2017-18 NHL Uniform Preview

Hockey’s back! Four games are kicking off the 2017-18 National Hockey League regular season tonight, the first of which in Winnipeg between the Jets and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Here we’ll give you the full run-down of what’s new for every team, you can use the information to either impress or annoy (or annoy until they’re impressed!) your friends during the inevitable awkward lull in the conversation which will happen at some point in the game.

As any of you familiar with this site are already aware, NHL uniforms are now all produced by Adidas for this season, replacing Reebok which had the league-wide deal for the past ten years.

Many of you feared this change thinking Adidas would be adding their trademark three-stripes to everything, tearing down all you loved and disrespecting their remains. Well, you were wrong, Adidas added their stripes to nothing (in-game) and respected the looks of all these teams — keep in mind, the team dictates the design, Adidas works with the team to help them achieve what they want. So… ultimately it’s New Jersey’s fault they look the way they do now.

Universal changes with the new Adidas Adizero jersey cut include:

All alternate uniforms have been eliminated, all teams just have a home/dark and road/light uniform
The new pentagon shaped collar
Waist stripes are now curved to follow the new cut instead of being straight across
Adidas logo replaces the Reebok logo on the back collar
NHL 100 patches return! Again in the same spot on the sleeve, we presume just through the end of the 2017 calendar year

Here’s the Reebok style collar, used from 2007-17 compared to the new Adidas collar, again this change is universal:

Many teams have added designs to the inside back collar, I’m not including these in the list of changes here as they are never visible during an actual game, but here they all are:

Below, broken down team-by-team in alphabetical order are the changes to NHL uniforms for the 2017-18 season. “No change” means they did nothing to the design of their uniform *aside from the universal, league-wide changes* listed earlier in this post.

ANAHEIM DUCKS – No change

ARIZONA COYOTES – No change

BOSTON BRUINS – Player name and number now two colour instead of three, font updated for player name. Sock striping updated to match jersey striping and home socks now black instead of gold.

BUFFALO SABRES – Silver piping and silver patches under the arms eliminated.

CALGARY FLAMES – Piping eliminated from both home and road jerseys, player name and number no longer italicized.

CAROLINA HURRICANES – Add black striping to waist and sleeves of home jersey, storm flag design subtly brought back to waist stripe. Road uniform unchanged.

CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS – No change

COLORADO AVALANCHE – Waist and sleeve striping returns to their original mountain range style, numbers on the back now two-colour instead of three, numbers on the sleeve of the home jersey now trimmed in burgundy.

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS – Sock striping updated to match the stripes down each sleeve, player name and number font changed to match their now retired alternate uniform from last season.

DALLAS STARS – No change

DETROIT RED WINGS – No change

EDMONTON OILERS – Home jersey now orange instead of blue, similar style as previous alternate orange uniform but waist and sleeve striping now consistent with road whites and numbers moved to sleeves from shoulder. On both home and road the numbers now two colour instead of three. Shade of blue darkened considerably throughout – including the logo, shade of orange slightly adjusted.

FLORIDA PANTHERS – No change

LOS ANGELES KINGS – No change

MINNESOTA WILD – Entirely new home jersey, green with horizontal cream stripe across the chest, shoulder logo is a scripted M. Road jersey remains the same.

MONTREAL CANADIENS – No change

NASHVILLE PREDATORS – All piping removed, sleeve and waist striping now two-colour rather than three. Road jersey striping now mimicks the home jersey, gold shoulder yoke added to road white. Sock striping updated for both home and road.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS – Sleeve striping thicker, now all three stripes are of equal size. Traditional waist stripes eliminated in favour of single, thin stripe at the very bottom of the jersey.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS – Blue outline added to outside of logo on the road white jersey.

NEW YORK RANGERS – No change

OTTAWA SENATORS – Font used for player name and number changed to the style used previously for the alternate uniform.

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS – No change

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS – No change

ST LOUIS BLUES – Numbers on the home jerseys changed to white from gold.

SAN JOSE SHARKS – Shoulder logos updated on both the home and road jerseys, home jersey features a shark head with fin, the road is an “SJ” design.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING – The “Tampa Bay” wordmark is removed from the road white jersey, 25th anniversary patch added to home blues and the 2018 All-Star Game logo to the road. The All-Star patch will be replaced with the anniversary logo on the roads in the second half of the season.

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS – No change, but did announce a 1918 throwback jersey to be worn in December.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS – Sock striping adjusted on both the home and road uniforms to match the striping around the waist of each jersey.

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS – Expansion team, s’all new! Read all about ’em here.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS – No change

WINNIPEG JETS – No change.

There will be additional special uniforms worn for the annual slate of outdoor games — the NHL100 Classic in Ottawa between the Senators and Montreal Canadiens in December, the Winter Classic at New York’s CitiField on January 1st between Buffalo and the Rangers, and the Stadium Series at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland between the Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs in March. None of these uniforms have been released at this time.

Hockey!