Morning Flurries: Avalanche to get a new look for the 25th anniversary

Can you believe it’s been 25 years? The Colorado Avalanche plan to celebrate a quarter century of their franchise in the 2020-21 NHL season. Along with a Reverse Retro Quebec Nordiques jersey that was debuted this week, it looks like the Avs are poised to change up their normal look as well. The team announced yesterday that they’d be changing from black helmet, pants and gloves to blue ones. As well, there are plans to make some modifications to the current lineup of jerseys - with the potential for the stadium series logo to be added.

If this is what it’s going to look like, I’m thrilled. It looks awesome. I love how much the blue pops on top of the burgundy. It gives the jersey a lot of life and dare I say a bit of swagger for a team currently sitting as the favorites for the Stanley Cup?

If you want to read more into the team’s plans for the 25th Anniversary celebrations, you can follow the link to the press release from yesterday. [NHL dot com]

“Part of the 25th celebration will include several jersey modifications, headlined by the adidas Reverse Retro sweater that was announced Monday. The team will also be switching to new equipment colors to match the primary colors already included in the Avalanche’s home, away and alternate jerseys. The home and away sweaters will now feature the primary color of blue for the shorts, gloves and helmets, while the alternate sweater will have slight modifications to the pants and gloves.”

Circling back to the Reverse Retro jerseys, the Avalanche Twitter account posted a really cool graphic showing where around the world their new jersey was purchased. Love from across the US, into Quebec, and even as far as the Philippines!

And to the Avs fans who don’t know about the Quebec Nordiques past, here is a history lesson from The Hockey Writers.

“While this was good for Quebec City’s NHL bid, the Canadiens were not happy, because they happened to be owned by the O’Keefe’s rival, Molson Breweries. The last thing they wanted was another beer stomping on their turf. So, the Canadiens opposed the Nordiques’ entrance into the NHL, denying them the bid.”

Elsewhere in the NHL

The NHL and NHLPA negotiations to arrange the 2020-21 season is heating up with the arbitrary deadline looming and some substantial financial fights breaking the surface. On one hand, the league is still saying January 1st is their goal, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious the regular season won’t start until a few weeks into the year.

On the financial side, there’s a rift forming around salaries and escrow. The further economic squeeze caused by the pandemic has caused the NHL to want to take back more of the pie from the players because of this (from 78% the original player budget to 62%) and the players are Big Mad about it. Some players in Toronto in the league got massive signing bonuses recently and technically can’t give that percentage back since they’ve made more than that. Where that money comes from (if it does in fact go back to the owners) and how it all gets arranged will be very interesting. [Sportsnet]

The Florida Panthers have hired a former business friend of GM Bill Zito in Brett Peterson. The fellow former agent is the first Black Assistant GM in NHL history. [Sportsnet]

“Peterson went on to play NCAA hockey himself, winning a national championship with Boston College in 2001, and enjoyed a five-year pro career split between the ECHL and American Hockey League. He then transitioned to the agent business with Acme World Sports in 2009 and remained there through a merger with Wasserman Hockey [and Orr Group] earlier this year.”

Ken Campbell is also reporting that Joel Ward will be named Assistant Coach of the Henderson Silver Knights, the AHL affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights. He joins Manny Malhotra as former players of color to become an assistant coach for this season. Malhotra was hired over the summer to coach the Maple Leafs.

And to close out the Flurries, the NCAA hockey program is... uhh... not going great.