Well, it’s that time of year again when I bring you the next installment of my jersey watch series for the 2023-24 B.C. Hockey League season.
In addition to it being a monumental time for the BCHL as the first season without being governed by Hockey Canada, it’s also a monumental year for jerseys as it looks like there are quite a few changes, with many teams starting new eras with new ownership and looks for this season.
Related: 2022-23 BCHL jersey watch
Some of the teams had their jerseys done by Pro Hockey Life this season and feature the company’s logo on the bottom of their jerseys. The collars of the new jerseys have the same look as their National Hockey League counterparts with the difference being the BCHL logo in the middle instead of the NHL logo.
Here are all the changes I’ve noted for the 17 teams of the BCHL thus far.
Coastal Conference
Alberni Valley Bulldogs
The Bulldogs have a new third jersey this season, which is inspired by the black Carolina Hurricanes jersey design. The logo is of a black and grey realistic-looking bulldog with a white and red outline.
Chilliwack Chiefs
The Chiefs made minor changes this season. Chilliwack has embraced fazing out the gold colour it has sported since 2011-12. The dark jersey has the removal of the gold around the numbers in favour of silver. Chilliwack’s white jersey has a small change to the logo, with it being outlined in black.
The Chiefs also removed the gold cuffs from their gloves that they introduced last season. They are now back to the all-red gloves they wore in 2018, but the logo on the thumb is the main chief head with gold feathers and a red “C”.
Coquitlam Express
Coquitlam, like many junior hockey teams, changes its jerseys every year or makes a slight variation of the current look. The Express made some minor changes to its white jerseys, going away from the full gold numbers to a 1990s Pittsburgh Penguins look with black numbers featuring a gold trim. The name bar font is yellow with black trim.
Cowichan Valley Capitals
The Capitals are going retro with a full return to their “CV” bird logo. Cowichan Valley’s new white jerseys have the look of the white Montreal Canadians. The Washington Capitals-style logo the Caps used as a primary logo for nearly 30 years is featured as a shoulder patch on their current jerseys.
Langley Rivermen
In a number of previous articles, I’ve clambered for the Rivermen to change it up from the look they presented back in 2011-12. Finally, we got a change! The Rivermen’s new jerseys go back to the basics as the white jersey simply have two navy blue stripes on the sleeves and waist.
The sleeves have blue cuffs and the bottom of the jersey has a navy blue trim. The logo is also basic with a navy blue centre and the Rivermen head with white lettering around it. The dark blue jersey is a mirrored version with white stripes instead of blue.
Nanaimo Clippers
Nanaimo made a change this season after several years of white and orange jerseys with a black version often making an appearance. In 2023-24, the Clippers have gone grey. The jersey has a grey base with a big black shoulder yoke and two stripes of black and orange from one arm to the other through the logo in the middle.
The look pays tribute to the 2004 Clippers who won the Fred Page Cup and had barber pole stripes going down the sleeve. This could be their new third jersey or their new white jerseys as they won’t be able to use it when teams wear white as it will be too similar in contrast.
The Clippers also have a new orange jersey this season. It has a black square and white stripe on the sleeves and a black and white stripe on the side of the base of the jersey. The logo is just the clipper ship with the orange circle behind it. This one is in a similar vein as the white jersey they introduced a few seasons back which was terrible in my opinion.
Powell River Kings
It’s a new era for the storied Powell River Kings as they introduced a new logo and new jerseys for this season. The Kings are saying see you later to the green “P” with the crown in the middle and going with a brand new wordmark as their logo.
It’s a fresh new look for the Kings and the first time since the late 1990s and early 2000s that Powell River’s jersey features a wordmark as its main logo.
The logo itself gives off baseball vibes but also that mid-1980s wordmark logo craze that a lot of junior teams took on. The “I” in the word “Kings” is dotted with a hockey puck which is a nice touch. The Kings also inverted the colours for their dark jersey for the first time, which they didn’t do with their last logo.
The jersey design itself is the same as last season with the standard three stripes on the sleeves and waist. The green stripes on the white jersey are reversed to white on the green jersey.
Surrey Eagles
The Surrey Eagles have a new third jersey this season. The Eagles’ new third is black-based with two thick, grey stripes on the sleeves. Their logo got the black and grey treatment as well.
On the sleeves is a ladder-looking pattern with no fewer than six steps along it. Not sure what it’s supposed to symbolize but I personally don’t think the jersey needs it.
Victoria Grizzlies
The Grizz brought their third jersey from last season to be their main dark jersey this season. The jersey is yellow with just the grizzly bear head without the circle outline or swiping paw. The stripes and shoulder yoke are black and white, similar to the New Jersey Devils jerseys.
Victoria has introduced new home white and away black jerseys as well. The jerseys mirror each other 100%. The white jersey has a yellow thin stripe that goes across the sleeves and through the logo, along with a thick black stripe following the pattern. The black jersey is the same but the black stripe is yellow and the yellow stripe is white.
Interior Conference
Cranbrook Bucks
The Bucks have no changes to their jerseys this season besides the new collar in place league-wide.
Merritt Centennials
Merritt is looking for a change after a better, but still not-so-great season last year. The Centennials have a new white jersey this season with a more simplistic approach. The jersey is similar to the one they wore the last couple of seasons with some modifications.
The stripes on the sleeve and waist are the same as last season, but the white spacing was removed and the two stripes from last year are brought together to form one.
Penticton Vees
Just like the Chiefs and many other teams, the Vees only have minor changes to their uniforms this season. Penticton did a major rebrand last season going away from the Hockey Canada-looking logo to one that looks more like the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The change this season is the reversing of the main logo on the jersey. Last year, much to my displeasure, the Vees had the blue leaf on the blue jersey and the white leaf on the white jersey, making it hard to see at times. This year they have swapped the logos and the white leaf is now on the blue jersey and the blue leaf is on the white jersey, making the jerseys more ecstatically pleasing. The Vees will also have the new collar but with tie-ups.
The Vees continue the trend with their third jerseys, deeming them as their heritage jerseys this year. The new third reflects 60 years of hockey in Penticton. The main colour is cream with a white middle and stripes matching the blue, red, gold, and green of the iconic Hudson’s Bay blankets. There are two maple leaves on the sleeves and the numbers are white with a navy outline. The logo sees a small blue leaf with white veins and a red outline above a “Penticton” wordmark. The large “V” and the word “Penticton” are outlined in the same colours as the stripes.
Prince George Spruce Kings
The Spruce Kings have a new third jersey this season. Prince George dons a jersey based on the New York Rangers’ Statue of Liberty design from 1996. The logo is the Spruce Kings’ familiar crown with a “PGSK” wordmark underneath.
Salmon Arm Silverbacks
The Silverbacks introduced three new jerseys this season. The white jersey has a college look to it, similar to the ones the Chiefs introduced back in 2011-12. The jersey has purple stripes on the sleeves and waist with purple cuffs and shoulders. It also has the look of the Toronto Maple Leaf third jersey from the early 2000s. The logo is a blocked letter wordmark of “Silverbacks” above each player’s individual number.
The second jersey revealed could be the new dark jersey or the third jersey. It’s a black base with two purple stripes on the sleeves and one stripe around the waist with the look of the current Maple Leafs jersey. The logo is the isolated gorilla head that was used on the bottom of their black and silver Los Angeles Kings-inspired logo. The numbers are purple with a grey outline.
The last jersey revealed again could be either the dark jersey or the third jersey. The base is purple with four grey stripes on the sleeves and around the waist. The shoulder yoke is also grey with matching grey numbers. The logo is a grey box with a “Silverbacks” in purple inside.
This is a massive step backward for the Silverbacks after bringing back the original logo and the great purple and white jerseys they had last season. These are really a disappointment from a franchise that has had some really nice jerseys in the past. It’s always good to have a fresh look but this really fell short of the mark by a mile.
Trail Smoke Eaters
Trail has introduced a white version of the black jerseys it introduced last season. The jersey has two thick orange stripes on the sleeves and one thick orange stripe around the waist, both outlined in black.
Vernon Vipers
The Vipers kept their dark and white jerseys the same as last year with just a slight change to the striping by making them closer together.
Vernon also has a gold third jersey this season. The jersey is gold with navy blue and white stripes and a very nice script logo. The jersey is very reminiscent of the University of Michigan Wolverines yellow jerseys.
West Kelowna Warriors
The West Kelowna community had a rough off-season with the massive wildfires that ran through the area in the middle of August. The Warriors have a new dark jersey this year. The base is a dark red colour with two black stripes on the sleeves and one black stripe along the waist. The collar features a gold trim that matches the colour of the player numbers.
This jersey is really hard to read on the ice and looks a bit like a practice jersey with no stripes β similar to the Victoria Grizzlies all-black look from the mid-2010s. West-K could have made a great matching jersey to the white jersey it introduced last season, but this one is a disappointment.