In the past, we’ve done posts about guessing NHL players just by looking at their gear, but that’s getting harder and harder to do.

Earlier this offseason, we saw Joshua Ho-Sang inject some originality into his skates by getting a custom design, but that’s something that’s very rare in today’s game. Players’ gear and style on the ice is getting more uniform with each passing season and we miss seeing some of the more popular styles on the ice. Of course, some are out of the control of the players, but perhaps they shouldn’t be.

People talk a lot about hockey players being less outgoing than other sports, but that also seems to be applying to their style. Here are some once popular hockey styles that are disappearing from the NHL.

 

White Skates

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Sergei Fedorov & David Perron, Getty Images

White skates were pretty popular at one point in time in the NHL, but today, as far as we know you can count the number of players wearing them on your hands in the league now. Of course, tons of skates have parts of white on them, but it’s those all white boots like in the picture above that would really catch your eye on the ice.

Rolled up sleeves

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Wayne Gretzky & David Pastrnak, Getty Images

The exposed elbow pad was a classic look in the NHL. All the legends have pulled it off at one time or another, but it has disappeared for the most part. The NHL Rule 9.5. has mainly disbarred it, but on rare occasions you’ll see guys like Pastrnak rock a more subtle version like in the picture above.

Visors Designs

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Alexander Ovechkin & Dany Heatley All-Star, Getty Images

In the NHL nowadays, all you’ll really see is a straight and pro-cut visor, and the pro-cut is much less exaggerated than it was in the past. Of course, Dany Heatley All-Star’s visor that you see in the picture above was definitely the most well-known, but everybody was wearing different styles at one point in time.

By far the most unique visors in the NHL today are for P.K. Subban, Marc Staal (His is mainly because of the injury) and Ovechkin. Coloured and mirrored visors are probably gone for good, but those had a surge of popularity at one point as well.

Even using the most popular visor in a different way is being banned as Leo Komarov has been told that he can’t wear his visor on top of his head anymore.

 

Oversized Tongue Out/Tongue Flop

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Alexei Kovalev, Getty Images

The tongues in/tongues out debate has raged for years in hockey, but tongues out is definitely losing this battle. Basically everybody used to go tongues out and many NHL players rocked oversized tongues to get a really good flop on their tongues. Gretzky, Fedorov, Kovalev, Lemeiux and many other legends all used the oversized tongues out, but it’s rare to find any of today’s best using the style.

In today’s game there are only four players in the top 50 in NHL scoring that use could be considered to use the style and even two of those are questionable. Artemi Panarin and Alexander Ovechkin have the most classic tongue flops (Panarin gets bonus points for the white tongue).

David Pastrnak and Nikolaj Ehlers also seem to use a tongue out style, but their flop isn’t always as strong. This may also be because the tongues are constructed differently today, so a lot of them naturally fit a lot closer and players are focused more on performance than style.

Outside of the top 50, there aren’t many.  We’re sure we haven’t seen them all, but these are the main people we’ve seen using a tongue flop in the NHL:

Kevin Shattenkirk
Ron Hainsey
Dustin Byfuglien
David Perron
Tyler Wong
Ryan Callahan
Kenny Agostino

Jersey Tucks

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Jaromir Jagr, Getty Images

Okay, this one is basically fully gone, but we’re holding out hope for a return some day. According to NHL Rule 9.5. “Players are not permitted to tuck their jersey into their pants in such a manner where the top madding of the pant and/or additional body protection (affixed to the pant or affixed to the player’s body) is exposed outside the jersey.” The Gretzky tuck is the most famous one, but we wouldn't be surprised if kids didn't know what that was sometime soon - what a shame.

That is pretty clear cut and is the same rule that has put an end to rolled up sleeves in the game as well. These are absolute favourites in pick up and minor hockey and we can’t help but think they’ll start to disappear as they continue to go extinct in the NHL.

No Visor

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Ryan Getzlaf, Getty Images

This one is for an obvious and good reason: Safety. After the NHL decided to grandfather in visors starting in 2013, which means any new players to the NHL has to wear a visor. Last year, the National Post reported that only 9.2 percent of NHL players still played visor-free in the NHL.

It won’t be long before that drops to zero percent.

Mullets

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Mario Lemieux & Jaromir Jagr, Getty Images

Now, this was mainly an era thing, but mullets still grew a close tie to hockey and still hold it today. Jaromir Jagr still rocks something close to a mullet, but no one seems to want to sign him and the only other person to recently pull it off was Patrick Kane.

Have we seen the end of the mullet in the NHL?

Bonus: Alternate Jerseys

They’re gone for this season, but don’t worry, they’ll be back.