Shea Theodore has emerged as one of the top offensive defensemen in the NHL since joining the Vegas Golden Knights.
He’s finished sixth in the Norris Trophy voting in both 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, and consistently drives play for Vegas.
He wore this gold alternate jersey during the COVID impacted 2020-2021 season.
Vegas announced their first alternate jersey ahead of the 2020-2021 season to some polarizing reactions from fans throughout the league. For Golden Knights fans, however, the jersey was a hit.
Now that I have it in hand I can see why. This might be the best looking gamer I’ve ever owned.
The Golden Knights wore their gold alternates in 11 games from January through May. It is unknown if there was one set or multiple sets, but my research has allowed me to photomatch this jersey to all but the first three games that Vegas wore these sweaters. Based on the interesting placement of the shoulder patches (the right patch is quite a bit off-center), I could even match it to those first three games of the set.
Shea wore his sweater in 10 of the 11 games. He did not play on February 14th. The jersey is matched to games on March 3rd, March 17th, March 22nd, April 3rd, April 21st, and May 8th.
This beauty has more wear than I expected when I purchased it from the team.
The right sleeve has a nice cluster of 6-7 repairs that shows up well in several photos. The left sleeve also has two repairs — one larger and one smaller. Along with that, there’s a stick or puck mark in the white embossed band around the left elbow that has led to a few matches.
The nice cluster of repairs on the right sleeve of Shea Theodore’s 2020-2021 Alternate Set game worn jersey.
The front is clean beyond two small pulls in the crest and one stick mark on the bottom right near the white band around the waist. The back is completely clean.
The numbering on this — particularly on the back — is outstanding up close. The nameplate also really pops.
Beyond that, the material used to make up the gold of the jersey is as eye-catching as you would expect from a jersey from a team in Las Vegas. It feels extremely scratchy, but it looks way better than I expected.
Theodore’s sweater is probably the most unique addition to my collection.
After spending some time thinking about it, I decided it wouldn’t be much of a “desert hockey” collection if I completely ignored the other desert hockey team.
So here we are, with plans to add one sweater from each season to the set if all goes well.
In the meantime, I’ll just keep staring at this one.