Did The Oilers Sign Emmett Brown?

1985 was a pretty big year in the Back to the Future movie world. The film was released in that year in real life and was the highest-grossing film of that year, but it marked the second-straight Stanley Cup parade for the Edmonton Oilers after they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in five games. If you're keeping track at home, the Oilers have only won Stanley Cups while wearing a lighter shade of blue than what they currently wear, so it seems that the announcement they made yesterday shouldn't come as any surprise considering they feel that they're close to being Stanley Cup champions once more.

Officially, Reid Schaefer, the first pick made by the Oilers in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, is the first Oilers player to wear the new home jersey, but we need to pump the brakes on this idea that Oilers went back to the future with the announcement they made yesterday. The reason I say this is because the Oilers wore the royal blue home jersey from 2008-17. The fact that they've chosen to move back to a royal blue jersey at home shouldn't be some major earth-shaking announcement from the team, but a minor change to their current wardrobe that featured the royal blue jersey for nine seasons of NHL hockey. Let's give the royal blues some credit since players such as Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, Leon Draisaitl, and Connor McDavid have all worn the royal blue in the Oilers' history.

You won't hear me complain about this decision to go back to royal blue as I do believe this is the Oilers' best look when it comes to everyday jerseys. While I am a fan of the Todd McFarlane-designed alternate jersey that was part of their wardrobe from 2001-07, the iconic blue-and-orange jerseys are the colours and jerseys with which the Oilers are most associated.

"We are excited to re-introduce these iconic jerseys and are grateful for the input from both the leadership group in our locker room and our great fans," Stew MacDonald, Oilers Entertainment Group president, told CTV's Diego Romero. "There is a great history to this jersey, including five Stanley Cup championships, and we look forward to the team creating many more historic moments in blue and orange starting this fall."

With this announcement, fans may be wondering which of other jerseys are staying and which might be mothballed. If you own an Alberta Oilers-esque orange jersey which the team wore as an alternate from 2015-17 and as their primary home jersey from 2018-22, you might want to keep that somewhere safe as the orange seems to be out. The navy blue and orange setup the team sported throughout the entirety of the Stanley Cup Playoffs are expected to be the alternate jerseys moving forward while a modified version of the McFarlane design will return as a Reverse Retro jersey.

I get that the Oilers want to harken back to the glory days of Gretzky, Messier, Coffey, Anderson, Fuhr, Lowe, and others, but the royal blue jersey has been part of the team's history for much longer than just the Stanley Cup era in the 1980s. This "jersey announcement" is nothing more than correcting a problem that should have never been realized.

The Oilers in royal blue look right. Doc Brown from both 1985 and 2015 agree and there's no De Lorean needed.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!