With the start of the NHL season a couple months away (hopefully), hockey folks have been waiting for this day for a long time! The day where the NHL released their brand new Reverse Retro jerseys for the upcoming 2021 season!! What is that you ask? That is, take an old “classic” jersey and spin it “reverse” it in the present day. Needless to say, there were plenty of awesome designs and ideas with some of the teams and others well..they were pretty terrible.
So lets kick it off! I’ll be going through some of the teams jerseys and grading them based off of what I like/loved about them and what i hated about others. I also included a grade (A-F) that I felt should be awarded to the jersey design. Keep in mind this list is supposed to be for fun and is just my opinion-in no way am I trying to disrespect a team when I say their retro jersey wasn’t up to par. Well, except for the Flyers. The hate is always real with Philly & Gritty…
JERSEYS I F****** LOVED!!
Minnesota Wild (A+)
First off I really like the jersey logo-They took their colors from the Minnesota North Stars. The North Stars are not part of the Wild’s lineage, but these toe the line by using the classic green and gold colors but keeping the team’s logo. I especially liked the detail in the logo like the trees in the bear’s face. It feels very “rugged” and “outdoorsy” It stood out to me immediately as being one of my favorite retro jerseys.
Colorado Avalanche (A)
The Nordiques logo on a Colorado Avalanche jersey? It works! Talk about nostalgia! These are very nice looking jerseys and the light blue and Burgundy red really go great together.
Florida Panthers (A)
These are beautiful! It’s the way I remember the Florida Panthers from the 90’s. John Vanbiesbrouck and CO! Absolute classics!
Los Angeles Kings (B+)
I’ll say it straight up! I love these jerseys. They’re pretty glorious. The city-wide coordination is obviously pretty evident here showing some Lakers love. The purple and gold scream LA and this is one for the diehards.
Carolina Hurricanes (B)
Breaking up is hard to do, as the saying goes. And Whalers fans know this all too well being that their team is now the Carolina Hurricanes. So it’s kind of a slap in the face for those fans seeing their old flame logo on the NEW Carolina jerseys. BUT its all good because these jerseys are pretty sweet and the definition of a retro jersey.
New Jersey Devils (B)
Nice Christmas sweaters!! No seriously, this would be a great Christmas gift if I were a Devils fan. It is both retro (the 1982 look) and reverse (green as the primary color and red as the accent). Merry Christmas!
Pittsburgh Penguins (B)
The Penguins are my favorite team so I’m a little bias but overall I think they did a decent job with their retro. The black diagonal 90’s jersey (Snoop Dogg what up!) is an iconic one so I knew it’d be hard to do it justice. I will say I was disappointed that the “Robo penguin” didn’t make a return on the shoulders like the 90’s black jersey had. But overall, I’ll be coppin one at some point in the future!
Calgary Flames (B)
This is a badass jersey! The Flames never looked so cool-never did I realize the flames were horses but I’ll ride with it! This is FIRE, literally!
Washington Capitals (B)
I had to give some love for the Capitals decision to go back to the bald eagle for their reverse retro. It’s very Adam Oates era Caps and I’m diggin it!
Anaheim Ducks (B)
I give the Ducks credit to bringing a sense of corniness and goofiness into their retro design. Is it amazing? No, definitely not. But I do it points for creativity even though it looks like it was designed by a preschooler.
Jerseys that are Mehhhh!
New York Rangers (C)
I really liked how the Rangers brought back Lady Liberty into the mix and decided to rep her again in all her glory like in the late 90’s. What I didn’t like was the fact that this jersey is WAY too blue. Some added color would have made this jersey look a lot better, in my opinion. Especially on the sleeves. I would have given it a higher grade if that was the case.
Vegas Golden Knights (C)
Vegas doesn’t have much of a jersey history to work with so they incorporated the “V” striping of the IHL’s old Las Vegas Thunder. That may be cool and all but the jersey also reminds me of something I’d see at Medieval Times. Hard pass.
TERRIBLE!
ST. LOUIS BLUES (D)
If I got this jersey for Christmas, I would return it immediately. Even if I was a diehard blues fan. Luckily for them, the baby-blue jerseys they wore in the 2017 Winter Classic that they routinely wear now are not going away sooo they have that going for them.
Toronto Maple Leafs (F)
I wonder what was going through the guys minds who created these Leafs jerseys. The logo is HUGE and really off-putting. Time to go back to the drawing board.
Detroit Red Wings (F)
These are practice jerseys, right?! Right?!
New York Islanders (F)
WTF is this?! Shouldn’t somebody have told the Islanders that they were sort of supposed to ya know, not use their current jersey? Because that is what this is to me. The current Islanders jersey. Nothing retro here. It’s almost like they A. didn’t care or B. forgot what this was supposed to be. If nothing else, they could have gone back to the Fisherman-logo jerseys they wore in the 2000’s. Anything is better than this crap! I’m sorry for the islander fans, mostly. Save your money! And run!
