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We are excited to announce a new feature for the center ice archive. We have begun uploading 3D Full Rink Graphics to the center ice archive! With the popularity of our previous 3D neutral zone graphics, we decided to expand them to show the entire rink. These replicate the view from the camera location on most rinks. At the time of this post, we have all of the 2022 season for the NHL complete. We have also completed various other ices around the site, and all future ice graphics that get posted will come with the 3D view. Over time, we how to have most (if not all) teams and years covered throughout the leagues that we cover. In the meantime, to help you find which teams/years have 3D graphics, we have a checkbox in the navigation bar that you can select. It will filter out all pages without 3D graphics. Down the road, once most pages have 3D rink graphics, we will remove this checkbox. We hope you will enjoy this new feature and stay tuned for more updates.

Looking ahead to the 2023, we thought it would be fun to remix all 32 NHL center ice designs. The rules we will follow are simple: No matter how perfect the ice may be, there must be a change. This could be something as small as a red line change, or as large as a complete re-design. Today we will take a look at the Atlantic Division. It would be hard to improve the Boston Bruins rink, but a subtle black circle around the logo might make it stand out slightly more. We also added a diamond pattern to the red line, though there is nothing wrong with their solid red line to complement their clean, iconic logo. The Buffalo Sabres logo should really be full circle at center ice. Also, lose the center circle itself and let the logo do the job just like it already does in Boston. Yes, I know we just added the circle back for Boston, but hey, had to change something. The Detroit Red Wings have one of the most "Hockey" logos we have ever seen, but when it comes to center ice, it always looks a bit off. We swapped the primary out for an alternate logo which really only adds a bold outline around it. Some fans miss the "Hockeytown" logo at center ice, so we brought it back. However, we think it might work better around the circle rather than over the top of their logo. While the Florida Panthers shield logo has grown on us over the years, we still prefer their original 'leaping Panther' version. This concept combines their original logo with the current branding version and keeps their name front and center. For the Montreal Canadiens, we could have just reposted their 2018 center ice design, but where is the fun in that. While many fans may want to go back to that dual logo design, we decided to just improve on their current layout by adding two more arena wordmarks around the circle like they used to have. Since the Habs' logo is much wider than it is tall, this just adds some balance to center ice. The Ottawa Senators should go back to that smaller arena wordmark they used back in 2018. It gives a much cleaner look. As for the solid red line... let's add the pattern from their logo to make it look really sharp. The Tampa Bay Lightning center ice is about as good as it gets. This concept is really just a "what if?" concept because it was hard to find anything to improve. So what if the logo was in white and their center circle color matched their home jerseys. The red line pattern could possibly be improved by ditching the slashes and just keep the lightning bolts. Same idea for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Swapped the logo and background colors. Is it better? Not really, but it's different and that was the point of this series. Some teams just need to leave things alone in reality, and this is certainly a change I could never imagine happening. We hope you enjoyed this series! Let us know what you thought and share any ideas you have for center ice changes in the comments below.

The Carolina Hurricanes are preparing to celebrate their 25'th anniversary in the Fall. The team has celebrated with their anniversary logo at center ice two other times. We think it is very likely we will see their 25'th anniversary logo at center ice this Fall, and here is what it might look like. Please note, we left the PNC Arena wordmark off as it is very likely going to have a new name next season.

Continuing our "What If" series with another look at the NHL Playoff logos. Many fans have voiced their displeasure with the league replacing the Stanley Cup logos on the rink with virtual advertisements. It is clear that those new advertisements are not going anywhere (except when they literally move around the screen because they have yet to be perfected). But what if the league could have those ads, but the ice still got a little Stanley Cup flair? Our thought is simple: Place 4 Stanley Cup Playoffs/Final logos on the ice, just beyond the blue lines, but in-line with the neutral zone ads? We also realigned the logos on the left half of the rink to make them look better. While we are at it, here is one for our French speaking friends. What do you think of this concept? Would this bring back some celebration to the rink for the playoffs? Let us know in the comments below!

Looking ahead to the 2023, we thought it would be fun to remix all 32 NHL center ice designs. The rules we will follow are simple: No matter how perfect the ice may be, there must be a change. This could be something as small as a red line change, or as large as a complete re-design. Today we will take a look at the Metropolitan Division. The Carolina Hurricanes logo makes it hard to mess up their center ice design. We simply brought back the black boxes inside a red line and wrapped them around the circle. I wish they could also have them in the center line like they used to, but black paint inside the center line breaks NHL rules. A patriotic team like the Columbus Blue Jackets should have a little more color at center ice. We gave them a think blue circle around the primary logo and moved the name inside. A couple of Columbus-style stars and the center ice really stands out. The New Jersey Devils ice has bothered us for years. The logo has an off-centered circle under it which really becomes noticeable at center ice. While we didn't change that, we did add a black circle with red trim around the edges of the circle to help distract from this. How can we really improve the New York Islanders? It is already a really nice-looking ice, and the small UBS Arena logos around the circle are balanced and subtle. We thought the red line is a bit distracting against such a large logo. We tried a solid red line but in the end, a white center line with red trim provided a clean look. The New York Rangers center ice has remained the same for several years, and it would be hard to beat. We decided to have just a bit of fun with it by removing the trim and wrapping a bit of the Manhattan skyline around the lower half of the circle. We also lightened the blue in the logo and circle a bit. The Philadelphia Flyers have a history of using a bold circle inside the center ice during its Spectrum years. We decided to bring it back but this time it wraps all the way around, and the arena name fits inside. The red line is a variation on their current triple red stripe pattern. We just made it more of a checkered look. It was very hard to find something to change on the Pittsburgh Penguins ice. The arena wordmark is perhaps the only complaint we have about it, so we moved it to the sides for balance. While there is nothing wrong with the diamond center line they have had for years, we thought we might try their primary logo on it instead. Will this finally be the year that the Washington Capitals redeem themselves with their center ice design? The 'Weagle' logo would look so good at center ice, and certainly far better than their wordmark. Again, for balance, we moved the arena name to the sides. This creates a very clean look. What do you think of these changes? What would you do differently?

Looking ahead to the 2023, we thought it would be fun to remix all 32 NHL center ice designs. The rules we will follow are simple: No matter how perfect the ice may be, there must be a change. This could be something as small as a red line change, or as large as a complete re-design. Today we will take a look at the Central Division. The Arizona Coyotes are going to have a strange home ice for several seasons as they share a rink with a college hockey team. While we don't expect anything fancy in reality, here is what we came up with for a unique looking center ice. It's hard to make great changes to the Chicago Blackhawks center ice design, so the only change we made was with the center line. The line is now inverted, and made up of 6-pointed stars from the city flag. For the Colorado Avalanche, we brought back the "big foot" logo for the center line. We also cut the Avalanche logo down the center and spread it out a bit so less of the point of the 'A' is hidden behind the center line. The Dallas Stars switched to the Texas logo this season. We think this is the best the ice has ever looked. Just a couple tweaks for this ice. The center line now has the primary logo in white. We also enlarged the Texas logo just a bit, because everything is bigger in Texas. This was a simple remix. The Minnesota Wild introduced a re-colored logo with their Reverse-Retro jerseys last season, and that logo should be the new primary. Bring the jersey back along with a home version and this team will look perfect. The Nashville Predators went full gold several years ago, and we thought we would invert the gold and white on the primary logo to better match their brand. While we like their current center line, what if we swapped it out with the three stars from the guitar pick logo along with the "NP" in white. The St. Louis Blues have an iconic logo, but it is time to ditch the navy. No more navy at on the jerseys or at center ice. While we are at it, how about the gateway arch behind the logo. We also added the fleur-de-lis to the center line. Finally, we moved the text to the sides of the circle to balance out center ice. The Winnipeg Jets already have a beautiful center ice. The only thing we could really do was make it more balanced with four arena wordmarks instead of two. We considered making the logo take up the entire circle, but honestly, it looks just a bit better the way it is. What do you think of these changes? What would you do differently?

After celebrating our 10th anniversary for the past year, a lot has changed, and it is time for a brand refresh and to center our focus on what we are best known for; center ice designs. As the only center ice archive on the web, (that we know of) we strive to bring you the most accurate and complete history of ice designs as possible. In reality, we have been laser focused on center ice designs for a few months now as we have expanded to a few new leagues and have begun adding authentic in-ice advertisements to several leagues including the NHL, AHL, CHL and ECHL. Due to the time it takes to do all of this, we have not spent much time on the NHL scoreboards page. Fortunately, our partner, Dryve Scoreboards has been able to take what we have done with scoreboards in the past and turn them into 3D works of art. You can check out all of his latest work on his Scoreboards Website. We will still continue to provide goal horn information, and we will be overhauling our Sports Organist pages in the near future. With our renewed focus on the center ice archive, this year you can expect to see many more authentic ads being added to our ice graphics, more historic teams/leagues being added to the archive, and more NHL practice rinks and playoff rinks as well. If you have a league you think we should cover, we would love to hear from you. **Please note, the KHL center ice section will not be making a return to the site.** Special thanks to @jones1_shawn for his ice research for the NHL and CHL center ice archives.

Looking ahead to the 2023, we thought it would be fun to remix all 32 NHL center ice designs. The rules we will follow are simple: No matter how perfect the ice may be, there must be a change. This could be something as small as a red line change, or as large as a complete re-design. Today we will take a look at the Pacific Division. It's time to go back to being the Mighty Ducks. There may be a name issue with Disney, but clearly, they have the rights to the logo. Therefore, at the very least, revert to the previous branding under the Anaheim Ducks name. We brought back the Ducks previous red line design which uses both the Ducks and Mighty Ducks logos inside the checkered pattern. To complete the remix, we moved the Arena text to the sides to add some balance center ice. The Calgary Flames already have a solid design, and it was difficult to find something to change. However, we thought it might be nice if the center line was actually white and had red Calgary Flames logos in it. This invert of colors allows the Flames logos to be red, similar to the real logo. We tried a similar idea with the Edmonton Oilers center line. This new oil drop red line is obviously Oilers specific and brings back a taste of the old Rexall Place (white center line) ice design. We also moved the Rogers Place logos to the sides to add balance. The Los Angeles Kings need to ditch their 'home plate' logo and go back to the crown. But why stop there? We wanted to add a little royalty to the center circle. Using shapes from within the Kings logo, we made a pattern inside a black circle. While this is not as fancy as the Vegas Golden Knights, we must admit that their ice was the inspiration that led to this. The San Jose Sharks already have a great center ice design, but the rule of this series requires a redesign. For this are using one of their alternate logos that includes their cities initials prominently at center ice. This was a tough one. There is not much we would change about the Seattle Kraken's first and only center ice design. So, the only change we made was removing the white checkered pattern from the center line and adding more of their alternate Space Needle/anchor logos. The Vancouver Canucks get a retro design in this series. We brought back a revised version of their original logo and centered their arena text along the sides of the circle. This is a very balanced and clean look. The Vegas Golden Knights have changed up their ice design every season, and each with an increasingly impressive and creative approach. There is no way to predict what they will come up with next, and it would be hard to come up with something better than their stellar graphic design team. For our changes, we focused on the center line and arena text. We simply inverted the colors of the center line and placed four arena wordmarks around the circle. Balance is one of our favorite things as you may have noticed. What do you think of our ice remixes? What would you do different? Let us know in the comments below.

It wouldn't be the playoff time without needing to talk about the Coyotes, a team that so rarely gets to play this time of year. While this post is more opinion than informative, we are including a little history lesson on the Coyotes situation by Rinks Around The League. I would encourage everyone to check out this thorough look at what the Coyotes have gone through from their inauguration to current day. For quite a while, I have hoped the team would be sold and relocated to another market. Having watched this video, I no longer wish for this outcome. I can't blame the fanbase for not supporting the team. I can't blame it all on Glendale or Phoenix. Multiple owners have tried and failed to make this franchise work. I could no longer wish this franchise on another market. My new view on this would be to shut down the franchise. The team that was the Winnipeg Jets, Phoenix Coyotes, and Arizona Coyotes would be no more. It would cease to exist. Once the team is dissolved, open up the possibility of an expansion team. New ownership, new team, no baggage - fresh start. What are your thoughts on this franchise? Stay, go, or go away?

We finally get a look at detailed renderings of what the temporary home of the Arizona Coyotes will look like. These images come from the recently uploaded seat locator. While the recent reports of the agreement between the Sun Devils and Coyotes have been mis-interpreted, it is safe to assume that the renderings here do not represent the future center ice or red line design. It has been strongly suggested that the center ice will have both team's logos. From the renderings above, we can see that there may be some sort of LED screen on the bottom of the scoreboard. It will be interesting to see if this is in fact an LED screen, and if so, how it will be used. It could make for an easy method for each team to have an advertisement below the scoreboard. If you would like to take a virtual tour of the arena bowl, head over to the Coyotes' Virtual Venue website. As for what the ice may end up looking like, we have created a concept using the Sun Devils sponsorships and both team's logos at center ice. The red line is a traditional checkered pattern which would not favor either team. There is still no official arena name for the arena portion of the building, so we used the name of the entire complex as a placeholder. The arena is set to open in time for the Coyotes to begin their road trip without the need for an extended road trip. It will be interesting, to say the least, to see how this arrangement works out for an NHL team.

In our never-ending quest to build upon and improve our center ice archive, we are excited to announce a new feature. We are now creating Stanley Cup Playoffs/Final rink layouts. While the playoff ice layouts in recent seasons have been far from exciting, the league has had a history of adding a little flair to the rink in the post-season. We will begin building out this history in the NHL Center Ice Archive. These will be kept separate from the main center ice timeline. To view these rinks, switch the Regular Season dropdown to "Stanley Cup Playoffs" or "Stanley Cup Final" option. The League stopped using Playoff Logos on ice following the Pandemic when they learned that they could make money off of that spot instead. The only change with rinks since then has been the league mandated playoff ads in the four corners of the rink. We are adding a little attention to detail regarding how the teams go about swapping out/adding logos. Some teams repaint the ice for the playoffs, while others just add sponsors/playoff logos and then freeze more water over that. This leads to the new logos looking much brighter than the older markings. Unfortunately, most teams have to do this because of scheduling and lack of time to prepare the ice. Keep watching for more ices to be added. FYI: You can see recent ices that have been added by clicking the Center Ice tab in the navigation bar at the top of the site.

Many fans around St. Louis have old relics from the former home of the Blues, including old seats and banners. One major piece of history that made it out of the old Arena before it's implosion was the center hung scoreboard, but it has since gone missing. For a small group of Blues fans, it was their hope that it survived and that they might be able to find it. This group formed a page on Facebook called "Find the Old Arena Scoreboard" and they were looking for more people who might have information on it. We received a tip from @MrBluesHat that it was once in storage at the City Museum. We checked in with the City Museum here is the story of the old St. Louis Arena scoreboard. When the Kiel Center opened it's doors in 1994, there was an auction held at the old arena and fans got the opportunity to bid on many items before the place would be imploded a few years later. Once of the items that would be sold was the scoreboard which hung above the event floor since the Blues had first taken the ice in 1967. While it is not known for sure who bought the scoreboard from the Blues, we do know that at some point it landed in the hands of a local bar owner who ran Schmeizings. It hung above the bar as you can see in this rare picture below. This bar was later torn down but the scoreboard was once again removed to avoid its own destruction. It is unclear whether it was sold or donated, but it became property of the St. Louis City Museum. It would sit in storage for a number of years, presumably waiting to find a proper home within the Museum. Its temporary location was believed to be this storage facility in a blighted neighborhood in northern St. Louis. A few years ago, thieves busted in through a the wall of this rundown old building and ransacked the place for anything they could find of value. They scrapped out what they could of the old scoreboard, leaving only broken pieces and a bare frame behind. What was left of the scoreboard was presumably still in this building and destroyed during the demolition of this building a couple years ago. Not the news this group wanted to hear, but at least the mystery is now settled. It would have been a fine addition to the museum, or perhaps someday the Blues could have purchased the board and hung in in the atrium of Scottrade Center, much like the Cardinals have done with the old Busch Stadium scoreboard.

Continuing our "What If" series by looking at what it might look like if the NHL still put Stanley Cup Playoff logos in the ice. Of course, this is unlikely as they were replaced in 2020 for superimposed ads. But what if?... Here is a look at a couple rinks with the new Playoff logos that the NHL recently released. And then there is the Stanley Cup Final Version. For one final concept, I know this one won't be possible this season, but for our French speaking friends up north, how about a look at a French/English version. Let us know what you think of these in the comments below.

One of the most common things we hear from our followers is "Why won't the NHL get rid of the red line in the center circle?" In this installment of our "What If" series, we will look at what each of the 32 rinks might look like without a line splitting up the logo. While we are at it, let's assume the NHL might relax the rule on center circle colors (as some teams already have their own unique color, or logo doubling as the center circle). A couple notes: In part 1 of this installment, we are only making minor changes to make the layout for each team. Vegas is an exception because we do not have the current season's logo without the red line cutting through it. What do you think of these layouts? Let us know what you like and what you don't like in the comments below. Stay tuned for part 2 where we will get a little more creative with some of these teams.

Our tenth anniversary season has come to a close. It was a big year for the center ice archive, as well as the website in general. We rang in the new season with a brand-new website, built from the ground up. Through the year, we have upgraded and tweaked the site to make it more user friendly. We set out to expand the ice archive, but we had no idea how much it would truly grow over the course of this one season. The entire archive now has full rink graphics, many of which include a pre-game and post-game skated look. On top of that, we have added advertisements to all NHL rinks and are working on expanding to other leagues. Speaking of leagues, we also added several new leagues to the archive including the BCHL, USHL and PHF. As we look ahead to our eleventh season, we will continue to expand the center ice archive and add more authentic ads to the ice rinks. We are going to try to build out the Central Hockey League, USHL and BCHL leagues as well. We will mark the end of our anniversary with a big thanks to everyone who has helped us in making this past year a reason for celebration. From our followers to our contributors, we could not do this without you!

Things have been a bit quiet on social media in terms of new graphics being posted for a while now. Behind the scenes, however, the work has never stopped. We have upgraded our rink templates to include some more realistic ice and lighting effects. This is our most realistic ice texture yet! Take a look at the following snips from the new textures. The ice texture itself still contains some skate cuts, but also includes horizontal streaks left by the Zamboni, and some water droplets showing how recently the ice was resurfaced. You will also notice light reflections. We tested many different lighting designs and kept them toned down enough that they would be noticeable, but not take away from the overall logos and markings on the ice. The lighting will even be noticeable on the post-game rinks, though it will not be as prominent just as it would appear in real life. These new textures can be found on most NHL ices already, and soon on other leagues as well. Ever since introducing in-ice advertisements for the NHL, we have received requests for authentic ads for more leagues. This is quite a task with minor leagues due to the lack of reference photos/videos that are available. That won't stop us from trying though. Starting now, we will be adding in-ice advertisements to as many AHL rinks as possible and any other leagues we are able to find references for. Please note that in some cases, ads may not be 100% accurate due to the lack of good reference shots to work with. We will try to get them as accurate as possible. With this challenge, we could sure use your help. Any photos/videos you could provide for current and/or past seasons of your favorite Minor League team would be extremely helpful!