The NHL is going to look a little different this upcoming season.
Fanatics announced a new, 10-year partnership with the National Hockey League to manufacture on-ice uniforms after having produced training gear and other merchandise for years prior, taking over the role from Adidas.
This move has come with backlash. The Fanatics replica jerseys that have been sold in the past have been known to be lower-quality than the Adidas options available to be purchased, including misspelled nameplates.
Despite the concern for the jersey quality, three teams have decided to take advantage of the change and overhaul everything about their uniforms.
The Anaheim Ducks, the Los Angeles Kings and the brand new franchise being built from scratch, the Utah Hockey Club, are debuting new jersey designs for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
The Anaheim Ducks uniforms were always a little gimmicky, which they needed to be to back up the fact that their mascot is one of the least intimidating animals they could have chosen. They were originally owned by Disney and named the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim from the 1992 movie of the same name. Their original colors were dark purple and teal, and their logo was the horror-movie type of goalie mask that was warped into the shape of a duck’s bill.
In the 2006-07 season, the Ducks switched from their purple and teal colors, as well as the duck bill mask, to a completely new colorway. These jerseys, up through last season, were predominantly black or white with orange and gold — which was that fake beige-yellow that was supposed to be “gold” — with a duck foot that was supposed to be a “D” for… Ducks.
By the time this design got to its last season in 2023-24, people were begging to go back to the plum and jade colors and especially the old logo, which some fans say offers more character and legibility than the foot.
Anaheim made one of those changes by going back to the mask logo, and I think they made the right change.
They still committed to the orange. Their new primary home jerseys are bright orange with black, white and gold — real, metallic gold — accents.
They chose a vibrant shade of orange that is going to look striking on the ice. It’s fresh, it’s bright and it’s not completely pandering to the nostalgia of the 90s that people have just because they don’t like change.
The Ducks’ Southern California counterpart in LA had a similar idea for their jersey redesigns.
The Kings are sticking to their black, silver and white color scheme, but they’re making it much bolder and bringing their new crown design into the shield for the uniforms.
The Kings have gone back-and-forth between some version of a yellow and purple combination and the black and silver since 1967 — and they’re not making any kind of hard left turn from that pattern now.
Unlike the Ducks, the colors are still dull. Wayne Gretzky wore the black and silver, but that’s all that makes the colors iconic. Bringing back a Gretzky-associated throwback logo and then adding in the new crown, however, is a good move. I wouldn’t have complained about some purple accents, though.
The stripes on the sleeves are thicker, and a big stripe was added near the bottom hem of the jersey, too, making the overall uniform more graphic. It’s a little awkward, but it did not take much to improve the corporate look of the uniforms last season.
There is a way to do predominantly black-and-white uniforms well, and the brand new franchise in Utah is demonstrating that.
Their home uniforms are black with “UTAH” written in the classic diagonal font across the front. The accent color is baby blue, and the team has announced that this is the colorway they are going to continue to use as they wait for their branding to be fully developed.
With just the state as its identity, the team’s simple, classic take on the jersey was the only way they could go in their inaugural season. The color choices are clean, the players like them and considering the jerseys are only going to be on the ice for one season, they have an automatic appeal for being one-offs.
It’s hard to compete with the Coyotes uniforms that the NHL left behind in Arizona, but Utah will look good on the ice.
The 2024-25 season kicks off on Oct. 4, and these new uniforms will make their on-ice debut four days later when Utah faces off against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Even with all things considered, the real verdict on each of these new jerseys will be decided after watching them in action on the ice.
