The Guardian Project

The Guardian Project was a collaborative effort between the NHL and comic book legend Stan Lee, which would see the creation of 30 new superheroes that represented each NHL team.

This was some sort of elaborate practical joke, or that the idea was just an example of the sort of ideas the NHL tossed around in the offseason out of boredom. I mean, NHL teams already have mascots, so surely giving each one a superhero would be silly, right?

We are starting to see the fruits of Stan Lee’s labour. The NHL has been slowly rolling out the superheroes one by one, giving us a glimpse of some of the 30 characters Lee created in a short six months or so.

The verdict: thumbs down.

The superheroes seem like the ones you would make up off the top of your head during recess when you were eight; you know, if you were too “husky” or “diabetesy” to play sports with the rest of the kids. It seems like each superhero was created in five minutes by looking at the team’s logo and name.

Take, for example, one of the recently revealed superheroes, The Wild, representing, you guessed it, The Minnesota Wild. The Wild’s superpowers include “General Mayhem” and, wait for it…“Tunnelling.”

No jokes.

So basically, this superhero acts ridiculous, breaks things, and dives into the first hole it sees. Sounds like a lot of frat boys I’ve met, but certainly not a superhero created to… wait, what were these created for again?

Some people have said that this is a new and creative idea that will at the very least give the NHL some positive attention. I disagree. I think this will go down as one of the NHL’s (many) failed marketing efforts. The Guardian Project could be this generation’s glowing puck.

I can see people talking about it years from now:

“Hey, remember that time the NHL made up superheroes? Man that was lame! Definitely one of Gary Bettman’s worst ideas, may he rest in peace.”