A vintage Marlins jersey stars in an NHL Winter Classic promo, sparking fervent fan speculation for a long-awaited teal uniform return.
Palm trees, sunny days, and a colorful Miami vibe.
Looks like the NHL's 2026 Winter Classic has gone south for the holidays.
The NHL's annual Winter Classic's 2026 edition features the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers vs. the New York Rangers on Friday, Jan. 2, at loanDepot Park in Miami -- home of the Miami Marlins.
In a first for the NHL, the annual Winter Classic was held in Florida for 2026, as the Miami Marlins' ballpark, loanDepot Park, was iced over for the event on Friday, Jan. 2. (Rhona Wise/Imagn Images)It's the first outdoor NHL game to take place in the Sunshine State.
A Miami-inspired one-shot drone promo was released on Instagram early Friday by JayByrd Films, a Minneapolis-based production company that specializes in drone fly-through videos. The clip features rollerblading host Peter Lenes, skating in and around the Marlins' baseball stadium turned ice rink.
Lenes -- who goes by SwaggyP -- is an Insta reel producer and former hockey player. In the Winter Classic promo one-shot, he's wearing a Marlins teal batting practice jersey while wielding a Bauer hockey stick.
Uni watchers and Marlins fans on Friday quickly took to the Miami Marlins subreddit to speculate about the SwaggyP's apparel. Was the teal Marlins jersey a front-office leak, possibly teasing an upcoming release of a throwback to the team's 1994 practice jersey?
"Ohhh man I luv it! That's an instant buy for me," majesticJet711 commented.
User VistFoundation, the original poster, pointed out that the jersey SwaggyP wears in the clip isn't a throwback, as it has a black Nike swoosh rather than the gold swoosh Nike uses for throwbacks.
That didn't stop commentors on the subreddit from speculating that the team's front office might finally be listening to fans, who have been asking for "a decade+" for the Marlins to release a teal team jersey -- and "to keep one, at least one, player so (fans) could buy a player jersey instead of blanks or customs."
That would mean keeping a big-name player on the Marlins roster.
Apparently, that's a big ask.