NHL fans may want to start saving for a new jersey next season.
With the league about to enter its third season with Fanatics as its official on-ice outfitter, it appears the NHL wants to put the new partnership to the test. This decade saw the NHL become ambitious with several league-wide jersey initiatives, including the two reverse retro campaigns with Adidas during the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons.
Tom Gazzola of Edmonton Sports Talk confirmed earlier this week that the NHL is working with Fanatics on another league-wide jersey theme that will roll out during the 2026-27 season.
“There’s also something brewing for next year throughout the league,” Gazzola said. “Remember, they had reverse retro one and two? A league-wide theme coming next year…totally different (reverse retro theme).”
Gazzola did not specify what the theme will be. What he did was write it down on a piece of paper and hand it to his co-host, Dustin Nielson, who revealed a few more clues as to what it might be.
Nielson said the idea reminded him of something that had already been done in another professional sports league.
“It’s kind of like the NBA,” Nielson said after reading the paper.
Describing the new theme as “NBA-ish” seems like an obvious indication of where the NHL could be heading with this mysterious new initiative. Since the 2017-18 season, NBA teams have deployed “city edition” jerseys on an almost annual basis. These uniforms aim to celebrate a city’s unique culture or identity in a way that primary team uniforms do not.
You’d think the NHL could go the same route, although you’d think they’d go for a different title for this sort of theme to avoid completely copying the NBA.
With Gazzola and Nielson based in the Alberta capital, the duo discussed what this could mean for the Edmonton Oilers. Gazzola mentioned that teams were presented with options designed by Fanatics, but the Oilers opted to bring the process in-house because they didn’t like the options presented.
“The league gave each team different options,” Gazzola said. “Or they could go with the fourth option and say ‘No, no, we’ll bring this in-house,’ which (the Oilers did) because they said the options were pretty bad.”
A new jersey is in preparation for next season. I don’t know the color, but I was told it would be a nice counter to the fake alternative retro the team started using this year. 4 uniforms for Oil next year. https://t.co/52ZfKvL3rQ
–Tom Gazzola (@TomGazzola) December 11, 2025
There’s still plenty of time before fans can expect to see what this means for their respective teams. The 2025-26 season isn’t even halfway over, and these types of initiatives aren’t usually announced until the offseason.
Still, it’s a bit of a taste of what’s to come.
