Nearly every outdoor NHL game has introduced new jerseys for the participating teams.
When he was in Utah in January to announce Rice-Eccles Stadium as the site of the 2027 Winter Classic, commissioner Gary Bettman told the Deseret News that although nothing had yet been designed, a specialty jersey is indeed part of the plan.
“We generally have special jerseys, new jerseys, for the special events, the outdoor games,” he said. “They have not yet been designed because we just announced this. There’s a lot of work to be done, but we have plenty of time to do the planning.
“... I have every confidence that the league office working in conjunction with the Mammoth will be able to do that.”
The NHL is also reportedly introducing a new line of jerseys for every team in the “Hometown Remix” rollout. It’s not yet known whether the Utah Mammoth and the Colorado Avalanche, as well as the other teams competing in outdoor games this season, will get two specialty jerseys or if one will serve both purposes.
Fans and graphic designers have mocked up a variety of concepts. Here are some of the best ones.
The Mammoth have the perfect starting point for a Winter Classic jersey: light blue.
Going back to the event’s original iteration in 2008, the Pittsburgh Penguins donned light blue, in which color Sidney Crosby scored the game-winner in a shootout. It wasn’t the biggest goal Crosby would ever score on Ryan Miller, but it was one of the most iconic.
The above example was designed by Orion Taylor, a graphic designer based in Ottawa. It uses “mountain blue,” as the Mammoth call it, as its primary color, with the “U” logo and a mountain trim at the bottom. It also displays the state outline patch on the shoulders, giving a nod to the team’s inaugural season.
This concept, made by Utah-based designer Colby Sanders, is just elegant. That cream color is prominent on a lot of outdoor jerseys, and the light blue is exactly what the fans want to see. There’s beauty in its simplicity.
It has a lot of similarities to the jersey the Vancouver Canucks wore at the 2014 Heritage Classic. Mammoth forward Brandon Tanev’s brother, Chris Tanev, played for the Canucks in that game. The brothers could play some pretty sweet post-retirement pond hockey games in their outdoor jerseys (and they’d both have more than one to choose from, given the soon-to-be five outdoor games they’ve participated in).
Another concept from Sanders, the above image uses a logo that the Mammoth copyrighted but never really presented. It has appeared on a handful of merchandise items, but it would look awesome on a jersey.
Again, that cream color works quite well on outdoor jerseys. Although there’s a strong case for a color-on-color matchup, this would be a worthy reason to use white.
Another decent white jersey is this example, created by Saturn Styles.
The Mammoth don’t presently have a white jersey with the team’s primary logo — their road kits just spell out the word “Utah” across the front.
The pointed trim lines in the mockup could symbolize the mountains that will outline the game at Rice-Eccles Stadium, too.
Continuing with the mountain theme, this concept by Drew Martin has it all. It’s clean, simple and bold, all at the same time.
Swiping to the second photo, it gets even better. The socks and the bottoms of the sleeves match the hem of the jersey. This would be one of the nicest setups an NHL team has ever deployed.
Thoughts?
Weigh in, either in the comment section of the article or on social media. Which jersey is your favorite? What else would you like to see?
The one thing everyone should agree on is that the team should release different jerseys for the Winter Classic and the Hometown Remix series. There are so many good ideas, it would be a shame to let them all go to waste.
