The Washington Capitals’ retro Screaming Eagle logo is wildly popular amongst fans. It was also a part of the team’s biggest moment of the 2022-23 season: Alex Ovechkin passing Gordie Howe for second on the NHL’s all-time goals list.

But according to The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir, neither the Screagle or the team’s black Reverse Retro 2.0 jerseys will be returning next season despite pleas from fans and Ovechkin to bring it back.

The team will continue wearing its navy blue alternate jersey as its third jersey/alternate.

El-Bashir revealed the news in one of his recent mailbags:

I’m hearing the Caps are only going to wear the traditional red and white next year while mixing in the blue ‘W’ alternate… The league was looking to recoup some of the revenue it lost during COVID-19 with the Reverse Retros. From here on out, I suspect most teams will be back to wearing home, away and an alternate.

The 2022-23 season marked the third year the Capitals wore the navy blue W jerseys and comes as the NHL begins pivoting to Fanatics as its official jersey maker starting in 2024-25. The league announced a 10-year deal with the mega-retailer this past March and shortly after, reports surfaced that the league was ending the Reverse Retro program.

Despite that, some fans hoped the team would move on from its navy blue third jerseys and make the black Screagle jersey its new full time alternate sweater.

The Capitals originally brought back the Screaming Eagle logo in its first Reverse Retro jersey release in 2020, pairing the 90s logo with Rock The Red colors. In its second RR release, the Capitals put the logo on black, featuring metallic copper details.

Both jerseys sold out quickly as fans scrambled to get their hands on the merch. In a RMNB poll, readers voted the Screaming Eagle to be the most popular logo from the Alex Ovechkin Era in DC.

Not only were the jerseys popular with fans locally, but they stood up nationally. The Capitals had the top-selling first edition of the Reverse Retro jersey, selling out in minutes online after their release on Shop.NHL.com. NHL players even voted the Capitals Screagle design the fifth-best in the NHL, despite many other great designs.

In this year’s black Reverse Retro jersey, Ovechkin scored in every game he wore it, tallying an astounding 11 goals in seven games.

“Yeah, it sucks that it’s going to be our last game with this jersey,” Ovechkin said to NBC Sports Washington’s Al Koken. “I hope they gonna think about it and put it back next year.”

Headline photo: Capitals PR release