Adidas Is Here

The NHL and Adidas unveiled their new looks for tonight as 31 teams are getting the three-stripes treatment. Having been through this once with the Reebok experience, I wasn't holding my breath for anything that blew my mind, but I was expecting some letdowns. That happens when ever new designs are submitted, and twelve NHL teams made some adjustments to their looks. How dramatic were the adjustments? Let's go through these new jerseys. Some will be great, some will be not-so-great. All will be seen on the ice next season in the NHL.

ATLANTIC DIVISION

No real surprises in the Atlantic Division. Ottawa makes a few small tweaks, the Panthers have football numbers atop the shoulders, and the rest seem pretty similar. With four Original Six teams, one team that looks like one in Tampa Bay, one that originally modeled their uniform after the Maple Leafs, one that used the US Army as its template, and a Senators squad which has done well in red, the Atlantic Division should look pretty good next season.

METROPOLITAN DIVISION

The Metropolitan Division decided to throw a couple of curve balls at fans. Pittsburgh, the NY Rangers, and the NY Islanders all remain respectable in their clothing choices. Three of eight isn't bad, right?

Columbus decided to go back to their minimalist roots as they did when they switched to Reebok, employing the same piping as the only way of breaking up their monochromatic look. Carolina ditches the shoulder yoke, but brings back a faint hurricane warning flag on the hem stripe. Washington decides to toss a little white into their red while following the Columbus piping idea. New Jersey squared up the shoulder yoke, discarded the hem stripe, and refused to bring back the green. Philly adds white down the arm and under the wrist for a unique variation on the arm-length stripe.

I'm not a fan of what Columbus did, especially after they moved away from the monochromatic look in recent years. Carolina looks off as well, introducing black stripes where the silver stripes used to reside. Washington really should have stuck with their classic look, and New Jersey shouldn't have ditched their traditional elements either. I can live with Philly's look, but the Metropolitan Division really took a step back with the change to Adidas.

CENTRAL DIVISION

For a division that features an Original Six team, an original expansion team, three relocated teams, and two more expansion teams, I am shocked that the best team in the division looks like it's starting over. Chicago, Dallas, and Winnipeg remain unchanged, while St. Louis makes a few striping changes.

Minnesota decided to move the hem stripes to the chest which leaves the jersey feeling somewhat incomplete. Colorado brings back the peak in the hem stripe, and goes pretty vanilla with the yoke-into-arm-length stripe. And that leaves Nashville who really decided to kill their amazing contrasts between yellow and navy blue. Lemme blow this up for you.

Look, there's minimalist, and then there's a complete do-over. Nashville seems to have chosen the latter after seeing the most success their franchise has ever had in the jersey on the right. This looks like some sort of base model on which teams can add additional features. I don;t know why Nashville would agree to this design, but this is awful. Officially, Nashville now is the worst-dressed team in the NHL. And we still haven't seen the Pacific Division. Yes, that's how confident I am of this proclamation. This is not how a Stanley Cup finalist should look in the following season.

PACIFIC DIVISION

This division has a brand-new team, so we'll talk about them in a second. The old Pacific Division sees the Los Angeles Kings, the Vancouver Canucks, the Arizona Coyotes, the Anaheim Ducks, the San Jose Sharks, and the Calgary Flames remain the same. Calgary actually cleaned up their act by eliminating some black piping around their jerseys, so kudos to them on that despite the fact they should be wearing their classic throwback jerseys full-time. Edmonton, as reported long ago, is indeed going orange with the darker blue which puts them slightly ahead of Nashville in terms of my rankings. I just am not a fan of the orange jerseys.

The one jersey that everyone was interested in, however, was that of the Vegas Golden Knights. I have to admit that the Golden Knights didn't do poorly at all. The colour scheme is unique for hockey, so that's a nice touch. Gray jerseys are rarely seen in hockey as opposed to other pro sports, and these colours seem to work together nicely. I could see myself wearing a potential "Fleury" jersey if he does get picked by Vegas. I'd say Vegas made a few safe bets with this jersey, and it paid off nicely.

Aside from a few misses, Adidas didn't do a terrible job. There's always room for improvement as we know, so let's see what happens in the coming years as well. We should hear news about alternate jerseys in the near future as well, so teams that occasionally wore a different look could have those alternate uniforms return as soon as the 2018-19 season.

The NHL still looks like a professional league, and that's a good thing.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!