The Canuck Way Mailbag: Demko, Edler, defence pairings, jerseys, more

Reverse retro jerseys & ranking logos

I actually love the teased look of the Canucks new reverse retro jersey. I have always liked the style of the third jersey they wore in 2001 which featured a navy and maroon gradient. Swapping the navy and maroon for green and blue looks very sharp in my mind. If the entire jersey looks as good as the teaser photos, I probably will be ordering one next season.

Having said that, I hope that the Canucks don’t replace the black Flying Skate jersey they wore multiple times last season with this reverse retro one. In addition to how good they looked in them, they also won a lot of games wearing them, too. I hope that fact doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of these new and supposedly improved threads.

Keeping with the theme of jerseys, I will do my best to rank the logos the Canucks have had over their 50-year existence.

1. Flying Skate (1985-1997)
2. Stick-in-Rink (1970-1978)
3. Current Orca (2019-present)
4. West Coast Express (1997-2007)
5. Orca with ‘Vancouver’ wordmark (2007-2018)
6. Flying V (1978-1985)

As you could have probably guessed already, the Flying Skate comes in first as my favourite of all the logos the Canucks have had over the years. It may have presided over some dark times for the team, but it also was worn during one of the most memorable Stanley Cup runs of all time. That 1994 run was probably one of the first hockey memories I have too, so that may have come into play when I was creating these rankings.

Coming in second to last is the Orca with the ‘Vancouver’ wordmark, which I’m sure most of you would agree with. That wordmark was a useless addition to the logo, not to mention it made it look busy and crowded on the jersey. The idea was that people would not know the logo represented a team from Vancouver, so they had to slap the words above it to make it more obvious. That’s why I was so happy when they removed it for the 2019-20 season. The logo looks so much cleaner without it, and actually vaulted it up to third on my rankings. Sometimes, less is more when it comes to designing a piece of art.

Last and certainly least is the Flying V. According to colour psychologists at the time, yellow, orange, and black were supposed to create a happy and upbeat fan. However, fans and supporters came to hate the logo and jersey so much that the Canucks’ marketing department was forced to change it. Good thing too, because I can’t see myself ever wearing a jersey that had that logo on it.

That brings us to the end of another edition of The Canuck Way mailbag. Thank you again for all your questions. I would love to create more rankings, so definitely submit more of those next week. Until then, follow us @FSTheCanuckWay on Twitter and look out for the tweet announcing the next one.