Let me start off by saying I’m a total jersey nerd. I have to believe that one of the big reasons I got into hockey as a little two year old lad was the awesome, bright, crazy unis of the 1990’s. That love has followed me into adulthood, and I have built up a mighty fine collection of some beautiful jerseys over the years (and some pretty ugly ones too).

One of my biggest gripes with the current state of the game today is how many teams have absolutely shocking uniform designs and decisions. I would assume these franchises are paying for top-quality business consultation and design people, yet we continue to see insane decisions like the Flames and Capitals just made recently when Adidas took over, to ditch the beautiful retro looks they had, and go with plain, pipe-y, pyjama-looking trash, while 99.9% our jaws dropped at how such a decision could be made. Is there some ugly jersey conspiracy that we’re all totally oblivious to?

But alas, we don’t have any say in which jerseys our teams will don. But it won’t stop us from dreaming! So I decided to do a series on the best jerseys that each franchise has worn. You may agree with some, you may think I’m crazy. Either way, let me know by tweeting me at @BLTJay!

Last week I did the Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers, which means today is the Florida Panthers!

Current Red Jersey (2016-present)

This one was hard for me because I like both of their original and current red jerseys, but don’t absolutely LOVE either.

Both of them are pretty sweet, and far and away better than anything else they’ve worn in their history. Also worth noting that Bure and Jagr both have sick flow there.

But seriously what the fuck is this? The full shoulder yoke, half stripe under the arm, and then the terrible piping? Whoever made this was drunk.

Still, I’m a big fan of the original logo and think they should have never ditched it for the current coat of arms crest thing. So, like I did with Dallas I’m going to suggest that they take different aspects of the two jerseys and combine them.

First of all, with the current jersey, the red is great. But what is with that drab, nauseating shade of gold(?)? I know there are a lot of retirement homes in Florida, but your jersey doesn’t have to have “retirement home brown” as one of your colours. You’re in Florida for god’s sake! Go back to the happytime yellow that brought you to the Stanley Cup Finals in ’96! John looks happy with it.

And why does the middle stripe only go halfway around? That’s stupid too. Then you get this under the arms.

Make the stripe go all the way around the back (like Montreal does), and then you’ll have to make the numbers blue (so that you don’t get white on white)… Speaking of white numbers, remove the giant shoulder numbers. It wasn’t cool when Edmonton did it, and it’s certainly not cool now.

Last but not least, bring back the awesome jumping panther logo. It was one of the most unique, badass modern logos in all of sports (excluding the classics like Blackhawks, Red Wings, Dallas Cowboys, etc.). They made a sharper version of it that is currently on their helmets that looks pretty great. I threw all these ideas together in a couple minutes with my incredible photoshop skills, and you can see it here:

So what’s your favourite Panthers look? Do you think the current look is perfect as is? Do you like the old blue jersey? Or do you absolutely love my mock up and want me to make you one in my basement and send you one. All are viable options!

Let me know in the comments, or tweet me at @BLTJay!

Check out the other best jerseys of each franchise so far, here:

Anaheim Ducks

Arizona Coyotes

Boston Bruins

Buffalo Sabres

Calgary Flames

Carolina Hurricanes

Chicago Blackhawks

Colorado Avalanche

Columbus Blue Jackets

Dallas Stars

Detroit Red Wings

Edmonton Oilers

Looking to get your summer hockey fix? Check out Eppy 6 of our new NHL podcast, Post and Out: