2012-13 NHL Top 20 Selling Jerseys

The NHL has released it's list of Top 20 best selling jerseys on Shop.NHL.com for the just concluded season. This list is interesting in that it is not skewed by special jerseys created for the Winter Classic, which was not held this year due to the lockout.

The Winter Classic jerseys last year helped place Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers and Ryan Callahan of the New York Rangers in the top two, as well as the Rangers Henrik Lundqvist (#5) and Brad Richards (#15), the Flyers Jaromir Jagr (#10), Daniel Briere (#11) and James van Riemsdyk (#19) in the Top 20. This year? Just two Rangers made the Top 20, new arrival Rick Nash at #4 and Callahan at #8. Giroux slid to #7, the only Flyer to appear on this year's list.

Topping the list this year was Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks, with teammates Patrick Kane (#5), Marian Hossa (#6) and Patrick Sharp (#16) leading the strong sales of Blackhawks gear.

Toews and Kane lead the Blackhawks on the ice and at the cash registers

The Detroit Red Wings star Pavel Datsyuk came in second this year and most certainly would have been #1 had the Winter Classic been played. Bet the farm on him topping this list next season when the rescheduled event takes place at the Big House in Michigan - unless the Maple Leafs fans push one of their players Winter Classic throwbacks to the top.

Superstar Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins came in at #3 with teammate (no, not Evgeni Malkin) James Neal ranking 9th.

Minnesota Wild fans went wild over their new savior Zach Parise, launching him into the top ten at #10, followed by Datsyuk's teammate Henrik Zetterberg at #11. The Toronto Maple Leafs Joffrey Lupul was #12. We find Lupul to be quite a surprise, as he missed the majority of the season, Phil Kessel led the team in scoring and last year's #19 van Riemsdyk was playing his first season in Toronto and finished third in team scoring. Even the breakout year for Nazem Kadri or goaltender James Reimer would have made more sense to us than Lupul.

Joffrey Lupul - The most surprising name on the list?

Russian Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils at #13 before the Boston Bruins took over nearly the remainder of the list, with Brad Marchand at #14, Tyler Seguin #15, Patrice Bergeron #18 and Zdeno Chara at #20 all making the Top 20 for the Bruins.

More Bruins than you can shake a stick at,

Bergeron, Marchand, Seguin and Chara

The New York Islanders John Tavares made the list at #17, which just had to be the Islanders home and road jerseys and hopefully not their dreadful black alternate disasters. It would be interesting in a few cases to see a breakdown of percentage styles a particular player sold, such as Tavares as well as Parise's red, green and white options, especially since Minnesota is coming out with a new road sweater next season, perhaps due to lagging sales of their now 12 year old white design.

Likely the worst selling jersey among the Top 20 players,

Tavares wearing the Islanders dreadful alternate

Ahead of Chara, was an annual member of the list, Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, whose numbers were certainly down to his early season struggles as well as the fact the Capitals have been using the same home and road jerseys since 2007 and their throwback alternate was purchased in droves in 2011 when it debuted at that season's Winter Classic, meaning many people in the market for an Ovechkin jersey have no new options to pick from.

The odd part, as pointed out by Greg Wyshynski on the Puck Daddy blog, not a single Los Angeles Kings player from the Stanley Cup champions made the list. Perhaps it's just too warm in Los Angeles to be wearing a hockey jersey comfortably? Strange indeed. The other missing entity? Goaltenders. Not a single one makes the list, which did include a defenseman in Chara.

Here is the full Top 20 in order from the NHL:

1. Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews 

2. Detroit Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk 

3. Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby 

4. New York Rangers left wing Rick Nash 

5. Chicago Blackhawks right wing Patrick Kane 

6. Chicago Blackhawks right wing Marian Hossa 

7. Philadelphia Flyers right wing Claude Giroux 

8. New York Rangers right wing Ryan Callahan 

9. Pittsburgh Penguins left wing James Neal 

10. Minnesota Wild left wing Zach Parise 

11. Detroit Red Wings left wing Henrik Zetterberg 

12. Toronto Maple Leafs left wing Joffrey Lupul 

13. New Jersey Devils right wing Ilya Kovalchuk 

14. Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand 

15. Boston Bruins center Tyler Seguin 

16. Chicago Blackhawks left wing Patrick Sharp 

17. New York Islanders center John Tavares 

18. Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron 

19. Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin 

20. Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara

Today's featured jersey is a 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks Jonathan Toews jersey, the #1 selling jersey in the NHL this season. This basic jersey style is now a true Original 6 classic, dating back to 1955. It has certainly undergone some tweaks over the years, such as the change to two color numbers and the addition of names on the back, but when Reebok was hell bent on doing away with horizontal striping when their new Edge jerseys arrived on the scene in 2007, Chicago, along with Detroit, Montreal, the Rangers and New Jersey stood their ground and made Reebok create their classic styles in the new "system", retaining one of the most popular jerseys in the league, which often tops Best Jersey lists online.