This is Hockeytown!
Around these parts, we are Detroit Red Wings fans and there is absolutely no question about which team has the best jersey in the NHL.
That being said, The Athletic recently published a piece where they went through a process to select the best jersey for each NHL franchise, which was then followed by a virtual draft.
Now, we would not necessarily expect the Red Wings jersey to be the No. 1 overall pick (though it should be) in a national draft, but it would have to be top 5, right?
Well, it was not.
In fact, the Red Wings home jersey was not selected until the No. 10 overall pick!
From The Athletic:
No. 10
Team Sara: Detroit Red Wings, 1987-Present
For as long as the Red Wings have existed, they’ve looked like this. All red with a single white arm stripe and a single white waist stripe at the very bottom. It’s a timeless look worn by generations of great hockey players from Gordie Howe to Steve Yzerman to Nicklas Lidstrom to Pavel Datsyuk. Red and blue are the league’s most popular colors, and it’s fitting that the two history-rich teams using just those colors and white land side-by-side.
Sara: If Tupac wears your jersey that’s enough for me. Also, what an iconic team. I own this jersey. I think if you’re going to own a jersey of a team that you didn’t grow up on, I would bet it would be this jersey.
Dom: Classic. Iconic. Clean. If you pick the Leafs, you need to pick the Red Wings next and vice versa, it’s like yin and yang.
In case you were wondering which jersey was the No. 1 overall pick, it was the Vancouver Canucks home jersey from 1992-1997.
No. 1
Team Dom: Vancouver Canucks, 1992-1997
This is a heavy-hitter that needs no introduction. In 1978, the Canucks shifted away from blue-and-green to black-yellow-red (which seems insane these days), but it wasn’t until the Flying Skate logo was introduced in 1985 and the weird shoulder yokes were eliminated in 1989 that the team’s look became truly elite.
The Canucks had another rebrand in the late 90s, and while the orca became synonymous with the Sedin era, the Flying Skate has become iconic and missed dearly by the fanbase. These jerseys were brought back to commemorate the franchise’s 50th anniversary and were only intended to be worn four times throughout the 2019-20 season. But they were so well received that many, including Dom and Sara, think they should stay in the rotation. #freetheflyingskate
Dom: It’s kind of weird for the No. 1 overall pick to be just another black jersey, but I feel like this one is so iconic it transcends that. Would it have been your first pick?
Sara: I had it in my Top 3, but no…
Nation, if you are interested in seeing the entire draft, please click here.
