Predicting the 2023

The 2023 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs are nearing their finish, and many NHL fans whose teams have long since been eliminated have turned their hopes towards the 2023–24 season.

One of the most exciting things about a new season for many fans is the chance for new jerseys to hit the ice. Next season is the final season that Adidas will be the official on-ice supplier of jerseys, so there is some extra excitement to see what they do in their last year with the NHL brand.

We already know there won't be any new Reverse Retro jerseys since it's a two-year process to design and manufacture that series. But NHL fans can expect to see a number of new special event jerseys to be worn during the outdoor Heritage Classic, Winter Classic, and Stadium Series games.

There are already a number of rumours circulating through the internet giving us some hint of what those jerseys might end up looking like. So we here at The Win Column decided we would mock up what we predict each of the 2023/24 NHL Outdoor games to look like.

The Heritage Classic was announced to be a Battle Of Alberta back in December, and we have the most information for how these jerseys might end up looking.

According to Tyler Yaremchuk, he expects the Edmonton Oilers will take their main inspiration for these jerseys from the Edmonton Mercurys who played in the 1940s and 1950s and even represented Canada at the 1952 Oslo Olympics where they won the gold medal.

Got a little scoop…Hearing that the #Oilers are thinking of using this old Edmonton Mercurys sweater as the inspiration for their Heritage Classic jersey. The jersey would be Oilers colours, the leaf could be an oil drop and it’ll read Edmonton Oilers across the front. pic.twitter.com/LgcGk5H92d

There have been rumours about what the Calgary Flames might end up wearing as well. According to a fairly reliable source in Ali Murji, he expects the Flames to be wearing off-white jerseys with mostly red and possibly some minimal yellow. He also has mentioned the Calgary Stampeders as a possible inspiration for these jerseys.

So given that information I put together these designs.

I chose to also use a Yellow and Black NHL logo to pay homage to the leagues original logo, as well as to pay tribute to the first Battle of Alberta ice hockey game which was played by the Calgary Fire Brigade and the Edmonton Thistles in 1895. The Western-themed numbering also hopes to capture some of the Western Twang of Alberta itself.

The other outdoor game matchup we can definitively say is happening is between the Seattle Kraken and the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

A battle of the two newest expansion teams—which given both organizations success in this year's playoffs—should make for quite the exciting game.

There are far fewer rumours around about what these jerseys might end up looking like so I’ll share my ideas first and then explain them below.

Like the Heritage Classic, the Winter Classic tends to lean heavily on regional Hockey History which is why I once again chose to use a yellow and black version of the NHL logo. For the Kraken I chose to take my main inspiration from the Stanley Cup winning Seattle Metropolitans while giving those jerseys a modern update using their new colour scheme which lends itself to a barber pole phased gradient type striping that I absolutely adore.

Also on display with #StanleyCup is 100-year-old Seattle Metropolitans jersey worn by goalie Hap Holmes. Looks like he either stopped a few pucks with it, or his washing machine needed servicing. #NHL pic.twitter.com/Rlq4515blm

While Seattle was pretty easy to figure out I had to do a bit more digging when it came to Las Vegas. The city already paid tribute to the Las Vegas Thunder with their Reverse Retro 1.0 and the jerseys worn by the Las Vegas Wranglers just didn't feel too interesting to try and recreate. Instead I chose to honour the legendary Las Vegas Gamblers.

Now you might be saying "Hey! Gary Bettman said the Golden Knights won't ever refer to gambling in their branding!" And while you might be correct. That was also before every single commercial break during an NHL game contained a minimum of two to three sports betting ads, and a number of teams also chose to use their jersey sponsorship patch to advertise gambling. So it really doesn't seem like the NHL is taking a hard stance against gambling anymore.

For Vegas, I also drew some additional inspiration from the NHL's first ever official outdoor game which took place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1991. That was an exhibition game played by the New York Rangers and Wayne Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings. The striping on the jersey I designed takes inspiration from the L.A. Kings jerseys that were worn by the victors of that 5–2 game.

The font I also used for the Vegas wordmark on the jersey is the same font used by the logo of Caesars Palace, which is one of the most iconic fonts that immediately screams Vegas.

Now this is where things become a bit more complicated. As of this moment we still don't actually have an official announcement on where the Stadium Series will be heading next winter. All we know is that it will be happening. As of this moment there are two front runners according to NHL Insiders. Those being a four-team battle at MetLife Stadium in New York between the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, and Philadelphia Flyers as reported by David Pagnotta.

I’m told the NHL is going to host 2 Stadium Series games next season in February 2024 at MetLife Stadium on back-to-back days involving 4 teams: Devils/Flyers and Isles/Rangers

The other rumour that has been floated around was the possibility of a game played at either Raymond James Stadium or Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers. This was reported by Kevin Weekes.

But since we don't actually know where the Series will take place next year I chose to do the logical thing and design concepts for both possible series. These jerseys don't utilize any historical precedent as the Stadium Series has been known to utilize very experimental new jersey designs. To start let's look at the situation which seems to be a lot more realistic.

For the two-game series that most likely happen in New Jersey, I chose to take some inspiration from Baseball and gave each team a new script-based wordmark jersey.

For the Rangers I gave them some pinstripes as an ode to the Yankees. For the Flyers I took my main inspiration from the former NHL team the Philadelphia Quakers. With the Islanders I chose to use a fairly simple design with a wavy wordmark and striping similar to their Fisherman jerseys. And finally for the Devils, I took what I feel works from the "Jersey" jerseys and reconfigured it into what I think is a more fleshed out design.

While it's looking more and more likely that the 2024 Stadium Series might not end up being played in Florida I still wanted to try my hand at deciding jerseys for a Tropical game. Who knows maybe the series will make its way to Florida in 2025.

I decided to go full Florida with these jerseys, hoping to capture some of the greatness we saw with the jerseys worn at the 2023 All-Star Game.

I personally love that the Panthers used their palm tree logo on their Reverse Retro 2.0s and I think a new Sunrise variant would be really nice to see and would pop even better on the ice.

For Tampa I wanted to stick with the tropical theme and enlisted the logo design talents of Leah Fellows to create a new stormy palm tree alternate logo for the Lightning. I think the electric blue accents would contrast greatly with the pink and orange Panthers jerseys.

Obviously there is a pretty good chance that the final jerseys that get released next season don't end up looking like what's above. But if you like what you see or have any thoughts on what you might hope to see instead please feel free to let us know on social media or in the comments.