For those who know me, not only am I a massive hockey fan, I’m a hockey jersey fanatic. Since I was young, I was always fascinated with uniforms at every level of hockey and I’ve made a handful of articles here on my blog site about my passion for hockey jerseys.
Back in January, I first heard that the Reverse Retro jersey series was coming back and I was really excited. I immediately began to think about what each team could be going for and as the months went on, information started to leak regarding specific details of each uniform.
After months of rumours, leaks and speculation, the NHL and adidas unveiled all 32 jerseys on Thursday morning. I’m going to talk a bit about each uniform after taking the time to look at them all and take in each little detail. After I give my thoughts on each uniform, I’m going to rank each jersey, sorta like a tier list as I did with the first set of Reverse Retros in 2020.
- Anaheim: A white version of their current alternate uniform. I would love to see this become a full-time away jersey, with the orange alternate becoming the full-time home jersey, one day.
- Arizona: A burnt orange version of their late 90’s/early 2000’s alternate. Fits in perfectly with them being in the desert. A burgundy alternate is expected to be released in early 2023, but this would be a perfect jersey as an alternate to pair with the Kachina home/away jerseys.
- Boston: A white version of the ‘Pooh Bear’ jerseys. I’ve always wondered what a white version would look like and now that I see it, I’m not too sure that I like it. I’ll need to see it on the ice in a game before fully committing to a decision on this one.
- Buffalo: The Sabres announced a few weeks ago that the black and red ‘Goat Head’ jerseys would be returning as an alternate, but they’ll also be going with the ‘Goat Head’ for their Reverse Retro. It’ll have a white base, with their current colour scheme. It’s nice, don’t get me wrong, but if they have the ‘Goat Head’ alternate coming soon, they should have gone in a different direction for this uniform.
- Calgary: A black version of their 90’s pedestal jersey. The reaction on Twitter to this uniform is pretty negative, but for me, I like it and it looks really sharp.
- Carolina: A red version of their current away jerseys. Okay, the Hurricanes have milked their franchise history as much as they could, in terms of the Hartford Whalers, but they definitely mailed it in with this jersey. I personally would have gone with a white version of their first alternate jersey in 2009.
- Chicago: A red and black 1940’s inspired jersey. This one is…okay, I suppose. I don’t really have anything against it or for it, but a reverse version of their 2019 Winter Classic jerseys would’ve been better in my opinion.
- Colorado: A Colorado Rockies-inspired uniform with the Avalanche’s current jersey template. I like this one, the colours, the logo, it works really well. I was hoping for another Nordiques jersey, like the first round of RR jerseys, but keeping it to their state’s NHL history is a great idea.
- Columbus: A black version of their 2003 alternate. There’s no beating around the bush here, this one sucks. The blue on the sleeves just doesn’t seem to work. I’m a fan of the jersey template, but the colours here are not good, at all.
- Dallas: A black jersey with green sleeves and their original logo, based on their 1993 jersey. This is much better than their first Reverse Retro jersey and the return of the 90’s logo, with the black and green go together so well.
- Detroit: A red and black Detroit Cougars-inspired jersey. They should have used white, not black. Adding black to this jersey doesn’t make much sense and I haven’t been able to find out what the explanation behind the use of black in the uniform means. This will be pretty low on my tier list.
- Edmonton: The return of the Todd McFarlane jersey, but with orange instead of silver. I really liked this jersey growing up and always wondered/hoped for a white version one day. Maybe if there is a next round of Reverse Retro jerseys in a year or so, before adidas’ contract with the NHL ends in 2024.
- Florida: A light blue version jersey with their palm tree/sun/hockey stick shoulder patch as the logo on the front. This one is, bold. It’s gonna take me a little bit to warm up to this one, but I think it’ll look good with the helmet, gloves, pants, socks on the ice.
- Los Angeles: A white version of their 1980’s jerseys. This uniform is amazing and is top-five jersey amongst the 32 released on Thursday. The crown logo is one of the best in NHL history and finally seeing it on a white jersey is something I’ve always thought about and wanted.
- Minnesota: A green version of their last Reverse Retro. It’s alright, not as great as the white one was, but Twitter’s reaction to it seems pretty positive. This might be a middle of the pack jersey for me.
- Montreal: An Expos-themed jersey, with light blue as the base colour. Being a die-hard Montreal Canadiens fan, my expectations were high once I heard the jersey would have a connection to the Expos. I like it, but I’m not as in love with it as I thought I would be. I’m still contemplating if I will buy one or just get a Reverse Retro T-shirt.
- Nashville: The ‘Mustard Cat’ returns in the current colour scheme. I really like this one. When I was growing up, the first NHL video game I had was ’06’ and I would always use this jersey when I would play against the Predators. Seeing this jersey brought back a lot of memories.
- New Jersey: A white jersey with Kansas City Scouts colours. When I first heard about this one a month or two ago, I thought it would work, but in my opinion, it doens’t look great.
- New York I: A navy ‘Fisherman’ jersey, with less teal and more orange. On Wednesday night, it was revealed that the Islanders would not be using the wave pattern on the bottom of the jersey, like they did in the 90’s and as soon as I heard that, I was pretty disappointed. Overall, the jersey is pretty meh.
- New York R: A ‘Lady Liberty’ jersey in their current colour scheme. I like it. I would have liked to have seen a red version of the ‘Lady Liberty’ jersey, but this will do.
- Ottawa: A black version of their late-90’s alternate jersey. It doesn’t work well, at all. This will be in the lower tier of my list later in the article.
- Philadelphia: A white version of their previous Reverse Retro, I believe is the inspiration here. I don’t like it. The only positive is that the Flyers will wear Cooperalls during warmup of each game they plan to use the Reverse Retro jerseys.
- Pittsburgh: A black jersey with the ‘Robo-Penguin’ logo from the 90’s. This one is really, really nice and I’m looking forward to seeing them on the ice. They’ll be in an upper tier on my list.
- San Jose: A white jersey with California Golden Seals colours. The front of the jersey has ‘SHARKS’ in Golden Seals font/colours, like they did back int he late 60’s. This is a top-five jersey for me in this round of Reverse Retros.
- Seattle: A 1940’s or 1950’s minor league-inspired jersey. I don’t have too much to say about this one other than it’s okay.
- St. Louis: A yellow jersey with their 1966 prototype logo. This is a mid-range jersey in terms of my list. It’s not bad, but it’s also not great.
- Tampa Bay: A gray/white version of their ‘Storm’ alternate jerseys from the 90’s. The colours are nice and it works well, but it’s hard to top the original jersey, in my opinion.
- Toronto: A blue jersey with a 1962-inspired logo on the front. It looks pretty sharp and is a lot better than their first Reverse Retro jersey.
- Vancouver: A blue/green jersey with the ‘Johnny Canuck’ logo. When this first leaked a month or so ago, I liked it, but after seeing the sleeve number situation, it looks horrible. Jersey numbers on one sleeve and then jersey numbers on the front? Doesn’t look great.
- Vegas: A black jersey with ‘VEGAS’ going diagonal across the jersey. This one is really nice and an added bonus is that the wordmark on the front and numbers on the jersey glow-in-the-dark.
- Washington: A black version of their ‘Screaming Eagle’ jersey. This one is a top-five for me and brings back a lot of memories. The first ever NHL game I attended was in Toronto on November 8th 2005 against the Capitals, with Washington wearing the white version of this jersey and Ovechkin scored twice.
- Winnipeg: A white jersey with current colours and the early-90’s logo. The early-90’s Jets logo is one of my favourites in NHL history and seeing it return is great. Looking forward to seeing this one on the ice.
Tier list/ranking
- S: Arizona, Los Angeles, San Jose, Washington
- A: Anaheim, Colorado, Dallas, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Vegas, Winnipeg
- B: Florida, Montreal, Edmonton, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Boston, Buffalo, Minnesota, Carolina, New York R
- C: Calgary, Chicago, Detroit, New Jersey, New York I, Philadelphia, St. Louis
- D: Columbus, Ottawa, Seattle, Vancouver
It’s been exciting to see the return of the Reverse Retro jerseys. The uniform will start being worn in early-November through mid-February and teams will don these jerseys anywhere from two to eight times.
As always, thanks for reading, I appreciate it.
-Cooper.