The Hockey News' CHL, IHL and SPHL Jersey Rankings

Getting into the low minor leagues, our jury had to recalibrate its thinking a little bit.

After all, grabbing eyeballs in ‘non-traditional’ markets can be tough, so mascots and sweaters are often outrageous, or at least geared towards the locals.

With that in mind, turquoise, black and gold is a perfectly good color scheme, while gorillas and mud bugs jockey for position – but we drew the line at diamonds.

While logos (last year’s competition) are certainly a big part of the hockey jersey, we also considered shoulder patches, striping and piping – so teams gained and lost points based on those factors. You'll also notice both home and away jerseys are used to represent the teams. Simply put, we took the one we liked best out of the two. Third or alternate jersey weren't considered.

Due to unavailability, the expansion Mississippi Surge and Pensacola Ice Flyers of the SPHL and Allen Americans and Missouri Mavericks of the CHL were not included.
 
With all that in play, here are the rankings. Click on each thumbnail for a larger picture.
 
Once you've taken in our top jerseys, head over to the voting page to select your favorite from our top picks and help it to move on in the Jersey Tournament that will follow the rankings of each league’s jerseys (find the rankings and tournament schedule on The Hockey News Jersey Rankings and Tournament Central page).

THE HOCKEY NEWS CHL JERSEY RANKINGS

RK.	LOGO	TEAM	THE SCOOP
1		Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees	If you're from the Southwest, turquoise is a legit sweater color
2		Laredo Bucks	Great logo and some nice flourishes on the side
3		Wichita Thunder	We didn't like the logo last year but the striping here is excellent
4		Tulsa Oilers	Cool color scheme with a bit of a throwback look
5		Amarillo Gorillas	What can we say? We love that gorilla
6		Mississippi RiverKings	Dark green and black works here
7		Texas Brahmas	Logo is solid, as is the purple
8		Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs	Blue and purple together somehow not bad
9		Rapid City Rush	Has an NHL-in-the-80s simplicity to it
10		Odessa Jackalopes	Jury divided on the mythical Jackalope
11		Arizona Sundogs	Sundog 'S' a little too soft for hockey
12		Corpus Christi IceRays	Nothing quite caught our attention here
13		Colorado Eagles	Too generic for our tastes

THE HOCKEY NEWS IHL JERSEY RANKINGS

RK.	LOGO	TEAM	THE SCOOP
1		Quad City Mallards	Cool colors, great new logo
2		Flint Generals	Jury won over by color scheme and laces
3		Fort Wayne Komets	Classic emblem framed nicely
4		Port Huron Icehawks	Evil bird loved by some, not by others
5		Bloomington PrairieThunder	Nice colors, logo reminiscent of late '90s Sabres
6		Muskegon Lumberjacks	Since when did Captain Caveman play hockey?
7		Dayton Gems	We're all for originality, but wow. I mean…wow.

THE HOCKEY NEWS SPHL JERSEY RANKINGS

RK.	LOGO	TEAM	THE SCOOP
1		Columbus Cottonmouths	All-around goodness with logo, shoulder patch and baseball lettering
2		Knoxville Ice Bears	Circle logo improvement on main emblem
3		Huntsville Havoc	Asymmetrical slashmarks a winner
4		Fayetteville FireAntz	Original name, middle-of-the-road sweater
5		Louisiana IceGators	So-so logo with nice colors

Over the next two months, THN.com will leave the voting on the best jerseys up to you, the reader. To vote for your favorite, click HERE (CHL, IHL and SPHL jersey voting ends at 9 a.m. EST on Aug. 27.). To see ratings from other leagues, visit THN.com's Jersey Rankings and Tournament Central.