Arizona State University is a still a newcomer to the NCAA Division-1 men's hockey ranks having played just four seasons at college hockey's top level. They turned heads last season by qualifying for the NCAA men's hockey tournament for the first time ever, and followed up that impressive feat by getting their first NHL family tree recruit to commit to the university when 17 year-old Josh Doan, Shane Doan's son,
committed to play hockey at Arizona State on June 21. He'll join the team in 2021, adding to ASU's already-impressive list of NHL sons that include Austin Lemieux, Carson Briere, and Jackson Niedermayer. Maybe when he arrives, ASU will have a dozen or so jerseys for their season?
I make that remark with tongue-in-cheek as the Sun Devils announced today that they were introducing the jersey to the right thanks to adidas. That, folks, is the new ASU "Gold Heritage" jerseys - yes, a heritage that includes four years of NCAA D1 hockey - that the team will wear on certain dates in their upcoming fifth season. The first date selected will be the season opener against Mercyhurst University on October 5 in Tempe, Arizona. If you want to see the jerseys in action, you can catch the game
on the ASU Live Stream.
I like the yellow jersey. There's nothing wrong with the colour, the name across the chest has the applicable college feel to it, and I'm a fan of the Arizona outline of the state around the captaincy marks. The "Forks Up" mantra written inside the collar make sense for the players, but it's a rather useless feature otherwise as no one will ever see it. The maroon stripes with the white accent stripes give this "Heritage Jersey" an old-school feel, so it gets a thumbs-up from me based on the design.
So I have to ask the question: why does ASU need four jerseys for a 36-game season? If you count the fact that they wore a special jersey for their trip overseas to play the KHL's Kunlun Red Star earlier in August as seen to the left, ASU will have worn five different jerseys in their fifth season of NCAA play when everything is said and done. This seems like some serious overkill for an NCAA hockey team, but I'm not the one making decisions for the club nor paying tuition to support the club. I get that the Sun Devils will have some great players wearing the jersey soon, but they could retire the black jersey in exchange for the yellow one and not miss a beat.
Anyway, I like the look of this new "Heritage Jersey". It's clean and simple, and it should resonate with hockey fans. The Sun Devils must be making some serious coin down in the desert with the hiring of Eddie Lack as their goaltending coach and now getting multiple new jerseys in one season. Or could the Sun Devils men's hockey team be to adidas what the Oregon Ducks football team is to Nike?
Perhaps there's some fire where smoke is seen?
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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