Article Archive #23 - Maple Leafs and Penguins

This post originally appeared on Hockey Jersey Concepts on June 24th, 2016.

It's draft day today, one of the most exciting times of the NHL's off-season.  Future stars are drafted and current stars are often traded, but even more importantly new jerseys are unveiled.  The fun actually started yesterday with the leak of the Toronto Maple Leafs new jerseys, and continued today with the unveiling of the Penguins new throwback road jersey.  Let's first take a look at the Leafs new jerseys, which were leaked via an official team app.

Image from @skyler_SB7 on Twitter

Image from @skyler_SB7 on Twitter

The new jerseys are quite similar to their previous look, the only big change (besides the logo) is that there's now one hem stripe instead of two.  Other minor changes including removing the contrasting cuff trim and a new "hanger effect" on the inside of the collar.  The jerseys also appear to use the modern stitching template, which was first introduced for the 2015 stadium series and has been used for the majority of new jerseys since.

To be honest, I don't know what I think of these new jerseys yet.  I don't hate them, but I'm definitely not in love with them.  The hem stripe bugs me a bit, I don't mind the idea of the single hem stripe but I think it looks awkward how it's thicker than the arm stripes.  Hopefully I'll get used to it, because I'm guessing this design will be around for a while.  Maybe it will look better on a player as part of the whole uniform.

Screenshot of video from @Penguins on Twitter

This morning the Penguins made the switch to their retro jerseys official with a simple video posted on Twitter.  Their third jersey from the past two seasons becomes the home jersey, with a white version added for the road.  The move wasn't a surprise, but it's still nice to see the exact details of the new road jersey, like what the collar and hem stripes would look like (there were a few versions of this jersey during its original run from 1980-92, including changes to the collar and hem stripes).  I think they made the best choice by using a solid black collar and equally sized hem stripes.

What are you thoughts on these new Maple Leafs and Penguins jerseys?