Welcome to RANKED. Each week we will be ranking players, moments and anything else we can think of, hockey or not. This week, we’re ranking the jerseys of the Philadelphia Flyers outdoor games.
The Philadelphia Flyers are set to play their sixth ever outdoor game this weekend as part of the 2024 Stadium Series. It doesn’t feel like they have been involved in so many of these large-scale events as much as they have, but it’s true, they have already braved the cold weather to try and replicate some Old Time Hockey nostalgia and play on an outdoor rink (that is heavily refrigerated).
But enough about the actual game and the moments we have seen with the frosty Flyers, what about how they looked? That is more than half of the sport of hockey, looking good and cool, so we decided to use this opportunity to rank the six jerseys that the Flyers had the opportunity to wear at these one-off events.
Some sweaters are terrible, some were just fine, and some were suddenly just part of the regular wardrobe. We know some people are going to get so mad about some of these opinions.
6) 2019 Stadium Series
This has got to unequivocally the worst sweater of the bunch. There is no reason why anyone would like this more than the slate of jerseys the Flyers have worn outdoors.
Maybe it’s just being picky, but the complete lack of balance and zero white on the entire thing makes it looks just like one blob of dark colors that just makes it hard to look at it. And when taking into consideration the nasty blown-up logo on the helmet, and the fact that it was worn against the Pittsburgh Penguins and the teams made a collective effort to have zero white on them as well. At least it was a whole thing and this orange-and-black globule of a jersey didn’t have to stand on its own.
Maybe that’s the whole aim of the Stadium Series, just to have something completely different and look like you’re trying to modernize the jersey too much, but still, it’s gross.
5) 2017 Stadium Series
The jersey that was debuted as the special sweater for the 2017 Stadium Series and has now become the team’s regular third uniform, is simply one of the worst of the bunch. No offense, and it might just be because we’re overexposed to it and the special magic of seeing your favorite team in a jersey for just one time has worn off, but we just don’t like the way it looks.
At least this one does have some balance but it’s extremely minimal at best. It’s still hard to look at and compared to other all-black jerseys that we’re used to seeing like the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins home sweaters, the accented color just doesn’t look as good as the yellow. For some reason the orange right on top of the black doesn’t leave me feeling great.
4) 2010 Winter Classic
This just had to be in the middle of the ranking. For the 2010 Winter Classic, just the third year the NHL was doing this, the Flyers decided to not go with any cool or original one-off jersey design and just slap a Winter Classic event logo on the chest of the sweater they would be debuting several months later as their full-time jersey set.
Technically it was a new thing, all they did was reverse the colors of the home jerseys they wore from 2008 to 2010 for this eventual away version of their uniforms. Just boring.
3) 2024 Stadium Series
We have yet to see these on the ice and actually as part of a game of hockey, but we are confident in them being one of our favorites, or at least in the top half of this ranking.
While there are things that are incredibly annoying, like the numbers being just one color slapped on top of white — repeating the same issue most have with the current jersey redesign — and the nameplate weirdly extending onto the sleeve, it is still a pretty good and fluid design. The sleeves featuring all three team colors and then the names actually being able to be read are enough reasons to have it up there.
2) 2012 Winter Classic
These are just so good. For the 2012 Winter Classic in Philadelphia, the Flyers tried to make up for the lackadaisical attempt two years prior and pull out all the stops. When you still see these jerseys being worn at The Farg over 12 years later, you know they got it right.
There are little things, like the attempted cream color being way too dark and more gold-toned than it should’ve been (imagine this with the Phillies’ version of the cream jerseys instead, oh boy) but they get so right with the overall design from the nameplate, the orange stripe down the pants, the numbers being outlined, and just all the cool stripes. We love it.
1) 2021 Lake Tahoe games
(It counts.)
We are counting these jerseys despite them not technically being design for an outdoor game but they did play outdoors while wearing these jerseys during the Lake Tahoe games in 2021.
Maybe it’s just pure nostalgia and just not being overexposed to this like the 2012 Winter Classic jerseys, but I (will drop the plural here because I do recognize this might not be the most popular take) just like this one the most out of all of them.
While the 2012 Winter Classic is great, the template of the design is essentially what you would get if you just typed “hockey jersey design” into your preferred search engine. For these reverse retros, and the era that it is based on, they actually went with original seams and an overall look. The flowing lines going through different parts of the sweater, and going for more of a circular feel rather than just straight and unoriginal lines, is what puts it over the top.
The only thing that would need to be changed is the nameplate. Again, a common enough issue with these jerseys, but put some damn colored borders around words and numbers, please. If they did that, it would be a home run.
