Thirty years after the Quebec Nordiques made the move to Denver, the Colorado Avalanche are turning back the clock to honour their predecessors.
On Tuesday, October 21, the Avalanche launched their new Nordiques specialty jerseys, which they’ll wear seven times throughout the rest of the 2025-26 National Hockey League regular season:
- October 23, 2025 vs. Carolina
- November 29, 2025 vs. Montreal
- January 3, 2026 vs. Carolina
- January 12, 2026 vs. Toronto
- March 16, 2026 vs. Pittsburgh
- April 1, 2026 vs. Vancouver
- April 11, 2026 vs. Vegas
The jerseys are a faithful recreation of the Nordiques’ road jerseys from 1980 to 1995. The blue base has a red Nordiques igloo crest on the front, along with a white collar, sleeve cuffs and hem stripe. Along the waist above the hem stripe sit three white fleurs-de-lis. White fleurs-de-lis also appear on the shoulders.
Names on the back are one-colour white, while the numbers on the sleeves and back, as well as the captains’ letters on the front, are white with red outlines.
The jerseys are paired with blue gloves and helmets. The blue pants have a red igloo crest on the right leg, and the blue socks have two white stripes around the shins.
The story of the Colorado Avalanche cannot be told without mentioning its previous home in Quebec or its several Quebec-born pillars. From the Nordiques to the front office to the players on the ice, this franchise’s Quebec roots are crystal clear. To honor its time in Quebec, the Avalanche will don blue Quebec Nordiques uniforms seven times in its 30th Anniversary season.
— Colorado Avalanche
The Nordiques’ first seven seasons were played in the World Hockey Association, where they won the Avco Cup in 1977, beating the Winnipeg Jets. They were one of four WHA teams to join the NHL when the two leagues merged in 1979, along with the Jets, the Hartford Whalers and the Edmonton Oilers. They played in the NHL until 1995, making nine playoff appearances but only making it as far as the Wales Conference finals in 1982 and 1985.
Fearing substantial losses due to the small Quebec City market size and the weak Canadian dollar at the time, Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut sold the team to a group from Denver in 1995, who relocated them and rechristened them the Colorado Avalanche. Since then, the Avs have won three Stanley Cups (1996, 2001, 2022).
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