Wednesday, August 1: What Might Have Been

Today I have a re-imagining of some uniforms which could have been from Canucks history. I remember reading (on Icethetics, I think) that the logo which is now use for the WHL's Vancouver Giants was originally intended to be a Canucks logo. This makes a lot of sense, as it plays on the Johnny Canuck/Lumberjack motif, which is not the first image that pops into my mind when the word "Giant" is mentioned. Ultimately this logo was rejected by the Canucks, but has found a happy home on the front of the Giant's sweaters ever since they joined the WHL in 2001.

The fact that this logo was first rejected by the Canucks, and then introduced by the Giants in 2001, leads one to think that this logo may have been considered when planning the new alternate sweater which the Canucks introduced in 2001. This would have been a major departure from the Orca Bay logos, and a huge step back in line with the original Canucks identity. Perhaps the Third jersey would have ended up looking something like this:

As you can see, I have maintained the layout of the third jersey worn from 2001-2006, but have used an updated version of the Giants crest instead of the Orca. I have simplified the Giants crest to instead be a V shape (for Vancouver), instead of a G shape (for Giants). I have also altered the colour scheme to fit the colour scheme worn by the Canucks from 1997-2007 (the fact that this recolouring does not appear forced, also adds soem legitimacy to the thought that the Giants logo was originally intended as a Canucks logo). I maintained maple leaf detail on the Lumberjack's sleeve, however, did try to make it more subtle. I do think that it is kind of tacky for a Canadian team to feel obliged to put a maple leaf somewhere in their logo, but Canuck is a slang term for Canadian, so I don't feel that the inclusion of a maple leaf is unwarranted.

Just for fun I have also included home and road sweaters which go along with this concept. I based them off of where I felt that the third jersey design, and other similarly progressive jersey designs from 2001 in the NHL, were leading.  Hope you enjoy!

So that's that. Fun to relive one of my favourite eras from Canucks history, and do a bit of historical re-imagination, and a bit of logo alteration. All around good times. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.

Come back on friday to see some more concepts from contributor Steven Grant.

I will be back on the weekend, but can't promise a post, however I will be able to publish any comments which you have submitted in the past week. 

Thanks for reading!