Fans in Winnipeg have had an adventurous offseason. They’ve seen a local group buy the Atlanta Thrashers, move the franchise to Manitoba, hire a new general manager, hire a new head coach, and announce the new team name at the NHL Draft. All that’s left is to see the new jerseys and to get that team on the ice to play some games. Unfortunately, it sounds like fans are going to have to wait for those last two steps.
The good news is that the team is going through the final steps to complete the new logo and jersey. Ever since True North announced the team was headed back to Winnipeg, fans have been wondering about the team name and logo. Even though fans know they’ll be called the Winnipeg Jets, the bad news is they have no intention of releasing the new look to the public anytime soon.
Jets’ Director of Corporate Communications, Scott Brown, explained the process to the National Post:“We’re working through the final logo and jersey work. That doesn’t mean it’ll be announced any time soon. We just want to let the public know that contributions to any type of contest aren’t going to be considered because we’re long past that stage. To take in a new concept or logo now would mean the jerseys would not be ready for the beginning of the season.
“We’re far down that road in the process of making final detailed tweakings to the logo and the jerseys.”
The organization has already stated that the new look is going to be a drastic departure from the old Winnipeg Jets look of the 1980s and 90s. Aside from the “it’s going to be different” comments though, fans have no idea what the new logo is going to look like. Until then, people can continue to rock the throwback jerseys and wonder what the next era of Winnipeg hockey will look like. One thing is for sure, the jersey with the NHL logo that the Jets were dealing out to prospects at the NHL Draft is not going to be a permanent look. Aside from that, everything else is just conjecture.
On the heels of the Predators jersey announcement, it’ll be fun to see how the Winnipeg organization chooses to reveal the new logo and jersey. Nashville set the bar pretty high when they unveiled the new-look jerseys on the side of a skyscraper at their annual “Skate of the Union” event for fans. If the Winnipeg Jets release their new look via some boring press release, it’ll be extremely disappointing.
Something involving the MTS Centre, all of their new season ticket holders, and a blimp is a good starting point. If no blimp is available, then maybe they could get Dale Hawerchuk as a back-up plan. They can do whatever they want—but the sooner the better.
