2022-2023 NHL Jersey Changes

[McCall]

3 hours ago, IceCap said:

The second is that they seem to always return to the Gretzky look anyway. They went to navy, copper, and salmon of all things in the late 90s and rode that until the Edge changeover when they butchered that identity. Then they just decided to go to the classic Gretzky look and everyone was happy.

When did they use "salmon"?

[ManillaToad]

I think Edmonton should stick with the royal because it's the best look they've ever had. Has nothing to do with how successful they were in Gretzky era

[AFirestormToPurify]

20 hours ago, dont care said:

How do the oilers look dated? Those same arm stripes are used by half the league, shoulder yokes have been used in hockey throughout their it’s history and not tied to any specific time to look “dated.” It’s not the colors because you already stated the islanders don’t look dated in the same colors.

It's the logo with the dumb 70s font and yes, the colours. The Islanders use the same colours in wildly different proportions. The double outlines on the numbers look kinda dated as well. Nothing wrong with the striping when they use navy instead. Otherwise it's too busy and it looks garish when they use two bright colours and not enough of white

 

11 hours ago, Point1 said:

Frankly, for a younger generation of fans the royal blue jerseys don't bring memories of the Gretzky years - they bring to mind the constant failure of the 2010 to 2016 Oilers.

 

Even if I wasn't huge on the orange primary look, at least it was kind of acknowledging that and building a new look for a new era. Navy + orange could have been a very sharp McDavid-era identity if they stuck to it (and made a navy version of the classic sweater the primary)

Also this. This is McDavid's team. Time to move on from Gretzky. It screams "hey we suck now but remember when we were good??"

 

11 hours ago, VampyrRabbitDesign said:

The aspect of the Oilers jersey that is most tied to a time period design wise is the logo with it's very 1970s font, and I see no calls to change that

Sup

[officeglenn]

6 minutes ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

Sup

 

Fair enough, but if the Oilers haven't changed it by now, they're probably not going to. It's not necessarily a timeless design – or even a good design by today's standards – but it has become difficult for fans (and by extension the team) to fathom a change just because it has been around so long. I've seen a concepts around here that clean up the logo, make the letters follow the outer circle better, etc., and that might fly, but anything else will go over with the fanbase like a fart in church.

 

To me, the worst part of the current set isn't the navy blue; it's the pale highlighter orange. I feel like they could keep the navy blue and go back to the old orange, and that could be a nice compromise that grounds their identity without getting too far into Islanders territory.

[AFirestormToPurify]

6 minutes ago, officeglenn said:

 

Fair enough, but if the Oilers haven't changed it by now, they're probably not going to. It's not necessarily a timeless design – or even a good design by today's standards – but it has become difficult for fans (and by extension the team) to fathom a change just because it has been around so long. I've seen a concepts around here that clean up the logo, make the letters follow the outer circle better, etc., and that might fly, but anything else will go over with the fanbase like a fart in church.

 

To me, the worst part of the current set isn't the navy blue; it's the pale highlighter orange. I feel like they could keep the navy blue and go back to the old orange, and that could be a nice compromise that grounds their identity without getting too far into Islanders territory.

I thought navy blue with a single outline on numbers and solid navy blue gear was a nice compromise, but of course they had to choose orange as the home jersey base colour. If they had gone with navy blue instead and kept the orange jersey around but only as an alternate, I'm sure they wouldn't be announcing a return to royal blue this year. Then again, who knows. I may be cynical but I'm sure they just want to sell more merch cause the owner is greedy and in another 5-6 years they'll probably go back to navy and copper again only to bring back the Gretzky era uniforms a few seasons after that lol

[spartacat_12]

2 hours ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

Also this. This is McDavid's team. Time to move on from Gretzky. It screams "hey we suck now but remember when we were good??"

 

I'm not sure why this always seems to get brought up with the Oilers. No one says "the Bulls need to update their uniforms, the Michael Jordan era is over" or "why are the 49ers dressing like Joe Montana still plays for them". When you have a classic look that is beloved by most of the fanbase you should probably stick with it. Especially if you're Edmonton and bringing back that look for a second time.

[AFirestormToPurify]

9 minutes ago, spartacat_12 said:

 

I'm not sure why this always seems to get brought up with the Oilers. No one says "the Bulls need to update their uniforms, the Michael Jordan era is over" or "why are the 49ers dressing like Joe Montana still plays for them". When you have a classic look that is beloved by most of the fanbase you should probably stick with it. Especially if you're Edmonton and bringing back that look for a second time.

Because the Bulls never changed their uniforms. I can't speak for the 49ers I've never been a fan of their uniforms or colours lol

Edmonton should have kept the Gretzky uniforms around and tweaked small details over the years but they didn't so when they bring them back it just feels like a shallow cash grab

Again, time to move on

[pepis21]

On 7/5/2022 at 3:30 AM, Ridleylash said:

From all insider accounts, the navy jersey is sticking around as the alternate, so it's definitely not that.

Well that sucks because navy alt should gone.

[spartacat_12]

56 minutes ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

Again, time to move on

 

They tried moving on. Twice. It's clear at this point what the fans want.

 

Also, the team wore the royal blue for 8 more seasons after Gretzky was traded, including one Stanley Cup, so the uniforms have a deeper connection than just one player.

 

5 minutes ago, pepis21 said:

Well that sucks because navy alt should gone.

 

I'm sure it'll just be a one year thing to clear out some stock without having to discount it.

[Ridleylash]

10 minutes ago, spartacat_12 said:

Also, the team wore the royal blue for 8 more seasons after Gretzky was traded, including one Stanley Cup, so the uniforms have a deeper connection than just one player.

Plus, like, why wouldn't you want your team to wear what they were wearing when they had the best player in NHL history?

 

Seriously, the only change that's really worked decently is the change to the navy and copper, and even still I'd prefer that replace the alt than become the new primary. If they have to do an orange jersey, you do the WHA throwback.

[AFirestormToPurify]

2 hours ago, spartacat_12 said:

They tried moving on. Twice. It's clear at this point what the fans want.

I dunno about that. They really seemed to like the orange jerseys. But then again, they'll probably wear anything that has a 97 on the back lol

Besides, you don't have to agree with me. I know my opinion isn't exactly a popular one, but I'm not gonna change my mind. People are just blinded by their nostalgia goggles when it comes to the Oilers. The Gretzky era jerseys sucked and bringing them back without changing anything is a mistake. But my opinion doesn't matter since I'm not an Oilers fan and they will make a killing off of jersey sales anyway which is the idea behind the change, probably

[Nordiks_19]

21 minutes ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

I dunno about that. They really seemed to like the orange jerseys. But then again, they'll probably wear anything that has a 97 on the back lol

Besides, you don't have to agree with me. I know my opinion isn't exactly a popular one, but I'm not gonna change my mind. People are just blinded by their nostalgia goggles when it comes to the Oilers. The Gretzky era jerseys sucked and brining them back without changing anything is a mistake. But my opinion doesn't matter since I'm not an Oilers fan and they will make a killing off of jersey sales anyway which is the idea behind the change, probably

When the first orange alternate was released in 2015, they gave one free for each person owning a season ticket, wich explains why there's so much orange jerseys in the stand. Yes of course, a lot of people bought an Adidas orange Jersey (A LOT with 97 on the back). If they decided to give a free Royal blue jersey to every season tickets holders this year, you'd see a lot more royal blue in the stands as well

[IceCap]

5 hours ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

Also this. This is McDavid's team. Time to move on from Gretzky. It screams "hey we suck now but remember when we were good??"

An interesting take from a Habs fan. 

[AFirestormToPurify]

12 minutes ago, IceCap said:

An interesting take from a Habs fan. 

Not really. Our jerseys haven't changed drastically in decades and they never will either. They only modernized it a few times with subtle tweaks so that it doesn't look too dated. Same goes with every other O6 team. Not comparable to the Oilers at all, who've only known success for a few years in a specific decade and have changed their colours 3 times now only to go back to their "classic" and very dated uniform associated with a very specific superstar after a few years.

None of these things apply to the Canadiens

Edit: also, we definitely don't have a McJesus that we can build a new identity around lol

[ujju2]

8 hours ago, Point1 said:

I'm not saying younger fans don't remember Gretzky or aren't aware of those older teams. I'm saying when I (as a 26 year old, and I imagine this is the case for younger fans as well) see those jerseys on a modern template, the subconscious association I make is with Hall/Eberle/Nugent-Hopkins/Schultz/Yakupov and not with the Gretzky era.

 

This is true. As a 21 year old Edmontonian myself, I definitely associate the royal blue with the 2010-2017 Oilers. But that's not necessarily a bad thing in my mind. Yes, the Oilers sucked for most of that time (2016-17 being the major exception). But those years were also the better part of my childhood. Those are the jerseys that immediately come to mind when I think Oilers.

 

On a side note, I'm not fundamentally opposed to the idea of navy. But the shade of orange that they've been using since 2017-18 awful, and so the royal sets simply work better.  If they could go royal at home, white on the road (maybe even with orange yokes like the Reverse Retro), and bring back the 2015-17 WHA orange thirds, that would be ideal imo.

[ujju2]

2 hours ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

I dunno about that. They really seemed to like the orange jerseys. But then again, they'll probably wear anything that has a 97 on the back lol

Besides, you don't have to agree with me. I know my opinion isn't exactly a popular one, but I'm not gonna change my mind. People are just blinded by their nostalgia goggles when it comes to the Oilers. The Gretzky era jerseys sucked and bringing them back without changing anything is a mistake. But my opinion doesn't matter since I'm not an Oilers fan and they will make a killing off of jersey sales anyway which is the idea behind the change, probably

 

A LOT of the orange jerseys you see in the crowd are the WHA orange throwbacks that were used from 2015-17. Those were beautiful jerseys. The orange jerseys they've worn from 2017-18 onwards are just plain ugly. Anyways, fans were asked specifically to wear orange for the playoffs and that's why the crowd is so orange.

 

Edit: Also, the royal blue jerseys are beautiful. I don't know if it was you or someone else who said they look dated whereas the Isles' royals don't but I completely disagree. I've actually never liked the Isles' royal blue jerseys at all.  Always thought there was too much blue and white and not enough orange. The Oilers' royal blues are perfect imo because the colour balance is perfect with the orange yokes, numbers, and cuffs.

 

Edit#2: I just saw you specifically said you like the greater proportion of white on the Isles' jersey. I guess we're not going to find any common ground on this topic then, haha.

Edited July 6, 2022 by ujju2

[ujju2]

1 hour ago, Nordiks_19 said:

When the first orange alternate was released in 2015, they gave one free for each person owning a season ticket, wich explains why there's so much orange jerseys in the stand. Yes of course, a lot of people bought an Adidas orange Jersey (A LOT with 97 on the back). If they decided to give a free Royal blue jersey to every season tickets holders this year, you'd see a lot more royal blue in the stands as well

 

This is true, but the WHA orange alternates were also popular because they looked good. Add in that they. were used for the2017 playoffs, the first Oilers playoff run in a decade, and you can see why they're popular. But the newer orange home jerseys are just garish. Way too bright and they look like pylons. Bring back the 2015-17 set.

[Ridleylash]

The only time navy has ever really worked for the Oil is when they'd completely ditched orange altogether in favor of a less bright copper color;

 

But combining navy with their bright orange just isn't quite going to work because the bright warm tone of the orange is such a dramatic contrast to the dark cold tone of the navy.

[WSU151]

40 minutes ago, AFirestormToPurify said:

Not really. Our jerseys haven't changed drastically in decades and they never will either. They only modernized it a few times with subtle tweaks so that it doesn't look too dated. Same goes with every other O6 team. Not comparable to the Oilers at all, who've only known success for a few years in a specific decade and have changed their colours 3 times now only to go back to their "classic" and very dated uniform associated with a very specific superstar after a few years.

None of these things apply to the Canadiens

Edit: also, we definitely don't have a McJesus that we can build a new identity around lol

 

There's a certain contradiction in your argument...

 

The ice cream argument is your team doesn't need to move on to a new design even though its glory days are 30-50+ years ago. 

 

The cake argument is other teams should move on to updated designs as their glory days are 30-40 years ago. 

 

I think it'd be way easier to say the Oilers should stick with navy if they were a team that had very minimal success throughout their history.

 

Personally, I like the royal blue because it looks better on TV and in photographs.  The Sabres realized royal looks way better than navy (even though Gilbert Perreault isn't suiting up anytime soon), and now Edmonton has realized that (again) too. 

[AFirestormToPurify]

1 hour ago, WSU151 said:

 

There's a certain contradiction in your argument...

 

The ice cream argument is your team doesn't need to move on to a new design even though its glory days are 30-50+ years ago. 

 

The cake argument is other teams should move on to updated designs as their glory days are 30-40 years ago. 

 

I think it'd be way easier to say the Oilers should stick with navy if they were a team that had very minimal success throughout their history.

 

Personally, I like the royal blue because it looks better on TV and in photographs.  The Sabres realized royal looks way better than navy (even though Gilbert Perreault isn't suiting up anytime soon), and now Edmonton has realized that (again) too. 

There's no contradiction, the Habs have never changed anything drastically but they've tweaked it several times along the way

The Oilers keep changing their colours instead of just sticking with something and fixing it gradually when it starts looking dated

If the Habs went back to a perfect replica of their glory days 1970s jerseys I'd be complaining for the same reasons

 

The Sabres comparison doesn't work at all because they brought back a new and improved version of the jerseys they wore in the 70s and 80s, there's a few key differences (mostly the much more vibrant shade of blue, texture on the logo and white stripes on the blue jersey etc)

So basically you're proving my point here. This is exactly what the Oilers should have done instead of trying to cosplay as Gretzky's team. Anyway, I'm done arguing about the Oilers, their jerseys suck and no one here is gonna change my mind lol