Best Vintage NHL Jerseys
On June 8, 1972, the NHL added two expansion franchises, the Kansas City Scouts and the Washington Capitals; the two new additions were set to begin to play for the 1974-75 NHL season. Two new franchises joined the league, bringing its membership to eighteen teams. Of the three separate applicants from the Kansas City area, the team’s applied-for membership was awarded to 37-year-old real estate developer Edwin G. Thomson.
The team was to play in the new 17,000-seat arena in Overland Park, Kansas. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned due to voters objecting to a proposed sales tax to help fund the facility. The franchise had run into a series of significant setbacks and had been rumored to be relocating to Cincinnati due to the inability to find a suitable home.
The team secured a deal to build a new arena on the Kansas City (Missouri) Stockyards. Still, labor disputes hampered the construction of the $22 million Kemper Arena, and the team was forced to play their first eight games on the road, opening their inaugural season in Toronto, losing 6-2 to the Leafs. The team fared poorly, losing seven and tying one on the road. They played their first home game on November 2, 1974, against the Chicago Black Hawks, losing 4-3; the Scouts found the win column the next night on the road when they defeated the Washington Capitals 5-4. On November 14, 1974, they registered their first home win, beating the St. Louis Blues 5-3.
The Scouts floundered financially in their first two NHL seasons due to poor attendance, high ticket prices, and an economy in recession. In March of 1976, the franchise accepted a $300,000 loan from the league to keep afloat. The team began to look at relocating, possibly to Cleveland; rumors swirled that the team may move to Toronto, where they hoped to acquire free agent Bobby Orr as the main attraction to drive ticket sales. Finally, on July 26, 1976, with options running out and the team’s survival looking grim, team executives announced that the team would relocate to Colorado. The Colorado Rockies didn’t fare much better; they were forced to relocate to New Jersey in 1982, playing as the New Jersey Devils, eventually winning three Stanley Cups.
On June 9, 1972, the day after the league announced the addition of the new franchise, team officials announced that the team would be named the “Kansas City Mo-Hawks.” the name was in honor of both Missouri and Kansas; it was to be a blend of “Mo” for Missouri, with “Hawks” for a shortened version of Jayhawk, a long-time name affiliated with Kansas’s residents.
On July 5, 1972, team owners announced that out of respect to the Chicago Blackhawks, they would not use the word “Hawk” in their name.
The team held a “Name the Team Contest,” which drew 15,000 submissions; Scouts, Crowns, and Tornadoes were the finalists. On June 4, 1973, the team selected Scouts to commemorate the giant statue of a Sioux scout on horseback overlooking the city. James R. Maxwell was the winning entry; he was awarded a new Ford vehicle for his efforts.
The Scouts logo was a rendition of the “Scout” statue encompassed inside a circle with the letter “KC” in gold. The team colors were royal blue, red, and yellow gold. Gary Sartain was the graphic artist from Hallmark Cards in Kansas City who created the imaging.
When the team made their NHL debut at Maple Leafs Gardens on October 9, 1974, the Toronto Globe and Mail declared their jerseys to be “gaudy.”
The Colorado Rockies were originally the Kansas City Scouts; they entered the NHL on June 8, 1972, along with the Washington Capitals. The two teams were to begin to play in 1974-75. Ironically, the Scout’s first NHL victory came on the road against the Washington Capitals, 5-4. On July 26, 1976, the Scouts announced their intentions to sell the team to Denver investors led by Jack Vickers. In 1978, Vickers and his executives sold the team to New Jersey trucking magnate Arthur Imperatore. By February of 1981, the franchise had changed hands several times, moving from Imperatore to Peter Gilbert and finally to John McMullen, the Houston Astros owner. In 1982, the team relocated to the Meadow Lands in New Jersey, where they have been ever since.
On August 21, 1976, the Colorado Rockies were born. The Rockies won their first game by a score of 4-2 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The team chose to keep their original Kansas City color scheme of royal blue, red, and gold, which complemented the Colorado State flag. The franchise rebranded the colors as “mountain blue, Colorado gold, and sunset red. The logo symbolized a mountain base with the red ‘C’ and gold sun inside it, acknowledging the state flag.
The transplanted Rockies have become a highly successful franchise as the New Jersey Devils. The team has been in five Stanley Cup Finals, winning three championships in 1995, 2000, and 2003. They lost in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2001 and 2012.
The New Jersey Devils derived their name from the mythological creature known as the Jersey Devil; their first win was a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers.
The Atlanta Flames were the first team to be introduced to the deep American South; the team and the New York Islanders were awarded NHL franchises on November 9, 1971. The league’s third expansion in five years was mainly a countermeasure against the rival World Hockey Association (WHA). On October 7, 1972, the Flame’s NHL debut was a 3-2 road win against their expansion cousin Islanders.
The Flames were a moderate success on the ice. The Flames qualified for the post-season 6 out of 8 years but won only two playoff games, but poor attendance, rising debt load, economic recession, and inflation was the team’s demise. T.V. revenues were minimal with all of this against the team; rumors circulated that the team was about to be sold. On May 23, 1980, team ownership announced that they were selling the team to Canadian millionaire Nelson Skalbania for $16 million, the most lucrative amount ever paid for an NHL franchise up until then. The franchise was to be relocated to Calgary for the 1980-81 season.
Upon arriving in Calgary, the transplanted Flames franchise was eagerly embraced. Ticket sales soared. The new team would begin to play at the Stampede Corral before moving into the Olympic Saddledome in 1983. The team’s greatest success in 1989 was winning the Stanley Cup in six games against the Montreal Canadians on Forum ice. The team previously met the Canadiens in 1986, losing in five games. In 2004, Flames fans were treated to a thrilling Stanley Cup Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning; the Flames lost the series four games to three.
When naming Atlanta’s new NHL franchise, it was decided that a contest would be held whereby people could submit their entries, and the team would select a winner. Some submissions included were Yucca-Pucks, Y’alls, Rednecks, B-72s, and, ironically, the Thrashers. The winning entry was submitted by 19-year-old Mickey Goodman, a college sophomore at DeKalb College (now Perimeter College); he was awarded four season tickets for his winning entry. Goodman was one of 198 entries to suggest “Flames.” While Thrashers was a popular choice, team owner Tom Cousins named the “Flames” team in remembrance of Atlanta’s burning by United States Army General William Sherman during the American Civil War.
When the team relocated to Calgary, team owner Nelson Skalbania gave fans seven days to submit their submissions for a new team name. Skalbania originally told the Calgary Herald, “I thought we might be able to keep the same name, logo, red and white uniforms and embellish the flaming ‘A’ with a ‘C.’ It seemed like a natural. The ‘A’ would stand for ‘Alberta’ and the ‘C’ for Calgary”.
A committee of four vetted more than 400 submissions. Some of the suggestions were Bushwackers, Yahoos, Americans, and Critters. Other entries included Hillbillies, Sodbusters, Prairie Dogs, Pumpers, and Homesteaders.
In the end, team officials decided it would be best to keep the name “Flames.” “Flames” received the highest requests at 152, while “Chinooks was second with 95 votes. Other considerations were the Cowboys, Spurs, and Mustangs. The team made it official on June 3, 1980; they were named the Calgary Flames.
Bob Wages, a twenty-four-year-old graphic designer at the Atlanta ad agency McDonald & Little, created the new Atlanta NHL franchise’s look. He incorporated team colors “Coca Cola red” with a slanted block letter “A” and flaming tendrils inside it with yellow and white striping.
On June 25, 1997, the NHL Board of Governors unanimously voted to award franchises to Atlanta, Minnesota, Columbus, and Nashville. Nashville would begin to play in 1998, followed by Atlanta in 1999 and Minnesota and Columbus in 2000.
The Atlanta Thrashers made their NHL debut on October 2, 1999, in a 4-1 home loss to the New Jersey Devils, before a sold-out crowd of 18,545 at the new Philips Arena. Kelly Buchberger scored the team’s first-ever goal. With the second pick in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, the Thrashers chose Dany Heatley; he became a premier player for the Thrashers. In the 2001 draft, the team struck gold, drafting first, and selected Ilya Kovalchuk. Both players made their NHL debut during the 2001-02 season. Both players were named to the NHL All-Rookie Team, and Heatly won the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year.
On September 29, 2003, Centerman Dan Snyder of the Atlanta Thrashers was involved in a single-vehicle car crash. Teammate Dany Heatley was behind the wheel of his Ferrari 360 when he lost control and skidded into a brick pillar and iron fence; both occupants were ejected from the vehicle. The impact split the car in two and left Snyder with a depressed skull fracture and a coma; six days later, on October 5, he lapsed into septic shock and died. Heatley was charged with vehicular homicide, a conviction that could have given him up to 15 years in prison. Heatley pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide. He was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay $25,000 to Fulton County for the cost of investigating the crash; he also had to give 150 speeches on the danger of driving too fast.
On September 21, 2003, Time Warner, who owned the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, sold both teams to Atlanta Spirit, LLC. On May 31, 2011, Atlanta Spirit revealed they would sell the team to Manitoba’s True North Sports & Entertainment. The Thrashers would become the second incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets.
The Atlanta Thrashers were named after the “Brown Thrasher,” the official state bird of Georgia. “Flames” was the runner-up name. The name was team owner Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, decided on Thrashers.
On April 23, 1998, the Thrashers revealed their logo at Atlanta’s CNN Center. The logo depicted the profile of an angry bird swirling a raised hockey stick. The emblem had five colors: Capitol copper, Georgia bronze, Atlanta midnight blue, Peachtree gold, and Thrasher ice blue. Sean Michael Edwards was the artist who created the design; he was also the mind behind several designs across all four major professional North American Sports.
In 2003, the franchise adopted an alternate look, a light blue sweater with the city name “Atlanta” descending the left sleeve. The jersey was so appealing to fans that it became their full-time jersey; they wore this jersey until the last game they played, a 5-1 home loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Cleveland Barons, formerly the Oakland Seals, one of the original expansion teams in 1967, arrived in Ohio in July 1976. After only two disappointing seasons in Cleveland, the team merged with the Minnesota North Stars. The team suffered severely as they were a poor product on the ice and had dismal home game attendance. They hold the dubious distinction of being the most recent North American sports team, abruptly ceasing to exist and dissipating into oblivion.
The team adopted “Barons” from Cleveland’s American Hockey Leagues (AHL) franchise. This highly successful organization garnered great attendance and won nine Calder Cups during its thirty-plus years of operations. These Barons were forced to move to Florida mid-way through the 1972-73 season due to increasing competition from the World Hockey Association’s Cleveland Crusaders.
Several names were considered before settling on a name for the new team, such as Seals, Cougars, Buccaneers, and Americans.
Mel Swig was the owner of the relocated Oakland Seals. In a deal with sports magnate Nick Mileti, the man who relocated the AHL Barons to Florida three years earlier, they agreed on the dinner price he would sell the Name “Barons” to Mel Swig.
On July 22, 1976, Swig held a press conference at the Richfield Coliseum, the new team’s home, and announced that the team would be named the “Barons.”
Walter Lanci created the Baron’s new logo. Lanci, the Offset Color and Printing Company owner, wanted the team’s identity to be “attractive, distinctive and have a strong traditional feeling.”
The Barons faced a litany of troubles that combined forced the team to fold after only two NHL seasons. They were drawing fewer fans than they had in Oakland and had a poor lease agreement with the Coliseum. Team employees went unpaid for two months. The team missed two payrolls, which resulted in the NHLPA stepping in with a 1.3 million dollar loan to allow the team to continue operating, thus avoiding a threat by the players to not take the ice in their next match against the Colorado Rockies and the very possibility of a mid-season collapse forcing the team to fold.
On June 14, 1978, the league allowed the Barons to merge with the equally struggling Minnesota North Stars, which kept the league from losing both franchises. The North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993. NHL hockey returned to Ohio in 2000 with the addition of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Minnesota retained a new NHL hockey team when the Minnesota Wild was founded on June 25, 1997; the team did not begin to play until the 2000-01 season.
On February 8, 1966, the San Francisco Seals, Inc. group was awarded an NHL franchise. The Seals underwent a diverse cast of owners in their tumultuous existence, from 27-year-old millionaire Barry Van Gerbig to crooner Bing Crosby to the eccentric Charles O. Finley, owner of MLB’s Oaklands Athletics. The franchise went through five different name changes between its inception in 1967-68 and 1970, finally committing to naming them the California Golden Seals.
The Seals played at the new Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, barely averaging 5600 fans per game over nine seasons. As the Seals struggled to attract fans, the team grew increasingly desperate to stay operational and began looking at moving the team. By 1976, Team co-owner Mel Swig tried to move the team across the bay to San Francisco, but the league wouldn’t allow it; Swig considered other locations such as Edmonton, Denver, Miami, San Diego, and San Jose. Ultimately, Swig relocated the Seals to Cleveland, where they became the Barons. On July 15, 1976, the NHL approved the relocation. It was the first relocation of an NHL team since the Ottawa Senators relocated to St. Louis to become the Eagles forty-one years beforehand in 1935.
The Seals derived their name from the San Francisco Seals of the old Western Hockey League (1961-1967). After just ten games into the regular season, Seals owner Barry Van Gerbig informed the league that they were changing their name from the California Seals to the Oakland Seals; the new name was made official on November 4, 1967.
Charles O. Finley acquired the franchise for $4.5 million. Finley announced at the press conference, “I know absolutely nothing about hockey.” He immediately changed the teams’ names from the Oakland Seals to the Bay Area Seals. Finley exclaimed, “We are the only hockey team in the area; why not call it an area team?” Despite being located in Oakland, the Seals played two games as the Bay Area Seals before being again renamed, this time as the San Francisco Golden Seals. After reading an article in the Chicago Examiner about the many name changes, Finley changed the team’s name again, this time to the California Golden Seals; the name was made official on October 14, 1970.
Finley explained that the team was named the Golden Seals because of the Golden Gate Bridge and that when he visited a place called “Seal Rocks,” he was impressed at how many seals were romping around after passing by the Golden Gate Bridge. The Seals played for the next five years without changing their name again.
The initial Seals jersey was simple in design. The logo was a green-and-black seal holding a hockey stick on a blue “C” with black trim. The color scheme was Kelly green, Royal blue, white for away, and snow white with green/blue accents for home (1967-1970). Later renditions included the word seal on the front in a slight diagonal slant with the dominant color California gold and Kelly green with snow-white accents for home (1970-1974). In November of 1967, when the team changed its name from California to Oakland, the “C” was replaced with an “O,” despite the change, the club continued to use the “C” logo for the remainder of the 1967-68 season only using the “O” for publication purposes and merchandise. The “O” made its jersey debut the following season. In 1970, the “O” was discarded and replaced with an italicized wordmark, Seals. Finley also added players’ names to their jerseys’ backs, which was unfavorable to other team owners as they thought this would hurt their program sales; by 1978, the league had made it mandatory.
In 1974, in keeping with the Finley tradition of constantly changing everything, he changed the Seal’s colors again. This time, he went with Pacific teal, gold, and white (1974-1976). Finley wasn’t done; he wanted his Seals to match his Oakland A’s of the MLB. He pushed the NHL for his team to use white skates, a move the NHL Board of Governors balked at. Eventually, the league relented, and Finley relented to his players as well, allowing the players to wear green and gold skates due to apprehension from his players. Eventually, Finley got his way, and on January 14, 1972, the Golden Seals debuted their white skates in a home win over the Vancouver Canucks. The team continued to wear white skates until the end of the 1973-74 season.
When Finley departed in 1974, the white skates went with him, and so did his color scheme. The team instead adopted Pacific teal, gold, and white with striping looped around each arm and down the armpit. The Seals wordmark remained, with new coloring.
The Quebec Nordiques were formerly a World Hockey Association (WHA) professional hockey team in a twelve-team league that competed directly with the NHL for hockey dominance. League president Gary Davidson was awarded the team for playing out of San Francisco. Still, when he struggled to obtain solid financial backing, he was forced to look elsewhere for an outlet before playing a single game. On February 11, 1972, a consortium of business owners purchased the San Francisco franchise for $215,000 and immediately relocated it to Quebec City. The teams’ name was chosen via the results of a “Name the Team Contest” of more than 1400 entries; the winning name was submitted by sixteen people, with the Laurentians’ being the runner-up name. Quebec City’s Michel Lebrun was chosen as the winner of the Sixteen entries. He received 1972-73 season tickets and a trip to attend the team’s inaugural game.
The Nordiques first head coach was the legendary Maurice “Rocket” Richard. The Rocket lasted only two games, going .500 as head coach before stepping down; the strain of coaching was overwhelming for him. The Nords quickly became an offensive force and, in 1974-75, went to the league final, where they were swept in four games by the Gordie Howe-led Houston Aeros.
The following season saw the team set a professional sports record that has yet to be equaled to this day; five players broke the 100-point plateau, Marc Tardif (148), Real Cloutier (114), Christian Bordeleau (109), Rejean Houle (103) and Serge Bernier (102). The Nordiques were disappointed, losing to the Calgary Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs.
In 1976-77, the Nordiques marched to the championship finals, defeating Bobby Hull and his Winnipeg Jets in seven games to capture their first Avco World Trophy.
On March 30, 1979, it was announced that the NHL would absorb four WHA teams: the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Hartford Whalers, and the Quebec Nordiques.
On October 10, 1979, a sellout crowd attended to watch the Nords play the Atlanta Flames; the Flames won the game 5-3.
On June 22, 1991, at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York, the Quebec Nordiques selected Eric Lindros first overall at NHL Entry Draft. On his mother’s advice, Lindros had previously told the Nordiques that he would not play for them if selected. Lindros would sit out for an entire year before a deal was worked out, sending him to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Peter Forsberg, Mike Ricci, Ron Hextall, Steve Duchesne, and Kerry Huffman, future considerations who became tough guy Chris Simon, two first-round picks and $15 million US.
By 1995, team owner Marcel Aubut struggled to keep the team financially viable. These struggles led him to begin negotiating a $125 million aid package for a new arena from the provincial government. Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau rejected the proposal. Instead, he offered a buy-out, which Aubut rejected.
On May 25, 1995, Marcel Aubut announced that the team had been sold to Comsat Video Enterprise for $75 million and would be moving to Denver, Colorado, for the 1995-96 NHL season. The team became the Colorado Avalanche and won the Stanley Cup in their first year in Colorado.
On June 26, 1972, the team unveiled its jersey. It was designed by seventeen-year-old Roger Gingras, a team shareholder’s son. The logo was the letter “N” in red in the shape of an igloo and a hockey stick resting on its side with a blue hockey puck on the stick. In keeping with French heritage, ownership incorporated a blue, white, and red color scheme, as it felt more French Canadian.
On September 18, 1975, the team unveiled a more similar jersey to what is recognized as Nordique’s traditional look. It featured a light blue sweater with the team logo on the front in white, red trim and white striping on the hem and cuffs. It comprised eight fleur-de-lis symbols, two on the shoulders and six around the waist.
On March 30, 1995, the team announced they would drastically change their logo and sweaters for the 1996 season. The new colors were purple with black and teal stripes and featured a husky dog face logo on an inverted triangle. The fleur-de-lis remained on each shoulder but was no longer on the waist. The new design never came to fruition as the team moved to Colorado two months later.
The Hartford Whalers were one of the four World Hockey Association teams to be absorbed by the NHL when the league dissolved on June 22, 1979.
The Whalers struggled to find a place to call home during their early years; they played home games at the Boston Arena, Boston Garden, and the Eastern States Exposition Coliseum in West Springfield, Massachusetts, before moving into the brand-new Hartford Civic Center on January 11, 1975. With legendary ex-Boston University head coach behind the bench, the Whalers won the Avco World Trophy in their inaugural season, defeating the Winnipeg Jets 4-1.
The team temporarily moved back to Springfield when the Civic Center’s roof collapsed under the weight of snow and ice. The Whalers still occupied the Coliseum in Springfield when they opened their inaugural NHL campaign in 1979-80; they were able to begin to play at the Hartford Civic Center on February 6, 1980. After the Center re-opened, the team would make it their home until April 13, 1997, before relocating to Raleigh, North Carolina, where they now play as the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Whalers only had three winning seasons in their eighteen years in the NHL, never reaching the Stanley Cup Final. However, they did employ many NHL legends such as Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Dave Keon, and Mark Howe.
The New England Whalers team name was announced at a press conference on January 24, 1972. Ginny Kelley, the wife of new coach Jack Kelley, was credited for choosing the team’s name. On May 23, 1979, a press conference was held in the Grand Ball Room of the Sheraton Hotel in Hartford, announcing that the team’s new name would be the “Hartford Whalers” upon entering the NHL.
The original WHA New England Whalers logo was a sans serif “W,” with a harpoon entering the logo’s center from the left, encircled with bold capital lettering the Words New England Whalers, with a green and white rope encompassing the entire logo. Charles Hoar Jr. was the designer of the logo. The official team colors were green, black, and white (1972-1975). A happy whale caricature was added as shoulder patches.
The Whalers revised their jersey look when they announced on May 23, 1979, that the new “Hartford” design was tasked to Jack Lardis Associates, who sub-contracted to local designer Peter Good to render a logo.
Peter Good settled on an unsophisticated design that was simple and bold. He eliminated the harpoon because it is an instrument for killing, which he felt gave an unpleasant mental visual; he then deepened the colors green and white (1979-1992) to create a bolder look and clean lines. In doing so, he created what turned out to be one of the most iconic sports logos in professional sports. The logo was a whale’s tail atop a “W.” The void between the logo spells an “H” inside the letter “W.”
In 1982, the team wore “Cooperalls,” long light-weight pants that the Philadelphia Flyers had brought in a year earlier; the pants were soon discarded as they were deemed a hazard due to low friction, which could potentially cause injury during violent crashes.
In 1992, the team changed its color scheme for the last time. They turned to navy blue, green, and silver palettes. The crest was set on a metallic silver background.
The NHL allowed licensees to replicate merchandise depicting the Whalers logo in 2009.
In September 2018, the Carolina Hurricanes announced that they would wear retro Whaler jerseys for select games for the fans who never saw the iconic jersey in action.
On November 1, 1971, ten franchises joined the newly established World Hockey Association (WHA). The Winnipeg Jets owner Ben Hatskin was one of the ten new team owners that would compete against the NHL to lure players to their league for the inaugural 1972-73 season. Hatskin told the Winnipeg Free Press, “We’re going to have one hell of a league.” “And mark my words, before long, we’ll give the NHL plenty to worry about. They’re worried now.”
Hatskin, true to his word, wasted no time trying to sign elite NHL players to his team. Hatskin floated the idea of signing Bobby Hull when he announced, ” The Winnipeg Jets are going to ice the best hockey club we can. How would you like to see Bobby Hull playing in Winnipeg? Don’t laugh. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility. I’m prepared to give Bobby Hull one million if he signs a five-year contract with the Jets.” As fate would have it, Hatskin signed Hull to a ten-year contract, $1.75 million, making Hull the first “million-dollar” man in hockey history.
The Jets played their first game on October 15, 1972; 8,000 fans showed up to watch them take on the Alberta Oilers at the Winnipeg Arena. The Jets lost the game 5-2. Bobby Hull could not play that night due to a legal dispute over his contract, but he did address the crowd, thanking Hatskin, saying he “owed him a deep debt of gratitude.”
During their seven years in the WHA, the Jets were highly successful; they reached the league final five times, winning three times; the last championship victory was on May 20, 1979, against the Oilers. Although it was the last game ever played in the WHA, it wasn’t the last game for the Jets franchise as two months earlier, on March 30, 1979, the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, and Quebec Nordiques were all granted entry into the NHL.
On October 14, 1979, before 12,648 fans, the Jets made their NHL home-ice debut against Don Cherry and the Colorado Rockies at the newly renovated Winnipeg Arena. The Jets came out on top by a score of 4-2.
The Jets began to struggle financially in the 1990s as the Canadian dollar was severely weakened against the American dollar; combined with ever-increasing player salaries, the Jets could not compete. Therefore, the club had to consider relocating. The team was set to relocate to Minnesota at the end of the 1994-1995 season. Still, a last-minute obstacle in the lease agreement at the Target Center in Minnesota allowed the Jets to remain in Winnipeg for one more season. On January 19, 1996, the NHL made it official; the Jets were relocating to Phoenix, Arizona, to begin to play as the Phoenix Coyotes for the 1996-97 Season.
On May 31, 2011, Manitoba Moose owner Mark Chipman purchased the struggling Atlanta Thrashers franchise. On June 21, 2011, the NHL officially approved the Thrashers’ sale to Chipman’s True North Group. The Jets were back; fans were ecstatic, and the team would begin to play in Winnipeg for the 2011-12 season.
It’s unclear where the Jets got their name, but it’s generally accepted that Hatskin, who was friends with Sonny Werblin, owner of the New York Jets of the American Football League, chose the name out of respect for his friend. Until June 24, 2011, the current Jets revealed their name when they stood at the podium to make their first pick at the NHL Draft in St. Paul, Minnesota. Before that, the team had considered naming the team “Bears” to recognize the iconic polar bears of the far North.
When the Jets returned to Winnipeg, they unveiled their new jersey on July 22, 2011; the new look employed a silver CF-18 Hornet jet on top of a red Maple Leaf encompassed with a blue circle with silver trim, and a small northward notch was added to the blue compass circle as a tribute to the True North group’s corporate logo. The new Winnipeg Jets’ official colors are polar night blue, aviator blue, silver, red, and white.
On March 11, 1965, NHL President Clarence Campbell announced that the NHL would expand from six teams to twelve. The league approved teams in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay area, and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Each of the new franchises has $2 million for entry.
The Minnesota North Stars built a new arena in one year at $7 million; they named it the Metropolitan Sports Center (later renamed the Met Center) in Bloomington.
The Stars played their first home game on October 21, 1967, before 12,951 fans. Fans were fortunate to find a seat as construction workers had only finished installing the new seats half an hour before game time. The Stars defeated the California Seals 3-1 that night for their first-ever home win.
The 1970s were a turbulent time for the North Stars; they suffered financially due to competition from the rival World Hockey Association’s Minnesota Fighting Saints and dwindling ticket sales. On June 14, 1978, the failing Cleveland Barons franchise merged with the Stars. The merger bolstered the line-up on the ice and rejuvenated the franchise. The North Stars made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981 but were defeated in five games by the dynasty New York Islanders.
By 1990, the North Stars were financially unstable. With poor attendance and repeated financial losses, the team threatened to relocate to San Francisco. The NHL was against the move and instead struck a deal with the Gund brothers, where they were awarded an expansion franchise (San Jose Sharks) and to sell the North Stars to a group led by Hartford Whalers owner Howard Baldwin. Part of the deal was that the Minnesota club would supply the expansion Sharks with 30 players; the deal was announced on May 2, 1990.
On June 6, 1990, Norman Green, former co-owner of the Calgary Flames, announced he had purchased a majority interest in the North Stars. Still, with terrible attendance and rumors of the team’s demise, the Stars finished the season with a 27-39-14 record, narrowly making the playoffs. The Stars made a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Finals that season. They defeated Chicago, St. Louis, and the defending champion Edmonton Oilers before losing in six games to Mario Lemieux and his Pittsburgh Penguins; it was the second time the team had reached the final.
After a deal to move the team to Anaheim was scuttled, the Stars ownership was asked by the league in December 1992 to allow Disney to enter the league; in return, the Stars would have the league’s permission to move to any location they saw fit.
With encouragement from former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, Norman Green was persuaded to move the franchise to Dallas, Texas.
In Dallas, the Star’s first game was on October 5, 1993, a 6-4 triumph over the Detroit Red Wings. With a fresh start in a new city, the fans warmly embraced the team, and Stars began to thrive. On June 19, 1999, the Dallas Stars won their first Stanley Cup, defeating the Buffalo Sabres in triple-overtime of the sixth game on a controversial skate in the goal crease by Brett Hull. In 2000, the Stars advanced to the Cup Final; this time, they lost to the New Jersey Devils in six games. Jason Arnott scored the Cup winner on a one-timer in double overtime.
On May 25, 1966, the franchise was christened “North Stars” via a “Name the Team Contest.” Six hundred and eight ballots were cast. Fifty-two of the entries were “North Stars.” Mr./Mrs. William Swanson of Shoreview, Minnesota, was the winner. The Swansons both won a $100 US savings bond. The name “North Star” harkens to the state’s official motto, L’Etoile du Nord-or: The “Star of the North.”
On November 9, 1966, the Stars revealed their team colors. They would be green and white. A St. Paul artist, George Karn, created the team’s logo and uniform. Karn is well known as a designer and illustrator who wrote and created T.V. ads. Karn is the creative genius behind the original cartoons for Count Chocula, Trix, and the Lucky Charms leprechaun for cereal giant General Mills. He later designed logos for the WHA’s Minnesota Fighting Saints and the North American Soccer League’s Minnesota Kicks. George Karn passed away in September 2000; he was “at his art table with pen in hand,” read his obituary as reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The North Stars’ first-ever game in the NHL was on the road against the St. Louis Blues on October 11, 1967; it ended in a 2-2 tie. In 1981, the team added black to their jerseys. In 1991, the team made black the primary color, and Stars were the central image, with a huge green five-pointed star in the shape of an “A.”
Over the next two decades, several changes were made to the Stars on Ice look. Alternate jerseys were added, the (2003-2006) Mooterus featuring the bull’s head and the constellation Taurus. A simple crest with the name “Dallas” set on a Black or white background, a large “D” with Stars written through it. In 2021, they used a luminescent alternate with a large “D” set on the State of Texas image. The official jersey (2021) is Victory green, black, silver, and white with a large “D” set on top of an even larger five-pointed star.
The Dallas Stars franchise has appeared in five Stanley Cup Finals (1981, 1991, 1999, 2000, 2020) and won one championship in 1999. The Dallas Stars were most recently defeated in six games by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals.
On April 12, 1925, the NHL voted to expand. The new team would be born out of the wreckage of the former Hamilton Tigers. The Tigers went on strike at the end of the regular season, refusing to play in the league playoffs. League president Frank Calder levied fines and suspended the entire team in retaliation. This caused the team to fall into financial ruin. Bill Dwyer was awarded a team for the New York region. When he learned of the Hamilton Tigers’ plight, he purchased their players’ rights for $75,000 in the off-season. Dwyer immediately gave the players lucrative raises and doubled some of their salaries. Dwyer named the team “The New York Americans.” The team began to play in the 1925-26 season along with their expansion cousins, the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Americans and Pirates became the second and third American-based teams to join the league following the Boston Bruins‘ addition the previous year.
Although the Americans were losers on the ice, they were a success at the ticket booth, so much so that Madison Square Garden decided to ice its own team, and the following season, the New York Rangers entered the league. Under the ownership of Thomas Duggan and the Multi-million dollar bootlegger “Big Bill” Dwyer, the Americans dropped the puck on their inaugural season on December 15, 1925, before a capacity crowd of 17,000 in a 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadians. The Great Depression and the end of prohibition left the team floundering financially. With rumors circulating that the team was looking to relocate, the NHL took over its hockey operations in October 1936. The league gave the team’s reigns to Mervyn “Red” Dutton.
Fast forward to 1941-42. Less than two weeks into the season, the team announced they were changing their name to the “Brooklyn” Americans. Less than a month later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and America entered World War 2. With WW2 underway, many players began to enlist, and the Americans struggled to remain competitive due to the lack of skilled players. After finishing the 1941-42 season, the Americans suspended hockey operations. The team had vowed to resume hockey operations once the war was over, but by 1946, the league had listed the Americans as “retired” from the league, closing the final chapter on the franchise.
On September 4, 1946, Mervyn Dutton met with league officials to discuss reviving the American franchise. Dutton said, “I looked around the room, and nobody was looking at me. I got the message. ‘Gentlemen,’ I said to the governors. “You can go stick your franchise up your ass.” I gathered my papers and left.”
Dutton was so incensed about the New York Ranger’s efforts to squeeze the Americans out of business that he cursed them, allegedly stating, “The Rangers will never win the Cup again my lifetime.” Red Dutton passed away at the age of eighty-eight in 1987; the Rangers had not won the Cup since the curse 47 years earlier; it wasn’t until 1994, fifty-four years after the curse and seven years after Dutton had passed away, that the Rangers finally won the Stanley Cup.
The 1926-27 Americans were the first North American professional sports teams to have their surnames and jersey numbers on their backs.
As far as the reason why the Americans were so named, nobody knows. Had they not folded, Dutton was set to change the name from the Brooklyn Americans 1941 to the Brooklyn Dodgers for the following season. Red Dutton said, “When we’ve shown ourselves capable of playing the same kind of championship game as the baseball and football teams, we’ll more than likely adopt the name of Dodgers.”
Although the team colors are red, white, and blue, the official colors of the New York Americans are recorded as “stars and stripes.”
This list comprises 11 defunct NHL teams, From the Brooklyn Americans of 1925-1942 to the latest team to fold, the Atlanta Thrashers from 1999-2011. These franchises represent some of the most iconic hockey jerseys of all time.
Keep Your Stick on the Ice.
List of defunct NHL teams
This is a list of teams that once played in the National Hockey League but no longer exist. This includes franchises that have relocated to different cities. The years of operation only reflect when that team was in the NHL. It does not consider when the franchise operated in another league (such as the World Hockey Association).
Defunct teams before the Original Six Era
| Team | Seasons | Relocated to |
| Montreal Wanderers | 1917-1918 | Disbanded after Montreal Arena fire during the 1917-18 NHL season |
| Ottawa Senators (original era) | 1917-1934 | Became St. Louis Eagles |
| Quebec Bulldogs | 1919-1920 | Became Hamilton Tigers |
| Hamilton Tigers | 1920-1925 | The formed nucleus of New York Americans |
| Montreal Maroons | 1924-1938 | Suspended operations; franchise formally canceled in 1947 |
| New York Americans | 1925-1942 | Suspended operations; franchise formally canceled in 1946 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 1925-1930 | Became Philadelphia Quakers |
| Philadelphia Quakers | 1930-1931 | Suspended operations; franchise formally canceled in 1936 |
| St. Louis Eagles | 1934-1935 | League purchased the team and dispersed players through the draft. |
Relocated teams after the 1967 Expansion
| Team | Seasons | Relocated to |
| California Golden Seals | 1967-1976 | Cleveland Barons |
| Kansas City Scouts | 1974-1976 | Colorado Rockies |
| Cleveland Barons | 1976-1978 | Merged with Minnesota North Stars; would later end merger to form San Jose Sharks. |
| Atlanta Flames | 1972-1980 | Calgary Flames |
| Colorado Rockies | 1976-1982 | New Jersey Devils |
| Minnesota North Stars | 1967-1993 | Dallas Stars |
| Quebec Nordiques | 1979-1995 | Colorado Avalanche |
| Winnipeg Jets | 1979-1996 | Phoenix Coyotes |
| Hartford Whalers | 1979-1997 | Carolina Hurricanes |
| Atlanta Thrashers | 1999-2011 | Winnipeg Jets |
Keep Your Stick on the Ice.
