NHL.com has a redesign in the works!  They are moving away from the boring, cluttered, poor layout they have been managing and bringing in a new design that still delivers the information, but to me, in a less cluttered … more “social media” centric way.  You can see the new layout by going HERE … At first glance, what impresses me about the “look and feel” is the grayed out navigation bar along the top with the game schedule also subdued until you hover your mouse over the game or team you want to click on.  By making those links blend into the site the NHL has now brought the very colorful pictures to the forefront.  The first thing I noticed is how vivid the pictures are and how much room there is on the site now.  I like how they have centered the site also instead of having it justified left (like they have @ nhl.com) and they finally did away with the ice background and went to a clean black back drop that is also helping in making their pictures POP!  It looks like they are running this in a beta format right now which means you might run into some issues.  Links not working, load times being longer than usual, empty space not looking “right” … but aside from that, I think this is a step in the right direction.  Check it out for yourself …

Overall the new NHL.com experience has improved in my opinion … but wait … there is more kids!!!  The fine folks buried in the depths of the NHL offices decided to give us something NEW.  That’s right – its called NHL GameCenter (I am sure there is a TM or some type of mark for the NHL – but its not like I am passing this off as my own deal right???)

So - NHL GameCenter is looking to take the “if you want to know anything that’s going on in hockey RIGHT NOW, come here” spot.  They have a free and subscription based plan … of course once you get into the subscription plan, the package becomes absolute GOLD!!!  Here is what your looking at in the free plan. 

1. Real time stats
2. Play by Play Game Tracker with in-game highlights
3. Live Chat
4. Home and away radio broadcasts of nightly games

Now, for a mere $169 on NHL GameCenter LIVE (which is a pretty reasonable price I might add) you will be blessed with.

1. Up to 40 games a week on live TV quality games online
2. Multi Game View – watch 4 games at one time!!!
3. 3 inside the glass camera angles for select games called “The Game of the Night”
4. Complete access to the REPLAY Game Archive without blackouts.

Mark your calendars … on October 10th – 12th GameCenter will be handing out a free preview of the GameCenter LIVE.  You can also watch the fancy preview movie embedded in the GameCenter Live section.  Its about time the NHL did something brilliant and thought out.  I am going to remain skeptical until I get to play around with the UI and the layout to see what it has to offer.

Tags: NHL GameCenter, NHL.com, website redesign