The new Adidas NHL jerseys are here and many teams have made changes to their design. We will highlight the teams that made the biggest changes. First off, all 31 teams have switched to a new modern (& controversial) collar design. So since every single team has a newly designed collar I won't get into those changes too much. What I will do is show you the 4 different collar styles that were used - the differences being dependent on the lacing.
First off.... THE VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS!!!!
-Steel grey jersey (black, gold, red stripes) with black pants and (never done before) steel grey helmets and white & gold gloves. -Names are white & numbers are white with gold outline. -Shiny/sparkly gold material used on jersey with a raised wavy pattern embroidery. Grade: A I was pleasantly surprised and liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Love the gold material and happy to not see a lot of red.
EDMONTON OILERS
The Oilers just took their orange third jersey and changed the striping to match their road ones. They also switched from royal to navy blue throughout their entire uniforms. Grade: B- Honestly, I prefer last year's 3rd jersey to this. Liked the royal blue much better - made it pop out a lot more!
MINNESOTA WILD
The Wild finally got a home jersey that matches their aways instead of 3 jerseys completely different designs! Joins Montreal & Florida with chest stripes but adds a red stripe to it on the arms and they get a new shoulder patch (the "M" from their script logo) Grade: A- As a fan of their aways, I think these look very good - modern & classic. However, I was hoping that the chest stripe would wrap around to the back with red numbers which would have matched their aways even better.
COLORADO AVALANCHE
The Avs finally lose the pin stripes and go back to the design that won for them! Differences from their original jerseys are that they go with a thick grey stripe around their blue shoulders, they have their Colorado Rockies shoulder patch now, and they have removed black from their numbers - leaving just a grey stripe.
Grade: A+ In my opinion, Colorado won the night with a huge improvement from last year's jerseys. In fact, I think these are the best jerseys they have had throughout their entire history.
CAROLINA HURRICANES
Like the Wild, they Hurricanes get a jersey to match their aways! Just take their away jersey, switch the base colour from white to red, and then extend the black stripe to the bottom of the waist and arms. Perfect! Oh yeah, they also brought back their warning flag pattern - this time, it's much more subtle.
Grade: A I like it! It's their 20th anniversary and they brought back some history with the warning flags, and the important thing is they now match their aways in an attractive way. Well done!
NEW JERSEY DEVILS
The Devils go very modern with fat stripes, squared shoulders & basically no waist stripes.
Grade: C+ It's very bold but as a traditionalist, I'd say it's too modern. Really, they just need to add some waist stripes and it would look very good. But as it stands now, I prefer last year's better.
Other teams that made significant changes (but more minor) include: Boston, Buffalo, Calgary, Columbus, Nashville, Ottawa, San Jose, & St. Louis...
BOSTON: Removed black inner outline on names & numbers. BUFFALO: Removed pin stripes wrapping around underarms. And it seems they switched their inner thin stripes on sleeves and waist from grey to white.
CALGARY: Removed pin stripes wrapping around underarms and the italics from their names & numbers. COLUMBUS: New font for names & numbers. NASHVILLE: Removed pin stripes and the extra thin blue stripe above white stripe on sleeves and waist. OTTAWA: New font for names & numbers.
SAN JOSE: Added two new shoulder patches - one on homes, one on aways. ST. LOUIS: Changed to white numbers on home jerseys.
Stayed for more details and the unveiling of the away jerseys.