NHL logo rankings No. 24: Los Angeles Kings

Our logo rankings continue with the Los Angeles Kings at No. 24. Think you can design a better look for the Kings? Get creative and send your new look to editorial@thehockeynews.com – we may run it at the conclusion of our rankings!

The Los Angeles Kings may have won two of the past three Stanley Cup championships, but in THN’s current NHL logo ranking contest, they’re not nearly as much of a mover-and-shaker. Our in-house panel of judges ranked L.A.’s current logo 24th overall.

The Kings’ straight-ahead approach to this incarnation of their logo – featuring the initials of the city above the crown that in some form has been a part of every logo since the organization’s inception in 1967 – isn’t especially creative or eye-catching. Sure, it’s better than some of their more daring fashion experiments, but that’s damning with faint praise.

Maybe you think you could improve on the Kings’ current logo. If so, submit it to editorial@thehockeynews.com – and once our logo rankings conclude, we’ll share them online.

(All logos below are from Chris Creamer’s website.)

HISTORY OF THE KINGS LOGO

When the Kings debuted in the 1967-68 season, they wore purple jerseys at home and gold on the road. The colors were chosen by team owner and expat Canadian Jack Kent Cooke, and represented royalty – and to match nicely with the color scheme of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers. The crown logo that appeared on the jersey differed from the primary logo.

After eight seasons, the Kings changed logos for the first time. The team added horizontal lines around the name to provide a sense of speed, and kept their second logo for eight years (while also adding purple pants after spending their initial seasons wearing gold pants).

In 1988, the Kings’ logo changed drastically. Gone was the purple and gold, replaced by a black-and-silver version of their previous logo. The change coincided with the acquisition of NHL icon Wayne Gretzky, and their new colors were a match with a different L.A. team – the NFL’s Los Angeles Raiders (who have since relocated back to their original home in Oakland). Because there were no throwback jersey nights, Gretzky would never wear purple and gold in his eight years with the organization.

Ten years after the silver-and-black uniforms were unveiled, the Kings changed logos again and, for the first time, they made substantial alterations to the crown, which shrunk drastically and was moved to the upper left corner of a shield that also included a shining sun, a lion, and two hockey sticks. The color scheme also changed: grey was minimized, and black and blue were emphasized. But this logo would last for only four years before another radical change was approved.

In 2002, the Kings went back to a large crown for their logo, but this crown was more modern and retained the blue, black and grey colors of the previous shield. For the first time, there was no mention of the city’s name or the team name on the logo.

In 2011, the Kings’ logo changed to its current incarnation. There was no more blue involved, and the city’s initials were heavily stressed overtop of the crown from the previous version.

Dissenting opinion: “I like the crest and the old-school feel of the crown. And I know people don’t like the L.A. over the crown, but I think the simplicity of it is great.” – Ronnie Shuker, associate editor.

Think you can do a better job with a Kings logo? Try your hand at designing a new and improved logo, using whichever color scheme you think looks best. Submit your creation to editorial@thehockeynews.com; we’ll post the best ones after our ranking of all 30 NHL logos is complete.