Three NHL Teams That Desperately Need a Rebrand

To put it bluntly, Carolina's brand identity is a complete mess right now. They have three different uniforms that don't resemble each other at all beyond colors and logos. The road uniform with the diagonal "Canes" wordmark is especially bad, and it started the horrible trend of teams wearing dark helmets with white jerseys.

A return to the Hartford Whalers branding will sadly never happen, but there's still room to make a good brand with the Hurricanes' existing assets (or modified versions of them). Even just making a white road version of their black jersey with the warning flags would be a marked improvement from what they have now.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning play in the heart of Florida, the definition of a non-traditional hockey market, yet they've spent the past 15 years cosplaying as an Original Six team. Their current jerseys have been described as Detroit Red Wings jerseys with Toronto Maple Leafs colors, and it's really hard to argue against that.

That's not to say that the Lightning should go all-out weird - their late 90s storm alternate is infamous for a reason - but they should be a bit more experimental with their brand. A return to black as the primary color, along with a logo that isn't so minimalistic, would help separate them from their Atlantic Division rivals. With them winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in these uniforms, however, a chance in the near future may be unlikely.

Washington Capitals

The Capitals underwent a major redesign when the league moved to Reebok as its official uniform provider in 2007. Eighteen years and two different uniform providers later, their jerseys are pretty much exactly the same.

While it made sense for the Capitals to go back to their classic color scheme of red, white and blue, Reebok's odd piping and paneling really do the jerseys a disservice, and they're basically the only team in the league still affected by it. The wordmark logo on the chest is also quite underwhelming, especially because Washington has an absolutely perfect secondary logo, but it's just a shoulder patch on these jerseys.

The Capitals won't make any major changes ahead of what is likely Alex Ovechkin's final season, but after he retires, move the secondary logo to the forefront and remove the paneling. If they do that, they'll be in great shape aesthetically.