NHL Hockey Jerseys History

With their long sleeves, large numbers and often fierce-looking logos, hockey jerseys have long been a fashion staple. Sometimes referred to sweaters, the hockey jersey is revered by team fans who wear them to games and pubs to show their support for their local team. While all 30 NHL teams now have home, away and sometimes alternate jerseys to wear and sell, that was not always the case.

  1. The Early Years

    • The NHL started in 1917 with five teams, but only four took the ice and only three finished the season. The start of the league was unremarkable, and so were the uniforms. Made of heavy wools and cottons to keep players warm, the early uniforms were relatively drab. For the first decade of league play, teams only had one uniform they wore for home and away games.

    Changing Styles

    • In 1927-28, the Toronto Maple Leafs unveiled new blue-and-white logo that included a heavily striped jersey for home games and a rather plain, white jersey with a blue leaf logo for away games. The idea was slow to catch on, but by 1940 all teams except the New York Rangers were sporting home and away jerseys.

    Set Rules

    • To help avoid confusion, the NHL mandated white jerseys at home starting in 1951, which finally got the Rangers to create a new uniform. However, that changed four years later, and colored uniforms became home jerseys until 1970, when it changed again. It would change several times during the next few decades.

    The Color Explosion

    • The league expanded in 1967 to 12 teams and kept adding teams every few years until the mid-1970s. That led to numerous new jerseys, as teams experimented with wild colors and styles to increase sales. Bold piping and "shoulder pad" colors became the norm. Many modern replica jersey manufacturers focus on uniforms of this era, and one of the most popular is the style worn by the short-lived Kansas City Scouts.

    Name That Man

    • Names first appeared on the back of jerseys in 1971, but only home teams wore them. However, by 1978, all teams were wearing names on the backs of the jerseys. The Toronto Maple Leafs were the last team to conform--and did so with protest. The team put white letters on the white jerseys and blue letters on the blue jerseys, because the team's owner, Howard Ballard, feared he would lose revenues from game programs if fans knew the names of players.

    The Lucky Third

    • The Montreal Canadians wore three different jerseys during the 1946 season because of a switch in their away jersey to a different style, but that remained an anomaly for almost five decades. Third jerseys didn't get used again until 1995 when the league added the idea of alternate jerseys to help bring in profits. That same year, St. Louis Blues coach Mike Keenan refused to send his team on the ice in an alternate jersey because he did not like the look. The vast majority of the teams have used a third jersey at one time or another since then, and the Canadians remained pioneers by using five jerseys in the 2008-09 season in honor of their centennial celebration.

    The Blended Look

    • In 2007-08, Reebok unveiled new uniforms made of fabrics that were light and sweat-resistant that were to be used by every NHL team. The uniforms--dubbed "The Edge"--have met with mixed reviews and teams are still tweaking the designs.