2022-2023 NHL Jersey Changes

[CreamSoda]

1 hour ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

Sure but what makes more sense, a team in southern (edit: not THAT southern apparently) US Colorado honoring a past franchise by wearing the jersey of a team called the Northerners filled with French fleur de lys OR a team in southern US Colorado honoring a past franchise by wearing the jersey of a local defunct team called the Rockies for the Rocky Mountains and with a logo that resembles the state flag?

I personally found it a little disrespectful that they even chose burgundy for the fleur de lys on their RR when blue is part of their colour scheme. Well maybe not disrespectful but I think it made no sense at all.

 

I hope next year's RR is a steel blue based pre-Edge jersey with burgundy (the original mid 90s lighter shade of burgundy for extra throwback points and more obvious difference between those and the current jerseys maybe?) sleeves and black gear

 

 

Why would I honor a team that is currently playing in New Jersey?  A team that played only 7 years here and with no success?  

 

Or I can about a team that Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg actually played for.  A team that has direct franchise records associated with it.

[AFirestormToPurify]

33 minutes ago, CreamSoda said:

 

 

Why would I honor a team that is currently playing in New Jersey?  A team that played only 7 years here and with no success?  

 

Or I can about a team that Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg actually played for.  A team that has direct franchise records associated with it.

I perfectly understand your reasoning and I respect it. But I still think it's nonsensical for the Avs to wear Nordiques gear. Feel free to disagree. I personally think that when a team moves to a different city and change their name they should wipe the slate clean but that's just me I guess

Especially in the case where the old name had geographical and/or cultural references (North Stars, Nordiques, Rockies etc), the re-localized team wearing the old uniforms would look dumb. Like, could you imagine if the Canadiens moved south of the border, changed their name and then 20 years later the US based team rocks a Club de Hockey Canadien de Montreal sweater as a throwback. Insanity, even if just for a game or two. Would make more sense for the hypothetical new Montreal franchise to honor the city's past imo.

But again, I understand why some people wouldn't agree with me on this particular take

[joekono]

7 hours ago, PlayGloria said:

 

I almost made a similar post recently about numbers of colors and how it correlates to a clean look, but could articulate it right. You are spot on though. The Blues are a strange one because having multiple blues fits the team name while also differentiating them from the league a bit. 

 

Also, it was great timing as last night, my Blues were playing the Flames. If you didn't see that game, the uniform matchup was superb. Neither team should change a thing. Gorgeous. 

 

Absolutely right, this was one of the best games visually in recent times. 

[joekono]

3 hours ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

I think the years were in reference to a Cup or at least a Cup final appearance in most cases

 

Mostly agree as both teams look great but I am the only one who misses the yellow numbers?

 

BETTER THAN

[PlayGloria]

I was really against the Blues change from yellow to white numbers at first. But now that they have had them for a while, I actually like the change. Everything seems a bit more cohesive to me. 

[IceCap]

On 1/26/2022 at 7:39 AM, Morgan33 said:

The Flames retros have to be one of the most overrated designs in the history of the league... 

Wow...hard disagree there. 

 

The team's named after fire. They should be bright. 
 

And yes we're all aware of the pre-Edge look but you wanna talk about overrated? The red sweaters had too much of a black emphasis and both sets used a horse logo without a mane as an alternate.

 

For all the talk about about "throwbacks" being a fad...the "modern" crew sure seems fixated on uniformed from 15-30 years ago. 

 

On 1/26/2022 at 8:12 AM, JayMac said:

So now we are railing against the Flames current uniforms? In theory, the use of black is fine. However, they have gone overboard so much so that they became yet another red and black team. The Calgary Flames are a red and gold team. If black is needed (which, IMO, it is not), then it should only be used as trim.

The throwbacks were what most people wanted and the team finally committed. 

It was inevitable that the contrarians would pipe up sooner rather than later. 

 

On 1/26/2022 at 11:40 AM, spartacat_12 said:

Well they brought back Blasty for the reverse retros (although is it really reversed when all you did was change the sleeve/hem colour?), so I would assume that the RR 2.0 will include black to some degree. They could also just pull a Vancouver or Buffalo and bring back the throwback as an alternate.

My point here is that someone said "hey I miss the black in the Flames set" and now we're talking about the Flames bringing back a throwback with black in it. 

 

Maybe they will, but that's hardly been confirmed. And one guy going on about how he misses black for the Flames turning into a discussion about the Flames bringing back black is how you get "I thought the Bobcats were going with transparent side panels!" rumours going. 

[IceCap]

On 1/27/2022 at 7:45 PM, Ridleylash said:

Shouldn't the Coyotes be the ones doing Jets 1.0 throwbacks by this logic, though? Sometimes, you're better off going for market matching if you have a team there over being strict about "only THIS franchise can do throwbacks to these other franchises from different markets!".

 

I really doubt there's high demand for Hockey Rockies merchandise in Newark, but there'd be plenty of it in Denver.

The Devils have honoured the Rockies before. All the italicized and underlined words doesn't change that. 

 

Also go back to the press conference where the Thrashers moving to Winnipeg was announced. Bettman confirmed that the NHL had transferred the rights to use the old Jets stuff to the new Jets. The Coyotes kept the history of course, but the new Jets got the right to rep Winnipeg hockey history. 

 

IIRC the Avalanche asked Montreal if it would be ok if they used the Nordiques' logos for their RR since the Habs are the lone Quebec representatives in the league. So I'm sure they had to get the Devils' permission to reference the Rockies. 

 

On 1/27/2022 at 7:46 PM, SFGiants58 said:

No, the Devils should be doubling down on the cup-winning sets and eliminating all alternates. No Scouts, no Rockies, just the team that won three Stanley Cups.

 

Also, I find the Avs doing Hockey Rockies homages better than their awkward Nords design.

Lou's gone. It's time to have fun. If the Canadiens can bring themselves to throw back to past designs then surely the Devils can lower themselves to do it. 

 

And I disagree about the Nords. It was nice to see the Nordiques logo back. It's the best we're getting if the NHL insists on not returning to QC. 

[pepis21]

13 minutes ago, IceCap said:

Lou's gone. It's time to have fun.

Yeah but their current unis are a downgrade compare to previous and alternate is just ugly. Their tweets ("not a fashion company" and "hat") were indeed fun.

[Morgan33]

1 hour ago, IceCap said:

The team's named after fire.  They should be bright.  And yes we're all aware of the pre-Edge look but you wanna talk about overrated? The red sweaters had too much of a black emphasis and both sets used a horse logo without a mane as an alternate.

 

Black was the secondary colour on the whites, from 3 years prior, so the emphasis on the home reds was perfectly logical.  They could have gone with white but chose to look forward and it worked spectacularly. 

I don't think you can call a jersey that became the leagues best seller upon debuting overrated.  Yeah, success had a lot to do with it but not every cup finalist automatically gets the best selling jersey without a damn good design.  I've lived in Calgary my whole life and I've never seen a Flames uniform embraced in the way those home reds were.  They were flying off the shelves even before they won a series and you would regularly hear people, even non sports-aesthetic enthusiasts, talk about how nice they were.
 

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For all the talk about about "throwbacks" being a fad...the "modern" crew sure seems fixated on uniformed from 15-30 years ago.

 

A uniform that would have never changed if it weren't for Reebok destroying half the leagues aesthetics with their ill-advised edge template.  Would there even be a demand for the retros without the switch the to flag clown-suits? 

[IceCap]

41 minutes ago, Morgan33 said:

I don't think you can call a jersey that became the leagues best seller upon debuting overrated. 

Absolutely I can. The Buffaslug was the league's number one seller when it was unveiled and everyone hated it. 

 

Jersey sales are not a mark of quality of design. Any new design is guaranteed to do well because it's new. 

 

41 minutes ago, Morgan33 said:

They could have gone with white but chose to look forward and it worked spectacularly. 

You associate your subjective aesthetic preference for objective progress. 

What about the addition of black to the Flames' scheme is "forward" or "modern" other than that it was a trend nearly thirty years ago? 

 

41 minutes ago, Morgan33 said:

A uniform that would have never changed if it weren't for Reebok destroying half the leagues aesthetics with their ill-advised edge template.  Would there even be a demand for the retros without the switch the to flag clown-suits? 

Would the red sweaters you're gushing about have been as beloved if they didn't replace a black primary look that didn't even feature the team's primary logo? 

 

Would that black primary look have even been promoted from alt status had the pedestal design not ended up looking dated almost as soon as it debuted? 

 

Maybe the Flames' 2003-2007 set would have persevered had Reebok not mucked the concept up, but that's hardly a guarantee. The Flames' throwbacks got so much love because of how clean they looked without the black. 

 

But even if I grant you that the 2003-2007 set would still be in use to this day had Reebok not fumbled the Edge changeover I can easily argue something else.

That the throwbacks they wear now could very well have been the Flames' uniforms this entire time had the team resisted the 90s trend of adding black unnecessarily. 

 

But we don't live in either of those realities. We live in the real world where the Flames' uniform history has taken a few interesting turns before returning to a gorgeous, back to basics look. 

 

And while you could accuse it of being a product of the 80s I'd argue its aesthetics are far more timeless than something that's very much a product of the 90s or 2000s. 

[Morgan33]

49 minutes ago, IceCap said:

Absolutely I can. The Buffaslug was the league's number one seller when it was unveiled and everyone hated it.   Jersey sales are not a mark of quality of design. Any new design is guaranteed to do well because it's new. 

 

If that were the case, then every new design would automatically become a best seller.  Sabres fans would have bought anything that remotely resembled their original scheme after 10 years of black and red so that's hardly a fair comparison.  The Ducks new uniforms also debuted that year and not even a Stanley cup championship could make them a best seller.
 

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Your problem is that you associate your subjective aesthetic preference for objective progress. 

What about the addition of black to the Flames' scheme is "forward" or "modern" other than that it was a trend nearly thirty years ago?

 

Adding black absolutely moved the brand forward because it gave the uniforms something they've never had: proper contrast.  A uniform that pairs two overtly bright colours with multiple examples of white and yellow bleeding together is a poorly thought design.  Especially when this issue of colour-bleed gets in the way of the set having a cohesive striping configuration.   There were lots of examples of Black for Black's sake in the 90's.  The Flames were not one them. 

After going too far out with the pedestal and Blasty designs, they finally utilized the addition of black properly in 2003.
 

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Would the red sweaters you're gushing about have been as beloved if they didn't replace a black primary look that didn't even feature the team's primary logo? 

 

If they weren't replacing the black, blasty uniform, they'd be replacing the red pedestal so I'm sure it would have been a popular and beloved upgrade either way.  Spin it how you want, I was in Calgary when the uniform debuted and people loved it.

 

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Maybe the Flames' 2003-2007 set would have persevered had Reebok not mucked the concept up, but that's hardly a guarantee. The Flames' throwbacks got so much love because of how clean they looked without the black. 

 

Clean without black or clean without the side panels, intersecting hem-piping, mismatched socks and clash-patches?  The 2004-07 set was a perfectly clean design.

 

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And while you could accuse it of being a product of the 80s I'd argue its aesthetics are far more timeless than something that's very much a product of the 90s or 2000s. 

 

Not everything from the 80's is automatically timeless.  The Flames retros are mismatched, overtly bright and gaudy.

[IceCap]

23 minutes ago, Morgan33 said:

Not everything from the 80's is automatically timeless.  

No, but the Flames' look is. 

 

24 minutes ago, Morgan33 said:

Adding black absolutely moved the brand forward because it gave the uniforms something they've never had: proper contrast. 

They're named after fire. They should be bright. 

Again, a design trend from over fifteen years ago is not "moving forward." 

[Echo]

1 hour ago, Morgan33 said:

Sabres fans would have bought anything that remotely resembled their original scheme after 10 years of black and red so that's hardly a fair comparison. 

The change also happened to coincide with a President's Trophy season and the most entertaining team the Sabres had iced since the French Connection.  There were literally people setting up tents in empty lots to sell Sabres merch during the '06 and '07 playoff runs.

[Ridleylash]

31 minutes ago, Echo said:

The change also happened to coincide with a President's Trophy season and the most entertaining team the Sabres had iced since the French Connection.  There were literally people setting up tents in empty lots to sell Sabres merch during the '06 and '07 playoff runs.

I mean, the '05-06 Sabres would very likely have gone all the way had they not been absolutely decimated by injuries, so I don't think that the success of the team was the main reason it sold so well. It was that it was a new primary look, and new primary jerseys have pretty much always sold loads, regardless of how good or bad they are (and the Slug look was definitely on the latter end of that).

 

That the logo only lasted six years as primary, and even less than that without the original logo backing it up, in spite of how successful the team was on the ice at the time, probably indicates more that people liked that they went back to blue and gold over liking much else about the new look.

 

It's why looking at merch sales is not always a good idea for judging the success of a rebrand; people will always want the new look just because it's the new look. I mean, you can bet the Isles sold a load of Fisherman jerseys on them being the new look of the team, but those were also so reviled they had to move away from it only a few seasons later; hardly a successful rebranding.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

Still hoping for a kraken ice blue jersey with the anchor logo

[habsfan1]

On 1/28/2022 at 12:16 PM, AFirestormToPurify said:

Mostly agree as both teams look great but I am the only one who misses the yellow numbers?

 

I agree that the yellow numbers are more consistent with their uniform history and look better.

 

But by some coincidence, they won the Cup, not long after changing them to white...

[Morgan33]

23 hours ago, IceCap said:

No, but the Flames' look is.

 

Why is it timeless?  Because it's from the 80's?  Because  it doesn't have black?  Because it aped the Blue's almost stripe for stripe? 
 

 

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They're named after fire. They should be bright. 

Again, a design trend from over fifteen years ago is not "moving forward."

The idea that a team named after fire can't use black is ridiculous.  And just because the stupid term "Black for Black's Sake" was coined, doesn't mean every team that adds it is following a trend.
 

[IceCap]

8 minutes ago, Morgan33 said:

Why is it timeless?  Because it's from the 80's?  Because  it doesn't have black?  Because it aped the Blue's almost stripe for stripe? 

First off the Blues comparison is hilarious. Nice reach. 

 

Secondly, no it's not timeless just because it's from the 80s. You're gushing over a uniform from nineteen years ago. You've lost the right to play the "you just like it because it's old" card. 

 

Thirdly...the Flames' retro/current look is timeless because it takes a pretty traditional hockey look- arm and waist stripes and a shoulder yoke- and doesn't over-complicate things. It used two colours that work well together- red and gold- and just lets them be. 

 

Truth is they're from the 80s but they could have been designed any decade. 60s, 40s, 90s, 2000s. It's a simple, timeless hockey look that stands out by its use of a unique colour scheme in the NHL.  

 

14 minutes ago, Morgan33 said:

The idea that a team named after fire can't use black is ridiculous. 

I think it could probably work in some contexts, but the Flames' retro/current look is bright and vibrant and doesn't need anything else. 

 

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And just because the stupid term "Black for Black's Sake" was coined, doesn't mean every team that adds it is following a trend.

I'm sorry someone came up with a catchy term that boils down a dumb trend to its base level. 

 

Anyway the Flames were absolutely following a trend. They first introduced black in the mid 90s and BFBS was already in full effect across the Big Four. 

[Point1]

I love the Flames' 2004-07 look but it's definitely not timeless. The angular arm stripes and hem were such a 90s/00s trend and you don't see it anymore. If they want to bring them back, they can just straighten out those stripes though.

 

The Flames' 1980s jerseys are timeless because they're simple - stripes, shoulder yoke, etc. There aren't any gimmicks. If you think they're boring, lack contrast, etc. that's fine, but they don't really look of their time.

[Morgan33]

5 hours ago, IceCap said:

First off the Blues comparison is hilarious. Nice reach.

Why?  Replace Blue with Red and it's pretty much the exact same mismatched uniform set, stripe for stripe.
 

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You're gushing over a uniform from nineteen years ago. You've lost the right to play the "you just like it because it's old" card. 

I'm gushing over a uniform from 19 years ago, one that if it weren't for Reebok's horrible vision for hockey, would likely have remained intact until at least the end of 2020, because I think it looks good.  Period.  I don't heap praise on it because it's old or call it "timeless." 
 

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Thirdly...the Flames' retro/current look is timeless because it takes a pretty traditional hockey look- arm and waist stripes and a shoulder yoke- and doesn't over-complicate things. It used two colours that work well together- red and gold- and just lets them be. 

 

You are entitled to your opinion.  What irritates me is how you act like anyone who disagrees is engaging in some sort of sacrilege or that there's only one right answer.  There are many legitimate reasons why people can criticize the retros and there are also plenty of legitimate reasons why people can prefer the 2004-07 look.  And I'm far from the only person on these boards who does.

 

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I'm sorry someone came up with a catchy term that boils down a dumb trend to its base level.   Anyway the Flames were absolutely following a trend. They first introduced black in the mid 90s and BFBS was already in full effect across the Big Four. 

Pardon the pun but things are not as black and white as that.  There are cases where adding black is completely unnecessary band-wagon jumping (See the Mets) and there are cases where it can improve a teams colour palette.  I'm willing to wager the majority of people on here prefer the Devil's championship winning look to their original red and greens.  I'm not one of those people but I'm not going to call it BFBS, bandwagon jumping because of my personal preference.