BCHL, editorial

2024-25 BCHL jersey watch

Written by Eric Clarke on

 

It’s our favourite time of the year — time for another B.C. Hockey League jersey watch. This season we get to possibly see five new jerseys for the five Alberta-based teams that came into the BCHL midway through last season. We also say goodbye to the Merritt Centennials and the classic record player logo that lasted the test of time.

All the BCHL jerseys were produced through Pro Hockey Life and manufactured by Team W Manufacturing except for the Chilliwack Chiefs who have jerseys made by Athletic Knit. Pro Hockey Life and Team W introduced several jerseys last season, including the Powell River Kings and Salmon Arm Silverbacks

Related: 2023-24 Jersey Watch

All BCHL team jerseys have at least one with the new Rogers sponsor patch and a new sponsor in Cwench Hydration. A new BCHL collar logo also makes an appearance with a similar look to the NHL with a black and chrome-based logo. The lone difference is the Power River Kings, who elected to keep the full-colour league logo

Coastal Conference East

Chilliwack Chiefs

Chilliwack is the only team not wearing jerseys made by Team W Manufacturing as the Chiefs are the only team wearing Athletic Knit jerseys. These jerseys — in my opinion — look terrible. The material that was used looks like an old bed sheet.

The fabric is almost fully see-through when a skater has their back to you. You can see the fight strap as if it’s on the outside of the jersey. The collars are so big, they slide all over the players’ shoulders. The fabric looks cheap and several players have the sleeves flapping as they skate down the ice, unlike the Team W jerseys where they have some movement but keep their shape nicely.

The jerseys are white with a black shoulder yoke and crimson stripe over a large black cuff. The front logo is a white version of the chief head logo with a red “C” on the headdress. The Chiefs have a mirrored black jersey with the chief head logo also black with a crimson “C”.

The numbers on the black jersey are the same colour as the numbers on the white jersey, just with a white outline. It makes it very difficult to see the numbers from afar and on camera. I’ve never liked a dark logo on a dark jersey, it takes away from the front logo, which is what you want to highlight.

I hope this is a one-season thing because compared to the other teams, Chilliwack’s jerseys look kind of minor league compared to the professional look of the Team W jerseys everyone else will be wearing.

Langley Rivermen

After their big re-branding last season after years and years of me lobbying for them to change their look, the Rivermen stayed the course this season with no changes.

Surrey Eagles

After I speculated there might be a shift in the Eagles’ colour scheme with all the changes to the arena and locker room, they are staying with their green dark jerseys. They have the updated collar and relocation of sponsor patches to match the rest of the BCHL.

It seems the Eagles are behind the rest of the league with their jerseys. Surrey uses the jersey from two years ago as their white jersey while their green jersey last year was from the BCHL’s 60th anniversary season.

Coquitlam Express

Coquitlam is matching the change it made last season to the white jersey and going with a full Pittsburgh Penguins-style look on the black jersey as well.

Prince George Spruce Kings

The Spruce Kings stayed with their New York Rangers look that they have had for over 20 years. PG has a third jersey this season and it’s the Lady Liberty-inspired red third jersey they introduced last season.

Coastal Conference West

Alberni Valley Bulldogs

The OG Bulldogs are consistent with their New Jersey Devils-inspired jerseys this year. The Bulldogs have a new third jersey this year with a black base and three stripes alternating red and white at the bottom of the jersey — like the Chicago Blackhawks. The logo is a leaping bulldog that mimics the leaping panther of the Florida Panthers.

Cowichan Valley Capitals

The Capitals are going full into their “CV” eagle logo, and the white jerseys look like Montreal Canadiens jerseys. The Caps feature their Washington Capitals-inspired logo on the shoulder.

Cowichan Valley also has a third jersey this season. The Capitals are entering unprecedented territory with a black jersey that has the look of the New York Rangers white jerseys. The black base is complemented with grey and gold stripes and the “CV” eagle logo has also been converted into the colour scheme.

Nanaimo Clippers

The Nanaimo Clippers made the biggest design splash this off-season by rebranding completely for the first time in what feels like forever. This is the first season that this incarnation of the Clippers won’t have the circle-shaped logo of a clipper ship sailing over a hockey stick.

The new logo is the letter “N” logo the Clippers introduced last season as a third jersey. The logo has a dangerous cargo flag at the top of a three-mass ship within the negative space of the “N”.

The Clippers introduced a secondary logo with the Nanaimo Bastion with the dangerous cargo flag on top and an anchor in the shape of a shield. An “NC” sits on top of five coal icons to symbolize the history of the coal industry that was instrumental in establishing the city. Waves don the bottom of the shield to bring it all together.

The jerseys have a black, white, and orange base. The orange and white jerseys have the look of the Pittsburgh Penguins — similar to the Coquitlam Express — except in Clippers colours. The black jersey has the look of the Penguins’ third jersey with a white thin stripe over a larger orange stripe on the sleeve and waist of the jersey.

I was hoping for jerseys similar to the retro jersey with a similar front logo, but it looks good for a complete rebrand of such a historical franchise.

Powell River Kings

Powell River is changing its look yet again this season, going from the bright green and gold look from last season to a forest green and gold colour. The Kings logo has a redeveloped word mark with a crown on the “K” and a revamp of the crown from their “P” logo.

The Kings jerseys are very interesting this year. Their white jersey is similar to the Montreal Canadiens with a gold stripe through the middle of the jersey and arms, surrounded by the new forest green and an elongated bottom gold stripe.

The green jersey doesn’t have any stripes on the sleeves. It does have one stripe along the bottom with the crown logo. It’s a very plain jersey and not exactly the best look the Kings have had.

Victoria Grizzlies

The Grizzlies are going full bear this season. Victoria is finally going away from the circle logo they introduced in 2010 to just the grizzly bear head. The grizzly head made its first appearance as the main logo on the 60th anniversary jerseys a few years ago.

The Grizzlies are taking inspiration from another ‘bear’ team with a jersey that resembles those of the 1970s Boston Bruins. These jerseys make the Grizzlies look top-notch — a far cry from the black-on-black look of 2016. These by far are the best jerseys the Grizzlies have come out with, next to the bear claw stripes of 2006.

Interior Conference West

Penticton Vees

Penticton is making a small change this season, going full Toronto Maple Leafs design. The Vees went away from the barber pole stripes on the sleeves to just two stripes on the sleeves and one stripe around the waist. The Vees continue their excellent heritage jersey collection with a cream-coloured jersey featuring a blue stripe in the middle and sleeves with black outlines.

Salmon Arm Silverbacks

The Salmon Arm Silverbacks experiment last year with the college look is out the door. The Backs return to the historic silverback gorilla logo on the front of their jerseys. The jersey’s construction stays the same, just with the old logo back in its rightful place.

It’s a smart move for the Silverbacks to go back to their most iconic logo, the best decision they have made since they introduced their New York Islanders-style jerseys with white and purple base colours.

Trail Smoke Eaters

The Smoke Eaters have matching jerseys this season just like last season. The Smokies have their shoulder patch as a ‘Trail’ wordmark in a nice script on the black jersey. Meanwhile, Trail keeps the smoke stack wordmark on the white jerseys.

Vernon Vipers

The Vipers didn’t make many changes this season. Their main home and away jerseys are the same as last season, except for the trim on their white jerseys changing from gold to red.

West Kelowna Warriors

West Kelowna isn’t changing a lot this season. The Warriors reintroduced their black dragon jerseys to match the red jersey they trotted out last season.

Interior Conference East

Blackfalds Bulldogs

It looks like Blackfalds isn’t changing anything this season. The Bulldogs have a mix of CCM and Bauer equipment as they transition to having the full Bauer set up. The Alberta version of the Bulldogs did make a minor change to their third jersey set-up, switching from black to gold helmets.

Brooks Bandits

The Brooks Bandits have not changed their look in nearly 20 years, and that isn’t changing this season. With the move over to the BCHL, the only change to the jerseys this year is a new collar and the placement of the league logo on the centre.

Cranbrook Bucks

No changes for the Bucks this season. I guess we might see maybe a third jersey, but given the franchise’s short history, I don’t expect any big changes anytime soon.

Okotoks Oilers

Just like the other teams in their division, the Oilers haven’t altered their look from last season. Like Brooks, Okotoks has the same white jersey as last season with a new collar and the placement of the BCHL logo.

Sherwood Park Crusaders

The Crusaders didn’t change a whole lot to their look from last season. Sherwood Park is going with Toronto Maple Leafs-inspired jerseys. The Cru simplified their logo, featuring just a solid white ‘C’ on their green jerseys and a solid green ‘C’ on their white jerseys with no outline.

This is a change I suggested in my article suggesting concept jerseys for the five Alberta BCHL teams. Last season, Sherwood Park had a dark ‘C’ logo on both their green and white jerseys.

Spruce Grove Saints

Next to Nanaimo, the Saints made the biggest splash this season. Spruce Grove is diving deep into replicating the World Hockey Association’s Minnesota Fighting Saints jersey design from the 1970s. The new jerseys have two solid stripes on the sleeves and waist. The Saints added the underrated powder blue colour to their jerseys to give them that extra pop.

I also suggested leaning into the Fighting Saints scheme in my previous concept jersey article for Spruce Grove since it already used a similar logo. That said, I wasn’t sure because there might have been copyright issues because it’s also the same jersey design as the Charlestown Chiefs from the 1970s movie Slapshot.