Penguins Make Retro Gold Official, Unveil New Uniforms

Okay, let’s all pretend to be surprised by this one.

The Pittsburgh Penguins today announced that they will indeed be switching to their retro “Pittsburgh Gold” full-time for 2016-17 as well as unveiling their new road white jersey.

A straight-up white version of their popular alternate throwback jersey from the last few seasons (that alternate now the new home jersey, as indicated by the graphic above). The Penguins wore the white jersey this new one was inspired by originally from 1980-1992, there were minor tweaks during that period to the logo and number placement but the basic template remained for those dozen years.

As was the case with the alternate/throwback uniform from last season, the logo isn’t quite the same as that worn during the Mario Lemieux years. Here’s a side-by-side, you can see changes most noticeable in the beak and the eye of the Penguin:

This news spells the official end of the road for the “Vegas Gold” era of Pittsburgh Penguins hockey (coincidentally the same week Las Vegas is announced as a new NHL expansion city). The Penguins wore the softer shade of gold since 2002-03, oddly enough for a longer period of time than these retro sweaters were used, during that stretch the Pens won two Stanley Cups. Give it 15 years and we’ll see those return as a throwback, I’m sure.

Fun times… the Penguins are making a return to the uniform Jaromir Jagr wore in his first couple of seasons, Jagr of course is still an active player in the league now with the Florida Panthers.

Jagr old pens jersey — “You can’t throw back to this yet, I’m still playing guys!”

The Penguins say the new jersey will not be available to purchase until later this Summer; we’ve found that usually the new looks aren’t ready for retail until September.