This is appropriate, because whoever came up with Trenton's logo must have been lazy and uninspired, too. Both Utica and Lowell have had teams called the Devils and affiliated with New Jersey, and both of them had a logo which was the city's name with horns and a tail much like the horns and tail on the "NJ" in New Jersey's logo. That's pretty lazy right there, but the designer of Trenton's new logo couldn't even be bothered to do that much. Instead, they just took the New Jersey Devils logo and stuck the word "Trenton" over it. Okay, they managed to put one horn on the "T" and another on the "N", but still, this is lame, lame, lame. Yes, I know that Trenton (unlike Utica and Lowell) is actually in New Jersey, but still.

I'm trying to decide if renaming the team itself is lazy or not. On the one hand, going to the effort of changing something always takes a little bit of effort. On the other hand, it's not like they put any effort into actually picking a name:

"We need a new name for our ECHL affiliate."

"Well, what's our name?"

"The Devils, I think."

"Are you sure?"

"I think so, but I'm too lazy to walk find out for certain."

"Well...that'll work. 'Trenton Devils' it is!"

To my knowledge there's only been one other instance of a team at the second-tier minors level sharing a name with its AHL affiliate, which was the Thunder Bay Senators of the then-Colonial Hockey League. I personally never thought that made much sense, and I don't think this makes much sense, either. Let's be blunt: the only way most second-tier minor league players are ever going to see the inside of an NHL arena is by buying a ticket. At least with AHL teams there's a good chance a player will make it to the big show. Here, not so much. It happens, of course, but the odds are slim. I was working on a column for a magazine a few years ago and did some digging; I found that an ECHL player had about a 6% chance of playing at least one game in the NHL. Remember, the ECHL is supposed to be the top "AA" league (and the numbers did bear this out...for all the other leagues at the same level the chance was 2% or lower). To give you an idea of how rare this is, consider this: a player in one of Minor League Baseball's rookie leagues has a 10% chance of going on to play at least one game in Major League Baseball. Rookie leagues, for those who aren't familiar with the farm system in baseball, are about three or four levels below the "AA" level. And they're twice as likely to make the big show as a player in the ECHL, CHL, or UHL. (This is, incidentally, why I refuse to use terms like "AAA" and "AA" to refer to hockey leagues. If a so-called " AA" league in hockey sends fewer players to the big show than the lowest level of minor league baseball, then it's not really a "AA" league, is it?)

I could go on, but you get the idea. Besides, I already told you I'm feeling lazy and uninspired.

Final Score: 15 points.
Penalties: Name-Logo (quadruply-egregious), 7 pts; Offspring (egregious for doing this at the second-tier level), 8 pts.
Bonuses: None.