There was a very interesting Tweet over the weekend from The Hockey News editor Ryan Kennedy, who shares the news that the NHL is considering returning to white jerseys at home and dark jerseys on the road. In addition, Kennedy hints that in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the NHL might even consider some color vs. color games.
Exciting sartorial gossip: I’m told the NHL might switch back to white jerseys at home, dark jerseys on the road in the next CBA. But could we ever see dark on dark sometimes, I wonder? Red Detroit vs. Blue Toronto, for example.
— Ryan Kennedy (@THNRyanKennedy) February 15, 2025
This would be a fantastic development.
As you may be aware, the history of NHL home sweater color has changed over the many decades the NHL has been in existence. Briefly, there have been four distinct “eras.” From its founding until 1955-56, there was no home sweater requirement, and in fact, up until the 1950s, some teams (like the Rangers) only had one jersey. From 1955-56 until 1970-71, the NHL mandated that home teams wear colors and visiting teams wear white, which is the same protocol as today. Then things reversed themselves. From 1970-71 until 2003-04, home teams wore white sweaters. And from 2003-04 until today, the arrangement is for home teams to wear a color jersey.
There have been a few games since 2003 where the home team has worn white, but they’ve needed to inform the visiting club of this so the road team brings along a set of color jerseys for contrast.
Real old-time traditionalists probably prefer home teams to wear color sweaters, as that was the style from 1955-1971, but for Generation X’ers like myself, we grew up in that sweet spot when home jerseys were always white, and road teams wore their darks. Younger viewers, on the other hand, may have only grown up after the 2003 reversal, and so for them, dark at home is all they’ve ever known.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems: dark at home means teams can wear third jerseys (which are almost always color), which of course has a merch-driven component to it. But it also means that all road teams will be in white sweaters, so home fans will basically always see the same color matchups.
If you’re not already aware, I’m a big prononent of white at home (as God intended), and that’s almost entirely because for the first 30+ years of my hockey-watching life, that was the way things were. But in a way it goes even deeper than that. Back then, MLB and NBA teams wore white at home, so it felt right — I always wondered, growing up, why the NFL mostly had home teams in dark jerseys, and in my youth this always struck me as odd.
White at home in the NHL was, to me anyway, something special. I was fortunate to come of age when the Islanders won four straight cups (1980-83) and the protocol was white at home. But before cable television, only Islanders road games were broadcast on network TV. To see them in their white sweaters meant I either had to attend a game in person, or catch a very rare national broadcast with the Isles at the Coliseum. That made seeing the team in home white even more special. Once cable arrived, seeing the team in their home whites was a much more regular occurrence, but it was still special.
As far as color vs. color games, this also intrigues me as a possibility. As I noted in my article on the Four Nations Face-Off, half of those games are color vs. color — but not every color vs. color game looks good. I would hope if the NHL does go this route and encourage more color vs. color games, they’ll be judicious in which games (and which dark vs. dark jerseys) they’re permitted.
I’m not so sure I’d want to see the Red Wings in red vs. Maple Leafs in blue, but there are plenty of good potential color vs. color matchups out there. For outdoor games however, like the 2014 Winter Classic above, I’d be very OK with color vs. color.
The NHL’s current CBA agreement is set to expire in September of 2026, so it’s unlikely we’d see any of these changes before the 2026-27 NHL season. But the NHL and NHL Players’ Association are expected to begin talks on a new collective bargaining agreement early in 2025, so we may have some movement on the white at home issue in the not too distant future.
What do you guys think? Do you prefer white or dark at home? Is that a function of what you grew up with (or are just plain used to seeing), or do you really prefer one or the other?
Discuss.
