A lesser known white whale among jersey collectors, game worn or otherwise, this white Arizona Coyotes 2019 NHL All-Star jersey is the only known one in the hobby.
That it was worn by Clayton Keller for the All-Star media events is simply a bonus.
What do I mean by “only known one in the hobby”, you ask? It’s a bit of a long story.
For the 2019 NHL All-Star game, the league decided to make a radical shift from league crested jerseys to team crested jerseys in uniform colors. The jerseys were made out of Parley, a recyclable material, and therefore would be black and white.
Despite some initial trepidation, fans and collectors quickly warmed up to the jerseys. In particular, fans of teams who wore black began to see the jerseys as a pseudo-alternate…almost like a “fourth” jersey.
The problem was the league severely bungled the roll out of the jerseys.
Some teams only had the black version for sale online or in their team store. Some teams got both. Others, primarily the ones with smaller fanbases like the Arizona Coyotes, got nothing.
No black. No white. No jerseys.
Eventually, most teams ended up with something by about one week after the 2019 NHL All-Star game. In the case of the Yotes, the jerseys received were Fanatics branded. No adidas adizero jerseys were ever sold online by the NHL or another retailer, and the Coyotes Den team store never received any either.
So much for the Parley initiative, right?
Enter Clayton Keller’s game issued and event worn jerseys auctioned by NHL Auctions/Fanatics.
At the point of the auctions in February, Keller’s black game issued jersey and white event worn jersey were the only two adidas model Coyotes All-Star jerseys in existence that weren’t owned by Keller himself, the Coyotes, or the NHLPA.
I loved the 2019 All-Star designs, and the color choices for the crests and jerseys made them look an awful lot like a brand new alternate jersey for the Yotes. With that in mind, I bid and won both of Keller’s jerseys.
Somewhat surprisingly, the black adidas adizero version showed up in very limited quantities on professional sports wholesaler Retro2Heritage’s eBay page in the summer of 2019. The white version was never sold anywhere and has not shown up in the wild.
TL;DR? That’s a lot of words to say that Keller’s white event worn All-Star jersey is a one and only in the hobby.
There’s not even a retail version of this jersey out there, which is pretty cool in my book, given that the Coyotes white version was easily the best design of the set.
That’s a big reason why it’s one of the favorites in my collection despite never touching the ice.
