Best NHL Jerseys of All Time

[MullerBrotenVerbeek]

I may be in the minority, but I like some of the "loud" 70's and 80's designs. The Vancouver "V" jerseys and the yellow ones with "Canucks" on the logo are my favorite Canucks unis. I also like the purple & gold Kings uniforms over any other era.

 

[Eisen]

In the 80s people thought this was great hair.

The devilock rocks!

 

[Longbow]

I always liked the Rangers and Penguins' diagonal jerseys:

View attachment 82863 View attachment 82865

Yes, at least as far as the Penguins are concerned. With that said, I have an irrational love for the black-and-yellow/gold color-combo. As such, I basically love all of the Pittsburgh/Boston jerseys. I even have a cringey affinity for the pooh bear, even though it certainly does not belong in this thread.

 

[Thenameless]

That Canucks jersey is awful....the Canucks ought to win worst jersey award....the Orca and the rink both suck.....the Johnny Canuck cartoon logo also sucks. What's wrong with Vancouver? All the drugs there or what?

Yup.

 

[FerrisRox]

It's moving up from a left to right direction, so I don't know how that's plummeting...

Are you serious? The logo is a skate, you get that right? What are you telling me, that they are skating backwards?

 

[Johnny Engine]

Are you serious? The logo is a skate, you get that right? What are you telling me, that they are skating backwards?

Word marks are read left to right, like every other form of written communication in the western world.

They could have oriented the skate the same way, like the Florida Everblades logo, but then you'd miss the C forming the toe of the blade. However, I don't think that even improves the movement of the logo (and florida's logo is your standard minor league junk at that). In what context do you ever see the toe of a skate pointing upwards? Kicking the puck? A player stumbling and falling on their back? Certainly nothing that conveys strength and power. Skates aren't rocket ships, and they shouldn't be expected to move the same way.

 

[Albatros]

I may be in the minority, but I like some of the "loud" 70's and 80's designs. The Vancouver "V" jerseys and the yellow ones with "Canucks" on the logo are my favorite Canucks unis. I also like the purple & gold Kings uniforms over any other era.

Definitely among the very best of their time, brought uniform design forward quite a bit.

 

[SealsFan]

I always liked the Rangers and Penguins' diagonal jerseys:

I'm always partial to this diagonal Penguins (inaugural 67-68):

In their powder blue era, they changed the jersey design on almost a yearly basis, but I loved all of them.

 

[SealsFan]

This is the ultimate Boston jersey for me. Intimidating. Again, the contrasting yellow and white shoulder bars on a dark jersey are killer.

This was the first jersey I owned. In 1969, there was a kid in my 7th grade who would come to school wearing one of these and I was in awe that he actually played ice hockey (the sport hadn't taken off on Long Island yet then) and knew I had to play this game also. Shortly after, I bought one of these from the local sporting goods store, a WOOL one but with no logo. They sold the embroidered logos separately in a display case and I bought that too and had my mom sew it on.

Their jerseys took a downturn in my opinion when they dropped the shoulder bars...

 

[VanIslander]

I may be in the minority, but I like some of the "loud" 70's and 80's designs. The Vancouver "V" jerseys and the yellow ones with "Canucks" on the logo are my favorite Canucks unis.

I loved them, but I was a kid and a Canucks fan.

The tough guys wore it best. maybe because they were LOUD and BRASH enough for it!

Snepsts:

Tiger:

 

[Killion]

Definitely among the very best of their time, brought uniform design forward quite a bit.

Absolutely... and as I mentioned earlier I initially had a "bad reaction" (along with plenty of others) to these Canucks uniforms however my opinion changed and as time's gone by I appreciate them even more so today than I came to like them back in the day.

 

[IceManCat]

\///

 

[Killion]

This was the first jersey I owned. In 1969, there was a kid in my 7th grade who would come to school wearing one of these and I was in awe that he actually played ice hockey (the sport hadn't taken off on Long Island yet then) and knew I had to play this game also. Shortly after, I bought one of these from the local sporting goods store, a WOOL one but with no logo. They sold the embroidered logos separately in a display case and I bought that too and had my mom sew it on.

Interesting & fun story. So you'd buy a blank jersey, NHL team color template so to speak then buy the crests separately huh?.... You were "safe" so to speak in wearing a Bruins' jersey from about 66/67 on, arrival of Orr & so on however in my nick of the woods pretty much from about 1959/65 nothing said "I'm a Loser" quite like a Broons jersey there SF. That or a Rangers jersey though New York was well, "New York", global capital on many levels so that was forgivable. NY City was sexy even if the Rangers stunk, which they did during that era. But Boston?... Oh boy.

Of all the jerseys & logo's that were introduced & worn by the new teams since 67/68 as I mentioned loved all of the 1st wave, Philly in particular, the Seals & North Stars, St. Louis & Pittsburgh, the Kings (who I'd like to see go back to using the gold full time, not a fan of their later iterations)..... Now, your from Long Island & I mean this in the nicest way as I loved the Isles & their whole organization well into the 80's, but that jersey, I mean, really? A frickin cut out of the "island"? WTF Maing? Talk about cheesy... And another that's always bothered me.... Calgary. That Flames name & logo, perfect for Atlanta. Idiocy to not rename the club when it was moved to Calgary, picking a name more evocative & in keeping with the region & city. Yes there was a major fire that destroyed much of Calgary back in the day but its a footnote in the cities history. Hardly a seminal event. I'm not big on such names, teams named after a man made or natural disaster, climactic (Lightning) phenomena & or anomalies or planetary spheres (though in some cases it does work like the Minnesota North Stars, Dallas Stars & NBA Suns) & so on.

 

[VanIslander]

I bought this jersey, but forgot it at a park one summer. It was gone a few hours later.

 

[Killion]

^^^ Thats a bummer. Theyve done a nice job with those.

 

[ICM1970]

These are two of my favourites. I have the Brooklyn Americans one (complete with intertwined Canadian Red Ensign and American flags) and like to go for wintertime skates on the Rideau Canal wearing it.

 

[mrhockey193195]

Besides the obvious (i.e., original six) ones, here are a few that I absolutely loved:

 

[SealsFan]

Interesting & fun story. So you'd buy a blank jersey, NHL team color template so to speak then buy the crests separately huh?....

Yeah, kinda unthinkable in today's "jersey culture", eh? I remember they had the Blackhawks indian head AND the crossed tomahawks for the shoulders. Some of the logos didn't exactly work so they made unsatisfactory compromises - both the Seals and Northstars had their logo on a background inside an oval. With the Seals it showed the green letters against a yellow ground as seen on my avatar but the whole thing had a green oval pinstripe around the perimeter of the oval shape. The store didn't have blank Seals jerseys anyway so that one and the Northstars one was sewn onto the back of a jacket. The Northstars one was on a white ground and I'm pretty sure it also had a green pinstripe around the perimeter. I don't remember what they did for the Rangers - I don't recall seeing the individual letters, maybe those jerseys came already crested. Funny that the Rangers were the home team (no Isles yet) but I was way more interested in acquiring the jerseys of other teams so I don't remember how the Ranger jerseys were sold. Later the Seals crest was transferred to a blank yellow jersey which happened to be the color of the town league team I was playing on.

Yeah, that Islander logo was pretty crude looking but with the history of the team it always looked wrong when they fiddled around with other designs over the years - darker blues, different striping, the all-blacks and of course the fisherman. I think if they kept the original jersey design/colors and substituted the fisherman logo for the circle crest, that would look pretty cool...

 

[Phil McKraken]

For the longest time I didn't know about the Native American angle, and thought this jersey/logo was some kind of homage to peyote, which always seemed really inappropriate.

 

[Killion]

For the longest time I didn't know about the Native American angle, and thought this jersey/logo was some kind of homage to peyote, which always seemed really inappropriate.

.... ya, not quite huh.... but yes, that "Kachina" inspired logo, jersey & uniform unusual to say the least, and again, I liked that, far more than what followed under Ellman/Moyes/Gretzky & the latest version under IceArizona which is far too close to the Senators jerseys for my liking. Still quite a few people who love the original from 96 & who would love to see it return full time. Very much evocative of the Southwest, Arizona.

 

[Killion]

... I think if they kept the original jersey design/colors and substituted the fisherman logo for the circle crest, that would look pretty cool...

... shoulda put Billy Joel's face on it, that one from his seminal, ground breaking album Piano Man... you know the one.... looks a lot like Anthony Zerbe in the Omega Man.... Leader of the Zombie Hordes & everyone loves Zombies.... Billy there lookin totally wired..... that'd be a good one.... seems everyone Ive ever met from Long Island is either Billys' neighbor or knows the guy. Proud of him though he wasnt born there but LI raised.... .... but seriously, thats a tough one, "Islanders".... pretty much pigeonholed into some kinda nautical theme.

 

[greyraven8]

Here's a handful.

 

[Killion]

^^^ Quite the handful..... I like them all & Ive never seen that photo/card of Forbes of Hamilton before.

 

[Albatros]

I think if they kept the original jersey design/colors and substituted the fisherman logo for the circle crest, that would look pretty cool...

We got close already, so maybe some day still...

 

[Killion]

^^^ Ya, see, I like that but for the fact that the logo, the entire patch is way too big. Max, 1/2 that size & then youve got something special, something balanced. That logo isnt being worn by the player when its that big, the logo's wearing him & weighs everything down. Out of proportion. Too big, too much. Less (in terms of size) in this case & others is actually more.