Grading Every New NHL Center Ice Design for This Season

Could NHL teams start getting more creative with their center ice designs? These teams showcase new ways to maximize the prized real estate.

In these early September days leading up to the NHL’s first pre-season games, teams are getting around to installing pristine ice surfaces for the upcoming season.

Aside from the satisfaction of watching a fresh sheet go down and the logos being neatly installed, some exciting developments are happening in this sphere.

For years we’ve seen the increasingly shameless additions of corporate advertising all over this precious real estate, and it’s even come to the point where augmented reality projects ads onto the ice while fans watch the game from home.

So when the Florida Panthers unveiled their new center ice logo for this season, it was an encouraging sign for what’s possible on these sacred surfaces.

The NHL is often criticized for lagging behind other North American pro sports leagues in a number of departments, and among them are style and flair.

In the NBA, teams roll out fully unique court designs like clockwork, while the NFL features bold team wordmarks in their end zones.

Could we see something similar find its way to NHL rinks? Yes, there is the issue of puck visibility, but realistically, if teams were to replace the myriad of corporate logos on their rinks with unique branding, would visibility really be that different?

Regardless, it’s promising to see teams buck tradition a little bit and show more personality with their ice surfaces.

Here’s what teams have unveiled so far:

Note: grades are based on aesthetics, originality and uniqueness.

This season is Washington’s 50th anniversary season, so they’ve incorporated that into their original wordmark logo. Perhaps it's the italic font, but it feels like the logo occupies more of the circle than many other logos, which is good to see.

Also, in case you weren’t counting, there are 50 stars across the red line to represent the Capitals’ 50 NHL seasons, which is perfectly fitting. That math coincides with the good decision to leave the redline hollow in order to see more of the blue hockey stick.

And while it’s tempting to clamor for solid coloring inside the circle, the abundance of white actually matches the classic vibe just fine.

In the future, it would be fun to see the Caps start a trend of teams using alternate logos at center ice by using their ‘W’ eagle logo.

Grade: B+

Utah bore a lot of criticism for its limited team branding for its inaugural season, and that only heightened the challenge for its very first center ice logo.

It shows with the final product, as Utah didn’t make much of an attempt to go beyond what it started with. The ‘inaugural season’ text is far too large, perhaps to compensate for the lack of a logo, but the font is also very plain.

It would’ve been great to see a mountain vista stretching across the circle or more of that light blue used. At least the blue of the ‘Delta Center’ text doesn’t clash with the logo.

If the team’s lack of identity was the main issue, it would’ve made more sense to fill the space as much as possible with that unique color palette.

Sorry Utah, you’re getting unfairly punished for your lackluster logo.

Grade: C

With the rebrand to the classic Mighty Duck, Anaheim has ascended from one of the worst-looking center circles with its duck foot logo to the top of the pack.

The symmetry fills the space incredibly well, with each hockey stick stretching out toward the edge of the circle.

As with the Capitals, keeping the red line blank allows for a perfect view of the menacing Duck eye.

The only major knock on this is the glaring red branding of the Honda Center, which clashes particularly poorly with the new orange that the Ducks are now embracing.

Grade: A-

Since their arrival to the NHL in 2017, the Golden Knights have been pioneers of bringing more pomp and flair to the game of hockey.

That continued with their center ice innovations, which have continued to impress ever since their inaugural season.

This year brings another strong design, albeit a bit more basic than their elaborate flowering design from last season.

However, there’s more than meets the eye to this one, as there exists plenty of fine detailing in the gold ring and the flourishes inside the black crest of the logo are tastefully pronounced.

Vegas has higher standards than any other club in this category, but it managed to deliver with yet another unique design.

Grade: A-

For years now, Sens fans have called out Ottawa’s center ice logo for awkwardly fitting inside the circle, as the red crest on the Senators logo forced it to be much smaller than any other NHL team.

This season, they’ve finally fixed it with a perfectly sensible design that removes a big chunk of the red crest without detracting from the logo whatsoever. Now the Roman senator profile is finally enlarged and the rightful center of attention at Canadian Tire Centre. Speaking of Canadian Tire, their branding thankfully matches up alright with Ottawa’s.

Grade: A

Vancouver took a very similar tactic to Ottawa, but it just doesn’t work the same way.

Unlike the Senators, it very much feels like there’s something missing here. The lower half of the circle is startlingly blank compared to the upper half, and it’s abundantly clear that the lower half of the ‘C’ is missing, creating a dissatisfying, unbalanced shape. Making matters worse, they decided to include a blue ring around the upper half that abruptly ends where the logo gets in the way.

To be succinct, it looks messy.

The Canucks would’ve been better off showing off the orca’s face more rather than meddling with the strange shapes of its body that don’t fit so well inside a circle.

Also, that Rogers branding is just not very compatible with the Canucks.

Grade: C-

Perfection.

As the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Panthers have created something bold and unprecedented that may have just kickstarted an annual NHL tradition.

Surrounding the crest of their primary logo are sun rays inspired by both South Florida’s climate and the embossed pattern inside the Stanley Cup bowl, all set against the backdrop of the fully painted red circle.

It looks beautiful, and even the ‘Amerant Bank Arena’ text manages to match the Panthers’ colors pretty closely.

Grade: A+

Get the latest news and trending stories right to your inbox by subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or by visiting our forum.