Jersey reveals are always a fun time online. The announcement sparks interest, and hope that your team will turn out something fresh and interesting to spend money on. Then there is the inevitable disappointing leak, an unauthorized peek at something so ugly that most fans will convince themselves that the leak can’t be real and there WILL be tweaks made to the official offering. And then the reveal. The confirmation of the leak that pushes fans over the edge unless they’ve talked themselves into liking the miserable thing.
The first week with new jerseys is filled with design critiques, rankings, and taunting fans that got the short end of the stick. You’re probably pressed to pick a side so you can add your voice to the sea of opinions on pundits’ opinions. Maybe though, your real feelings will come to you later. After you’ve been obsessively staring at a picture of a mismatched design so long that it actually starts to look kind of …good?
What I’m saying is that I looked at the NHLs new Reverse Retro jerseys for about a week because I wanted to see where my opinion went and how all those other rankings settled in my head, and totally not because I take forever to write things.
There are 31 of these things, so let’s just get to it. I’m not gonna be doing a list ranking and judging them individually because I can’t make decisions like that. So we’ll have the best, the worst, and stuff that is so bad it’s good.
Best
Let’s start with the easy category. Most of these were immediately loved and don’t leave much room for opinions to change. If you’re talking yourself out of liking these jerseys, stop. Embrace fun.
Nordiques – Gonna be honest with you, I’m not sure off the top of my head which team is doing the Nordiques jerseys. I don’t care, they’re the best pandering move the NHL has made, maybe ever.
Hurricanes – Another team giving the fans what they want and making it look good. As you’ll see later, I have an issue with gray jerseys, but the Whalers silvery shade works well.
Kings – The Kings are one of a few teams trying to subtly remind you that Wayne Gretzky played on their team, but they also made the correct decision to go back to the purple and yellow color scheme. They should go back to this color combo regularly.
Devils – The NHL needs more fun color combinations and less teams wearing red and black. The Christmas Devils are the best version they can be. Another team that should think about going back to their retro color combo.
Good
These jerseys are great, but they don’t scratch that niche itch that some of the better ones do. Especially if these teams just regularly have good jerseys.
Canadiens/Bruins/Senators – The beauty of the reverse retros for these teams is the use of the colors. The Canadiens blue works as an unlikely primary, the Bruins always look good with heavy yellow, and the Senators make a red and black jersey, a combination that has been done to death, pop off.
Flames – I think the NHL needs fewer teams wearing black primary jerseys. That said, the Flames did it right. The yellow and red pop and that horse looks good, and a bit more threatening on the empty void canvas.
Predators – This is just a good jersey. I don’t have much deeper thought than I like looking at it.
Wild – The Minnesota Wild using that North Stars color scheme is a good decision. Slightly disappointed they couldn’t get the North Stars logo onto the jersey, but it’s still good.
Meh
These jerseys either could have been tweaked to be better, or they’re just not that interesting. Some teams don’t have a style that a lot of the fanbase really, really misses so they end up just trying to spruce up an old jersey. They’re not awful.
Flyers – I hated these. I hated the leak and I hated the release. The initial gut reaction to these jerseys was that they were something hidden in the back of a Target along with all the Penn State shirts. The sleeves throw the whole thing off, and they didn’t live up to Flyers fans wet dreams of getting the Lindros era black jerseys back.
I know what you’re thinking “Man, it sounds like you hate these things, and they should be lower.” I get it, the critique is a lot. But I stared at the picture of this jersey on a person and was kind of hooked by the shade of orange. They’re interesting at least, and I’ll let you in on a secret, I don’t like those black Flyers jerseys so I don’t care that they’re not those.
Pittsburgh – I don’t know why people have such negative feelings about these, but I also don’t care about the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team. They look like my Bantam team’s jersey.
Columbus – Again, it’s fine. The logo isn’t the organization’s best, but it’s not a disaster.
Tampa Bay – This is just a good, slight throwback. I don’t quite know what’s “reverse” about it, but I’m not really concerned about learning. It’s a decent jersey.
Florida – The brown-mustard yellow works, the logo is whatever. I don’t think it’s been long enough for people to particularly miss these jerseys, but everyone needs something. This also applies to the Tampa one.
Blackhawks – The Blackhawks have had six hundred jerseys over the past ten years worth of outdoor games so I imagine it was difficult to do something interesting. They seem to have done more work than teams like the Islanders.
The Blackhawks desperately need a new logo and they’re aware of how much ill-will fans have for it because their social media reveal didn’t even include the front of the jersey. The colors look fine, but you should definitely not buy it.
Blues – The Blues looks good even if it doesn’t match the team name. The problem with the Blues jersey is that they are cowards. A couple teams went with obviously, ridiculously ugly jersey choices just for the fun of it. The Blues had a chance to bring back the Jazz Band jerseys and they did not. They very much wanted you to remember that Gretzky played on their team instead and went with the less exciting choice.
Buffalo – Buffalo is getting a last second rank bump, because the only issue I have with these is the word Buffalo across the bottom front. Other than that, it’s fine.
Ugly
Dallas – The promotional pictures make this jersey look gray. I don’t know if it’s gray, but it’s not good. This one needed to go full green or something. I’m not even sure what but it’s low tier.
Jets – The Jets jersey looks like someone took a good Jets jersey, put a blue filter on it and cranked down the contrast and saturation. My opinion on the color red changes based on each team, and for the Jets, I think they need red.
Sharks – Another hit and miss with the gray. Gray shouldn’t be a primary color.
Washington – No disrespect to Capitals fans who have a connection to this logo, and look at it fondly, but. I hate this stupid bird. Not only is the font and the bird weird, but they, like Buffalo, add their name to the jersey, front and bottom.
Toronto – I don’t have much of an opinion on the Toronto Maple Leafs jersey except that it must be exhausting keeping track of and analyzing each of the one hundred different leaves they use as a logo.
Vegas – Everyone’s got to have something and the Knights got this. There’s not much history for them to draw on, so there weren’t a lot of options. The red is too much and the secondary logo is interesting but might look better against black? I don’t know, too much red.
Fashion Ugly
These jerseys are absolutely ugly if you’re viewing them completely unironically. But there are plenty of fashion trends that are just “These are ugly and they cost more than $100 and that’s why you and pretty people on Instagram will buy them”, which is exactly where these jerseys fit.
Canucks – I kind of like the sprite-can hombre. An hombre jersey doesn’t sit well with a big section of fans, but look again. That’s fashion baby.
Arizona: – The Kachina jerseys are one of those jerseys that get people excited whenever you bring them up. The Coyotes reverse retro isn’t exactly what comes to mind when you talk about them though. I respect the decision to make the primary color purple and again, this could be a decent fashion item, but it IS ugly, and that needs to be accepted.
Ducks – The Anaheim Ducks were so incredibly close to having a top tier jersey. The Facemask logo tease, the return to teal and purple, everything seemed to be on track for an exceptional retro. Then they put that fuckin duck on the front and it took a nosedive into joke territory.
You Didn’t Even Try
These are just normal jerseys. Something better could have been done if someone wanted to be more creative but, I guess they didn’t.
Islanders – The Fisherman logo was staring you right in the face and you just pulled out your dark jerseys from three years ago which are the same jerseys you’re wearing now, I’m pretty sure. This is actively making a bad decision instead of having nowhere else to go like Vegas.
Oilers – Like the Oilers, I too, am afraid of change. The good years (Gretzky played here) are over and we like to keep pointing to them. Sometimes though, if it ain’t broke you could probably fix it a little, like come on.
Practice Jerseys
These are Modell’s practice jerseys. These should be priced at $60 at most.
Detroit – The only way the Detroit Red Wings could have made their reverse retros worse was if they just…left them blank. And who’s to say that would actually BE worse! The gray arm bands and bottom band are nothing.
Rangers – Just because Wayne Gretzky wore this logo, does not mean that this is a good jersey. We get it, you want some nostalgic Gretzky jersey sales, but this blows. You did a step and a half more effort than the Red Wings, congratulations.
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