on end about what a new team’s logo might look like. And if you’re anything like us, we rank them.
Below are the 10 greatest NHL logos of all time — with a twist. We’re only looking at the defunct logos, the ones that are gone but certainly not forgotten. All of the pictures you see below come from the invaluable Sportslogos.net unless otherwise noted.
10) Phoenix Coyotes 1996-2003
The 90s were a strange time for all of us, particularly when it came to fashion. Who among us didn’t have, or desperately want, a Starter jacket? Did anyone manage to go without at least ONE t-shirt of Looney Tunes characters in hip hop clothing? Heady times, they were.
This includes the design sensibilities of sports teams. It was a time when teams didn’t shy away from bold and different color choices; any designer can make something blue and red, but only a true iconoclast would throw green, maroon, burnt orange, purple and cream together on an Aztecan-style coyote figure.
Though the Coyotes have since pulled back considerably — their current unis are much simpler, yet still evocative of the beautiful stone-and-sand landscape — the initial offering gets full marks for creativity and ambition. And for bearing a small resemblance to the Space Coyote, of course.
9) Hamilton Tigers 1921-1923
OK, hear me out on this one.
Does picking a logo from a team that existed during the Great Depression really count? Probably not. If I showed you this logo and asked you what team it belonged to, would you guess “The 1921-23 Hamilton Tigers”? Definitely not. This logo isn’t particularly iconic, and the team it represents stopped existing over 90 years ago. So why is it on this list?
Because I am in love with everything about it and I don’t care what that says about me as a person.
I mentioned that the logo isn’t particularly iconic, but we can go a step further: it doesn’t even particularly look like a tiger. This feels like the logo equivalent of a Rorschach test, where no matter what you see in those lines is technically correct.
Now, we can surmise that the tiger is facing left, because the right is unmistakably a tail, but as for the head … where do we even begin? Is that one thick line on the far left a goofy, exaggerated eye? That vertical one: is it meant to be a smile? Is the mound on its head an ear, or another goofy eye? This logo leaves us with more questions than answers — but hey, it beats a boring old block “H” logo.
8) Los Angeles Kings 1967-1975
For my money, the Los Angeles Kings are wasting one of the greatest brand identities in sports history by sticking with their current silver-and-black getup. That’s not to say silver and black can’t be iconic, of course — just ask the Oakland Raiders. There’s also the matter of the Los Angeles Lakers owning the purple and gold. But if the city of Pittsburgh has taught us anything, it’s that teams in the same city shouldn’t be afraid to rock the same colors, and it’d be wonderful if the Kings would come around on this.
Even if we set aside the colors — which are both traditional “royal” colors, mind you — there’s a lot of good going on in the logo. There’s the crest, which is reminiscent of a medieval banner. There’s the wordmark, which manages to look distinguished while keeping things interesting with the long-tailed “K.” There’s also the crown, which looks appropriately ornate and detailed.
I suspect this is because most older logos weren’t afraid of tons of little details. Example: Detroit’s iconic winged wheel contains 17 distinct feathers, by my count, as well as detailed spokes within the wheel. Modern logo designs have typically eschewed this kind of detail in favor of sleek, clean and modern presentations, but it makes sense within the context of a crown.
7) New Jersey Devils 1982-1992
This is kind of a cheat, I think, because this logo is sort of still being used. All that’s changed between then and now is the color, with the modern Devils favoring intimidating red-and-black over this festive beauty. But I’m going to roll with it anyway, and here are four excellent reasons why:
- The red-and-green look isn’t an especially popular or common one in sports, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad one. Sure, if done wrong it can look like a horrible Christmas experiment gone awry, but if the Minnesota Wild have taught us anything, it’s that the look can still work.
- The logo is, as implied by the team’s continued use of it, amazing. The devil horns and tail that form the letter “J” are inspired, the kind of thing that you’d never feel compelled to tinker with much as it’s practically the most perfect version of itself already.
- This is the logo the Devils featured when Wayne Gretzky famously blasted them for being a “Mickey Mouse operation,” still one of the best (and most oddly damning) quotes in hockey history.
- It’s ALSO the logo the team had in 1988, when coach Jim Schoenfeld called referee Don Koharski a “fat pig” and insisted he eat more doughnuts. Say what you will about Mickey Mouse, but he’d DEFINITELY never go that far.
6) Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 1993-2006
Remember that thing I wrote above about the 1990s and its predilection toward non-traditional designs and new colors? The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim are Exhibit B. Like their intra-state pals the Sharks, Anaheim’s look was as teal-forward as it was “edgy” and “aggressive.” Those were essentially the only requirements back then. (It’s no accident that both teams have subsequently rebranded, you know?)
Still, Anaheim’s original logo has a lot of good going for it. The centerpiece is, of course, the old-school goalie mask in the shape of a duck bill. There’s a fine line between clever and cheesy, and I think this logo stays just onside, harkening back to hockey past with an eye on the present. The crossing sticks were a little overdone, but the rest of it makes a pretty compelling “crest” of sorts — a trend that countless teams started adopting for their own alternates a decade later.
The real testament to this logo, though, is its continued use on Anaheim’s modern orange-and-black third jerseys. Say what you will about our collective love of throwbacks, but you don’t see them giving this guy a modern update.
5) Pittsburgh Penguins 1967-1968
In the Hall of Famous Logo Tropes, “animals doing sports things” deserves its own wing. (Get it? Wing? Hahaha!) There’s a certain brilliance to the simplicity. Your baseball team is named the Cardinals? Put a bird on a bat! Vancouver’s getting a basketball team called the Grizzlies? Give that bear a ball! Your hockey team will be called the Penguins? Hey, Penguins belong on ice — give him some skates and a stick!
I’m not sure that’s exactly what the conversation was like when Pittsburgh introduced this version of the Penguins logo, but it might as well be. And that’s not a slam, either. The skating penguin was so beloved that the team brought it back full-time after nearly a decade of corporate branding.
What separates this penguin from the rest of the colony? Simple answer: This portly little pingu is wearing a scarf. All of the modern updates feature a broad-shouldered penguin, presumably meant to look fit and intimidating. Think of it like having Sidney Crosby on the logo when you used to have Phil Kessel. Kind of loses some of the charm, eh?
And speaking of charm, I can’t say enough about the fact they added a scarf. It’s as though the designers thought “Well of course it needs a scarf, ice is cold!” and called it a day. It speaks to a level of attention to their creation that most modern logos simply don’t have.
4) Colorado Rockies 1976-1982
Making a great logo is by no means a science, but there are steps you can take to boost your odds. One such step is designing something that pays homage to the home city or state — something that you couldn’t just give to another city in another sport. This original Colorado (non-baseball) Rockies logo fits the bill.
All that the Rockies did was, in effect, convert the state flag into a logo. Check it out:
So yeah, that about covers it all: The blue to represent the sky, the white band to represent snow, the yellow circle representing the sunlight and the Earth-colored “C” for the state’s name. The hockey version even adds a nice wrinkle by setting the whole thing in the outline of a mountain, something the modern Avalanche have introduced as part of their alternates.
3) Vancouver Canucks 1978-1997
As I was getting ready to do this list, I figured at least one Canucks logo would make the cut. It doesn’t hurt that they’ve featured approximately 17.2 trillion logos over the years — at some point it’s just a numbers game — but they’ve had some wonderful offerings. Perhaps none is more memorable than the famous orange-and-yellow Flying Skate.
Rather than gush about all the wonderful things in this logo, I’ll just turn it over to this passage from Vancouver Canucks writer Alfred De Vera:
According to an article in the Financial Post, the flying skate logo, along with a new colour scheme of yellow and orange, was redesigned by a communications firm called Beyl & Boyd in 1978 “to add some punch to the Canucks’ attack.” The new colour scheme was said to invoke excitement and aggression while the new logo was set to change a static “motionless hockey stick centred in a rink” into a dynamic “skate whizzing diagonally downward across the word ‘Canucks’”.
Doesn’t that just give you tingles? It’s like all of the cliches about “dynamic” design and invoking “excitement and aggression” came together into one concept … but we ended up with something strange and new that seemed to clash with itself at first glance.
2) Quebec Nordiques 1985-1995
The Quebec Nordiques are, as far as I can tell, the only sports team to ever feature an igloo as the prominent feature of its logo. Is that reason enough to earn the No. 2 spot here? Yes, frankly, but luckily there’s more. The hockey stick on the right is oddly proportioned, but it serves two vital purposes. The first is creating a dynamic, forward-moving design rather than a simple symmetrical igloo. The Canucks logo above sought to convey movement with tons of lines; the Nordiques logo conveys movement in a simpler, cleaner fashion.
But the real treasure here is how the stick cuts off the igloo at just the right point for a lowercase “n” to appear. Some of history’s most iconic brand logos contain hidden secrets inside of them, and this is no exception. If anything, this logo was ahead of its time — virtually every successful Silicon Valley startup features lowercase letters because they’re are more interesting and feel less formal, more conversational.
As an added bonus, my therapist described the Nordiques logo on my shirt as a “hockey elephant.” I think we can all agree that’s an adorable thought.
1) Hartford Whalers 1979-1997
It was never going to be anything else, was it? The brilliance of the old Hartford Whalers logo is almost universally recognized by now, even among non-hockey fans. The reason why is a simple two-word design principle: negative space.
Yes, the negative space, the white area between the two “designed” elements of the logo. The blue whale tail on top and the green “W” at the bottom signify the Whalers identity in and of themselves, but the serendipitous magic is the hidden “H” that shows up in the middle. It’s a graphic designer’s dream.
If it seems like more teams should try to adopt this idea for their own logos, it’s not that simple. Yes, Las Vegas managed to do it, but you can’t force it — you’ve got a city and a mascot to represent, after all. If the Whalers hadn’t belonged to Hartford, would the hidden “H” have meant anything? Would the logo have looked completely different? Almost definitely: there are just too many variables in play when it comes to design, including the designer(s) who work on it.
So rather than wonder about what could have been, let’s celebrate the beauty of what was. The Whalers will always hold a special place in the hearts of hockey fans and design enthusiasts alike.
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