
The Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings will face off in the 2025 NHL Stadium Series outdoor game, to be played at the iconic Ohio Stadium, (home of the Ohio State University Buckeyes) on March 1, 2025. Incredible as it seems, this will be the League’s 43rd regular-season outdoor game.
Let’s take a look at both sets of uniforms, beginning with the Blue Jackets.



The Blue Jackets’ uniform pays tribute to the rich history of Ohio and Columbus. According to the team, the design draws inspiration from the uniforms worn by the Union Army, with the jersey featuring several military-like details, including:
- A chevron sleeve stripe denoting the rank insignia of the era.
- Shoulder featuring a new “CBJ” mark surrounding two crossed hockey sticks, a nod to the unit designation pins worn on the front of soldier’s slouch caps.
- A front crest featuring “The Cannon,” derived from the Blue Jackets alternate logo and key element of any Columbus Blue Jackets home game, colored with new metallic silver and red accents.



Additional design elements honor the Blue Jackets’ home state. Captain and Alternate Captain designation letters are displayed within a state of Ohio-shaped patch, while the inside back neck includes “Columbus Blue Jackets” wordmark in conjunction with a buckeye leaf pattern, the state tree of Ohio.


The uniform is completed with the star from the team’s primary logo on the pants and a helmet design that features an oversized metallic application team logo and player number.

Player NOB is white in a bespoke team font.

Additional photos can be seen below:
Here are the Red Wings uniforms:



According to the team, the Red Wings’ uniform celebrates the world-renowned automotive industry and hockey culture of Detroit. The design incorporates several auto-inspired elements, including:
- A front crest with a bold new custom “Detroit” script wordmark inspired by automotive insignias.
- Laser-perforated details in the wordmark and back numbers, visually consistent with a car’s upholstered leather interior.
- Debossed speed stripes on the sleeves and socks reminiscent of racing car aesthetics.
- A helmet design that features a racing stripe and oversized winged wheel on each side of the player helmet with metallic flake finish inspired by automotive paint.




Detroit’s uniforms also include special touches to the team’s history, including a hem loop label featuring the honorary team mascot.

Jersey and breezers contain the wordmark of the popular “Hockeytown” hometown slogan.

The primary logo of the Red Wings is placed on the left shoulder of the uniform.

Additional photos can be seen below:
Both uniforms include the “2025 NHL Stadium Series” designation on the inside back hem as a commemorative touch to this marquee matchup.

The Stadium Series event crest is affixed to the right shoulder location.

The teams even put out a bit of handy-dandy storytelling …

And no unveiling would be complete without a hype video:
Getting up close and personal with the new @nhl Stadium Series threads 🏒 pic.twitter.com/XEyUdNoG48
— Fanatics (@Fanatics) January 16, 2025
While I’ll need to see both designs in action and on ice, I’m generally pretty impressed with these uniforms. Stadium Series games, as opposed to the Winter Classic, generally feature more futuristic designs, but these don’t seem too out of the box. I’ll be especially interested to see how the Blue Jackets shimmery silver striping material will look under the lights. It would seem they’re going for a bit of a reflective look, so we’ll see if that’s noticeable. I am a big fan of the white stripe across the top of the Red Wings’ helmets. And Detroit has an interesting NOB style, going with a red nameplate with white, vertically arched lettering (as is their normal style). It’s a bit Flyers-esque with the contrasting color nameplate.
I’d have preferred the Red Wings to use a crest/logo instead of “Detroit” in script, but it’s not a deal breaker. On the other hand, the Jackets’ cannon crest is pretty sweet. Having the Captaincy patch with the Ohio state outline is a nice touch.
OK readers. What say you?
I really like these and maybe even love these in contrast to the pantheon of Stadium Series unis. Good job but still screw you to fanatics
This may be the best Blue Jackets jersey ever. It definitely looks better than their long-standing vintage-white-trimmed alternate (guess which part of that I like the least?).
The Wings jersey looks pretty good. The perforation patterns are kind of weird, but overall I like it. I might even pick one up.
CBJ set is pretty good. Not sure I’d change much.
Detroit is pretty decent, also not a fan of the script on the front but it’s not the worst thing. As many of these “special” games the Red Wings have been in, it’s nice that they haven’t had to jump the shark with their uniforms yet.
CBJ need to build a new identity around this set. Save for the helmet, it’s a home run. Detroit is also a pretty solid set. Lose the decals on the helmet and make it white, you’ve got a hit.
Make it white? No way. The fact that the helmet is red is the best thing about this uniform.
Certainly for an outdoor game, it should be red.
The whole colored helmet with white uniforms looks peewee league. It’s bad when SJ does it, it’s bad when Anaheim does it, it’s bad when Carolina does it, It’s bad when Washington does it.
You’re allowed to be wrong.
I like the CBJ uni, only problem is they didn’t do their research. The Union Army uniforms of that era had point down chevrons, not point up.
Great catch on the chevrons. Quoting Wikipedia-
The use of chevrons came into being in 1821, with the orientation changing over time from point-down to point-up and back again, to the point-down orientation seen in the American Civil War. Around the turn of the 20th century, point-up wear of chevrons returned and has remained so.
This.
Never let facts get in the way of “good” uniform story telling. /s.
First sentence should maybe be 2025?
“The Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings will face off in the 2024 NHL Stadium Series outdoor game,”.
Love seeing new hockey uniforms when we can still tell who the team is at a quick glance, unlike all the NBA happenings. Even if only for 1 game.
“First sentence should maybe be 2025?”
Yep, it should. Thanks and now fixed!
Detroit: A perfectly fine alternate uniform. I expect to see this jersey in the Detroit stands for years to come. A-minus.
Columbus: Maybe the best-looking jersey the team will ever have worn. A-plus.
Man, the NHL just does such a good job with its special-event uniforms. I can think of one real dud in the last seven or so seasons, and the average quality is closer to making me wish the team would adopt it as a primary home or road.
For once, a good Blue Jackets’ uniform. Make these the workaday uniforms from this day forward, and Columbus has a winner.
Blue Jackets have had some decent unis in the past but mostly they are “not bad but not good” designs. This is one of those. The silver/grey sleeve stripes are straight off the sharks historically weakest uni set, from most angles save for head on these look like a patriots novelty uniform, and the comically large everything on the stadium series unis makes every single one of them absolutely brutal to look at. The Detroit uni is damn near a win save for the massive tv numbers. They are a legacy team that doesn’t want for a redesign, but this would be an excellent addition/deviation for them full time if they rink-sized the numbers. I’m luke warm on the helmet wings just because they don’t exactly pop and the center stripe is so bold it overshadows the wings entirely. Ditch the stripe and alightly rework the wing to work specifically for the helmet and that’s a wining idea, at least for this set. Their normal unis don’t need an extra pair of wings when they are already built around the chest insignia wing.
Am I the only one who thinks the Red Wings helmet is meant to invoke a football helmet? With the center stripe and wings/logos on each side?
I thought so as well — but the team didn’t specifically mention it, so I didn’t want to assume it is the case. But I can think of none other. Love the bucket!
I think your on to somethin’ here, the wings on the helmet evoke the winged Michigan helmets. One stripe instead of three but it works out better that way in my opinion. Love both of these, glad the Wings didn’t attempt to incorporate black in the design. Also, love the laces at the neckline.
It took me some time to come up with my judgment on the helmets.
My first reaction was I really like them, but the more I considered it, it felt more football-like.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Columbus should make that their primary logo immediately.
And….there goes my next paycheck. Thanks, Columbus.
The Ohio state (not to be confused with The Ohio State) outline surrounding the captaincy patch is very cool…but I wish they would have used that for the sleeve numbers for everybody ala the Cleveland Barons (who remain ‘forgotten men’ ).
The memory of the Barons is completely out of proportion to the existence of the team itself. One reason is that their uniform game was strong. You could do much, much worse than put your team in old Barons’ gear.
Al the octopus is the best part of the uniform. That mascot was larger then life in the 90s
Solid looks for both teams…looking forward to watching the game.
The script “Detroit” gives off a college hockey jersey feel to me and I don’t mean that in a good way. Too amateurish, in my opinion.
Any time a team has to fall back on using a boring script wordmark as a logo it means they either have a bunch of 80 year olds making every single creative decision or that they didn’t even bother trying. At this point Detroit should just be banned from having outdoor games if they are so clearly against doing them in the first place. It’s shameful and pathetic
Seems I’m in the minority here but I think the Columbus jersey looks goofy at first glance. Will maybe reserve my opinion for what they look like on the ice!
It looks great on Werenski, but super goofy on Monahan. I think Monahan has this combination of a narrow lower body, wide shoulder pads, tipped up visor, and pulled up sleeves that combine with the “chevrons” to make him look suuuuuuuuuper top heavy.
The single best thing about both uniforms as a whole?
No ads on the helmets or jerseys.
Both sets are incredibly good! Love that the Red Wings’ nameplates are red with lettering and still vertically arched.
Couple of thoughts on the Red Wings…
Love the football-esque helmets. With NFL helmets becoming more and more awkward with guardian caps and odd holes, perhaps its time for the NHL to embrace the helmet as part of their look with stripes and impactful logos!
As for the script… what are they meant to do? The winged wheel would just look more of the same, and they have done a block D before, so they are few options. As Stadium Series go for more futuristic looks, I reckon a more futuristic winged wheel would have worked well, but its probably sacrilege to suggest!