This season’s NHL Heritage Classic will take place on Oct 29 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, home of the CFL’s Edmonton Elks, and will feature the league’s two Alberta-based teams: the Oilers and the Flames. Based on the uniforms that were revealed today, it should be a very good-looking game.
As you can see in the explainer image above, Edmonton’s uniform is inspired by the 1952 Edmonton Mercurys. If you’re not familiar with them (as I wasn’t), here’s a comparison:
Calgary’s uni, meanwhile, is inspired by the design worn by the 1950s and ’60s Calgary Stampeders hockey team. Again, here’s a comparison:
You can get a few more glimpses at the uniforms in this video clip:
The 2023 @TimHortons #HeritageClassic jerseys are here. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/jBZotkaokU
— NHL (@NHL) September 26, 2023
And here are a few more pics (although none of them are particularly good, grrr):
Very nice! I actually like Calgary’s better than their normal sweater!
These are pretty good. I absolutely love Calgary’s as a throwback to the Stampeders. Edmonton’s is also pretty good, but one thing I don’t like about it is the front logo. Wish there was a little more detail in it like the original Mercurys one.
Amazing! My uni-watch membership card is an Edmonton Mercury’s jersey so I am very excited they went this way for the classic.
Those are AWESOME!! Love the felt touch.
As I read on twitter: it looks like a team from 1935 playing a team from 1975
Agree completely. I like both of them, but they don’t look good together. Pick an era.
No sweater ads!
I’m definitely odd, but I feel these heritage games are such a missed opportunity to have refs and linesmen in sweaters with ties. I feel like that would be a fun element to add.
Agreed wholeheartedly!
They went a little overboard on the hype with these. No team has EVER worn leather pants in hockey; most teams wore canvas duck before nylon was widely available.
The Flames’ logo looks like it’s straight from a varsity jacket, and I do like the extra little flourishes on the flames. I am concerned, though, that the gold trim could get blown out and lost in the white of the logo when viewing the jersey from a distance.
Once again, I have to groan at the use of “vintage white” on a jersey made with modern fabrics, as it just never looks right to me, but… at least it’s not very heavy on it, and the adjacent orange helps to offset the apparent “dinginess” of the v-white.
Other than those nitpicks, though, they look great!
Edit: They almost look great… somehow in looking at the other details, I completely glossed over the not-team-color pants and gloves for the Oilers. On the one hand, they add to distracting from the v-white, but on the other hand, they stand out a bit too much.
Also also, didn’t notice until just now that the Flames’ base color is… vintage white. Looked more bright white in the photos… that brings them down a notch, sadly, because they’ll still look dingy over the bright white ice.
The Calgary sweater looks better to me but only because the Oilers one has the uni number in the front oil drop. That could be eliminated and just put in a smaller oil drop I suppose.
Like the Oilers more than the Flames one.
Think they would have been better off with reproducing the actual Mercurys & Stampeders jerseys. If they must tack on something Oilers/Flames put their logos on a shoulder patch or two.
So those are excellent unis but purple is bad? We see the world very differently.