Ranking the 8 Best NHL Jerseys of Defunct Teams
Hockey is a fashion-forward sport.
And, conveniently enough, we B/R writer types are pretty style-conscious, too.
So it's only natural that we blend our love for ice-centric competition with our eye for the latest in haute couture and focus it on the best of the best in NHL jerseys.
And because there are any number of subsets to be considered when discussing the most classic looks from red line to blue line, we're drilling down a little further this time around to discuss the cream of the crop when it comes to teams that are no longer with us.
The clinical term is "defunct," but we're stretching it a bit here to include not only the franchises that ground to a halt for whatever reason, but also those that were rebranded when they moved their base of operations from one city to another.
There are (almost) no definitive wrong answers when it comes to diagnosing what's "smart" or "happening," so take that into account as you click through, and make sure to drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.
Honorable Mention: Los Angeles Sharks
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Sometimes, you just can't say no.
So we've included an honorable mention slide here to allow us to slide an all-time great defunct jersey into the mix, even though it's for a non-NHL franchise.
The Los Angeles Sharks won't make anyone's list of storied organizations, having lasted just two seasons in the rival World Hockey Association before moving to Detroit as the Michigan Stags and later to Baltimore as the Baltimore Blades before going belly up in 1975.
They were just 62-88-6 across their inglorious run in California, but the jerseys—particularly the road reds with the toothy face-first logo—were nothing if not memorable.
And we'll say it, spectacular.
8. California/Oakland Seals
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The Seals were NHL vagabonds without ever changing cities.
They were known as both the California and Oakland Seals in their 1967-68 expansion season, then took the ice as both the Bay Area and California Golden Seals across the 1970-71 schedule before settling on the latter for the remainder of their stay in the Golden State.
No matter the name, the success was never significant.
The team reached the playoffs just twice across nine seasons and never won more than 29 games before it up and left for Cleveland to become the Barons in 1976.
But the jerseys, at least in the early days in Oakland, were terrific.
A blue and green color scheme with stripes and a unique logo—initially surrounded by an O for Oakland and then by a C for California—that melded a golden seal and a hockey stick were unprecedented at the time and haven't been duplicated since.
7. Cleveland Barons
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They're sort of a package deal.
It's impossible to tell the jersey story of the California/Oakland Seals without mentioning their franchise offspring from northeastern Ohio.
The Cleveland Barons lasted just two seasons after the move from the West Coast and were competitively ugly on the ice while winning just 47 of 160 games, never qualifying for the playoffs and rarely drawing more than 10,000 fans to the Richfield Coliseum.
Generations later, they remain the last major sports franchise to fold.
But the jerseys...they are permanently cool, particularly thanks to a red/black color scheme and the Ohio outline both in the main logo and with the player numbers on the shoulders.
6. Colorado Rockies
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Sports fans these days recognize the name.
But not the team.
For those unaware, the Colorado Rockies—that's hockey, not baseball—were the second of two early stops for the NHL franchise that eventually became the New Jersey Devils.
The organization began as the expansion Scouts in Kansas City and stayed there for two seasons before heading to Denver as the Rockies for the 1976-77 season. And like much of their defunct and/or relocated brethren, they didn't do a lot of winning while there.
In fact, the Rockies maxed out at 22 wins across an 80-game schedule in 1980-81 and reached the playoffs just once in six years before they were off to East Rutherford.
Still, the mountain logo remains one of the best to ever grace a sheet of NHL ice and the colorful mix of blue, red and gold from the Colorado state flag topped things off and gave the Rockies a visual appeal that their in-game performances never consistently matched.
5. Hartford Whalers
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Sometimes it's the colors. Other times it's both.
For the Hartford Whalers, it's the latter.
Among the powerhouses of the WHA, the New England Whalers were renamed the Hartford Whalers upon arrival to the NHL in 1979 and the transition/redesign spawned perhaps the single greatest logo in North American sports history.
The whale tail emerging from the letter W not only captured the nickname but created an H in the negative space. That bit of brilliance, coupled with the color scheme change from green and gold to green and royal blue, makes the old-school Whalers look an all-time great.
After all, Gordie Howe deserved nothing less.
The franchise became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997-98, but we occasionally get a glimpse of the old-school logo thanks to the NHL's penchant for throwbacks.
In fact, we'll see it again early in 2024.
4. Winnipeg Jets
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The second of what'll be three teams on our list that made the jump to the NHL in 1979, the "original" Winnipeg Jets were another WHA powerhouse—in fact defeating Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers for the rebel league's final Avco Cup championship.
And when they arrived, they arrived in style.
At least fashionably.
The Jets were competitively dreadful upon taking NHL ice and posted one of the league's all-time worst records when they went 9-57-14 in a second 80-game season, but soon stockpiled enough draft picks to turn things around and become a postseason regular.
They always looked good, though, making the move with the red, white and blue WHA logo that featured the letter J as a hockey stick and the image of a jet in a bubble made to look like a puck. The red accents on the jersey were particularly drawn out on the road blues, which were consistently among the best in both leagues.
3. Minnesota North Stars
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The Minnesota North Stars arrived when the NHL swelled from six to 12 teams in 1967 and stayed in the lake-sopped state for 26 seasons before relocating to Dallas and dropping the word "North" from the franchise nickname.
But while a first Stanley Cup might've come after the move, it didn't look as good.
The North Stars were yet another example of how a green/gold color scheme can work when used correctly, and the drop-shadowed version of the classic logo that arrived in 1975 made the entire look even stronger.
It peaked in 1981 when the logo was added to the home shoulders to replace a bland yoke, and remained there for a decade until the stylistic transition toward Texas began in 1991.
2. Atlanta Flames
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Hockey in Atlanta hasn't gone so well.
The Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg in 2011 as the second go-round of the Jets after five desultory seasons, a generation after the Flames—who'd arrived with the New York Islanders as part of a two-team expansion in 1972—left for the great white north of Calgary in 1980.
That makes Atlanta the only city to lose a pair of NHL franchises.
But where the Thrashers were comprehensively meh across the board from 2006 to 2011, their fiery predecessors were always easy on the eyes in Georgia.
As good as the flaming C logo looks these days in Alberta, it looked even better as a flaming A in the "Peach State," whether in red on a white home jersey or in white on the road reds. A slight tweak to the striping pattern on the sleeves and body accentuated an already positive look and the Flames were consistently smart and trendy during the days in the deep south.
1. Quebec Nordiques
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The team is long gone.
But the classic quality of the Nordiques lives on.
The top team on our list is the third and final refugee of the WHA, and one which maintained its look across the transition from league to league.
A subtle tweak in the second NHL year saw the crest go from white trimmed in red to red trimmed in white on the road blues, elevating what was already a great uniform to a slam-dunk for a high-end spot in any reputable collection.
The contrast between the blue and the red and the classic elegance of the fleur-de-lis along the waistline and on the shoulders make it a visual stunner. And it's a welcome sight every time to the post-Quebec incarnation of the franchise—the Colorado Avalanche—leans back on its Canadian heritage and incorporates any element in an occasional throwback look.
If the NHL ever comes back to Quebec City, let's hope the Nordiques come with it.
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