Team Canada is in the thick of the 2025 World Juniors right now and they are looking good doing it.
The classic and simple design of having a maple leaf over the “Canada” script on the background of the national colours of red and white just makes sense for this team. It shouldn’t be hard to draw up a winning design for the Canadians, and they certainly have had a few iconic looks, whether that be the 1974 Summit Series or the 2010 Olympics.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been a few ugly ones over the years. Canada has had some pretty brutal designs throughout their hockey history. Some years were just the victim of poor design, while others decided to get creative with the colours.
Either way, they didn’t look good. Here are the six worst offenders.
6. 1998 Nagano Olympic jerseys
There was nothing notably wrong with Canada’s Nagano 1998 Olympic jerseys, but there was also nothing notable at all with them, either.
This seemed to be the plainest design in the country’s history, with the most creative part being some drab grey piping. Sometimes, basic doesn’t mean better.
5. 2022 Beijing Olympic jerseys
There seems to be a desire to add black into just about every hockey jersey on the planet, and it continues to make no sense with Canada’s set.
The national team has a built-in winning combination of colours, so why add black to it? It didn’t help that the overall design of the maple leaf was a bit wonky as well.
4. 2006 Turin Olympic jerseys
Canada’s jersey set in the Turin 2006 Olympics suffered from similar problems as their 1998 counterparts, but worse. Not only are they boring, but they feature an awkward half-arm stripe that looks completely out of place.
These are more akin to mediocre practice jerseys rather than an Olympic set.
3. 2010 green World Juniors jersey
Black can sometimes be excused as an addition to Canada’s jersey design if the design is good. However, green becoming the primary colour of a jersey from the Great White North makes little sense.
It’s even worse that the apparent reason for this was to align with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders for the 2010 WJC tournament held in the province. Just… why?
2. 2004 yellow World Cup jersey
If green was a bad choice for a Canada jersey, mustard yellow is undoubtedly worse. Add that with black being the secondary, and we’ve got ourselves an all-timer.
These paid tribute to Canada’s Olympic jerseys from 1920, which is pretty neat but doesn’t make them any less ugly.
1. 1978 blue World Juniors jersey
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These are the jerseys that Wayne Gretzky wore during the 1978 World Juniors, making this set that much worse.
Incorporating blue as a primary colour makes less than zero sense for Canada for the main reason that it mimics their arch-rival USA. Baffling decision here to completely leave out red other than a maple leaf on each shoulder.
Looks more like a poorly crafted Toronto Maple Leafs sweater than anything else.