Ottawa Senators Edge Prototype

It's no secret during the 2006-07 NHL season, when it was announced the Reebok Edge fabric system was to be introduced for all 30 NHL teams, that teams began planning redesigns. The Buffalo Sabres were one of the first teams to show us what the Edge system would bring, with the Buff-a-slug, the San Jose Sharks have since said they planned their 2007 rebrand the season prior, but they were not the only ones.

Photo from The Toronto Sun

The Ottawa Senators were a team that had one of the less drastic rebrands, updating the logo on their swoosh home previously alternate jersey, and adopting the edge template used by Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay amongst many other minor league teams, and still using it today. The logo used on the pre-edge road jersey was dropped, giving the Senators their first matching home and road set since 1999 when the black version of their white jersey was dropped and replaced with the swoosh jersey. The shoulder patch, formerly a version of the primary logo with a S instead of a Roman soldier, is replaced with a modernized version of the original Senators O logo with a black and red bar behind it. This however, might not have always been Ottawa's plan.

Photo from sportsatf.com

eBay seller jerseybaron_com, who has had several of these Edge prototypes jerseys in the past, has this version of the Ottawa Senators Edge home jersey, however with an obvious logo change.

Photos from jerseybarons_com on eBay

The jersey template is nearly identical to what the Sens wore from 2007-17, and shows that this is a template Reebok chose to go with from an early stage. The tag on the inside of the collar is that which is found on the authentic CCM jerseys worn from 2005-07 when Reebok took over the Koho/CCM branding on authentic jerseys. The logos however, are identical to that used up until 2007. Only the white version of the jersey has been found to this day. This begs the question: Had the Senators planned to continue having two different primary logos on their home and road jerseys into the Edge era? One obvious unknown is whether the rounded numbers used up until this season were planned to be used with this version of the jerseys, or whether it was the block font used with the logo on the prototype.

With Ottawa planning a massive rebrand following this season (which will likely make use of the O bar logo), it'll be interesting to see if another prototype is found prior to the rebrand or afterwards, and to see if perhaps what the team planned wasn't their plan the whole time.

It's interesting to see these prototypes, jerseys never meant to be worn on the ice do not sell for more. To give you an idea, the Nashville Predators prototype checkerboard away jerseys, when available, sell for up to a thousand bucks. Perhaps because the jersey itself is not different, the price of $125 CDN + 10 bucks shipping is fair.