The NHL is back! At 5:30 this afternoon, the Penguins and Flyers will face off for the first game of the 2020-21 season. The season will be a shortened one, consisting of only 56 games, with re-aligned divisions and an end date currently set for mid-July. Over the mid-season offseason we had from when the 19-20 season was suspended in March until the bubble began in August, and the actual offseason we had from when the Stanley Cup was awarded until today, we’ve seen a slew of changes made to the NHL uniform and general visual landscape. So, let’s recap everything new we’ll be seeing this season, starting with league-wide initiatives, and then going by team, in alphabetical order.
Helmet Ads
I hate to start the article out with something so unfortunate, but you know what they say, get the bad news out of the way first.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHL is allowing teams to place advertisements on their helmets for the upcoming season. These sponsor logos will be replacing the team’s logo on each side of the helmet. Many of these ads won’t be bringing in revenue, but rather are make-goods, for existing sponsors that lost out due to the season being paused, many of which are the teams’ arena sponsors. At least as of now, this is only league-wide visual change in effect for the upcoming season. Let’s hope it stays that way, but I’m not counting on it.
As of writing this, many teams, but not all teams, have revealed who their helmet sponsor or sponsors will be, with results ranging from logos that coincidentally match the team colors (Washington), to logos that are re-colored to match team colors (Detroit, among others), to the many that are in colors that contrast with the team’s color palette. Fortunately, the majority of them are only small decals on the helmet, about the size that a team’s logo or wordmark would normally be on the helmet. Unfortunately, the Pittsburgh Penguins are an outlier to that, featuring a large, light blue PPG logo on the side of each of their black, white, and yellow helmets. While it’s unfortunate it happens to be my team, I hope they’re the only ones with a decal that large, to spare everyone else from such a fate.
I won’t go into details in this article, because as you’ll find out, the article is already pretty lengthy. But throughout the next few days, when every team plays their first few games, I’m sure we’ll find out who the yet to be announced sponsors are and if any teams happen to avoid this fate. And we’ll likely put together another article on it. So keep an eye out for that in the next week or so.
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Realigned and Sponsored Divisions
Another side-effect of COVID-19, the NHL has re-aligned their divisions for this year. They have also unveiled a logo for each one, not too dissimilar to what we may see for an All-Star game. Well, if we had one this year. Each division also has a sponsor attached to it.
In the Scotia NHL North Division, we have all of the Canadian teams. Calgary, Edmonton, Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg. This is due to travel restrictions placed by the Canadian government prohibiting non-essential travel across the border. As much as I love the sport, I would tend to agree with their non-essential designation.
The Honda NHL West Division is comprised entirely of teams that are normally in the Western Conference: Anaheim, Arizona, Colorado, Los Angeles, Minnesota, San Jose, St. Louis, and Vegas.
The MassMutual NHL East Division is comprised entirely of teams that are normally in the Eastern Conference: Boston, Buffalo, New Jersey, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington.
The Discover NHL Central Division seems to be the division comprised of whoever was left over, with a variety of geographical locations: Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Nashville, and Tampa Bay. Very interesting that last year’s Stanley Cup Champion and finalist will both be in the same division this year.
Celebrating Equality Helmet Decal
I think this and the next section are the most recent pieces of news in this article.
A few days ago, the NHL announced that each team will be wearing a decal on the back of their helmet, paying tribute to Willie O’Ree and Martin Luther King, Jr.
As noted in the first tweet above, the decals will be worn starting January 16 and ending after February 28, the end of Black History Month. Two days later, January 18th, is both Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, as well as the anniversary of O’Ree’s first NHL game.
NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe
Only two days ago, January 11, the NHL announced that there will be two outdoor games taking place this year, at Lake Tahoe. This event comes with its own logo.
On February 20, the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights will face off in Lake Tahoe, and the next day the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers will hit the ice there. While not the same as a normal outdoor game with fans, this will be the first outdoor game in Vegas Golden Knights history.
While it’s unknown as to if the teams will be wearing the event logo as a patch on their jerseys, what is known is that the teams will be wearing their Reverse Retro uniforms for the game. This means a pseudo-Nordiques look against a pseudo-Las Vegas Thunder, and a yellow-on-orange color-vs-color matchup. Speaking of Reverse Retro uniforms…
Reverse Retro Uniforms
On November 16, the NHL unveiled the long rumored 31 Reverse Retro uniforms, one for each team. This is the first time in NHL history that there has been a league-wide specialty jersey initiative. Not even “untouchable” teams, like the Canadiens, were left behind.
The concept behind the series is to take a jersey design from each franchises’ past, switch around a few colors, and bring it back. There are two exceptions to that rule: Winnipeg, who took a design from the previous Winnipeg Jets franchise, and Vegas, who only have had one jersey design since their inception three years ago, so instead took from the Las Vegas Thunder, who played in the IHL from 1993-1999.
There’s so many uniforms to go over here, that I just can’t in this article. Instead, I offer you these: our article predicting the designs after the initial announcement, the that included the year and colors for the uniforms, but before the teaser photos of the jerseys, and our article covering the reveal, which also includes those predictions, and how accurate we were.
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READ: https://jerseynerds.wordpress.com/2020/11/10/predicting-all-31-reverse-retro-designs/
READ: https://jerseynerds.wordpress.com/2020/11/16/go-go-reverse-retro/
LISTEN: https://jerseynerds.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/reverse-retro-rundown-feat-phil-november-17th-2020/
Buffalo Sabres
On August 11, the Sabres unveiled their long awaited return to royal blue as their primary uniform color.
The most notable change between this and their previous jerseys are the color palette. The navy blue makes way for royal blue, the gray gets eliminated from their color palette after being there for the last 24 years, and the yellow stays the same. Another change of note: the removal of the front numbers, which have been on their primary uniforms since they began using the Buffaslug in 2006, a year before Reebok would take over. They were only NHL team still using them.
The blue home uniform takes most of its design from its predecessor, with three yellow stripes on each arm, the hem, and socks. One notable addition, however, are thin, white stripes on the inside of the gold stripes, not far off from the small gray stripes on their previous home jersey.
The white road jersey, on the other hand, is a much more faithful re-creation of the old white Sabres jersey, with the same striping pattern and blue shoulder yoke trimmed in yellow. The arm and sock stripes follow a blue-yellow-blue pattern, while the hem stripe reverses these colors, going yellow-blue-yellow. I think I can safely speak for most (if not all) of the Nerds when I say that this is an inconsistency we wish was fixed.
The logo used on both jerseys is a modified version of the logo originally seen on last season’s anniversary jersey, which is a modified version of their 2018 Winter Classic logo, which is a modified version of their original logo.
As seen in the graphic above from our original coverage, the linework on the buffalo has been updated to be more sharp, and a bit more realistic, in comparison to the original design. As stated, this updated silhouette was first used in the 2018 Winter Classic, before making its way to the anniversary jersey, and now these ones. A new addition in the anniversary crest was detailed embroidery, giving the logo extra depth and detail when viewed up close. This was carried over to the new design, just switching from metallic gold to white.
The name and number font was carried over from the Sabres’ previous set of jerseys, and still fits very well on this updated set.
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READ: https://jerseynerds.wordpress.com/2020/08/11/royal-redux-buffalos-return-to-royal-blue/
LISTEN: https://jerseynerds.wordpress.com/2020/08/12/sabre-hardly-know-er/
Arizona Coyotes
The Coyotes this year will see minor updates to their existing jersey catalogue. While I don’t believe it has yet been officially announced by the team, it has been reported by Paul Lukas of Uni Watch that the Coyotes will be re-designating their home and alternate uniforms this year. The alternate “Kachina” jersey will become their regular home, and the old home will become the alternate. While the team hasn’t made this official, they have made official that they will be wearing the Kachina more often than the regular home, so we could think of it as their de-facto home uniform this season even without the official change. Whether the change will only be for this season or if it will last longer is yet to be known.
The Kachina uniforms will also see a slight change to their design. In honor of their 25th anniversary, the numbers will now be sand outlined in metallic silver, as opposed to the usual sand outlined in brick red. This is a change that I think is safe to assume will only last this season.
The Coyotes are also celebrating their 25th anniversary this season with two commemorative logos.
The logo will be featured as a patch on the front of their jerseys, as seen in the photo above. The logo will not be featured at center ice, though they will be returning to the black, purple, and sand colored crescent moon logo at center ice.
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Calgary Flames
Falling right in line with the Sabres, the Flames also unveiled their long-awaited return to their throwback jersey set on October 5. The throwback theme is something you’ll notice quite often throughout this article.
This was a change that could be seen from a mile away, years in the making. The biggest question was never if, but when, and we finally got our answer. These technically aren’t “new” jerseys for the Flames, because they’ve been wearing a throwback version of the red home jersey intermittently since 2009, and used the white version as their Heritage Classic jersey for the game on October 26, 2019. So, we had seen both of these designs on the Adidas template well before the change was officially announced.
Now, what I’d normally say here is that these jerseys replaced their Reebok Edge template holdovers, but that’s only half true. The white version of that jersey will no longer be worn by the team. The red version, however, will remain a part of the Flames jersey set as an alternate. It’s an odd move, for sure.
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Colorado Avalanche
Over the past offseason, the Avalanche have made quite a few small changes to their uniform set.
Not long ago, only in the middle of November, the Avalanche announced that for the upcoming season, they were changing equipment colors. The Avs got rid of the black gear (gloves, helmet, and pants) that accompanied their home and road uniforms since their 1995 entrance to the league, and switched over to steel blue. The helmet and pants are plain steel blue, while the gloves are steel blue with a white cuff. The change was likely to better match their jerseys, as the only black to be found on their home jersey is in the front and shoulder emblems, compared to a steel blue full-length shoulder yoke. The white jersey has a tiny bit more black, with a black name and back number in addition to the logos, but still not much. The pants also now have the team’s primary logo on the right pant leg.
That wouldn’t be the only change to the Avalanche’s equipment this season. The pants for the alternate jersey are also getting a slight adjustment, adding a white stripe down the side that connects with white trim running along the bottom of the pants. Like with the primary set of pants, the team also adds the alternate jersey’s front chest logo on the right pant leg.
The Avs will also have a set of burgundy pants and gloves to go with their Reverse Retro uniform, making them one of only three teams this season to wear three different colored pants, including different shades (Carolina and St. Louis being the other two).
The Avalanche, like a few other teams here, also have an anniversary patch this season.
The team is celebrating their 25th anniversary with this logo, which they unveiled at the same time that they announced the move to steel blue equipment. The logo will be worn as a patch on their jerseys, and will be placed at center ice.
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Columbus Blue Jackets
I repeat: The Blue Jackets, like a few other teams here, also have an anniversary patch this season. The Blue Jackets are celebrating their 20th anniversary in the league, with this logo. The logo will be worn as a patch on the front of the jersey.
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Dallas Stars
On October 28, the Stars unveiled a new ‘Blackout’ third jersey for the upcoming season.
The jersey is only comprised of two colors: black and bright ‘Skyline Green’. The ‘Skyline Green’ color is an homage to the Dallas skyline. The jersey has a black base, and two green stripes on each arm, the hem, and the socks. The design actually is a direct color swap of their primary home jersey, using the same striping layout.
The front logo, rather than being their primary logo, is a modified version of the Texas state outline logo that has been in their repertoire since their 2013 rebrand. The back and sleeve numbers are both black outlined in Skyline Green. Perforated detailing on both the front logo and back numbers create the beveled effect that can normally be seen on their primary logo. The outside of the collar uses the same effect to make a one-color Texas Flag, and the inside “hanger effect” of the collar contains a cannon, and the phrase “Come and Take it”. As some have pointed out, a bit of an ironic saying to have there, with the timing of this unveil coming not long after they lost to Tampa Bay in the Cup Final.
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Los Angeles Kings
The Kings have a very minor change taking effect this season, one that many had likely forgotten about. As reported early last season, the Kings made a subtle change to their logo, adding an extra gray outline.
This change was, like Buffalo, sparked by an anniversary jersey, their 2016-17 one to be exact. When the jersey was unveiled, a gold outline had been added to the logo in honor of their 50th anniversary. When the Kings brought that jersey back in 2018, without the anniversary, the gold outline on the logo changed to silver. I guess they liked that logo so much, they decided to promote it.
Last season, the change took effect on web applications like social media, their center ice emblem, and even signage on Kings’ buildings. This season, the change will be official on their jerseys, likely being delayed a season due manufacturing deadlines.
The Kings will also have a new wordmark logo coming into this season, which can be seen at the top of the tweet below.
I’m not sure if they were planning on wearing it on their helmets, but with the addition of helmet advertisements this year, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild are the next team on the list to get an anniversary logo this year.
The logo will be worn as a patch on the front of their jerseys, as well as used at center ice for the year.
Like the Kings, the Wild also (might?) have a new workmark logo for the upcoming season. In early December, the team put out this tweet:
I’m not sure I’ve seen the wordmark in use anywhere since then, so it’s hard to tell if it’s a new logo for the team, or if it was only for those graphics, for some reason.
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Ottawa Senators
On October 7, the Senators unveiled a “new” logo and new home and road uniforms for the upcoming season, heavily based on the team’s old uniforms.
I told you this would be a recurring theme.
The logo reverts back to the logo that the team had worn from 1997 until 2007. Except, there’s one minor, minor difference. The red trim on the cape changes to gold. Other than that, it’s identical (color shades aside). The alternate logo, worn on the jersey shoulders, sees the same adjustment.
The jerseys also remain very similar to the uniforms the team wore from 1993-95. The home jersey is black, with two red stripes on the sleeve, and one on the hem, with a white name and numbers. The primary difference on this jersey is the hem stripe being moved down to the bottom of the jersey, as opposed to floating a bit above. The road jersey sees a more drastic change, with the red stripe also sliding down to the bottom of the hem, removing the black stripe from the hem, and removing the black fill on the sleeve cuffs.
There was one thing carried over from their previous set, however. Like Buffalo, the Senators brought over the name and number font from their old set.
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San Jose Sharks
Less than a month ago, the Sharks announced that they would be bringing back their original teal jerseys for the upcoming season, in the updated Adidas cut, of course.
The Sharks originally wore this design from 1991-98. This will also be the second time the team will be wearing this jersey for an anniversary, previously doing so for their 25h anniversary in 2015-16.
The Sharks will also have a logo commemorating their 30th anniversary, which will be worn on the front of all FIVE of their jerseys this season, and placed at center ice.
Vegas Golden Knights
The Golden Knights have two big changes upcoming this season (that aren’t league-wide initiatives). One of them, you likely already know about. The other, you may have missed (like I did, until writing this article).
The first, more obvious change is the addition of a gold third jersey. For a team named the Golden Knights, this isn’t too surprising.
What was surprising, though, is that the jersey isn’t just gold, it’s metallic gold. Almost all of it.
In a move that only Vegas could pull off, they revealed to us a shiny new golden third jersey on October 2. The jersey follows the same template as their home and road jerseys, and is essentially just their road jersey design with a few colors swapped. The white base becomes metallic gold, and the gold stripes and back number outline change to white. Aside from a slight collar adjustment, and a different hanger effect, everything else remains the same even the detailing inside the sleeve stripes, which are now white. Unless the team plans on rotating through their equipment throughout the season, this jersey will be paired with the gray pants and white gloves worn with their road jersey, and the gray helmet worn with the home.
Another change the Knights made, that went a bit more under-the-radar, was a brand new center ice design.
Following in the footsteps of their bold, eccentric designs that seem to get more and more eccentric by the year, I think this one takes the cake so far. It’s, again, something that only Vegas could pull off, and they do it masterfully (in my opinion, anyways).
In the promo video above unveiling the center ice design, a plethora of coins are shown with an engraved pattern equivalent to the center ice design. I asked former podcast guest and Knights graphic designer Matt McElroy if the coin had any inspiration on the center ice, and indeed it was. He said the Knights were using the coin as a secondary design asset for the year, tying it in to more than just this center ice design.
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READ: https://jerseynerds.wordpress.com/2020/10/02/im-going-gold-vegas-golden-knights/
LISTEN: https://jerseynerds.wordpress.com/2020/10/07/potato-wiener-beans/
Washington Capitals
While the Capitals haven’t (league-wide initiatives aside) officially unveiled anything new for this upcoming season, they have had an alternate uniform “leak”.
In October, my former coworker with the Toronto Six and longtime concept designer, Lucas Daitchman, tweeted out a mockup of a Capitals alternate jersey, from a description given to him by a source.
Now, I put a heavy disclaimer beside this one, but I still decided it was worth including. This is nothing against Lucas, I had a great time working with him and he’s a talented designer, but he’s certainly not an insider of any kind, at least not for the NHL. However, you’ll see quoted in the tweet above, a mockup of the Capitals Reverse Retro design, a description given to him by the same source. This was well before any official announcement by the league, or any teasers, in fact, it was around the time of the Penguins and Flyers leaks. While not all the details are correct, the Reverse Retro mockup isn’t far off. Reports have come out that the jerseys are being unveiled “after January 1”, and Alex Ovechkin has been wearing navy blue socks in practice that don’t match any of their other socks, so it’s likely to be unveiled soon. I would expect the same trajectory from his Reverse Retro mockup to apply to this one: close, but not perfect. And if they do unveil a new alternate, that means the current throwback third jersey is out.
Winnipeg Jets
The Jets are celebrating their 10th anniversary this season. And with that, they too have an anniversary logo.
As seen in the image above, the Jets actually modified their original design in early October in order to pay tribute to late Jets legend Dale Hawerchuk, who passed away on August 18.
The logo will be worn on the front of their jerseys, as well as placed at center ice in Winnipeg.
Bonus: Seattle Kraken
This one’s a bonus, because while the Kraken won’t be taking the ice this season, it was still a major reveal over the summer.
On July 23, the upcoming 32nd NHL franchise revealed not only their name: Kraken, but also their primary logo, and also their inaugural uniforms.
Boy, what a treat we got that day.
The team primary colors are ‘Deep Sea Blue’, ‘Ice Blue’, and ‘Red Alert’, with supporting colors of ‘Boundless Blue’ (slightly lighter Deep Sea Blue) and ‘Shadow Blue’ (slightly darker Ice Blue).
The team’s primary logo is a stylized letter S, featuring the tentacle of a kraken in the negative space, and glaring red eye above it. The S is an homage to the city’s original NHL team, the Seattle Metropolitans. The secondary logo combines the imagery of an anchor with the Seattle Space Needle. Did you know that logo has the Space Needle in it? (P.s. If Mike Milbury is reading this, it is not the CN Tower.)
The team’s home jersey has a navy blue base, with a thick ice blue stripe on each sleeve, a thinner shadow blue stripe attached to it, an even thinner navy blue stripe, and an even thinner red stripe after that. The hem has an ice blue stripe, a navy blue gap, and then a red stripe of the same thickness as the arms. The road jersey has a half “velcro sleeve” design, starting as white, with a thick ice blue stripe partway down the arm, and retaining the same design as the home jersey the rest of the way down, including the blue cuff. The hem is also a “velcro” design, with an Ice Blue stripe at the bottom of the jersey, a navy blue stripe of equal thickness above it, and a thin red stripe right in the middle of the navy blue one. A custom, rounded typeface is used for the name and numbers.
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READ: https://jerseynerds.wordpress.com/2020/07/23/nice-to-sea-you-seattle-cracks-in-to-the-nhl/
LISTEN: https://jerseynerds.wordpress.com/2020/07/24/lets-get-kraken/
Well, I think that’s everything. Honestly, a lot more than I expected to be writing about when I started writing this. If I did miss anything, be sure to let me know, and I’ll update the article with it! I won’t be updating this with any news that comes out later, however; we’ll likely cover that separately.
While it’s not the most ideal setup for a season, NHL hockey is back today, so let’s enjoy it, and the new looks that came with it.
Jersey Nerds Media 
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