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Why the Oilers must request more dates to wear their third jersey
Edmonton Oilers
Photo credit: Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Dec 10, 2025, 13:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 10, 2025, 13:43 EST
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The Edmonton Oilers’ alternate jersey has been the talk of the town in recent times.
Before their 4-3 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday, the Oilers played a pair of games, one against the Seattle Kraken and one against the Winnipeg Jets. In an unusual sight, at least to the newer generation, the Oilers were wearing light colour as the home team, as they wore their third jersey for each game.
The scores of those two games? Well, they beat the wheels off of the Kraken, defeating them 9-4. On the other hand, the Jets put up a bit of a better fight, only allowing six goals while scoring two of their own. It was the second and third time the Oilers have worn their new alternate jersey, doing so on Oct. 28. Would you be surprised if I told you they scored another six goals?
Since Oct. 28, the Oilers have played 10 home games. In their regular home jersey, the Oilers are 2-3-2, with both wins coming in overtime. Their second win, a 5-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, needed a late goal to even send it to overtime. The other three games saw them win the cream jerseys, winning 6-3, 9-4, and 6-2. Our very own Zach Laing dug deeper into the stats while the Oilers have worn these jerseys.
Unfortunately, the Oilers have just four more dates with these jerseys. One on Dec. 23, one on Jan. 31, and two road games on Jan. 12 and Jan. 13. But seriously, if it’s broken, why fix it? The Oilers have seemed to find success wearing the jerseys, so what’s the problem?
Well, the Oilers need permission from the league for scheduled dates. On top of that, it seems like an NHL team can only wear an alternate jersey about 15 times a season. That said, the Oilers should be requesting to wear these jerseys more often, something that can be done as it has happened in recent history.
On Dec. 8, Sportsnet released an article detailing how the Colorado Avalanche have asked the league to let them wear their Québec Nordiques jerseys when they head to Montréal later this season. If approved (which it seems like the Canadiens are totally fine with this), this will be the eighth game the Avalanche have been scheduled to wear them.
There are problems, though. If the Oilers wish to wear their third jerseys at home, the opposing team will need to carry two different jersey sets. This can be remedied by scheduling them when their opponent has a one-game road trip. In fact, that was the case for both the Kraken and Jets last week, while the Mammoth’s final stop on their road trip was in Edmonton on Oct. 28.
It’s the same case for the last two times the Oilers wear the jersey at home, as the Calgary Flames (Dec. 23) and Minnesota Wild (Jan. 31) play a one-game road trip in Edmonton. Unfortunately, there won’t be many more opportunities to catch a team on a one-game road trip, as the next time that’ll happen will be Game #82 with the Vancouver Canucks in April.
If you want to expand the scope to two-game road trips where the team plays a back-to-back in Alberta, there’s three opportunities on plenty of back-to-backs (I checked every team’s schedule). Later this month, the Vegas Golden Knights head to Alberta to play a back-to-back against the Albertan teams on the final weekend before Christmas, with the Oilers game being the second game of the back-to-back. 
In January, the Los Angeles Kings head to Alberta, playing the second game of the back-to-back in Edmonton on Jan. 10. And toward the end of the season, the Colorado Avalanche return to Edmonton to face them on Apr. 13 in the first game of the Alberta back-to-back. At worst, it saves the Avalanche from doing some laundry.
Wearing the alternate at home is complicated because it’s a light colour, but that problem is solved if the Oilers request to wear it on the road. As it stands, the Oilers have 24 more road games this season, and 22 games where they are scheduled to wear their third jerseys.
This may all sound silly to you, it’s just a jersey, how does it impact their play? I don’t know, sports are weird, but I can give you an example of a uniform change that helped a team find success.
In September of this year, the Toronto Blue Jays were battling to finish with the best record in the American League East alongside the New York Yankees. After a 6-5 victory on Sep. 16, the Jays had a five game lead on the division. They then proceeded to lose six of their next seven games, dwindling their lead to nothing, only being ahead of the Yankees thanks to a tiebreaker (the Jays dominated the Yankees in the season series).
With the Jays and Yankees tied on a 90-68 record entering Sep. 25 the Jays switched to a white panel cap that hadn’t been worn since the 2022 season. They wore it in three of their final four games, winning all four of those games to clinch the division. Ian Hunter, a Blue Jays Nation writer, took a look at that and other uniform superstitions in an article back in early October.
Despite the Yankees finishing with the same record as the Jays, they had to win a Wild Card series and face the Jays in the American League Divisional Series. The Blue Jays famously smashed the Yankees in Games 1 and 2, but were finally defeated wearing the white panel hats in Game 3 (then the Jays promptly ended the series the following day).
That change late in the season will go down in Blue Jays’ lore for years to come. The same may happen if the Oilers request more dates for their third jerseys.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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