Ranking Every NHL Heritage Classic Jersey Ever

The 2023 NHL Heritage Classic takes place at the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on Sunday, marking the 20th anniversary of the first one played in 2003.

Apart from the pageantry and rivalries involved, our favorite part of the big outdoor games is seeing the new uniforms the teams break out.

When the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames duke it out, it will be the seventh Heritage Classic, which means we've got a lot of different jerseys to pick from.

The funny part about how far back the event goes is that when the first one took place in 2003, the Oilers wore a 1980s throwback that eventually returned to fashion as their main jersey against the Canadiens, who used their regular red uniforms as well.

As times changed, though, so did the thinking as to how best to dress for special occasions...well, mostly anyway.

Here, we rank the special jerseys teams worn for Canada's favorite outdoor hockey event.

The Montréal Canadiens have, arguably, the best uniform set in the NHL and perhaps even in league history.

The red, blue and white plus the "CH" emblem are as iconic as it gets and there's a sort of beauty in the fact that the Canadiens didn't alter their look in the first two Heritage Classics.

They wore the classic red jersey in the inaugural event in 2003 and then wore their road whites in Calgary in 2011. Both jerseys are beautiful and perfect. They're also not anything different than what they were wearing at the time or even since then.

For those reasons we're not going to rank them. It would be a bit unfair for a loaded up one-off special jersey to get a shot at taking the top spot against a classic much like it would be equally unfair for a poorly done special edition to come up so short against a look with a legacy.

It's not as if the Canadiens are above doing something different or special. They busted out a host of special jerseys for their 100th anniversary and had one for the 2016 Winter Classic in Foxborough, MA.

When it comes to the Heritage Classic, though, they haven't done anything new (or old) and different. They also haven't been in the event since 2011, and it sure seems like that's got to change eventually.

Two things are true here: This is a beautiful jersey from the Oilers, but it was also deeply unoriginal for the Heritage Classic.

As great as this throwback to the Oilers' first two seasons in the WHA was, it wasn't worn specifically for the Heritage Classic. Edmonton wore this as an alternate for its final season at Rexall Place but decided it was perfect for the outdoor event as well.

Fans took to the orange jerseys so much that they wore a variation of the orange sweater (without numbers on the shoulders) as their home jersey from 2017 through 2022 when they went back to the classic blue shirt they wore during their dynasty seasons in the 1980s.

It's a supremely cool jersey and we love it. But it was a cop-out of sorts because it was already their third jersey that season and is low in our rankings because of that.

Considering the Flames' jersey history within the Heritage Classic, they've knocked them out of the park with both something historically relevant and something straight out of the franchise's own history.

What they're wearing for this year's game, however, feels a bit lacking.

The historic inspiration of the Calgary Stampeders of the 1950s and 1960s is a great touch and making use of the Flames' logo was necessary. But the circular emblem is something that's been done by many other teams before and the vintage white color jersey is too.

The shoulder yoke with the numbers is a nice touch (and probably a little necessary for the fans watching in person and on TV), but we've seen that done before too. The big issue here is that it's a look that has been done a few times before by other teams.

It's fine, it's just not as memorable as their previous jerseys or compared to the best of the best among those used in previous Heritage Classics.

The history of hockey in Toronto is extensive, and even prior to the start of the Maple Leafs in 1927, there was a lot to draw from for their first-ever appearance in the Heritage Classic.

For the 2022 game, the Leafs went all the way back to 1917 and the Toronto Arenas for their royal blue jerseys with a white block-letter "T" on the front.

The Arenas were Toronto's first NHL team, and they became the Maple Leafs in 1927 (after a short time as the Toronto St. Patricks). To give you a sense of the Arenas history, Jack Adams, the guy whom the coach of the year award is named after, played for them.

Drawing upon virtual ancient NHL history for a jersey was a great idea. It's a simple look, and the fans who took in the game in Hamilton, Ontario got a real treat to see it used in the modern age.

As fun as it is to draw on history for a jersey, the catch with the old jerseys is that there wasn't a whole lot to them and that's the main issue with the Maple Leafs' Arenas shirts.

It's great for what it was and how it looked in a throwback, but there's not a lot to it in general. That's OK, but its perfect reverence for history isn't enough to vault it up our list.

Anytime the modern Winnipeg Jets have drawn upon their original WHA/NHL history, it's been a big hit when it comes to jerseys.

The team logo from 1979 to 1990, as seen on this jersey, is a relic of that time of hockey logos in which being circular with wacky fonts and designs was the thing to do (see also: Edmonton Oilers, New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks) but it's perfect.

This design is a virtual carbon copy of the WHA Jets jersey from 1976 in which they won the title. Fans at the 2019 Heritage Classic in Regina, Saskatchewan got a treat seeing these throwbacks in action against the Calgary Flames' throwback set. These dark blue beauties were great in the 1970s and fantastic all over again in 2019.

So why did it slip to this point? Because it wasn't exactly a new idea. This marked the second time they dipped into the Jets WHA years for a jersey as they used the white version of this during the 2016 Heritage Classic in Winnipeg.

If there's a bonus for this look, it's that the Jets held onto it after the 2019 game as an alternate jersey that they're still using this season.

The classic Jets look is incredible, but if they want to dip into the current franchise's own history, well, the Atlanta Thrashers brief history of designs is there to draw from.

What the Ottawa Senators broke out for their Heritage Classic debut in 2014 was a brave and historically relevant choice.

The history stems from taking a design of the Senators from the original team that played in the NHL from 1917 to 1931. The stripes hearken back to the Ottawa "Silver Seven" from the turn of the century, the big letter "O" became part of the design around 1929 and the color scheme has lasted. Never mind that's much in part due to the team that began play in 1990 drew upon that history for the color scheme they use still today.

But this particular jersey was a vintage white version of the alternate jersey they were using at the time. Those black alternates were outstanding and it's a shame they only had them from 2011 to 2017. Taking that look and making it off-white was a cool idea for this game, but there's an extensive history of hockey in Ottawa to which they could have used for something different.

Am I advocating for them to go full barber pole "Silver Seven" style for a future outdoor game? Yes, of course I am because if you're going to go for history, go for the big one no matter how gaudy it is. But the 2014 look is strong, albeit just an alternative to the current alternate jersey.

At first blush, it was easy to have strongly negative feelings about this 1952 Edmonton Mercurys-inspired look from the Oilers. But after soaking it in and seeing players actually modeling it, it grew on us a lot.

This is a really different and interesting style while also being very much all about the Oilers.

The classic blue-and-orange mix will forever be attached to the team, but it's the crest that really makes this jersey jump out.

The oil drop with the player's number in the middle and the ribbon underneath it with the team's name proudly emblazoned on it make it look extremely vintage, like something you'd see on a jersey from the 1910s or 20s. It's old-timey, but it's a new version of nostalgic.

If there's something to nitpick about this jersey it's the squared-off shoulder yokes that make it look like someone put a table runner over the shoulders of each player. Squaring it off makes it look a little awkward, but perhaps seeing in the flow of the game will help make it make sense and look good.

The whole look is interesting and different, which are things we like to give points for in these rankings. If the new jerseys get the Oilers out of the current funk they're in, who knows, maybe they make their way into the regular rotation in the future.

When a team has a virtually perfect logo, incorporating it into a new jersey design is almost a must.

The Buffalo Sabres are one of many teams that have that kind of logo, and when they took part in the 2022 Heritage Classic in Hamilton, the circular logo with a running buffalo underscored by a pair of sabres had to be on the front.

Since the Maple Leafs were going to be clad in blue, the vintage white jersey was back and so were the blue-and-gold stripes. What was new to this shirt was the gold buffalo logo with "Sabres" on the animal.

This jersey is a big-time winner because it's vaguely historic in style, has plenty of nostalgic notes and makes no mistake about what team it is. After all, the Sabres' classic jerseys are hard to deviate away from, but this style does it in a way that's different and new. That's a great thing.

You can take points off because it's not overtly new and different, however, and a quick look at it can make people think they didn't really change anything at all. But something about this one really popped, and it's too bad it didn't last beyond the Heritage Classic.

When the Oilers broke out these classic white beauties from the 1980s during the first Heritage Classic in 2003, it was the best thing they could have done.

Seeing the Oilers in this jersey now is nothing new because they went back to this look in 2011 and stuck with it. There was a time between 1997 and 2011 where their white jersey did not have the classic blue yoke with orange outline.

That's why seeing the Oilers bring the classic look back for the Heritage Classic was such a great move. It had been 13 years since they last won the Stanley Cup, and that Heritage Classic event featured maybe the greatest names of all time between the Oilers and Canadiens. Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier went up against Guy LaFleur and Larry Robinson among many others from the 1980s Oilers and 1970s Canadiens stars.

Dusting off the jerseys that will be forever attached to the Oilers teams that won five Stanley Cups was the perfect kiss of nostalgia needed for the game.

The Calgary Flames went back to the future for their 2019 Heritage Classic appearance and proved that what was once revered could be new again.

The Flames threw it back to their roots from when they arrived in Calgary out of Atlanta and broke out the white sweaters they donned for their first 14 years in Alberta. From 1980 to 1994, they wore white jerseys with the classic Flames logo with the red shoulder yoke and red-and-yellow stripes on the sleeves and waist.

Seeing these jerseys against the Winnipeg Jets' WHA dark-blue uniforms made this Heritage Classic one of the most aesthetically pleasing games in the event's history.

Whether they made you think of Gary Roberts, Mike Vernon or Lanny McDonald, these Flames uniforms evoked a strong sense of the team's history, especially their 1989 Stanley Cup victory over Montréal.

More importantly, Calgary using these jerseys in the Heritage Classic served to inspire the team to bring them and the red home version back full-time as their primary uniforms.

When a look is that classic and that perfect, keeping it on the shelf was no longer an option. They tried the rest; it was time to bring back the best.

When the Jets busted out these 1970s WHA throwbacks, it was the best move they could've made that didn't involve using the original team jerseys from the 1980s or 1990s.

Considering the current Jets' franchise history is tied up with the Atlanta Thrashers and the awkwardness that can provide, using the WHA Jets as inspiration for the 2016 Heritage Classic in Winnipeg was an easy call.

The white jerseys are eye-grabbing, the classic '70s-80s Jets logo is perfect and making as much use of it as possible is never a bad idea. The WHA Jets' use of dark blue and red for the colors helps make it stand out from what the NHL Jets used and allows the current Jets to do something that does not irritate the folks in Arizona.

Isn't franchise history fun?

Anyway, these Jets jerseys served as inspiration for them to use the blue version in 2019's Heritage Classic that stuck as an alternate shirt, but there's something really special about the white jerseys that makes them so aesthetically pleasing. It would be great to see the team bring these back into the rotation somehow.

What do we like from outdoor-game jerseys? We like history,cool logos and maybe most of all funky stripes. The Calgary Flames hit on all those facets with their 2011 Heritage Classic set.

They drew upon Calgary's hockey history and designed the jersey after the 1920 Calgary Tigers. The red-and-yellow colors are all about the Flames, but the stripes and total design of the jersey came from the Tigers.

The Flames' logo in white over top of a thick yellow stripe on deep red jersey just sings. And the red-and-yellow sleeve stripes called back to that era when stripes ruled the day.

Seeing these sweaters matched up against the Canadiens' classic white jerseys made the 2011 event at McMahon Stadium in Calgary a truly beautiful sight to behold. And since the Flames weren't yet ready to throw it back to their own team's history with their original 1980s jerseys just yet, using this look inspired from the city's own hockey history truly paid respect to where the sport came from in that city.

An almost vital part to any team playing in an outdoor game is being able to pay respect to the team or city's history in hockey.

When the Vancouver Canucks landed in the 2014 Heritage Classic at BC Place, they rolled it all the way back to the 1910s and 1920s and the Vancouver Millionaires.

While the Canucks have yet to win a Stanley Cup, the 1915 Millionaires won Lord Stanley's Cup over the Ottawa Senators, which helped make the 2014 Heritage Classic that much more special of an event and explained why each team donned the uniforms that they did.

The Canucks have so many different jerseys and styles in their history since they entered the NHL in 1970 that picking one for a special event like the Heritage Classic is almost impossible. It also doesn't help that they've brought back some of the old looks so many times that it's doubly difficult to do something new with those. In this case, a modernized rip of the Millionaires was 100 percent the best thing they could've done.

Now if only John Tortorella had started Roberto Luongo in that game instead of Eddie Lack...