THN logo rankings No. 14: New York Rangers

THN's ranking countdown of the 30 NHL logos turns to the New York Rangers at No. 14. The Blueshirts are an Original Six team, but does the lack of change to their logo appeal to you or not? What do you think of their logo?

The New York Rangers are fortunate to have the aura that comes along with being an Original Six franchise, but in THN’s 2014 NHL logo ranking contest, their reliance on tradition hasn’t pushed them to the top. Our in-house panel of judges ranked the Rangers’ current logo 14th-best.

The Blueshirts have made very few tweaks to the original team logo used in their inaugural season of 1926-27. In many ways, that’s a good thing that speaks to the positive reception it’s had with the franchise’s fan base. But at a time when brands are almost always reshaping their image, the Rangers aren’t standing out with their current logo.

Maybe you think you could improve on the Rangers logo. If that’s true, put one together and submit it to editorial@thehockeynews.com. Once our logo rankings conclude, we’ll share them online.

HISTORY OF THE RANGERS LOGO

(All logos from Chris Creamer’s website.)

The Rangers – initially owned by George Lewis “Tex” Rickard, boxing promoter and president of Madison Square Garden – had their logo designed in part to differentiate from the rival New York Americans, who’d began playing at the famous arena one year sooner. Whereas the Americans’ logo spelled our their name horizontally, Rickard’s Rangers would begin their existence by spelling out their team name diagonally.

From that point on, there hasn't been much variance at all. Oh, sure, their second logo, which was used from 1935-1947, had a bolder blue color to it, but otherwise, it was identical to their first:

And sure, their third logo (in place from 1947-53) was the most radical departure, but that was only because it was widened, thickened with an outer blue border, and had the word "Rangers" colored in red. Otherwise, it was more or less the same:

From 1953 on, there's been even less change to the Rangers' logo. The team abandoned the "Rangers" in red lettering from 1953-68, and returned to a bolder blue and red color for the shield, but made no significant alterations to the design itself:

From 1968-78, their logo's words had a thinner font to them, the white space in the outer border was reduced and the overall shield looked slightly more narrow, but those were the only differences:

And finally, from 1978 to the present day, their current logo has used a couple elements of the past – namely, the softer blue of their third logo – while basically remaining true to the previous version:

Dissenting opinion: While defending my preference for the Sharks and Predators logos late last week and yesterday, I called myself an "anti-traditionalist." Well, perhaps that's not true after all...I quite enjoy the simplicity of the Rangers, and you can never go wrong with a shield-inspired crest. And you have to give some bonus points for staying consistent through all these years. The Blueshirts know it's good, so why mess with a good thing? It's a lesson many other organizations could learn. The Rangers logo isn't a top 5, but it's certainly belongs in consideration for the top 10. - Edward Fraser

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Think you can do a better job with a Rangers logo? Try your hand at designing a new and improved logo, using whichever color scheme you think looks best. Submit your creation to editorial@thehockeynews.com; we’ll post the best ones after our ranking of all 30 NHL logos is complete.