The Oilers might bring back the Royal Blue Jersey

It looks like this sort of just flew under the radar, but apparently, according to Tom Gazzola, the Oilers might be bringing back the Royal Blue jerseys next season.

The orange jerseys were met with a pretty mixed review. I think they were well received as an occasional third jersey with a throwback flare, but I think most fan would agree that using them as the exclusive home jersey was overkill. The oranges are a bit of an eyesore, though they aren’t horrendous. That said, they simply aren’t as nice as Edmonton’s Royal Blue jerseys.

The Oilers pivoted to the Royal Blue in 2007-08 when the NHL brought third jerseys back into the equation with RBK. In 2011-12, the Oilers started to use their old school uniforms for home and away games, pushing the dark blue pyjama style monstrosity to the set of third jerseys. Then, the following year, they killed the pyjama jersey. The orange jersey was brought into the mix in 2015-16 during Edmonton’s final season at Rexall Place and then become the official home jersey when the league started its new jersey deal with Adidas in 2017-18. Dan wrote about the Oilers’ jersey history last June. 

I think everyone will be happy to see the Royal Blue jerseys making a return. Now we just need the gritty dark blue rigger jersey to make a return as the third jersey. Personally, I’m a huge fan of having multiple sets of jerseys to wear for different situations. I think the Oilers should use their Royal Blue for home and away like they were doing in the early 2010s and they should have a third jersey in the dark blue style with the rigger and throwback orange for games with more of a historic rivalry flare. Beyond that, I’ve heard that the Oilers were exploring doing a completely different jersey style for their thirds akin to something we saw during the World Cup of Hockey. The more the merrier, I think.