Best And Worst Jerseys of the Last Decade

[SabreFaninNYC]

Here is a great article for all us jersey-ites to discuss about what were the best and worst introduced jerseys over the last decade.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_dadd...maining-content

I think the list is pretty good but I would add the Kings black third jersey and the 2004 Western All Star jerseys to the list of the good.

I would definitely put the "Bolts" third jersey in the bad category.

You?

[Hazzard]

Here is a great article for all us jersey-ites to discuss about what were the best and worst introduced jerseys over the last decade.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_dadd...maining-content

I think the list is pretty good but I would add the Kings black third jersey and the 2004 Western All Star jerseys to the list of the good.

I would definitely put the "Bolts" third jersey in the bad category.

You?

Funny you should mention those 2 jerseys... I absolutly hate the new Kings 3rd and I love the "Bolts" third! Different strokes for different folks I guess

[AeroFishOne]

I will forever untill the day i die say that the Dallas Stars Third jersey is one of the most unique and awesome jerseys of the last 20 years and heres my reasons why.

1. It was a unique jersey compared to the set the stars were wearing at the time. Yes the red came from no where but i think it compliments the jersey. It was something completely new from the main set of jerseys, something that alot of teams need to try instead of just rehashing a current or retro jersey as their third.

2. I think the logo is great. A bull cant help if its head looks like the female reproductive system. The way the designers put the Constellation (The Stars) and also put something relevant to the state of texas (Bull) is an ingenious thought.

I have always been geared strongly toward unique designs. I applaud a team for doing something different rather then hardly any change or no change at all.

Thats my opinion, take it for what its worth and move on i guess.

[Curry1fan]

Personally, I don't think that Edmonton jersey is one of the best to come out. The color combo is nice but the logo is a little bizzare. Your mileage may vary.

I'm not sure if anyone else read the comments (I have no life, OK??) but it seems like a lot of people did not understand the title that these were the best and worst jerseys of the last DECADE, not all time. Too many people went ape-**** b/c the original six were not featured.

I also think the Canadiens 1915-1916 jersey should've been on the best list. Almost bought one myself but then my favorite player signed with the Canes so it would be a waste of money now.

How the Florida Panthers do not make a list of worst jerseys is really beyond me. It's one of the very few jerseys I refuse to add to my collection just b/c I would rather wear a potato sack than wear a Panthers jersey.

[AeroFishOne]

Personally, I don't think that Edmonton jersey is one of the best to come out. The color combo is nice but the logo is a little bizzare. Your mileage may vary.

I'm not sure if anyone else read the comments (I have no life, OK??) but it seems like a lot of people did not understand the title that these were the best and worst jerseys of the last DECADE, not all time. Too many people went ape-**** b/c the original six were not featured.

I also think the Canadiens 1915-1916 jersey should've been on the best list. Almost bought one myself but then my favorite player signed with the Canes so it would be a waste of money now.

How the Florida Panthers do not make a list of worst jerseys is really beyond me. It's one of the very few jerseys I refuse to add to my collection just b/c I would rather wear a potato sack than wear a Panthers jersey.

I take it your talking about Kostopoulos then, Ha. Well you can always just get you a Hurricanes Jersey. I always suggust our Third jersey.

[gs6769]

I'm pretty fond of this one,

[Curry1fan]

I like that one too but wasn't sure if it had come out in the 2000s so I didn't comment haha.

[Burnaby Joe Sakic]

The Avs thirds were worn between the 2001-2002 season through the end of the 6100 era after the 2006-2007 season. I'm very fond of them too, especially the 2005-2006 version with the 10th Anniversary patch!

[attila]

I can't believe Atlanta was only the fifth worst(shoulda been first), and they put the Habs barber pole as the worst, bloody ridiculous and borderline heretical. That absurd orange Isles jersey didn't even get mentioned...

Putting the Wild as the best is a real stretch too IMO, I think the Blues third is the best...

[capsfan32]

The Avs thirds were worn between the 2001-2002 season through the end of the 6100 era after the 2006-2007 season. I'm very fond of them too, especially the 2005-2006 version with the 10th Anniversary patch!

Wow an Andrew Brunette...nice!

As this "decade" (as defined by the blog's author as being since the 1999-2000 season) doesn't have as many really epic fails as the 90's (the BK Kings jersey and what the Ducks called the "wild wing" and I had called their "Michelin man" jersey come to mind as two really fast examples), this is a little harder to do as things are a little more subtle.

Good Jerseys:

Discarding Detroit, Montreal, the Rangers, Toronto, and the Devils, whose jerseys have never really changed since 1999-2000 since they switched from green to black (they of course switched long before that)...of current jerseys, I really like the Minnesota home red, the Buffalo 3rd (except the numbers on the front), the Edmonton 3rd, Calgary's road and their "new" (retro) 3rd, the front (but not the back) of Nashville's home jersey, Phoenix's alternate, the Colorado 3rd Chicago's alternate, Pittsburgh's alternate (although obvi I'd never actually consider buying one), Boston's road white, and of course the Washington home red.

On the blog article:

While he's entitled to his opinion, I find it "ridiculously" unbelievable that the author of this blog found the new Caps whites to be "ridiculously better" than the reds. Short of returning to the original jersey design (as I had hoped they would), given what the Caps were trying to do with the new style in returning to the "roots," the only major criticism I have of the reds (other than that the NHL switched all teams to Rbk and I'd have preferred if the Caps had stayed with CCM rather than switching to Edge) is that the crest - on the Premier replica, Edge authentic, and even their actual in-game jerseys, looks like they rushed it and forgot to cut out the white parts "inside" of the "C," the "a's", and the "p" between the letters. The crest on the red would look better if those areas were "hollowed out" like most letters on a differently-colored background are, and therefore those areas would be red (or remain white on the road ones), rather than being filled in with white as they are. Be that as it may, Ted has been smiling all the way to the bank with this design after the Rock the Red campaign started, so much so that from what I've heard, the Caps don't even have a 3rd jersey on the drawing board.

As for other teams, I definitely agree with the blog that the Thrashers maroon jerseys are pretty bad. To me, it looks like they went into a basement closet in the Omni (the arena replaced by the Philips Arena) before they demolished the place, and took an 80's-vintage Hawks basketball jersey, then reused the Hawks design on the hockey jersey. Maybe the maroon and gold was trying to pay homage to the Flames (even though they wore red instead of maroon), but I just don't see it, and it really does look like it says "Trashers" instead of Thrashers when you see it in-game. They need to go back to the drawing board. In my rankings, they'd be the worst that are currently worn, although they're not at BK level.

Others they missed as bad jerseys:

1) Ottawa: I agree with SabresFanInNYC that the "Bolts" jersey introduced in 08/09 is bad. It's bad for Tampa, and the "Sens" (also introduced last year) is just as bad for Ottawa. It needs to go- they've had some interesting and strange jerseys in the past, and for the most part, they were all much better than the "Sens" one. Maybe they should change the black one to use the "old-style" sideways Roman soldier. At least the "Sens" isn't quite as bad as the "Bolts" - if nothing else, what does save it is that it doesn't say "Ottawa" across the tail the way the "Bolts" one says "Tampa Bay," but neither one was a very smart idea.

2) Dallas: The black (intro'd 07/08) and 3rd white (08/09) both need to go. The NHL isn't college or high school hockey, and there's a lot of good reasons for that...but Dallas needs to look the part as well while they play, regardless of whether they win, lose, or have an OTL. Having the name of the city and a number in this way looks cheap, and especially in black and white is just pathetically dull design, for lack of a better description. It's a design element you'd find far more often on an NBA or MLB jersey, jerseys that generally aren't all that interesting from a design perspecitve.

3) Minnesota: Speaking of the MLB, the new Minnesota Wild 3rd jersey...has to get redone. Their other two jerseys have great designs, and I see where they were trying to go with the vintage look, but the script thing is classic MLB, not classic NHL. They should have either stuck with two jerseys, or used the green but put something of a logo as the crest rather than the script, as well as adding shoulder patches. They seem to have forgotten those.

4) Buffalo: The blog's author picked the wrong Sabres jerseys to criticize- while I agree that the use of that "thing" (for lack of a better word) that they introduced in 2006 wasn't the greatest idea ever, getting away from the red/white/black jerseys they had used beforehand (since 96/97 for the black and white ones) was a good idea. The one I'm especially not a fan of is the 3rd jersey of the original logo (the crossed sabres) redone in the red in 2001, with "Buffalo" across the bottom front - this one was most likely done to address criticism of the "bison head" logo, but it just looks a bit off and the "Buffalo" across the bottom just makes it worse. The Sabres should never have left the blue and gold.

5) L.A.: I'd agree that the Kings black 3rd jersey is pretty good, but they could really be okay without their other jerseys saying "Los Angeles" across the bottom - I'd think people know where they are when they go to a game and know what city the team is from when they watch on TV.

6) San Jose: While some 90's-era logos look quite awful, the original Sharks crest, used from their inception in 1991-92 until 07/08, may have been the greatest logo rendered by any team in any sport at any competition level in the 90's. While some of the striping and name/number fonts on the jersey used along with that "original" shark changed, it stayed the same and kept everything together. It's hard to put into words why I don't like the "new" shark they've used since, but it just looks wrong. Maybe it's also the addition of orange trim and teal within the shark itself. Also, this applies to other teams (BUF, NYI, and TB are the others), and maybe this is just a personal preference, but I'm really not a fan of putting the player numbers on the upper right (across from where a C/A patch would go).

7) Philly: You'll find it rare that I'd ever say anything positive about the Flyers, but their current set of jerseys is generally good (not that I'd ever get a Flyers jersey). Maybe this is nitpicking, but they need to just stick to a good thing. Bringing back the orange in 08/09 was nice, but that white nameplate around the name makes the jersey look cheap and has got to go- they should just use the white lettering they used from the 70's up until 2001, not the black from 2002-07, and call it a day. Then, all 3 would look good again.

8) Calgary: I'm not criticizing a specific jersey here, but rather the removal of one - the black alternate, in 2006. This should have been kept. Also, I liked the "C" and the numbers in white (like on their "retro" red) a lot more than in black (on their current red).

9) Nashville: The 3rd jersey stripe below the crest looks like they took the "Purina" pattern from the end zone of the University of Tennessee or the Navy and changed the colors. Maybe it's NASCAR-inspired. Whether it's football-inspired, NASCAR-inspired, or neither, it ruins what is otherwise a decent jersey- for me, the back of this jersey fixes what I don't like about their home jersey.

Edited November 6, 2009 by Jon

[ZoomZoom18]

I'm pretty fond of this one,

I didn't grow to start liking that one until I owned one for myself, then I loved it.

Personally, maybe I'm still biased here, but I love the Blues jerseys from 98-07 and then the Sharks pre-Edge jerseys. That Sharks logo didn't need updating, but that's my $ .02.

[JeffB]

I can't believe Atlanta was only the fifth worst(shoulda been first), and they put the Habs barber pole as the worst, bloody ridiculous and borderline heretical.

No one seems to grasp that the Canadiens jersey is a copy of what they wore back in the day. It's not a new design, but a tribute to the past history of the team. That jersey was not designed to be worn all season long, but a celebration of the long history of the franchise.

Yea, they aren't as classy as the Ottawa Senators barberpoles of the 1920's that had wider stripes, but taken in that context, it's a look at how things were done in the past and should be viewed not as an eyesore, but as a nod to history. And for that reason, it's cool to see how things were done for a night or two and then get back to the way things are now.

I will forever untill the day i die say that the Dallas Stars Third jersey is one of the most unique and awesome jerseys of the last 20 years and heres my reasons why.

1. It was a unique jersey compared to the set the stars were wearing at the time. Yes the red came from no where but i think it compliments the jersey. It was something completely new from the main set of jerseys, something that alot of teams need to try instead of just rehashing a current or retro jersey as their third.

2. I think the logo is great. A bull cant help if its head looks like the female reproductive system. The way the designers put the Constellation (The Stars) and also put something relevant to the state of texas (Bull) is an ingenious thought.

I have always been geared strongly toward unique designs. I applaud a team for doing something different rather then hardly any change or no change at all.

Thats my opinion, take it for what its worth and move on i guess.

I always thought the black, red and dark green jersey, minus the logo, was dark and depressing. If they were going to add red into the mix, I wish they would have somehow managed to add it in as a trim color on the names and numbers to make it feel like it belonged on the jersey.

As for the logo, what a train wreck. They could have at least gone with a variety of bull where the horns curved upwards like the Chicago Bull's logo, made the face more realistic and lost the constellation overlay to have avoided the uterus look. You know what would have really made for a great logo? The Houston Texans logo!

There's your bull's head with a star for an eye. Simple. Clean. Effective.

[gs6769]

That Brunette Avs 3rd is great Burnaby Joe. We're lucky to have him back here.

I liked the St Louis 3rd for starters, then I started to think of the "Golden Arches" rather than the Gateway Arch. I'm not sold on the white cuffs either. Still, it is one of the more appealing of the Edge era.

I think that time will be kind to the new Wild 3rd. Simple but not simplistic.

[AeroFishOne]

JeffB,

The more i think about it, i think the bull is more of a Steer with the way the horns are. I still like the logo as i have always overlooked the fact about the constellation. To each there own i guess.

[SabreFaninNYC]

I totally dig the responses so far on this thread and I admit, I COMPLETELY blew it by forgetting about that Rocking Avs jersey. I think it looks really sharp and those ties of course are my kryptonite.

In terms of the "different strokes" regarding the Kings jersey; when I first saw them by themselves, I was not impressed. There was too much negative space for me. But I had to admit, seeing them on the players on the ice, I think they really work. The same goes for my thoughts on the BJ's jerseys, I think they look really sharp on the ice.

[JeffB]

As far as worst jersey lists go...

been there, done that.

The Third String Goalie "Curious, Weird and Ugly Collection".

[akteon]

Here's my lists for the last decade:

Top 5 (in chronological order)

2000 Minnesota - Green

2001 Edmonton - 3rd Navy

2001 Avalanche - 3rd Burgundy

2003 Ducks - 3rd Black

2007 Columbus - White

Worst 5 (in chronological order)

2001 Vancouver - 3rd Gradient

2002 Islanders - 3rd Orange

2003 Dallas - 3rd Mooterus

2007 Dallas - White

2008 Atlanta - 3rd Red

I agree with others that the Habs baberpole doesn't count, nor should any other true "throwback" jersey as they are not from this past decade. I also didn't include All-Star jerseys as I think that should be a separate list.

[Curry1fan]

*Likes the Dallas jersey and the Islanders orange*

I would also add the blue Columbus jerseys to that list.

I'm not too fond of the other white Dallas jersey...the one that is like their home blacks and just says Dallas.

[akteon]

I would also add the blue Columbus jerseys to that list.

I'm not too fond of the other white Dallas jersey...the one that is like their home blacks and just says Dallas.

I really like the blue Columbus jersey as well, I just felt the white really stood out more because of the shoulder/sleeve coloring.

My biggest problem with the Dallas white was the front number on the upper right chest (not shown in the graphic I used) and with both of their white jerseys, I hate the 3-layer lettering that looks cluttered and hard to read. I hope they just use their current 3rd white as their standard white jersey and come up with a more original 3rd. I actually miss the star jerseys:

[ZoomZoom18]

I really like the blue Columbus jersey as well, I just felt the white really stood out more because of the shoulder/sleeve coloring.

My biggest problem with the Dallas white was the front number on the upper right chest (not shown in the graphic I used) and with both of their white jerseys, I hate the 3-layer lettering that looks cluttered and hard to read. I hope they just use their current 3rd white as their standard white jersey and come up with a more original 3rd. I actually miss the star jerseys:

I've preferred both white Columbus jerseys, for some reason their blue jerseys never really caught my attention much. I loved their pre-Edge third jersey.

I've grown to like the white Dallas jersey, even more so after I added one to my collection. I'm not a fan of the shoulder numbers myself. I hated the black jersey at first, but its slowly grown on me and now its one of my favorites of the current jerseys in the league. I am not a big fan of their current third myself, it just seems too plain to me. I'd love to see a green third jersey myself.

[capsfan32]

While checking on possibly getting Panthers tix for one of the games over Christmas week, I noticed on their website that Florida is releasing a 3rd jersey on Monday, Nov. 23 ,and it seems from the info they've posted that they'll possibly be wearing them against Pittsburgh that night. Hopefully for their sake, these will be an improvement - http://panthers.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=58239.

[vikes99ej]

While checking on possibly getting Panthers tix for one of the games over Christmas week, I noticed on their website that Florida is releasing a 3rd jersey on Monday, Nov. 23 ,and it seems from the info they've posted that they'll possibly be wearing them against Pittsburgh that night. Hopefully for their sake, these will be an improvement - http://panthers.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=58239.

Here's part of it:

[vikes99ej]

I have never liked Atlanta's baby-blue uniforms. And those Habs throwbacks just suck.

[ZoomZoom18]

I forgot to add one.

That 2003-07 Calgary Flames red jersey. They didn't change it too much, but that pre-Edge style is just gorgeous. I was never a big Flames fan, but when I saw that jersey I had to have it. So, I bought it several weeks after the Finals ended in 2004.

[lafountain]

I have never liked Atlanta's baby-blue uniforms. And those Habs throwbacks just suck.

I had never been a fan of the Baby Blues until I actually added one to my collection and actually saw it in person. I still think the current Stars Alternate and Dark jerseys both suck and am not a fan of the current Atlanta alternate either. Sadly will probably end up with a Thrashers alternate in my collection though, not sure how much I will wear it though if and when I get it.