In 107 days, the Columbus Blue Jackets will take part in their first outdoor game, hosting the Detroit Red Wings in the 2025 Stadium Series at the Horseshoe. Which means the Blue Jackets will be getting their first jerseys since the 2022-23 Reverse Retro, and their first fully new, from the ground-up design since unveiling their alternate jerseys back in 2010! While the game is still over three months away, knowing the production timelines of NHL jerseys, the uniforms likely have been or shortly will be finalized for the big day.
But before we look to the future, let’s look to the past. The Detroit-Columbus game will be the 12th year and 16th game in the Stadium Series, and we have 29 jerseys to review! For those unaware, Stadium Series jerseys typically feature large graphic elements, simplified striping, and design styles that push the envelope of traditional jersey design. We’ll be looking for those, as well as how well the uniforms innovate on the team’s existing brand. Let’s start it off with a jersey that does none of that!
NR – 2014 New Jersey Devils
The inaugural Stadium Series in 2014 was the biggest one to date, with four games between seven teams in three historic stadiums. The jerseys followed a common template, featuring chromed logos, angled yokes, and slanted striping and sleeve numbers. The Devils, led by hyper-traditionalist Lou Lamoriello, didn’t get the memo, and instead just brought back their 1982-1992 uniform. This is cheating, and I award them no points. (It’s still a pretty good jersey, though.)
#28 – 2024 New York Islanders
We go from the first Stadium Series to the most recent, and Lou Lamoriello is back at it again with the most uninspired Stadium Series design of all time. It’s a navy blue jersey with a big orange chest stripe, and “Isles” written on the front in what appears to be their standard nameplate font. ‘Kay. It’s incredibly boring, has next to no personality, and is made even worse because…
#27 – 2022 Nashville Predators
The Predators did the exact same thing two years earlier! And unlike the Islanders’ bare-minimum effort, you can at least see what they’re going for. The “Smashville” wordmark uses a mix of fonts, overlaps slightly, and even bursts out of the chest stripe a bit. Their guitar pick shoulder patch also gets thrown on, and the mix-matched font continues with the back number. Now, does any of that look good? No, not really, though the yellow also stands out better than the orange. But you can see what they’re going for.
#26 – 2018 Washington Capitals
The other annoying trend that Stadium Series jerseys will occasionally do is use the team nickname on the front. The Islanders did it last year, and Washington started the trend in 2018, with an abbreviated wordmark that just emphasizes how bad the Capitals’ normal logo is. The white yoke shines off the navy base like a beacon, drawing your eye there instead of the logo. And the hem stripe is so thick it made Alex Ovechkin look pregnant. Aside from the pants logo, every design choice here is a mistake.
#25 – 2014 Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks here are really sunk by their color scheme. Sure, the half-arm stripe, black side panels, and chromed logo don’t help, but the drudge-y burnt orange is a bad base color, the copper/beige color blends into it horrible, and as Teemu Selanne demonstrates to the far right, sometimes the stripes just completely disappear. Yuck.
#24 – 2019 Philadelphia Flyers
Like the Ducks, the Flyers’ 2019 entry deals with similar issues. The Flyers normally have a beautiful shade of orange, but for 2019 decided to darken it by several shades and eliminate all white. Both of these are horrible decisions, as orange is a color that needs that white to not just look dirty. Add in an uninspiring striping pattern and it’s hard to be a fan. Of note here, though, are the oversized helmet decals, which debuted in this game and have since become a Stadium Series staple. Don’t be surprised if that’s somehow featured on one or both of the Jackets or Red Wings’ uniforms.
#23 – 2023 Carolina Hurricanes
These next four jerseys are what I call “Black Jersey Alley,” which all suffer from similar issues. A black base, with single-color striping, which causes several run-on issues from that theming. First and foremost, (longtime readers will know where this argument is going) hockey is a game played on a clean, white surface, with a black puck, and 95% of the time one team wearing white. If the other team wears black, you end up with a very visually boring matchup. Removing white exacerbates this problem, as now the striping will blend in with the base itself, which is typically quite bad in a large, 50- to 100-thousand seat stadium. Removing white also typically is bad for the logo, and results in it blending into the jersey. The Canes are pretty emblematic of all that, and that’s why they’re ranked lowest of the four.
#22 – 2014 Chicago Blackhawks
The Blackhawks nearly pulled off the same move as the Devils, bringing back their 1996-2009 alternate jersey with a couple modifications. Aside from the chromed logo, they arm stripes get cut off to just the outside of the arms, and the hem stripe does a little zig zag pattern on the sides. So essentially, they’re just adjusting to the template. It’s still a decent enough jersey that I’m not putting it super low, but that’s gonna be points off regardless. The hair also blends into the base color of the jersey, which has always bothered me.
#21 – 2017 Philadelphia Flyers
So, remember what I said orange and black not working together without white? Well, that’s with black on orange, not orange on black. That, plus the brighter shade of orange, helps here. However, the logo now gets mostly lost on the base, reduced to more or less just the outline, which they decided to match the numbers to for whatever reason. I mean, it’s decent enough, but a bit underwhelming for a Stadium Series jersey, and definitely not good enough to be worth keeping around for the seven years since as an alternate.
#20 – 2019 Pittsburgh Penguins
If there’s one color you’re going to do a black-jersey-with-no-white look with, it’s yellow. It stands out enough to generally look good. It’s still a bit simple for my taste, but we’re improving! However, we still run into the “Black Jerseys on White Ice” problem (even though the Flyers wore orange for this game), and it’s a Penguins jersey so I don’t feel like saying that many nice things about it.
That was a bit of a downer, just harping on bad jerseys for nine paragraphs. The good news is that that does it for the bad jerseys. We’ll get into the mediocre middle third next time, before breaking down the top 10 down the line!