The 2023-24 season marks the Boston Bruins‘ 100th season in the NHL. To celebrate this Centennial season, the Bruins announced Tuesday that the team’s current, modern-era spoked-B crest would be taking a brief hiatus in place of a new, reimagined logo that aims to unite the past with the future. This new reimagination of the team’s throwback spoked-B will be featured on the Bruins’ uniforms for this upcoming season before eventually reverting back to the modern logo.
The details, courtesy of the Bruins, can be found below:
“The spoked-B is the club’s longest-standing brand identifier, having been featured on team uniforms for 75 of the organization’s first 100 years of existence. After making its debut in 1948 as part of the team’s 25th anniversary, the hub-and-spoke design became synonymous with the Boston Bruins, despite frequent style changes over the years.
In 2023-24, the modern spoked-B will take a brief hiatus in place of a reimagined mark that was designed to unite the past with the future in celebration of the club’s 100th year. The Centennial anniversary crest features vintage spokes that harken back to as far as the 1950s, as well as the current serif varsity ‘B’ that has been seen on Causeway since 2007. The simple spokes were made famous by the likes of two-time Stanley Cup Champion Bobby Orr and the Big Bad Bruins, and later legends of the Black & Gold, Ray Bourque and Cam Neely, while the serif ‘B’ was worn by the iconic teams of Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron, which brought the Stanley Cup back to Boston for the first time in 39 years back in 2011.
The new anniversary crests are in addition to the team’s previously introduced Centennial mark, which will serve as the primary commemorative logo of the celebration.
The Boston Bruins organization is the first U.S.-based NHL club, and third overall, to reach 100 years of play in 2023-24, following Toronto in 2017 and Montreal in 2009.”
Bruins Embracing Old and New With Anniversary Logo
The Bruins have seen many different logo changes in history, though the general theme has remained the same for decades. The team has been using a varsity B as the main crest on their uniforms dating back to the 1932-33 season but adopted the first spoked-B during the 1949-50 season. This new anniversary logo is a play on that 1949 logo with the teams’ modern yellow color scheme being used over the original yellow. The team also opted to replace the varsity B with the modern serif varsity B.
For many fans, this is a welcome change. The modern logo is very simple and appreciated, but there are definitely fans of the team who were calling for a throwback design for a while. Though this change isn’t a permanent one, it does show that the team is listening and understands that the history of the team isn’t lost on the fanbase. The Bruins would see the return of two legacy logos during the 2022-23 season with their reverse-retro jerseys and Winter Classic jerseys as well.
The Bruins are entering a new chapter in their history with what appears to be a changing of the guard this offseason. The dominoes have already started to fall with the team trading Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday. The future of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci in Boston is still up in the air and the same can be said about Linus Ullmark, Matt Grzelcyk, Mike Reilly, Derek Forbort and a number of other players on the team.
Related: Bruins Trade Taylor Hall: Who Could Be Next?
The Centennial season will bring a lot of good memories and celebrations for one of the NHL’s most historic franchises, but it might come in a season that sees drastic changes to the team’s core. Still, there’s no reason the team can’t remain competitive if the right moves are made; otherwise, it might put a damper on the festivities. The offseason is only just getting started, though, and the management team in Boston has earned the right to make their moves before being judged one way or the other.
