The 2023–24 season marked the end of a few eras for the Edmonton Oilers — and for NHL jerseys in general. It was the final year of the league’s partnership with adidas, who had supplied on-ice gear since 2017. It was also the last season before the arrival of those now-ubiquitous sponsor patches, meaning this jersey holds a bit of visual purity — a final clean slate before the branding rush.

For the Oilers, the season didn’t exactly start with fireworks. A sluggish October led to a coaching change in November, and things looked bleak. But as this group has done before, they rallied. Led by a core that knows each other like the back of their gloves, Edmonton surged — and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was right there in the middle of it, doing all the little things that rarely get noticed outside of Oil Country.

Nugent-Hopkins, affectionately known to fans simply as “Nuge,” entered his 13th season in the NHL — all of them as an Oiler. The first-overall pick from 2011 has quietly become the heart of the franchise. He’s the longest-serving player on the roster, the kind of guy whose name is written in permanent marker on both the first-unit power play and the penalty kill. Not many players can say that.

Following a career-high 104-point season in 2022–23, expectations were sky-high. While his numbers regressed slightly — 18 goals and 67 points in 80 games — his role never wavered. Whether dishing pucks to McDavid and Hyman or logging tough defensive minutes, Nuge was steady as ever. A subtle presence, sure, but absolutely essential to the team’s identity.

This jersey comes from the 2023–24 Home Set 1, worn during the first portion of the regular season — the stretch where the Oilers were digging out of that early-season hole. It features the alternate captain’s “A” on the chest, a nod to the leadership role Nugent-Hopkins has quietly held for years.