Hockey Jersey Addicts

Today’s episode is an important discussion with an important individual about an important initiative.

Rico Phillips is the Director of Cultural Diversity and Inclusion for the Ontario Hockey League and an advisory board member to the Hockey Diversity Alliance. He’s also the 2019 recipient of the NHL’s Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award, an a nnual recognition by the NHL “to an individual who – through the game of hockey – has positively impacted his or her community, culture or society.”

We sit down with Rico and discuss some difficult situations he has faced personally as a ref and player, the support the NHL gave when Rico sought to grow his Flint Inner City Youth Hockey Program, guidance he’s received from Willie O’Ree, and actions all of us – no matter our role and background – can take to become involved or more involved in making hockey a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive sport.

Today’s episode is with PensJerseys_ aka Josh. I imagine you can guess what his favorite team is. So yes, Josh’s trivia is going to be Penguins themed, and yes that’s back-to-back Penguins fans, but we are in no way double dipping on topics here. PensJerseys made a set of YouTube videos to help us learn how to customize our hockey jerseys. Josh has a few really powerful stories on how sport has been a big part of his personal and professional life. The underlying theme is very much how hockey jersey collecting leads to making new connections with people within the sport, how memories are formed in those times together, and how more people in our community deserve the opportunity to have those memories. So before we dive into our episode with Josh we take 5 minutes and mention 5 causes you can look up and take action on right now to help make hockey, and sport for inclusive for everyone.

This week we sit down with a past intern and social media marketing specialist at Meigray, a company a lot of us know for specializing in authenticating, appraising, and selling game worn sports memorabilia. We talk to waterbottle, who reminds us that good things – in her case a college choice and a job – can come from being addicted to hockey and collecting hockey jerseys. We hear why a trip to the MeiGray head offices is a must for any collector, and see if she can stick handle through our penguins based trivia. We also make sure you're all set up to watch the National Women's Hockey League semi finals and finals airing on national TV for the first time! 

Wondering if that old jersey in the back of the closet is worth anything? Worth auctioning? Today we sit down with a lead appraiser in Ontario, Canada with his own business, Todd Sawatzky. Todd is a huge hockey collector and has a lot of his own memorabilia, so we talk about his game worn collections – but also things like hockey jersey cards. Todd also worked at the Hockey Hall of Fame, so he shares some stories on what it’s like behind the scenes.  Todd’s originally from Manitoba and is a Jets fan, so we’ll spend some time reliving the glory days and see how he can do in our Jets-based trivia. Today’s episode is airing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in the US, and so we use it as an opportunity to highlight a very important day in hockey history involving Willie O'Ree, the first black player in the NHL. 

On today’s episode, we’re sitting down with CanucksForever67, one of the most creative minds behind mashup hockey jerseys. I was blown away like the rest of social media the first time I saw his Quinn Hughes Vancouver Grizzlies design, and his hobby has taken off - producing some other outstanding finished products crossing between sports and players, breaking all kinds of boundaries of what our concept on a hockey jersey can be. Just the kind of thing we like around here!

Happy Holidays! We're throwing an ugly sweater party! In Part 1 we learn about blind hockey from Josh, Drew, and Tony from The Dented Puck podcast  and what it's going to take to get the sport included in the 2026 Paralympic Games. In Part 2, we discuss our picks for ugliest jerseys in NHL history. Mustard cats, golden seals, and wild wings - who's it going to be? Will SaskStarsFan show up to defend his beloved Mooterus?

Today’s episode features SaskStarsFan, an avid Dallas Stars collector from Saskatchewan. We are treated to a complete run down of the Dallas Stars' jersey history, discuss our thoughts on the recent releases like the reverse retro, black out, and heritage classic, and have a Mike Modano themed trivia. We also talk about the hockey community in Saskatchewan. A Fred Sasakamoose tribute is our common threads segment, plus we hear stories about Mike Babcock and Hayley Wickenheiser, and discuss the current stage of our hockey jersey collections! 

This week’s episode features a legendary designer and man behind what The Hockey News voted the best NHL logo of all time in 2015, the person responsible for the original and redesign of the San Jose Sharks logo, Terry Smith. We discuss how he became involved with the design process, just how impactful the logo was in changing the way the NHL did business, try our best to confirm or deny fan theories on some of the logo’s storied past – including a different original color and shelved designs that may eventually find their way back into the limelight. We also provide a brief account of the history of the Hockey Diversity Alliance and what their cause is all about. Plus, Terry shares some BIG NEWS for hockey jersey fans with us on how you may be able to get your hands on some of his art. If you're lucky!

This week HJA gives thanks to the r/hockeyjerseys. We sit down Dex, one of the mods on reddit and discord of the online hockey jersey community with over 47,000 passionate members. We learn how Dex became involved, how the subreddit became so popular, and what motivates him to be one of the leading voices in hockey jersey collecting. I play therapist and do some word association to find out what words like "dimples" triggers in his brain, then put his intellect of his fav player, Rod Brind'Amour, to the test with some trivia. We also thank Doc Emrick for his years in broadcasting and talk a little about his closet hockey jersey addiction that came out on display while broadcasting from home during his last season.

Milan Hejduk joins the podcast to discuss his big night when they raised his numbers to the rafters, why he wore 23, and the story behind his international number. Jersey retirements are incredible ceremonies, and they're all unique. Perhaps none more than the Toronto Maples Leafs big surprise in 2016. We'll hear from so fans who attended Hejduk's retirement from his suite, a Ducks fan who spread his wings and flew to Toronto to see Kariya and Selanne's HHOF induction, then flew to Anaheim to meet Kariya before his jersey ceremony. We top it off with memories shared from Henrik & Daniel's retirement during the 50th anniversary season. Unretired numbers, Ray Bourque being the first Av retired, Messier unretiring Wayne Maki's number - even the trivia is jersey retirement releated. Grab your favourite player's jersey and get ready for one hell of an episode.