On Wednesday morning the jerseys for the Winter Classic were revealed. The 2026 Winter Classic takes place on January 2nd in Miami between the New York Rangers and the reigning back to back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. The game will be at LoanDepot Park, home of MLB’s Florida Marlins who have partnered with the Panthers before for promotions. Their arena also has a roof but that’s a discussion about “outdoor games” we’ll save for a different time.
Let’s look at our immediate reactions to the jerseys. The home Panthers decided to go with a design based off of their former original look with the “leaping Panther”. This was previously confirmed in a teaser tweet from Roberto Luongo. Creative director for Fanatics Dom Fillion said the owners the Viola family wanted to image what the original logo would have looked like in the 1920’s. Thus they took that original leaping panther and gave it a “hand stitched” look. Something similar was done with the shoulder patch design for the Nashville Predators in their 2020 Winter Classic jerseys.
The Viola family was heavily involved with the design. There are military tributes, such as the “decorative stitching with chevrons”. Vinny Viola’s a veteran whose support of the military is well known and was once in the running to be Secretary of the United States Army. Back in 2023 him and fellow veteran turned NHL owner Will Foley of the Vegas Golden Knights made a cup bet that loser donates money to a veterans service organization. Viola would later bring the cup to his alma mater West Point.
The rear stitch loop features the outline of a rat in reference to their famous celebration. None of the pictures or videos of the released jerseys feature a close up look at the rat design, so we can’t tell if it looks like a real rat, their cartoon mascot rat, or even Brad Marchand. The Panthers love hiding little details in these things, just like their Stanley Cup rally towel.
The vintage style shoulder patch with the “walking panther” logo is a throwback from the former Miami Clippers hockey team of the Tropical Hockey League. Another former team from that league makes an appearance on the uniform. The logo seen on the uniform pants is that of the former Coral Gables Seminoles hockey team. Arda Orcal of ESPN joked they should bring back the hockey gloves with claws they wore when the team first launched.
The Rangers design is what Filmon calls a “second chapter” to their current Centennial alternate jerseys. With an off-white primary color they could best be described as the “away” version of those jerseys. The biggest change is that the “Rangers” word mark across the front of the jerseys is replaced with “New York” in the same styling. The only other times “New York” has fully replaced “Rangers” on the front (other than their crest fully saying “New York Rangers”) was with special jerseys in remembrance of the 9/11 attacks during the 2001-2002 season and the 2014 Stadium Series jerseys.
The New York Rangers shoulder patch is an apple, a nod to their hometown being the “Big Apple”. Fanatics says the design comes from what they found on an older Rangers jersey. New York Mets fans will love it as it’s unintentionally reminiscent of their “big apple” home run celebration. The apple would have been a great addition when the Rangers played the 2018 Winter Classic at CitiField. We guess finally adding it is better late than never.