In just 43 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! The game is just over a month away, and the leading rumor is they’re set to be released next week, after Ohio State plays in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Monday.
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.
In case you missed it, this is Part 3, looking at the top 10 of those 29 jerseys. For Part 1, click here, and Part 2, click here! Let’s hop back into it with #10.
#10 – 2014 Los Angeles Kings

The Kings played it pretty safe with their first Stadium Series design, going with a grey jersey adapted from their then-recently redesigned uniforms. It was the first grey jersey in NHL history and the last to feature the modern Kings’ crown on its own. It’s a great look, aside from the chromed-up logo, but it doesn’t really seem like a Stadium Series jersey. It’s a bit too safe. That helps it as a jersey overall, but hurts it in these rankings. The LA shoulder patch is an elite addition, though.
#9 – 2024 Philadelphia Flyers

The jerseys in the 9th through 4th slots are all incredibly close to me, but of those six, I’m putting the Flyers last. When these were originally unveiled, the response from most of the hockey community could best be summarized: “What?” Which is fair. The Flyers broke the template for hockey jerseys, taking their iconic contrasting nameplate and extending it to a full stripe. It continues along the back shoulders and around the ends of the shoulder yoke, before stopping prior to the front torso. It’s super weird, made even weirder by the orange upper arms interacting with just parts of this feature. It’s admittedly weird as hell, but it works wonderfully on the ice. It’s exactly what the Stadium Series should set out to do, but it’s still a bit awkward, hence the ninth place ranking.
#8 – 2014 Pittsburgh Penguins

In the 16 years of the Penguins using Vegas gold instead of yellow, from 2000 to 2016, this Stadium Series jersey is arguably the only jersey to use a traditional striping pattern. And it looks great, with a simple two-stripe pattern. This is also the jersey that works best with 2014’s mandated design features: The chrome effect looks great on the gold, the zig-zag on the hem and slanted pants stripes reflects the triangle in the logo wonderfully. But the little detail that pushes it over the edge for me is the shoulder yoke. You may have noticed the jagged edges of these yokes on the Kings, Islanders, and Rangers this year, which was also more or less a mandated feature. The Penguins were the only team to innovate on it, adding a little gold notch to the edges. It’s a tiny detail that goes unnoticed by most, but it’s that type of willingness to do more with less I love.
#7 – 2017 Pittsburgh Penguins

Listen, I hate the Penguins as much as the next guy, but aside from some wanderings during the Reebok Edge days, they have a pretty great design history. Their 2017 Stadium Series entry is no exception. In a way, it’s a simplified version of their 1980s yellow jerseys, with a yellow base and black arms with just a single yellow stripe. But it’s the details that elevate this jersey to the next level. With the jersey itself in yellow, there’s no need to have one being the skating Penguin, so it’s removed, and it looks great. The golden triangle is made up for in two spots: As the background behind the Captain’s patch, and in the arm logo as a hybridization of the golden triangle, a Pennsylvania Keystone, and a pair of crossed hockey sticks. Is the “City of Champions” tagline a bit braggadocious? Yeah, especially as a fan of a rival team, but it’s an incredible addition from a design perspective. Everything on this jersey does just enough and nothing more, and it all comes together wonderfully.
#6 – 2015 San Jose Sharks

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a sucker for split jerseys, and the Sharks is the best one in NHL history. The teal and black is a wonderful combination, the dark black providing a great contrast to the relatively bright and beautifully colorful teal. The white stripe and detailing looks great, and the jersey doesn’t fuss about with anything else. Just let the colors and innovative split design shine. Am I a bit biased, and this is ranked a couple spots too high? Yeah probably, but it’s my list, and it’s still a great jersey. Again, would love if the Jackets did this with Navy and the Steel Blue from the alternate.
#5 – 2016 Colorado Avalanche

As I mentioned in Part 2, I believe the Avalanche have the best color scheme in the NHL, and their 2016 Stadium Series jersey is another fantastic jersey thanks to it. It’s pretty simple from a striping perspective, a steel blue upper arm fill over grey and maroon stripes. The all black equipment and white base provides a wonderful backdrop. The rest is simple enough, reintroducing the C from the Colorado flag originally used by the first Denver NHL team, the Colorado Rockies, in the 1970s; using large single-color numbers; and dropping the hem stripe entirely. It’s very similar to the 2017 Penguins jersey in it’s effective simplicity, but the wonderful color scheme elevates it.
#4 – 2016 Minnesota Wild

By now, you might be noticing a theme in these past few jerseys: Simple striping pattern matched with amazing, vibrant color schemes. It doesn’t hurt that the Sharks, Avalanche, and Wild have three of the best color schemes in the NHL, and these three jerseys did some of the best jobs displaying them in their respective franchises’ history. The Penguins’ yellow and black ain’t too shabby either. Minnesota’s entry is no exception, and arguably does the best job of these jerseys at showcasing the color scheme. There’s a bit of color blocking with the cream yoke, but aside from that it’s just letting the colors shine, with no interference. It’s nothing flashy, but it’s a mix of bold and classic that gets the job done. And the Wild’s logo continues to absolutely slap.
#3 – 2022 Tampa Bay Lightning

I feel like the consensus within the hockey design community is that the Tampa Bay Lightning are a team that’s never really capitalized on their brand potential. They had a clunky jersey with a cartoony logo for the first 15 years of their franchise, had a sleek upgrade saddled with the Reebok Edge template from 2008-2011, and Maple Leafs knockoffs since then, with several bad alternate jerseys thrown in throughout. Arguably, the only design contribution they’ve made to the NHL are the victory stripes they used to have in the armpits. Which makes this jersey all the more incredible.
This jersey, more than any other they’ve had, is the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The striping is remarkably simple, but beautifully effective: Just a massive lightning bolt on the hem, and a jagged blue fill on the lower arm. It’s sleek, it’s aggressive, and it looks great. The Bolts wordmark is well-designed and straightforward, but there’s motion lines adds to the B and S that turns the entire thing into a facsimile of lightning in of itself. It was also one of the few uniforms to use a number font designed from the ground up for this jersey, matching the Bolts wordmark on the front, and it looks great. The silver trim brings it all together. Strictly speaking, there isn’t much there, maybe five elements total, but everything is there for a purpose and everything looks fantastic.
#2 – 2016 Detroit Red Wings

The only thing harder than innovating on a brand with no history is innovating on a classic brand with 90 years of history. The Red Wings did that here. There’s been three jerseys with a sash design in NHL history: The Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1929-30 uniform, the Kings’ infamous Burger King alternate, and this beauty of a Stadium Series entry. How did they take a design element whose only appearance in the last 86 years was a disaster and make it work? Keep it simple. A big bold, white stroke down the front of the torso. Don’t put a fancy gradient, keep the rest of the striping minimal, just use it as a framing device for the logo. And how about, for that logo, creating a new crest from the ground up that masterfully modernizes the old English D on their inaugural uniforms? It’s so good, with enough angling on the bottom edge and the secondary stroke on the back stem to be recognizable, but beefed up and updated for the 21st century. And the little flairs in the top left, mimicking the tips of the normal Detroit logo and flowing perfectly into the sash? It’s so good. So, so good. If all the Red Wings wore on March 1st was this uniform with the red and white swapped, I’d die happy. It’s the best jersey in Stadium Series history…
#1 – 2024 New York Rangers

Or it was, until the Rangers one-upped them eight years later. In a way, this is a hybrid of their 2014 design and the Red Wings’ 2016 entry. Like in 2014, they took their classic road design and modernized it, blowing up their arm striping to go from a small band to covering the full length from upper arm to wrist. Like the Red Wings, they modernized their classic crest, keeping it simple by shortening “Rangers” to “NYR,” as well as flipping the red and blue. Slap on a blue hem stripe and we are golden. A beautiful standout in Rangers hockey history. It’s the perfect, forward-thinking design emblematic of what the Stadium Series should be, and it’s pulled off to perfection. And ironically, they played the worst ever Stadium Series jersey in the Islanders, bringing us full circle on the rankings.
That’s all for me from this mini-series! While we wait for the Jackets to release their uniforms, let me know in the comments what your favorite Stadium Series jersey is, and what you’d like to see Columbus take inspiration from. If they keep playing well, March 1st could be an electric night in CBJ history.