St. Louis Blues Won’t Use Winter Classic Jersey In 2017-18

There was always hope the Blues would look to the past when they went to the future of jerseys. Sadly, that will not be the case.

Ever since we heard Adidas would be taking over as the NHL’s sole producer of officially licensed jerseys, there have been questions about what the uniforms would look like. While some held out hope the St. Louis Blues would get a blast from the past in their new sweaters, that will not be happening.

The Winter Classic jerseys are officially out for the Blues in 2017-18. We knew it was unlikely we would see them again since Adidas (or the NHL) is doing away with third jerseys – at least for their inaugural season.

As mentioned, some fans hoped the Blues would simply go with the old-school sweater permanently. The Blues certainly played well in the uniforms.

Personally, I never cared for the blue. I’ve never seen the Blues in anything but a royal blue or darker, so it was odd to see the lighter shade.

That said, the style of the sweater was very nice. It is a bit disappointing they won’t be using them again for at least one year or more.

How do we know you ask? The Blues – and all NHL teams – unveiled sneak peeks at their new jerseys.

We should not be surprised this happened. Adidas, and all soccer companies really, regularly unveil sneak previews of their new kits ever year.

As long as the NHL does not follow that model, we’ll be ok. It is hard enough to buy new gear every season, let alone a completely new jersey every year.

Back to the design, it seems as though little will change. The fabric itself might be a little different, but the logo and the background coloring seem the same as the current Blues home uniform.

The only worrying thing is how much will change. I have no problem with Adidas as a company. However, World Cup jerseys aside, I don’t want the three stripes prominently featured.

The Blues are not the Chicago Blackhawks. Do not try a three stripe, horizontal display on the bottom. The three stripes up the side would be even more awful.

However, there will have to be minor tweaks from the 2016-17 models. If there are no changes, why would anyone be tempted to buy the new one if it’s the same, just with an Adidas logo instead of Reebok?

If it was up to me – it isn’t – I’d like to see the piping go a little smaller. It looks fine on the players, but the thick white and yellow piping stripes always looked somewhat silly on fan jerseys.

Slim that out a little bit and you’d be good to go.

There is still the chance for something quite different. Perhaps the style will change back to the Bernie Federko/Brett Hull era jerseys.

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Maybe they’ll use the Winter Classic style with current colors. Both seem unlikely, but we are not too far away from finding out.

Next: Blues Must Be Careful With Colton Parayko's Free Agency

Unless the NHL does something a bit shocking and releases them online, the jerseys are expected to be unveiled with the first picks at the NHL Entry Draft on June 23. Awhile to wait yet, but hopefully it will be worth it and we will get something good.