Bruins, Sabres, Devils among Adidas NHL jersey makeovers: Report
Adidas officially takes over the manufacturing of NHL jerseys next season.
Their World Cup of Hockey sweater designs showed some promise, especially when it came to the integration of the company’s iconic three stripes to hockey uniforms. But what happens when they add their flourishes to existing jerseys?
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We’ll find out officially on June 20, although one assumes they’ll all leak beforehand, as Adidas and the NHL are expected to unveil the news designs at an event in Las Vegas.
But Chris Creamer of Sportslogos has heard about a dozen teams that are getting sweater design changes in 2017-18. From Sportslogos:
The teams we were told to expect some changes to are the Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Edmonton Oilers, Florida Panthers, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, New Jersey Devils, and the Ottawa Senators.
(Oh, cool, a new hockey jersey for Buffalo fans to buy. Must be a year that ends with a number…)
Now, the Florida Panthers reportedly “jumped the gun” by releasing their new uniforms last season, as did the Toronto Maple Leafs. They didn’t want to wait another year for the Adidas takeover – in the Leafs’ case, for the centennial celebration.
But does that mean the Panthers are hitting the reset button? Creamer offers a caveat about the designs:
Let’s make this clear right away, these changes could be very minor, even as minor as just an already existing alternate uniform being “promoted” to a full-time home uniform (as we know is the case Edmonton). We’re expecting almost all of these to be no more than just a few tweaks to their design. Unlike the switch to Reebok for the 2007-08 season, none of these uniform changes will be accompanied by a new primary team logo.
As we reported in January, Adidas is getting rid of all third and alternate jerseys in 2017-18. So some teams listed here are likely adopting their third jerseys as primary jerseys, with some tweaks. The Minnesota Wild, for example, are expected to make their green jerseys their new home jerseys, according to Michael Russo. The Ottawa Senators are also rumored to elevate their third jersey – the Big ‘O’ – to primary sweater status.
But mostly, these are going to be cosmetic changes, one assumes. Like the Sabres and the Avalanche getting rid of that awful piping from their jerseys – even if the Avs should, in theory, be a prime candidate for a total jersey overhaul in our opinion.
On the Bruins, Creamer speculates:
These are pretty much perfect as is so hopefully this is nothing more than some small change, maybe to the name or number font. I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to them wearing a gold version of their road whites as their full-time away uniform, but that could cause problems when visiting Nashville.
The Devils have been one of the most intriguing names on this list, and Creamer punted on offering details because he knows too much. Everything we’ve heard was that the logo is safe, the colors are still black and red, and that the biggest change might be the black “belt” coming off the bottom part of the sweater.
All in all, the “core jersey” for the Devils stays the same. So no green and red makeover. Sigh.
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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
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