Canucks looked at dusting off the 90s flying skate jersey for Pat Quinn night

(Courtesy: Wiki.ubc.ca)

On Monday the Canucks took to the ice for practice sporting the Vancouver Millionaires sweaters. It would seem that the players and the organization were preparing for Pat Quinn night, which the club will host at Rogers Arena on Tuesday evening.

The Millionaires sweater has been the club’s go-to ceremonial sweater ever since the club purchased the Trademark from Canadian heavy metal legend Thor (no, seriously). The problem is that the Millionaires sweater, as nice and historic and formal as it is, isn’t exactly a jersey thats connected in any way to Quinn. 

Which is probably why the club explored using the 90s flying skate a.k.a. the spaghetti plate jersey, according to president Trevor Linden:

So we might perhaps see the ‘flying skate’ sweater in the near future, eh? Because if there’s one thing this franchise needs, it’s a 14th different logo and jersey combination…

What the Canucks decide to do with their sweaters going forward is worth watching, actually, because there have been a number of hints that change is, if not imminent, then at least being considered. 

Linden suggested in an appearance on the TSN 1040 this summer, for example, that the organization has considered changing their primary logo from the current killer whale (a logo that can trace its origins back to John McCaw and Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment), to one of the Johnny Canuck logos.

The club even debuted a ‘fashion sweater’ at the Canucks Store this season, which is green and features the full-body Johnny Canuck as the primary logo:

I’ll be interesting to see whether or not the skate logo, which notably doesn’t work with the club’s current blue, green and white colour scheme, becomes a real thing the club wears occasionally before the Johnny Canuck logo does. 

Surely the skate and its accompanying black, red, and yellow colour scheme makes more sense as an exercise in 90s nostalgia, rather than as a full-time replacement for the angry corporate Orca. 

Whatever happens, Canucks fans should expect change in the not-so-distant future. Even beyond what the new management group is hinting at in conversations on the radio and with reporters, the club has sported their current iteration of the orca sweater since 2007. So change is overdue, at least based on the colourful history of the franchise and their madcap approach to hockey fashion.