2023-24 NHL Jersey Changes

[The_Admiral]

25 minutes ago, Korkie said:

Walker Kessler wore it to the arena. I don’t know how or why he has one. 

With a name like "Walker Kessler," maybe he thought he played in the NHL.

[M4One]

1 hour ago, ruttep said:

Why are the Utah Jazz leaking it? Is there a connection I'm missing?

 

Walker Kessler is signed to Adidas, I think.  He  was probably shown it by someone over there or saw it and asked for the hookup.  This might be the most unusual way a jersey has every been leaked.  

[Morgan33]

7 hours ago, lopernv said:

Why does it not "work" for hockey? 

I cannot understand this overwhelming desire to maintain the status quo of quite possibly the most boring uniform in all of professional sports - the NHL road.

 

I can understand preferring the coloured homes over the road whites...   I have that preference myself with some exceptions like Seattle and Columbus (just to name a few).  But calling it the most boring uniform in all of sports seems a bit harsh.  Especially considering that white uniforms were previously worn at home and were arguably held in higher regard than their coloured counterparts when this was the case.

[ruttep]

I always found white uniforms more interesting than color uniforms because you need to put more design into a white uniform: On a colored jersey, the color base can often carry the design, but with a white jersey, it's not that simple. That's the reason why there are teams like the Rangers, Flames, or Sabres that don't need shoulder yokes on the home jersey, but their road whites have them.

 

The Rangers jersey is actually the best example of this -- the blue jersey is beautiful, but objectively it isn't that interesting of a design. The blue color is what draws attention to this jersey.

 

But with the white jersey, you can't just copy/paste the same design from the blue and call it a day, there really wouldn't be much to that jersey. Part of this is rectified by the space between the stripes on the sleeves and hem. One of the most iconic shoulder yokes in hockey ties everything together. It's my favorite jersey in sports.

 

I'm fine either way with whatever color teams wear at home, but every NHL game should feature at least one team wearing white. Because they're often designed better than their darker-colored counterparts.

[Chewbacca]

With this new rule regarding helmets, I think this will open the floodgates to more awful looks down the road. As for the Kraken leak, I am super disappointed. It looks like a beer league team used the Ottawa heritage jersey design for their uniform. I was hoping for a 1915 style Metropolitans sweater in Kraken colours with a simple Kraken style ’S’ reading SEATTLE down the S like the original Metropolitans logo.

[Jahoko]

9 hours ago, ruttep said:

Regarding helmets, a bigger problem to me is chrome helmets.

 

These need to be banned:

Honestly, I wish there’s a game for both teams to wear their chromedomes just for lolz.  

[ruttep]

 

Rangers beat reporter says that the navy equipment is for the outdoor game, not a potential alternate. Which means that the navy jersey that was leaked a few weeks ago is likely the Stadium Series jersey

[henburg]

Allowing teams to wear colored helmets on the road is a huge win. "It's always been done that way" is almost never a good reason to keep doing something. I mean just look at the difference between these two looks-

 

 

I mean the copycat Rangers script still stinks, but what was really generic before instantly becomes much more interesting and balanced. Of course some teams will look better with the traditional white helmets, and I imagine that those wont experiment too much even after this ruling, but I feel good that it will greatly benefit a lot of teams with dull road looks.

 

[ruttep]

3 minutes ago, henburg said:

Allowing teams to wear colored helmets on the road is a huge win. "It's always been done that way" is almost never a good reason to keep doing something. I mean just look at the difference between these two looks-

 

 

I mean the copycat Rangers script still stinks, but what was really generic before instantly becomes much more interesting and balanced. Of course some teams will look better with the traditional white helmets, and I imagine that those wont experiment too much even after this ruling, but I feel good that it will greatly benefit a lot of teams with dull road looks.

 

 

Sorry. Don't see it. Still looks bush league to me.

[ruttep]

From what I've seen, one of the biggest arguments in favor of color helmets on the road is balancing the pants color with the helmet color. With that in mind, the colored helmets are not necessary for teams with shoulder yokes that match the pants color. Those teams should never wear colored helmets. They include:

 

Anaheim

Buffalo

Calgary

Columbus

Edmonton

Minnesota

New Jersey

St Louis

Winnipeg

[spartacat_12]

20 hours ago, lopernv said:

Why does it not "work" for hockey? 

I cannot understand this overwhelming desire to maintain the status quo of quite possibly the most boring uniform in all of professional sports - the NHL road.

 

The NFL made helmets mandatory in the ‘40s, and teams were using designs on them not too long after. Helmets didn’t become widely used in the NHL until the ‘70s, so they were never considered a focal point of the uniform. 
 

Helmets are the most iconic piece of equipment in football, and are often the only place where a team displays their logo. With a big logo on the chest, along with more space on the sleeves for stripes, the sweater does most of the heavy lifting in hockey.
 

19 hours ago, the admiral said:

It's funny, because I know I've said before that I could have envisioned the Hartford Whalers making a play for a low-density national fanbase through sheer idiosyncrasy: "a team for the rest of us," kind of what the Oakland A's have done. Someone here told me I was wrong and delusional and such a thing would have been impossible, but the Hurricanes seem to have done precisely that by being Weird Twitter: The Sports Team, and I can't help but think what ever sort of wackiness I had envisioned for a staying-put Whalers would be nowhere near as insufferable as what these McMansion sprawl-creatures have given us.

What makes you think the Carolina Hurricanes have any sort of national fanbase? They seem to only live rent free in the heads of hockey fans who are perpetually online. 

[chcarlson23]

The dark helmets with the white jerseys are often way too top heavy, and it seems to pull your eyes away from the players hands, feet, and/or breezers, and up to the head. 
 

And especially in the case of the Hurricanes and the Leafs (And even the Avs who have done it apparently) their looks are pretty balanced between the set, so the helmet just kinda needs to fade into the background. The bright cherry red of the Canes, and deep Royal blue really stand out, and not necessarily in a good way. Like I said, they just need to fade into the background, otherwise it blocks the uniform really oddly. I think it could work much better for both teams if their sweaters were a little different. A shoulder yoke for one, would be easier on the eyes for both, and I think even the Canes would need a darker, almost maroon/burgundy shade of red, so it wasn’t so jarring. 
 

I think colored helmets can work, but they have to be planned for the design of the uniforms, otherwise they’re just a little tacky and too out there. It would be like players wearing team-colored skates. Sure it might match the team colors, but it certainly wouldn’t look good…

[ruttep]

3 minutes ago, chcarlson23 said:

The dark helmets with the white jerseys are often way too top heavy, and it seems to pull your eyes away from the players hands, feet, and/or breezers, and up to the head. 
 

And especially in the case of the Hurricanes and the Leafs (And even the Avs who have done it apparently) their looks are pretty balanced between the set, so the helmet just kinda needs to fade into the background. The bright cherry red of the Canes, and deep Royal blue really stand out, and not necessarily in a good way. Like I said, they just need to fade into the background, otherwise it blocks the uniform really oddly. I think it could work much better for both teams if their sweaters were a little different. A shoulder yoke for one, would be easier on the eyes for both, and I think even the Canes would need a darker, almost maroon/burgundy shade of red, so it wasn’t so jarring. 
 

I think colored helmets can work, but they have to be planned for the design of the uniforms, otherwise they’re just a little tacky and too out there. It would be like players wearing team-colored skates. Sure it might match the team colors, but it certainly wouldn’t look good…

 

Regarding the Avs, you're talking about that one game in the 90s, right? I haven't seen any indication that they intend to wear their current blue helmets with their road jerseys.

[henburg]

7 minutes ago, chcarlson23 said:

The dark helmets with the white jerseys are often way too top heavy, and it seems to pull your eyes away from the players hands, feet, and/or breezers, and up to the head. 
 

And especially in the case of the Hurricanes and the Leafs (And even the Avs who have done it apparently) their looks are pretty balanced between the set, so the helmet just kinda needs to fade into the background. The bright cherry red of the Canes, and deep Royal blue really stand out, and not necessarily in a good way. Like I said, they just need to fade into the background, otherwise it blocks the uniform really oddly. I think it could work much better for both teams if their sweaters were a little different. A shoulder yoke for one, would be easier on the eyes for both, and I think even the Canes would need a darker, almost maroon/burgundy shade of red, so it wasn’t so jarring. 
 

I think colored helmets can work, but they have to be planned for the design of the uniforms, otherwise they’re just a little tacky and too out there. It would be like players wearing team-colored skates. Sure it might match the team colors, but it certainly wouldn’t look good…

 

Interesting insight, your points remind me a lot of some of the arguments I see surrounding grey facemasks in football. Some people prefer the neutral look almost like it's not a part of the uniform at all, whereas others see the grey having the opposite effect and sticking out. Speaking for myself here, I don't see the pieces of the uniform in the same way that you do, and I find that in many cases the white helmet actually sticks out more simply because it throws the uniform color balance off in many cases. 

 

Looking at the Canes and Leafs specifically, to me the colored helmets paired with the white really just feel right, like the uniform could have looked that way all along if not for helmets being standardized in the way that they were initially.

[The_Admiral]

35 minutes ago, spartacat_12 said:

What makes you think the Carolina Hurricanes have any sort of national fanbase?

 

You think the fans of their wacky hijinks and bad-angle shots are strictly limited to Raleigh-Durham?

[ruttep]

56 minutes ago, henburg said:

 

Interesting insight, your points remind me a lot of some of the arguments I see surrounding grey facemasks in football. Some people prefer the neutral look almost like it's not a part of the uniform at all, whereas others see the grey having the opposite effect and sticking out. Speaking for myself here, I don't see the pieces of the uniform in the same way that you do, and I find that in many cases the white helmet actually sticks out more simply because it throws the uniform color balance off in many cases. 

 

Looking at the Canes and Leafs specifically, to me the colored helmets paired with the white really just feel right, like the uniform could have looked that way all along if not for helmets being standardized in the way that they were initially.

 

I see helmets very simply.

 

White jersey ---> White helmet

Colored jersey ---> Either the jersey color or the pants color

[M4One]

The Vegas Golden Knights are All Elite.  Winter Classic leaked by AEW?

 

 

[seasaltvanilla]

Hard miss.

[Nordiks_19]

16 minutes ago, M4One said:

The Vegas Golden Knights are All Elite.  Winter Classic leaked by AEW?

 

 

The PPV is gonna be good, unlike those Vegas jerseys...

[ruttep]

25 minutes ago, M4One said:

The Vegas Golden Knights are All Elite.  Winter Classic leaked by AEW?

 

 

 

Wow, the Vegas jersey looks plain. Hopefully it looks a lot better with the rest of the uniform. I've never been a big fan of revealing the jersey without the rest of the uniform, that was one of my main gripes with the Reverse Retro program. It's really hard to get a sense of what a uniform will look like on the ice when it's just a model wearing a jersey that's several sizes too large.