Latest news with #Sabres
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sabres Notes: Timmins To Arbitration, Olofsson Still Unsigned
The Buffalo Sabres seemed quite enthused with the acquisition of Conor Timmins from the Pittsburgh Penguins on NHL Draft weekend, as the 26-year-old appears to be a better fit from a size and salary perspective than Connor Clifton. GM Kevyn Adams indicated after the trade that the 30-year-old former Bruin would have likely not returned to the Sabres after next season, while Timmins has a year to decide on his future.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
What the Buffalo Sabres are getting in Josh Doan: ‘He's a winner'
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Josh Doan grew up surrounded by palm trees in Arizona, where his father, Shane Doan, is hockey royalty. Josh played for the Jr. Coyotes while Shane was wrapping up a 21-year career with the Coyotes organization. Josh then got drafted by the Arizona Coyotes and played college hockey at Arizona State. While the Coyotes ended up relocating to Utah prior to his full-time arrival in the NHL, that organization was a core part of Josh's life. Advertisement So when Josh got the news on a late June evening that he'd been traded, along with Michael Kesselring, to the Buffalo Sabres for JJ Peterka, there was some shock. But when Josh called his dad, he got the type of response he's come to expect. 'It's always good news,' his dad told him. Yes, even getting traded to Buffalo, a team that has the longest playoff drought in the history of the NHL. The small market, lousy weather, high taxes and constant losing have made the Sabres an undesirable destination from the outside. But the Doans have never been wired to see the downside. The challenge is the opportunity. 'I don't ever remember hearing him complain or be negative about situations,' said Notre Dame coach Brock Sheahan, who coached Josh when he played for the Chicago Steel in the USHL. 'He's going to pull guys in the fight in the best way. That's a credit to the way he's been raised. It's just who he is. If I'm in the Sabres organization, I'm ecstatic to have him as a part of the organization.' Josh could have complained around Sheahan, too. In Josh's first year in Chicago, the coaching staff made him a healthy scratch for some games so he could get extra strength training in. So in his first year away from home, Josh had to grapple with that. At that level, it's not uncommon for a coach to have parents and advisers in his ear complaining about a lack of playing time. Shane could have used his status as an NHL player to put more pressure on the coaching staff to get Josh into games, especially during his draft year. 'They were all able to see through that and just trust the process,' Sheahan said. 'A lot of people try to get overly involved. We never had the parents in our ear like, 'What's going on?' They were more so asking, 'How is he doing?' And it wasn't about hockey. That shows you the type of people you're dealing with. It's more about the human being and family than it is about hockey.' Advertisement The next season, Josh saw the coaching staff's vision. He was stronger and ready to break out with 71 points in 53 games. That helped him go from undrafted in his first year of eligibility to becoming a second-round pick in 2021. Greg Kozoris, a strength coach for the WHL's Kamloops Blazers who also owns a training facility in the city, first got to know the Doan family before Josh was born. He started training Shane Doan in 1999 when Shane was four years into his NHL career and had a total of 22 goals and 40 assists. To that point, Kozoris hadn't trained a player of Shane's caliber. Shane was going back to Kamloops, his wife Andrea's hometown, for the summer and needed a trainer. He found Kozoris via an internet search and decided to give him a chance. 'He's got this hardcore trust that most human beings are inherently good,' Kozoris said. 'Trust them first. Don't make them start at the bottom and earn it all up.' Shane, who grew up on a farm east of Red Deer in Alberta, showed up to work with Kozoris with plenty of size and strength. The focus was on getting him faster and making him more lean. They focused on speed and velocity lifts. Shane lost 11 pounds, and the next season he had his first of nine-straight 20-goal seasons. Kozoris had a client, and a friend, for life. Three years after Kozoris started working with Shane, Josh was born. Josh was always hanging around his father from a young age and started seriously training with Kozoris in sixth grade. Few people have seen Josh's maturation from a skinny, late-bloomer to a 6-foot-2, 200-pound man the way Kozoris has. And this is not just a case of NHL bloodlines giving Josh a genetic advantage. 'Nobody outworks Josh in the gym except for his dad,' Kozoris said. 'They have no problem being told the raw truth. It's just, 'How do I do it? Whatever it takes.'' Advertisement Unlike Shane, who found Kozoris at 22, Josh started training with Kozoris at the point in his physical development where he needed strength and muscle mass. Strength and size are no longer issues for Josh now at 23. That's why he and Kozoris put an emphasis on speed in recent offseasons. Kozoris helped Josh narrow his skating stride to create more power. They do on-field change of direction drills to emphasize short-area quickness. Every time Josh does a lift like a squat, Kozoris has him following that lift with something plyometric to emphasize post activation potentiation so that the strength he's building can be transferred to game situations. The best part about Josh is a quality Kozoris noticed in Shane years ago. He trusts the coaching and does what he's told. That's the reason Kozoris is often using Josh as both the standard bearer and example for other players in his training group. He's constantly telling other players, 'Be like Josh,' or 'Work like Josh.' And Josh is the one who will take the younger players out for breakfast after training or organize rounds of golf. 'This is the human you're getting,' Kozoris said. 'I get goosebumps just talking about him. I'm 57 and here's a 23-year-old who is a role model to me. I want to replicate how he treats people, how he has all the time in the world for people … You won't get a human with this much humility at a professional status like Josh. He's the most mature 23-year-old you'll ever meet in your life.' It's not a surprise that Josh is like this, either. Throughout his life, Kozoris said it's always been Shane who is there for him in his toughest moments. Kozoris has lost numerous people close to him in recent years, and Shane has always been the one who is flying out to see him and calling to check on him. 'The Doans are loyal people,' Kozoris said. 'In this day and age, it's so hard to find loyalty. Good people do exist in professional sports. We get tainted by money, success, fame, poor me, trade me to a contender. And that's just not them.' The Sabres have talked about the need to change their culture, and Josh is the type of person who can help lead that change. He watched his dad stay loyal to a Coyotes franchise that struggled on and off the ice for most of Shane's 21-year career. Despite opportunities to play elsewhere, Shane was committed to building something in Arizona. Josh is like his dad. That's how he ended up at Arizona State. Sun Devils coach Greg Powers first coached Doan when he was 16. Powers was coaching at the Rocky Mountain district camp that fed into USA Hockey national camp. Josh was on his team, and Powers noticed his presence on the bench immediately. Advertisement 'There's players you coach where you just think, 'You're going to win with this kid,'' Powers said. 'That's just the way it felt with him. He's a winner.' Powers had known about Josh for a while. Being in the Phoenix area, Josh Doan was no secret. He was the son of an Arizona hockey legend and one of the best players in the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes program. A few days after that district camp, Powers was in the Doans' living room trying to convince Josh to stay home and play hockey at Arizona State. Josh had options. He could have played major junior in Canada. He could have played college hockey elsewhere. But he wanted to stay local, play in front of his family and be a part of building something. Powers said it was 'a breath of fresh air' that they didn't let a Doan slip away. 'People think of hockey in Arizona, the first name that comes to mind is Shane Doan,' Powers said. 'Shane wanted to build the Coyotes. That's where Josh gets this from. Shane had opportunities to leave and go to contenders his whole career, but he loved Arizona. It was home to him. He was a fixture in the community. He helped grow hockey in Arizona, and he understands how important that is. That's where Josh gets that from.' That's why Josh has told everyone around him how excited he is about the chance to come to Buffalo. He gets the opportunity to play a big role, build something and potentially reignite the passion of a hockey-mad town. Josh hasn't yet played a full 82-game season in the NHL. In 51 games for Utah last season, he had seven goals and 12 assists but also showed he's a top-end forechecker and steady defensive forward. According to AllThreeZones tracking data, Josh was among the top forwards in the league in forecheck pressures per 60 minutes and recovered dump-ins per 60 minutes. Josh figured out quickly in the USHL that if he was going to make an impact, it was going to start with forechecking. He wasn't the biggest or strongest yet, so he learned how to knock pucks down and strip opponents of the puck to create chances. 'Can't get the puck from him once he has it, and he's so good at getting it back,' Powers said. 'He has the best stick of anybody I've ever coached for sure. He's worked so hard on his skating, and it's there now. He can hunt pucks and close space. And when you can do that and have the stick that he has, it's a hell of a combination for forechecking and stripping pucks and getting pucks back.' Now that he has the size, strength and skating to go with the stick skills, Josh has a forechecking package the Sabres need. The next step is scoring more. Advertisement 'Something I want to focus on this year is when I do make those plays, building on it and turning it into offense,' Doan said. 'It's one of the most sacrificial things you can do as a forechecker is sometimes you might not get the puck back, it might not be yours, but you're going to force a turnover for your linemates, and it's going to create separation for them. Sometimes you have to go into pucks giving yourself up for your group … It makes you a fun player to play with.' Doan can score, too. Kozoris is convinced he can be a 20-goal and 70-point player in the right role. He loves playing in front of the net, reads plays well and has the shot to beat NHL goalies. Kozoris noticed Doan is just like his dad in that he is more effective late in games, the more minutes he gets. He has the ability to wear opponents down. 'He's coming,' Kozoris said. A lot of the discussion around the Sabres' trade of Peterka was about what they lost: a 23-year-old, homegrown top-six winger coming off a 68-point season. But for all of the scoring ability Peterka brought, he still lacked a strong game away from the puck. That's what Doan can bring. 'Josh Doan will make at least 11 other people rise up,' Kozoris said. 'That's the cool thing. When he speaks, people listen because he's not always speaking.' The Sabres haven't added a top-six forward to replace Peterka. The internal candidates are 20-year-old Zach Benson and Jack Quinn, who's coming off a down year. Doan could compete for that role. There's untapped offensive potential if given the opportunity. Powers always thinks back to the night of Josh's first NHL game for the Coyotes. The son of a franchise legend was playing in his first NHL game in his college arena, filled with people who were already Josh Doan fans. The expectations placed on him were high. Powers always tells his players at Arizona State that what you do outside of the moment determines how you perform when the moment comes. Doan, he said, lives the right way outside of the moment 24/7. So, of course, he scored twice that night. 'That was an incredible moment that just embodies what that kid is all about,' Powers said. 'You give him the opportunity, he's going to embrace it and he's going to seize it.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Seven Signature Games Highlight Sabres Schedule
The Buffalo Sabres revealed their 2025-26 regular season schedule on Wednesday, with the club opening the 82-game schedule against the New York Rangers at Key Bank Center on Thursday, October 9. The Sabres schedule is home-heavy early in the season, but each month has a game that is intriguing.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
NHL Trade Drama: Was Bowen Byram's contract extension just a strategic move for a future trade?
Did the Sabres extend Bowen Byram just to trade him later? (Getty Images) The Buffalo Sabres may have secured defenseman Bowen Byram with a two-year, $12.5 million contract extension, but the move hasn't silenced the buzz surrounding his long-term future. Despite the deal, which followed his arbitration filing, insiders suggest Byram could still be trade bait down the road, especially with unrestricted free agency awaiting him in 2026. Sabres' short-term commitment comes with long-term questions While Byram's average annual value of $6.25 million makes him Buffalo's third-highest-paid defenseman behind Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, the short-term nature of the contract has raised eyebrows. Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos has suggested the Sabres may have missed a key opportunity earlier this summer to trade his negotiation rights for value. 'The Sabres could still end up trading him,' Kypreos said. 'But that's unlikely for the time being since a team won't pay a hefty price for Byram, given he can walk to unrestricted free agency.' That potential for Byram to leave in 2026 with no return is a concern. As Kypreos explained, teams are unlikely to give up significant assets now when they could wait for him to hit the open market. Still, Byram himself appears content with how negotiations played out. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You To Read in 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo 'I'm happy it's done and out of the way, now,' he stated. 'I can focus on getting prepared for the season and getting back with the guys and getting on the ice.' Byram focused on growth, ice time, and a bigger role in Buffalo Despite the outside chatter, Byram remains committed to maximizing his time in Buffalo. His performance last season—career highs in games played (82), ice time (22:42), points (38), plus-minus (+11), and shot blocks (116)—underscored his growth. He also logged substantial minutes on special teams, averaging 1:49 on the penalty kill and 1:08 on the power play. 'Personally, I've been pretty happy with my time in Buffalo,' Byram said. 'I've got an opportunity to play a bigger role and play more minutes... I think, as a player, I have a lot more to give.' His pairing with captain Rasmus Dahlin formed one of the NHL's most efficient defensive duos, outmatching opponents in goals, shot attempts, and scoring chances at 5-on-5. With the Sabres striving to return to playoff contention, that chemistry will be critical. Byram, who already has a Stanley Cup ring from his 2022 run with Colorado, brings both experience and hunger. For now, he remains focused on elevating his game—and Buffalo's fortunes—with hopes of chasing another championship before any trade talks re-emerge. FAQs 1. Why did Bowen Byram sign only a two-year deal with the Sabres? The Buffalo Sabres have signed restricted free-agent defenseman Bowen Byram to a two-year, $12.5-million contract extension. The short-term deal allows Byram to reach unrestricted free agency in 2026, offering future flexibility. 2. Could Bowen Byram still be traded by the Sabres? Yes, but according to insiders, a trade is unlikely soon as teams may wait until he's closer to free agency. Also Read: NHL Trade Twist: Once trade partners, Canucks and Leafs now battling off-ice for prized NHL free agent signing Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
New York Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
What's every NHL team's best and worst jersey in franchise history?
In the NHL, jerseys are more than just uniforms; they are symbols of a legacy, history and pride for teams and their fan bases. Throughout the years, teams have revealed jerseys that have stood the test of time. On the other side, there have also been some duds that teams couldn't ditch soon enough. Advertisement This week, The Athletic asked its NHL staff for the best and worst jerseys for every club in franchise history. Writers were asked to be as specific as they wanted in their selections. What do you think your favorite team's best and worst jerseys are? Let us know in the comments below. Long live the eggplant. The Ducks have only brought it back on rare and special occasions since retiring it as their regular jersey in the 2006 rebrand, and the current orange duds with the retro logo combine the Disney and Henry Samueli ownership eras. But the eggplant and jade combination remains a unique one that worked so well. You might think that Wild Wing busting through the ice is a slam-dunk choice. That infamous alternate from 1995-96 has a love-hate element thanks to the return for the NHL's 2021 Reverse Retro series because of its comical weirdness. But the white road threads from 2014-24 weren't clean at all. Too much going on. Way too much. — Eric Stephens The gold jersey and gold socks played quite nicely against the black pants. It's a cartoon. — Fluto Shinzawa The Sabres brought back this classic look for a reason. After trying a different color scheme, a different logo and a different shade of blue, this jersey has proven to be timeless. Then Sabres president Ted Black said of this alternate jersey, 'If it's a turd burger, I'll have to eat it.' And thus the 'turd burger' nickname for these jerseys was born. Yellow as a primary color for a Sabres jersey hasn't been attempted since. — Matthew Fairburn In 2009, Calgary experimented with a red homage to the 1980s. What started as an alternate jersey eventually turned into their home jerseys. Their road whites were worn during the 2019 Heritage Classic, also a slam dunk. Personally, I'm also a big fan of the 'Blasty' jersey, their current alternates. There are way too many stripes and the color scheme is similar to an old candy you'd find in your grandma's purse. Calgary won their outdoor game in these jerseys, though, so who am I to judge? But there are way better jerseys in their arsenal. Honorable mention: the 'Pedestal' jersey of the mid-1990s. — Julian McKenzie Advertisement The Whalers' logo and colors are iconic, and the white jersey really pops with the green pants. While the franchise has been in Raleigh longer than it was in Hartford, it's likely the team will never get out from under the uniform shadow cast by The Whale. The diagonal 'CANES' logo never really hit its mark, and Carolina seems to have a bit of an identity crisis by not using their main logo as the crest on either of their main jerseys. The white jersey looks particularly bad when occasionally paired with the team's black helmet. The entire road uniform is in desperate need of a refresh. — Cory Lavalette The Blackhawks' traditional red jerseys are most people's favorites. That's fair. But for me, the 2019 Winter Classic jersey just popped, especially in that outdoor setting, with the black jersey and white stripes. It was a great look. Nobody on the Blackhawks seemed to want to acknowledge publicly back then how bad the Adidas jerseys were, but what they did to the collars was unforgivable. Players and fans were pleased when the team moved on from them. — Scott Powers The Avalanche have had a lot of good alternate jerseys over the years. As a Colorado native, I love the 2022-23 Reverse Retro with the state flag color scheme, and the 2021 Reverse Retro ode to the Nordiques worn at Lake Tahoe looked great. But nothing compares to the classic look with the Yeti foot on the shoulders from the late '90s. These are bad. I appreciate the attempt to spice up the helmet, but nothing about this design looks good. The thought was there, trying to pay homage to the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel with the giant triangle, but it ended up looking like the players were wearing giant napkins tucked into their collars as if they were about to eat a seafood boil. — Jesse Granger Advertisement Nothing against Stinger, the Blue Jackets' human-sized bug mascot, but his lime green-ness has no place on an NHL sweater, especially a crisp red, white and blue classic. In 2004, Stinger was removed as a shoulder patch, a good first step. In 2007, the Jackets left behind their original 'CBJ' kit with a lime green stick jutting through the middle. We should start by thanking original GM Doug MacLean, because if it weren't for him — gasp! barf! — the franchise's first sweater would have had a green bug for the primary logo. Appalling. These first-year sweaters hold up well as a retro 'oh my God, they wore that' look, but they couldn't have moved on from them soon enough. — Aaron Portzline This one is a toss-up for me between a few different options, but I'll go with the innovative look they had at the outdoor game five years ago. It was a bit based on the old Dallas Texans of the United States Hockey League and involved beige pants and old-time leather-looking gloves. The Big Star jerseys from their Cup win also rank up there, too. The Stars' short-lived black alternates became the subject of ridicule for the weird star cow logo thing, but the red, yellow, black and green with swooshes combined to make this probably one of the worst jerseys in modern NHL history. Moo. — James Mirtle The Red Wings' main uniforms are iconic, likely why they don't have many alternates (and rather bland ones when they do). But the 2014 Winter Classic jerseys were sublime, incorporating history and legacy with a distinct look that jumps off the sweater. We'll see what Detroit has planned for its centennial season, but these will be hard to top. It's not the most offensive-looking jersey in the world, but it's so boring. It's hard to go wrong with a logo as good as the winged wheel, but this jersey puts that to the test by doing basically nothing else. Frankly, it looks like a practice jersey. — Max Bultman The Oilers never won wearing these jerseys, but they had some epic moments. They reached Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final. Curtis Joseph, Todd Marchant and Kelly Buchberger all came up with defining postseason plays. The copper color is more emblematic of oil compared to orange. The oil driller with a hockey stick on the shoulder is a nice touch. The NHL came out with new jerseys ahead of the 2007-08 season. The Oilers were one of the teams that suffered the most. The vertical piping down the front is off-putting. Cutting off the arm bands under the numbers is bizarre. No stripes at the bottom make them look plain. These were awful and fittingly worn during the worst era in franchise history. — Daniel Nugent-Bowman Advertisement It's a tough call because the retro Panthers jersey was a strong option and one I think many would choose here. But the rebrand under new owner Vinnie Viola has modernized the look, and the '90s one feels better as a good third jersey. There's a lot going on here, and that baby blue is pretty wild for a main color. The palm tree might help bring in free agents, though. — James Mirtle It's true that the black-and-white color scheme with the home plate/chevron logo represents their most successful period, but the 'Forum blue' and gold era still rules. Variations were made in the early years, especially in the shoulder yokes, to better incorporate both colors in the home and road sets. Even the white 2022-23 Reverse Retro was sharp. I will not have it this way. No. A thousand times no. (Honorable mention: The 2020 Stadium Series threads. Not good.) — Eric Stephens I'm one of the rare people who loved the old red Christmas jerseys. In fact, there are a number of Wild players who have told me they wish they still wore them. I also loved the green classic sweaters back in the early 2010s with 'Minnesota Wild' in script. But the current whites look so clean and neat and perfect close up and on the ice. I'm tempted to go with the North Stars-inspired Subway-looking third jerseys to rile you up, but the Winter Classic ones were worse thanks to the weird beige elbow pads and pants that looked like diapers from afar in the sub-zero Minnesota temperatures. It didn't help that the Blues' jerseys looked so good and that the Wild played poorly in the game. — Michael Russo This question does not really apply to the Canadiens. There have been a handful of moments in more than 100 years of team history where the sweater has changed, but the look has largely been extremely consistent. There's a reason for that. These sweaters, originally worn in 1912-13, brought the Canadiens such bad luck, they stopped using them earlier than they were supposed to as part of the team's interminable centennial celebrations. — Arpon Basu These beauties, worn in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, had a navy base, the Predators' main logo in the center, a checkerboard pattern along the waist and tiger skulls on the shoulders. They are icy, clean and good enough that the franchise should have adopted them full-time and eliminated gold as a primary color. Just awful. 'SMASHVILLE' in all caps on two lines, with the tri-star logo of the Tennessee state flag in the center. The color scheme of navy on top, gold in the middle and navy on the bottom isn't bad, but the lettering ruins everything. Fashion is cyclical, but some things — such as plaid leisure suits and these jerseys — should never see the light of day again. — Joe Rexrode Advertisement The black sweaters with 'Jersey' on the front are sleek and pop whenever they are on the ice. The font is perfect and the bits of red still pop, which is important given the team's branding. Most of the Devils jerseys look the same, so it's hard to pick one out as dramatically worse than the others. The Stadium Series jersey was fine in 2014, but the green pants don't always do it for me. — Peter Baugh The 1996-98 home jersey is a close second, because it combines the classic Islanders logo with a really unique stripe pattern. The home jersey of the late '70s just brings the best elements together, the orange V-neck adds a classic vibe and the orange bordering on the name/numbers adds more intrigue, without being a distraction. As much as a black-and-white color scheme made sense for the Islanders' Barclays Center era, it's a total miss. The logo is sharp, but there just isn't enough character to make it a primary logo (versus a shoulder patch) — especially on a bland base of a jersey. There are too many black jerseys in this league, and this one was particularly forgettable. — Shayna Goldman The Rangers' white road jerseys are simple, clean and some of the best in the league. There's a reason the look has stuck around so long: no need to change what looks good. It's not terrible, but it doesn't look as good as the Rangers' normal jerseys and it felt a little boring for an alternate. — Peter Baugh A classic Senators jersey that stood the test of time for 15 years before they moved away from it at the start of the 2007-08 campaign. The hallmark of the jersey is the 2D logo, which should never have been taken off their jerseys. Honorable mention to their 2011-17 alternate. You know, the one Rihanna made famous? We just hope both teams are having fun at the Rihanna concert tonight 🥰 🎶 #GoSensGo — Ottawa Senators (@Senators) February 13, 2023 I'm usually a big fan of jerseys with black as their base. But this ain't it. A loud 'SENS' on the front looks tacky and the way the red and black are assembled on the jersey just doesn't look great. It's not a fashionable jersey worth wearing on and off the ice. — Julian McKenzie When the Flyers introduced new sweaters prior to the 2023-24 season, it was noticeable that they looked pretty similar to the sweaters in which they won their only two Stanley Cup championships. The only time the Flyers messed with their classic logo came when they used these monstrosities that didn't last very long. — Kevin Kurz The 1992-97 sweater, made famous by Snoop Dogg in the 1994 music video for 'Gin and Juice,' is an all-time classic. While it wasn't totally original — it looks an awful lot like the Rangers sweater — something about the color scheme just pops. Prime Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in those uniforms make it even more special for Penguins fans. Drop (that puck) like it's hot. Hi @SnoopDogg! 👋 — Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 13, 2019 The Penguins went back to their roots after a decade of these hideous uniforms and have been more visually pleasing ever since. Just a drab collection of colors that never looked right. — Josh Yohe Teal. For real. The Sharks were bad in those early years, but man, they managed to look so good while being horrible. Even with some changes over the decades, the color has worked so well that they've never gone away from it. Good call. First off, the Sharks have never had some truly awful designs. Props to them. Even the black-based alternates over the years have been solid. (Black is overdone as a uniform color, but the pops of teal helped break it up.) This combination wasn't terrible. It just wasn't a winner. — Eric Stephens The Kraken's 2024 Winter Classic jersey, which paid tribute to the old Seattle Metropolitans look, is one of the coolest single hockey jerseys any NHL team has worn across the past decade. The Kraken's 2022-23 revere retro sweater paid tribute to the 1940s era Seattle Ironmen, but in contrast with the other clean, simple Seattle looks in the franchise's brief history, it was just a little bit too busy. — Thomas Drance The Blues went back to their roots with the jersey concept they wore in the 2017 Winter Classic against the Chicago Blackhawks. It's a simple, clean look that features the heritage blue color they used from the late 1960s and early '70s. It's so good they've decided to make it their full-time uniform in 2025-26. The Blues had primarily worn two colors in their history — blue and yellow — before introducing red in the 1990s. Players and fans were mortified. In '97, Blues executive Jim Woodcock worked wonders to return the team to blue. Interestingly, with the introduction of retros, the red is back — and some fans even like them. — Jeremy Rutherford Advertisement This look is just iconic for the Lightning — especially in black. The shoulder patch with the bolt over Florida is really clean. The silver shimmer adds the perfect pop. And the blue accents tie it all together perfectly, as a border on the bottom hem, sleeves and collar. The simplified lettering on the back made the jerseys more readable by 2001. The black alternate feels like a tease of the originals, but falls short. It's a little more interesting than the black 'BOLTS' third from 2014, but with more blue accents, this should be a cooler jersey. The logo is too small and the striping pattern is just wrong. There's so much squandered potential. — Shayna Goldman There's just something about these jerseys that I really dig. Clean, crisp and classic with two different versions of the old-school Leafs logo. I especially like the white edition, with the horizontal blue lines. Bring these back! It's mostly about the logo, which screams corporate. There's no soul to this look either. It's bland and boring. — Jonas Siegel We haven't officially seen these uniforms in an NHL game yet, but it was either these or their inaugural jerseys from this past season. The Mammoth name and logo are a huge upgrade compared to the generic branding from this past season. The color scheme of Utah's first jerseys was nice, but these uniforms were generic-looking and lacked a clear logo. The Mammoth branding and logo will be significant upgrades this coming season. — Harman Dayal This is an unpopular opinion in the Vancouver market, especially given Canucks fans' refusal to see the 'Flying skate' logo as the design abomination that it very clearly is. The orca jersey with the 'Vancouver' wordmark on the front, combined with stick-in-rink adornments on the shoulders, is the cleanest and best jersey in franchise history. The 'Flying V' was designed in consultation with snake oil salespeople psychologists to be 'aggressive,' and it is definitely aggressively ugly. Mustard yellow, an unsightly two-colored V-shaped sash on the front, the spaghetti-plate flying skate on the shoulders and another 'Flying V' on the pants. An absolute mess. — Thomas Drance Advertisement Vegas has always been creative with its jerseys, but none have been cooler — or looked better — than their 2022-23 Reverse Retro jerseys with glow-in-the-dark numbers. The color scheme is good. The old-school Las Vegas casino font has such a good vibe, and it glows in the dark! They're easily my favorite sweaters in the team's short history. watch out for me, I'm about to glow 🤩#GlowKnightsGlow | #ReverseRetro — Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) November 27, 2022 The Golden Knights have only worn a handful of different jerseys over the last eight years, so there wasn't a lot to choose from. The Winter Classic jerseys from 2024 are the most blah of the bunch, for my money. I understand what they were going for, with a vintage, wild west type of feel, but I'm not a fan of the cream color or the strange 'V' logo. — Jesse Granger The fan base loves the 'Screaming Eagle' jersey, and so does Alex Ovechkin, so it's the pick. Washington's alt jersey history isn't great and its current look (successful as it's been) is a little stale. Fauxback looks can be rough, and this one certainly qualifies. There are some historical nods, which is fine, but … maroon? For the Capitals? Nope. — Sean Gentille This is an easy, obvious answer — except it's also agonizing, because the white version of Winnipeg's heritage jerseys is also an all-time classic. We opt for the blue version here out of love for the depth of the blue, the red accents and fond memories of Bryan Little's overtime-winning goal against Calgary at the 2019 Heritage Classic. Winnipeg was ambitious with this design, choosing a new, bright blue color palette — a bold and relatively unique choice in the scheme of NHL jerseys. There are also subtle design elements, such as an F-18 fighter hidden in the Jets' logo. Still, the 'aviator' failed to capture public imagination, feeling more like a one-off than a new Jets classic. — Murat Ates — Research courtesy of The (unofficial) NHL Uniform Database (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Andre Ringuette, Dave Sandford / NHLI, Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
