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Devils Officially Unveil Third Jersey

The Devils made it official today: they will have a third jersey.

In the wake of the jersey being leaked via Twitter a few days ago, the team finally revealed their new threads through a press release and a series of videos and photos on their website and app.

The jersey will be the first official, legit third jersey in the history of the franchise. It is, as revealed previously, a black jersey with white striping and a white “Jersey” script wordmark with a red drop shadow.

The press release put out by the team acknowledged that fans have wanted a black jersey for the team for decades. The Devils also said that the jersey worked to weave “together Jersey pride, Devils history and the state’s professional hockey heritage.” It mentions that it was created “[i]n collaboration with the New Jersey Devils, NHL and adidas, this sweater is reflective of 90 years of New Jersey hockey history, created by the Devils nearly 40-year legacy and has been guided by the Hall of Fame goaltender, Martin Brodeur.”

The team is positioning this jersey as part of the beginning of a new era for the team, coinciding with the young talent the team has been accumulating and icing in the last few years. It aligns “with the momentum of team primed to pivot to a future window of success.”

Marty was quoted in the press release as saying that the Devils “organization has been playing with the same jersey for almost 40 years, and to be a part of bringing a third jersey for our fans to enjoy is going to leave a great mark.” Brodeur continued that the “new sweater is inspired by a history of hockey in the Garden State that fans may not be familiar with, layered with design element of Devils championship success. This is a jersey our alumni are envious of that they wished they could have played in back in their day. People throughout the state and country know us as “Jersey,” this is our place, our home and this jersey signifies that.”

Now on to the part that I always get a kick out of – for two reasons, the historical elements that go into the jersey, uniform or logo design and the, sometimes laughable ways that teams and designers will jump through hoops to explain them.

The jersey changes up the crest, taking off the traditional horned and tailed “NJ” and replacing it with the “Jersey” script. This is to symbolize (very overtly, I guess) that they are the only professional sports team that plays in the state and identifies as a specifically “New Jersey” team.

The striping pattern is said to represent the “history of hockey in the Garden State, stretching from “North Jersey” to “South Jersey” – drawing inspiration from professional teams across the entire state that also called New Jersey home.” Those teams are: the Newark Bulldogs of the Canadian-American Hockey League – 1928-29, who played in Newark, but never had an arena built there according to the press release, hence the one season there. The River Vale Skeeters of the Eastern Hockey League – 1939 to 1942. They played in River Vale, New Jersey at the River Vale Ice Arena. The final team that inspired the design elements for the jersey were the Jersey Larks, also of the EHL who played at the Haddonfield Ice House in Cherry Hill in 1960-61. This was the team that later became the original Jersey Devils.

Marty Brodeur had a big part in the jersey’s design, apparently being a world class graphic designer in addition to the greatest goaltender who ever took the ice. He worked on behalf of the team’s former players, although in reality I am sure that adidas designers did a vast majority of the heavy lifting along with input from the team and NHL.s

He added the lacing at the neck, something he felt “is reflective of a Goalie Net.” Marty told Chris Westcott in a feature article on the Devils’ website of the neck lacing that “Yeah, that was probably something a little selfish. I figured we needed to put a little goalie thing in the jersey and at first I wanted to get really the hockey net itself to be the string of the jersey and I guess we can’t do that. So we can mimic with just the laces that look like hockey netting. So this was kind of a pretty nice touch, I thought.”

Marty also was instrumental in getting “Jersey” put on the front instead of “New Jersey,” the full/proper name of the state as the press release points out. He tells the story of coming to the state for the first time after being drafted by the team in 1990. He said that “friends, strangers, fans, people in visiting cities frequently referenced his new home as “Jersey.”” This was apparently all it took to come up with the crest for the new jersey.

The Devils’ Senior Vice President of Marketing (and co-designer of the jersey), Jillian Frechette, said that “[t]he crest was really important to Marty to be reflective of Jersey and our deep roots of hockey in New Jersey. So, the crest, the font, the angle, the shape, the drop shadow, he thought all about that.”

Marty also hosts an annual golf tournament each September for charity. At this year’s event, held back on September 28, the jersey was teased in advance.

The tournament used black-and-white “tees, flags/pins, gifting, chairs and décor, and more” which “hinted the team’s new jersey color scheme and” striping.

The striping itself is a very interesting element as well.

Within the jersey, there are a total of 21 stripes. These, according to Marty himself, are to represent the state’s 21 counties.

Brodeur said “{t]he stripes are a pretty cool story. If you count all the stripes on the jersey, there are 21 stripes, and that goes with the 21 counties in New Jersey. There are tons of little things that we wanted to do with jersey and it’s really about the people, the fans of New Jersey that are supporting us. And so we have the 21 stripes for the counties and on the left shoulder, we have five stripes, three in the front, two in the back that recognize the five guys whose numbers are retired” for the Devils.

In fact, Brodeur said that “Scott Niedermayer came through and Patrick [sic] Elias with a couple of other guys and they saw it. And they were really thrilled about it. It’s an exciting time if it’s something new. And I think our fans will love it.”

In addition, he said that the stripes are “really recognizable when you look at the elbows and the striping that (the old teams) had and the ones that we are going to be wearing on the new jersey” while still paying tribute to the Devils’ history.

Frechette said in the Westcott article, “[w]hat’s special about Marty is he’s a really a really thoughtful, strategic, and intentional guy. There are a lot of alumni out there who might lend their name to something, but they might not actually have their fingerprints on it. But what I’ll say about Marty is he was a fantastic co-creator. And he sweat the details of every last detail that you’ll find on this jersey, every last nuance, right down to the stitching. And I think it’s just really special.”

Frechette also said that this ties in to the ‘Made in Jersey’ campaign that the team first introduced in January 2021. She said that “[w]e’re committed to that campaign for the longer term. So this is just one step or one stop in the journey. And it’s just really reflective of our roots in hockey and New Jersey, of our fan base that is very passionate about our team and our brand. And certainly, some of the other pieces are our esteemed alumni. Marty is really the best example, you know, ‘born in Montreal but made in Jersey.’ And now he’s got his fingerprints on this beautiful garment.”

Among the current players, writer Marc Ciampa was told by PK Subban after this morning’s practice “I think people know I’m a person with an open mind. I think it’s great. Adidas is one of my partners. When I went to Portland last summer, they showed me a couple of the third jersey options for some of the teams. I’m really excited. New Jersey has so much history and so much culture. I think they did a really good job with the jersey.”

Subban also told Ciampa his thoughts about the “Jersey” crest. “Thinking about wearing that jersey to a game is super cool. I never call it New Jersey, I call it ‘Jersey’ so wearing ‘Jersey’ on the front is super cool.” Ciampa said that Subban noted that the jersey will appeal to both the hardcore hockey fan and those who just like fashionable clothing.

“You have the right partner. Adidas has the crossover ability to make something that appeases to the hockey fan base and gets other people involved too. We want people from the area to want to wear it.”

Another Devils defenseman spoke to Ciampa about the jersey as well.

Dougie Hamilton told him “[r]ight when I saw it, I liked it a lot and once we saw them with the full kit with the gloves and pants and socks, I thought it looked really good. We’re all excited to wear them and I think it’ll look pretty cool.”

Ciampa went back to Subban, who finished by saying that he wants the jersey to get into the mainstream.

He commented “I know I’d wear it. For me, I’d love to see it in a rap video, that’d be really cool.”

The first date that the jersey will be worn was announced as December 8, 2021 versus the Philadelphia Flyers. Although we know that the Devils will wear them another 12 times this season (or 13 times total – in a nice nod to team captain Nico Hischier’s jersey number 13). The other dates will be released by the team on Black Friday, November 26.

Merchandise, including the jerseys, t-shirts, hats and collectibles, are available right now on Fanatics, NHLShop.com and at the Devils Den team stores at the Prudential Center.

In one other piece of Devils news going into tomorrow’s home game against the Minnesota Wild, forward Alexander Holtz was reassigned to AHL Utica while forward Chase De Leo was recalled from Utica according to a blog post on the Devils’ official blog by writer Marc Ciampa.

Holtz played in six games for the Devils while he was called up earlier this month. He recorded two points – both assists. Ciampa mentions that with the Comets prior, he had five goals in four games.

De Leo has played in five other NHL contests previously with the Winnipeg Jets (two games) and the Anaheim Ducks (three games). He does not yet have an NHL point. The 25-year-old De Leo will wear number 47 with New Jersey. De Leo actually leads the AHL-leading Comets in scoring currently according to Ciampa. He has notched a pair of goals and 12 assists for 14 points as Utica has started 2021-22 with a 13-0-0 record, a new American Hockey League record.

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Devils’ Third Jersey Accidentally Leaked

Well, hell has officially frozen over.

The Devils will be finally getting a third jersey after roughly 25 years of the NHL first introducing third jerseys on a large scale across the league.

The good news? It will be black. The no-brainer that many fans have been calling for since the mid-1990’s.

The bad news? Well, it’s just not very nice looking.

Pictures of the jersey (and remember, this has not been 100-percent confirmed as the real jersey – as Chris Creamer of SportsLogos.net reminded us in his article on the subject) leaked by @GTAC13JERSEYS via @Scottyk9 on Twitter back on November 20.

The base of the jersey is black with white stripes throughout. It has a thin white stripe at the hem (similar to the black stripe at the bottom of the regular home and away sets) and two thick white stripes on either arm with three thin white stripes in between them. The shoulder yoke is three white stripes of equal size on the front and back of the yoke.

The collar sees the now-standard NHL logo on the front. The inside of the collar is red with “’95 ’00 ‘03” in white on it – the three Stanley Cup championship years, which also appears on the inside collar of the regular sets. The front of the collar also features a lace collar.

The crest sees the word “Jersey” in script font in white on the front outlines in a red drop shadow.

I’ll forego the jokes about a new New Jersey jersey with the word “Jersey” on the front that everyone sees compelled to make, well, everywhere.

To begin with, the base of the jersey. As reported by Creamer on SportsLogos.net, the main design is an homage to the Newark Bulldogs. The Bulldogs (whom the Devils also pay tribute to with the aforementioned stripe on the hems of their regular jersey sets) only played one season in Newark. They played in the Cam-Am League in 1928-29 according to Creamer, so there is not a whole lot of history there to begin with.

Creamer points out that the black-and-white jerseys are very similar aesthetically to jerseys the Chicago Blackhawks wore in the 1930s. The Hawks have worn this design more recently in a completely black-and-white color palette.

The logo on the front is the only real splash of color for now (we have not actually seen the entire uniforms yet, so no helmets, pant shells, socks, gloves or names and numbers) so that is what draws the eye to it right away.

And, unfortunately, it’s a bit of an eyesore.

The plain script does not pop like the Devils iconic logo does or would on a black jersey. It is just a word mark there.

Creamer does ask why the designers and the team went with “the slang nickname for the state?” He says that “[s]ure Vegas did it with their name, but that doesn’t mean it was a good move.” Now on this one, I will defend the Jersey jersey.

The team is named after the Jersey Devil. Since the cryptozoological beast from the Pine Barrens was called the “Jersey Devil” and not the “New Jersey Devil” as pointed out by a comment by a guest on an article by Nick Villano on PucksandPitchforks.com, this would be the correct verbiage. The commentor does concede that the “design” of the jersey “is admittedly awful” however.

(As a side note, the team did issue lapel pins to Season Ticket Members a few seasons ago that featured this exact “Jersey” word mark. I cannot remember the exact year, but a family member of mine who has season tickets was issued the pin in their preseason Member packet. So this is not a brand new logo.)

And this brings me to another point. From the mid-1960s to the early-1970s, there was a team in the old Eastern Hockey League that played out of the Cherry Hill Arena in South Jersey that was called the Jersey Devils.

These minor league Devils were eventually bought by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1970 and operated by them until the Jersey Devils folded in 1973. At that time, they used their parent club’s orange, black and white color scheme.

But before that, from 1964 to 1970, they used a red, black and white color scheme. Their white jersey was originally on display in the Prudential Center when the building opened in 2007 until the space that it was shown was refurbished into the Little Devils Kid’s Zone a few years back.

The jersey featured similar complex striping to the Newark Bulldogs/New Jersey Devils third jersey, but with red mixed into the black and white. The crest, a circle with a map of the state within stitched in black and the Jersey Devil himself creeping up behind it in red, is extremely busy and a bit messy.

However, the base jersey is very nice and could have been looked to as an inspiration for this third jersey. Likewise, the crest could even have been cleaned up and modernized and put to use for this endeavor. Or they could have just slapped the current team’s classic logo on the front and it still would have looked good.

Personally, I don’t know why they did not go in that direction in this case. No one alive likely has memories of the Newark Bulldogs’ single season of professional hockey.

The Cherry Hill-based Devils, on the other hand, are within living memory for some people and had cool jerseys and a good, albeit complicated, logo to boot. Add to that that the NHL team’s name is influenced by it and you have yourself a recipe for a potential winner.

It might be the connection to one of our biggest rivals, but we need to remember that the Flyers did not have anything to do with the team and, in fact, did not exist for a few years, when the red, black and white color scheme was used. They also changed the logo to a stylized “JD” monogram featuring a hockey stick once they bought the club. Their jerseys more closely resembled the Flyers’ original expansion-era uniforms as well.

While I certainly do appreciate the Devils and Adidas looking deep into the past to celebrate pro hockey history in the state of New Jersey, the obvious answer might have been staring them right in the face if they wanted to reach back into the mists of time.

Either way, this is a learning process, I guess. During the Lou Lamoriello years and even after that for a few seasons, the franchise became notorious for resisting a proper third jersey. Sure, we’ve had “Heritage Jerseys” and “Reverse Retro Jerseys” in recent years, but not a legit third jersey.

We will become the final NHL team to have one. This was not a great first step into that sphere, but it will probably not be our last. Maybe we get things better as we move along here. The Devils have only had three main jersey designs in their nearly-40-year history in the Garden State. There’s only so much to draw from. Short of creating something completely new and modern – a tactic that has seemed to have gone out of fashion with many current jersey designs –you kind of need to go to obscure lengths to find inspiration.

I feel that there will be time to experiment with other designs. Especially next year as the team celebrates their 40th season in New Jersey. Maybe they reach back to the days of the Kansas City Scouts or the Colorado Rockies (although the Avalanche have co-opted their history a bit in recent times)? Maybe they look to the EHL Jersey Devils? Maybe they improve upon the Newark Bulldogs design? Maybe they look elsewhere to New Jersey hockey history or go in a completely different direction.

Time will tell if the Jersey jersey lasts or fades back into the past from whence it came.