The Vegas Golden Knights and Seattle Kraken have unveiled their respective jerseys for when they do battle in the 2024 Winter Classic at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
In previous years, teams like the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers designed jerseys that were influenced by teams of the past for the Winter Classic. According to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, the NHL and Adidas took a different approach to designing the jerseys since a throwback nod wasn’t exactly an option. After all, the Golden Knights began playing in 2017-18, while the Kraken had their inaugural season in 2021-22.
Instead, the league and Adidas attempted to figure out what the Golden Knights and Kraken’s sweaters may have looked like if the franchises were around in the early 1900s.
While the Kraken weren’t an NHL franchise in the early 1900s, the Seattle Metropolitans were in the NHL from 1915 until 1924. The Kraken ended up using the Metropolitans’ 1917 sweaters as inspiration for their Winter Classic jerseys. It’s an important piece of Seattle hockey history since the Metropolitans ended up becoming the first United States team to win the Stanley Cup in 1917.
The jersey contains striping that is being called “Kraken Midnight Blue, Ice Blue and Red Alert” along with some off-white that serves as a nod to textiles that were used in the 1920s.
Within the “S” logo on the front of the jersey, the word “KRAKEN” is spelled out in place of the usual tentacle that is placed within the “S” on their normal jerseys. The Metropolitans actually had the word “SEATTLE” within their logo in the 1910s and 1920s.
Meanwhile, the Golden Knights didn’t have any type of history to draw from like the Kraken did. Vegas used a gray “V” on the front of the jersey that was inspired by the “V” in the team’s primary logo.
The Golden Knights’ traditional gold jerseys are very shiny, but the Winter Classic sweaters are a tad less eye-popping. Adidas director of sports marketing and hockey Nic Corbett told ESPN that the gold tone is being called “Gold Dust” due to the fact that’s less “shimmery” than the team’s usual gold jerseys.
The Golden Knights jerseys also have a cursive “Vegas” on the back as well as on the players’ pants. The team will also wear gloves that have a throwback brown leather look as an ode to the sport’s early days.
Vegas will also have seven stars on the back of the neck to signify the seventh year of existence for the franchise.
