{"id":293875,"date":"2025-11-19T19:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T19:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/293875\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T19:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T19:19:13","slug":"winter-classic-jersey-designs-for-rangers-panthers-have-nostalgic-flair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/293875\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Classic jersey designs for Rangers, Panthers have nostalgic flair"},"content":{"rendered":"

When designing the jerseys for the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic<\/a>, Dom Fillion knew he wanted to tell a story.<\/p>\n

Specifically, he wanted to incorporate history and nostalgia, themes that blend right into the marquee matchup between the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers at loanDepot Park in Miami on Jan. 2 (8 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SNW, SNO, SNE, TVAS).<\/p>\n

It will be the first outdoor NHL game in the state of Florida, but it won\u2019t be the only one, with the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning set to play the Navy Federal Credit Union 2026 Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Feb. 1.<\/p>\n

Fillon said the Winter Classic\u2019s long history — the first took place in 2008 — called for the old-school approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Winter Classic is such an amazing event,\u201d Fillion, senior creative director and vice president of design at Fanatics, told NHL.com. \u201cIt\u2019s very nostalgia-driven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buy tickets to the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic<\/a><\/p>\n

Fillion faced a unique challenge in designing the Winter Classic sweaters, which the NHL released on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

On one hand, he was designing a jersey for a Rangers franchise that is celebrating its Centennial season. On the other, he was putting together a look for a Panthers franchise that began play in 1993, just 32 years ago.<\/p>\n

For the Panthers jersey, to fit into the vintage look, Fillion reinvented the \u201cleaping panther\u201d logo to use as the crest. He took the classic design and added a nostalgic flair with felt and chain stitching to make it look like it was originally used in the 1920s or 1930s, rather than the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would that leaping panther look like if the Florida Panthers were a franchise that has 100-year-old history?\u201d Fillion said.<\/p>\n

To find that specific look, Fillion worked closely with the Viola family, which owns the Panthers, going back and forth with the family to make sure the design felt right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted to be at the table,\u201d Fillion said. \u201cThey had some very powerful thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is the vintage take on the classic logo, featured prominently on the front of the dark, crimson-colored jersey.<\/p>\n

Fillion also added in decorative stitching and other features to salute Florida\u2019s military history, another way of hitting on the nostalgia theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to pay homage to Florida\u2019s hockey history and some of the local military history,\u201d Fillion said.<\/p>\n

In contrast to the Panthers jersey being designed almost from scratch, the Rangers\u2019 Winter Classic look is more of an extension of the Centennial jerseys that the team has worn this season.<\/p>\n

Fillion described it as an \u201cadditional element\u201d of the Centennial jersey, complementing the previous Centennial design.<\/p>\n

The front of the white Winter Classic sweater reads, \u201cNew York\u201d in diagonal lettering instead of the blue Centennial jersey\u2019s \u201cRangers\u201d lettering, and the white color, rather than the dark blue, honors the franchise\u2019s traditional light jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always keep in mind the setting, the environment, the stage,\u201d Fillion said. \u201cAnd ultimately, we want each team to feel unique and respectful to their brand, their identity, their history and heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jerseys and additional Winter Classic merchandise will hit shelves Thursday and be available across the Fanatics network of sites, as well as at the Panthers and Rangers team stores and the flagship NHL Shop in New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The jerseys] both have [a] great narrative, and I think complementary together they\u2019re going to look tremendous on the ice,\u201d Fillion said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [Winter Classic] environment is always so magical. And it\u2019s going to be a snow globe in South Florida and it\u2019s going to be pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When designing the jerseys for the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic, Dom Fillion knew he wanted to tell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-293875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}