So, what if I told you the next uniform of the Florida Panthers was going to resemble a classic NHL team from Quebec?

Yeah, sorry… they aren’t moving, and it won’t look like the Nordiques.

According to a series of INCREDIBLY helpful Tweets courtesy George Richards of the Miami Herald, we’ve learned the Panthers will be wearing a uniform featuring a horizontal stripe across the chest of their new uniforms in 2016-17, similar in execution to the home/red uniforms worn by the Montreal Canadiens since forever.

It’s amazing this look hasn’t been replicated at the NHL level more often, the Habs look is typically considered to be one of the best in the league, and aside from Pittsburgh’s “flying-penguin” jersey in the late 1990s I can’t think of another NHL team to use a horizontal chest stripe in the modern era.

Richards described the new uniform and logo in great detail, as we heard earlier the logo will be based off the patch of the 101st Airborne, new information included that it would be a “3D” aggressive Florida panther head on a shield, above the shield will be “FLORIDA” or “PANTHERS” depending on if it’s the home or road jersey. Home will be red with a white and gold stripe, road white with a red and gold stripe. Not much blue at all on the actual uniform itself, reduced to a trim colour.

There will also be an apparent nod to the state flag of Florida courtesy a shoulder patch, similar to the Calgary Flames or Arizona Coyotes.

With all the information Richards presented, SportsLogos.Net Forum member “Hockey Week” with help from Ryan Mackman, put together the concept you see below (shown with just a plain Florida flag on the shoulder and not the flag/cat hybrid Richards mentioned):

When presented to Richards by Mackman on Twitter asking if this was close, he responded “Not bad”.

So there’s that.

It’s certainly not terrible, at least what we can gather from we’ve heard and seen so far. Frankly my expectations when it comes to re-designs in the NHL, NBA, NFL have all been lowered considerably in the last half-decade. With that in mind, I’d be happy with the team using something close to this.

Unfortunately I’m unable to confirm any of this information at this time but I see no reason to doubt what Mr. Richards has shared with us. I’ll see what I can find out and, of course, keep you up to date as much as I can.