Heading into their 10th American Hockey League season, the Springfield Thunderbirds are celebrating with something old and something new.
Earlier this month, the T-Birds unveiled a new white jersey, the design of which matches a blue third jersey they’d been wearing since 2022 and now becomes one of their primary jerseys.
The new white jersey features a Thunderbirds’ logo without the usual wordmark sitting on the chest underneath an arched “THUNDERBIRDS” script in navy blue with metallic gold outlines. The sleeves have six narrow stripes running around them, four blue and two gold. Narrow blue and gold stripes run along the hem. The collar and sleeve cuffs are solid navy blue.
Entering our tenth year, we lean into the gold as an accent color as a symbol of success, durability and resiliency — all traits our organization embraces.
— Springfield Thunderbirds social media post
Numbers on the sleeves and back, as well as the captain’s letters, are navy blue with white and gold outlines. Names on the back are gold inside a contrasting navy blue nameplate. The logo of the Thunderbirds’ parent club, the St. Louis Blues, sits on both shoulders. The photos accompanying the unveiling, however, showed the old Blues logo and not the updated version that was launched in June 2025.
The new jersey matches up thematically with a bright blue third jersey that was introduced for the 2022-23 season. That jersey also features the wordmark-less logo on the chest, as well as the multiple stripes on the arms. The script over the crest, however, reads “SPRINGFIELD” in gold with a blue outline.
Both jerseys are a big departure from Springfield’s previous primary jerseys, which leaned heavily on red and featured a more modern design.
This year’s jerseys will also feature the Thunderbirds’ 10th anniversary logo on the upper left chest, above the “THUNDERBIRDS” script and below the captain’s letter. The logo features a thunderbird silhouette inside the zero in a stylized numeral 10, with wings spreading out on either side.
While the new jerseys will be front and centre all season, the Thunderbirds will also wear a number of specialty jerseys for theme nights throughout the year — including their annual tribute to The Simpsons on February 21, during which they’ll take the ice as the Springfield Ice-O-Topes.
While this might be the Thunderbirds’ 10th season in the AHL, Springfield’s hockey history goes much further back. The Springfield Indians were founded in 1926 and played in the Canadian-American Hockey League, which later merged with the International Hockey League to form what would become the AHL. When they relocated to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1994, the Springfield Falcons quickly swooped in to take their place. The Falcons played in Springfield until 2016, when the team was purchased and relocated to Tucson, Arizona. But once again, Springfield wasn’t without hockey for long, as a local group bought the Portland Pirates and brought them to Massachusetts for the 2016-17 season, renaming them the Thunderbirds.
The T-Birds’ 2025-26 AHL regular season gets underway on Saturday, October 11, when they host the Charlotte Checkers at the MassMutual Center.
