With the Winter Classic just 11 days away, we have now seen *almost* all of the gear that will be donned by Seattle Kraken goalies in the NHL’s premier tentpole event, set to be held on Jan. 1 at T-Mobile Park.
The only piece of equipment we haven’t yet seen is the mask of Chris Driedger, who wasn’t expecting to be included in the event until Philipp Grubauer went down with a lower-body injury on Dec. 9. It’s becoming more and more likely Grubauer will miss the event, and the fact Driedger has now gotten custom leg pads, glove, and blocker from Vaughn further solidifies our theory that he is expecting to still be with the Kraken on New Year’s Day.
With the exception of that Driedger mask, here is a compilation of all the Kraken goalie gear that we’ve seen, plus my own thoughts on each setup (spoiler alert: I like all of it).
Philipp Grubauer
Let’s start with Grubi’s pads and gloves, which I worry won’t end up seeing the light of day, other than the practice sessions in which he’s already worn them.
Grubauer went with a primarily brown True setup with deep sea blue, ice blue, and red alert trim in the knee rolls and around the logo plates on the gloves. It’s barely visible in the pictures, but on the outer sides of the pads and on the back of the gloves, Grubauer went with a lighter hue of brown that’s closer to the cream color in Seattle’s Winter Classic jerseys.
I like the look in general, but the real showstopper here is Grubauer’s mask, painted by DaveArt.
It’s a similar layout to Grubauer’s default mask that he has worn for much of the last two seasons, but it’s far more colorful than his mostly white lid he often uses. My favorite part of this mask is the offset “Seattle” word mark, which emulates but doesn’t directly copy the lettering on Seattle’s Winter Classic crest.
I’m on record stating that I’m over the brown look for outdoor hockey games, and in fact, I stated that on the Sound Of Hockey Podcast, only for Grubauer to show up at practice THE NEXT DAY wearing an all-brown setup.
BUT… I will make an exception on this set. Seeing it all in person, this is a sharp look. The pops of color give just enough modernity to make this setup clean and unique.
Joey Daccord
Joey took a slightly different tack in designing his gear, going with a more modern look and a simple variation from his typical setup. Effectively, he took the same True layout he normally wears, but replaced the white sections with the cream color that will be featured on the Kraken Winter Classic jersey.
I’m thrilled to see how this plays with the full stripey getup on the ice. I think this is a fantastic blend of classic coloration in a modern scheme.
Again, it was Daccord’s mask that really blew us away. Painted by his usual artist, Shifty, Daccord opted to place images of six baseball cards of Seattle Mariners players from various eras. On the left, Mariner legends Ichiro, Ken Griffey, Jr., and Edgar Martinez are pictured, while the right side shows images of current players J.P. Crawford, Cal Raleigh, and Julio Rodriguez.
How Shifty managed to make those cards look so lifelike is beyond comprehension.
There are a couple nice subtle touches on the mask, too. On the side with past players, there’s a faint, old-school trident ‘M’ Mariners logo at the top, while on the side with the current players, there’s an ‘S’ logo with a compass that is more commonly used by the team now.
As always with Daccord’s masks, Sparky, the mascot of the Arizona State Sun Devils, is hiding in the paint job. In this case, he is peaking out from behind the mountains that are prominently displayed on the top of the mask.
Chris Driedger
Again, we don’t know what Driedger will end up doing with his mask for the Winter Classic, but he did reveal his pads and gloves on social media, and they are stunning.
There are so many touches with this gear that takes me back to several of the first sets of equipment I wore when I was first learning as a goalie. For example, the very first blocker I wore had those holes all over it that made it look like a waffle iron. I still to this day have not figured out why equipment manufacturers used to put those on blockers, but it’s a neat touch here.
The strapping across the shins is completely superfluous, but again, this is what I had on my early sets of gear, when straps went all the way through the pads and buckled behind the leg.
The toe caps, the red stitching, the use of bold colors… it’s all just… [chef’s kiss]. While I haven’t yet been able to speak with Driedger about his setup, I have to think this order came together relatively quickly. Even so, what he and Vaughn came up with here is truly unique and—in my humble opinion—superb.
—
The Kraken goalies have all crushed it with their gear setups for this event. Mix in some elite jerseys, and Seattle’s netminders are guaranteed to dazzle with their looks on the ice on New Year’s Day.
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Driedger’s set up= amazeballs!
Everybody’s favourite segment…