Geared up Fondness for game-worn garb goes way back for Jets’ retail manager of player-used equipment By: David Sanderson Posted: 11:30 AM CST Friday, Jan. 10, 2025

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/01/2025 (330 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chalk one up for Roger Öhman, a Swedish-born defenceman selected in the second round, 39th overall, by the Winnipeg Jets, at the 1985 National Hockey League Entry Draft.

In 1988, Pat Lelliott, then 23, attended a hockey-memorabilia auction hosted by legendary sports announcer Ken (Friar) Nicholson.

While game-worn jerseys from Jets stars such as Dale Hawerchuk, Paul Maclean and Randy Carlyle proved to be out of Lelliott’s price range, the budding collector successfully bid on a No. 27 jersey issued to Öhman for the 1987-88 pre-season, the 215-pound defender’s lone appearance with the club.

“If I remember correctly, it was something reasonable like $40, and that’s where it all began for me,” Lelliott says.

Skip ahead 37 years.

Lelliott is currently the person primarily responsible for running the Jets’ game-used retail program, one of the most successful undertakings of its kind in the NHL.

Ahead of every home game, the married father of one helps to set up a sales booth inside Canada Life Centre, loaded to the hilt with verified jerseys, sticks, locker-room hoodies… even the odd pair of Connor Hellebuyck goalie pads.

“Everybody who works at our booth loves talking to fans and providing useful information to anybody interested in getting into the hobby,” Lelliott says, seated in the downtown rink’s main concourse, 90 minutes before a scheduled tilt between the Jets and the visiting Ottawa Senators.

“But if there’s one thing we especially enjoy, it’s greeting the little ones who stop by to try on their favourite player’s gloves or pants. Seriously, the look on their faces is absolutely priceless.”

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Lelliott was in his early 20s when he became a Jets season-ticket holder. His seat was in one of the Winnipeg Arena’s two upper decks and, “get this,” he says with a laugh, cost him a mere $300 for what was then a 40-game regular-season home schedule.

He continued seeking out game-used gear in the wake of his Öhman purchase, to the degree that when a save-the-Jets campaign was launched in the spring of 1995 to prevent the team from leaving for Arizona, he willingly donated items from his own closet to a fundraiser being run by a local radio station.

Following the loss of the Jets, Lelliott immediately switched his allegiance, both fan-wise and pastime-wise, to the Manitoba Moose, which relocated to the city from St. Paul, Minn., for the start of the 1996-97 International Hockey League season.

In 2001, the Moose, owned by True North Sports & Entertainment, joined the American Hockey League as a minor-league affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks.

During the inaugural season of the new partnership, the team unveiled a dark-blue alternate jersey that closely resembled what was being worn by the parent club. The uniform was a hit, not only with Winnipeggers, but also with jersey enthusiasts from across North America who began pestering the Moose’s front office, wondering how to get their hands on a game-worn version.

This was back when internet auction houses were still in their infancy, Lelliott says, and because he was already comfortable with sites such as eBay, he mentioned to a friend of his who worked for the Moose that he might be able to help them with online sales, if they were at all interested. It turned out they were.

He ended up assisting the Moose — “I wouldn’t say worked for” — until 2011, when the Jets returned, resulting in the Moose’s transfer to Newfoundland, where they toiled as the St. John’s IceCaps until 2015.

Owing to his long association with True North, Lelliott approached the powers-that-be midway through the Jets’ first season back in Winnipeg, to again offer his expertise at marketing game-worn jerseys and such.

He was tasked with organizing one sale at the tail-end of that campaign, followed by 10 or so each in the following two seasons. Since October 2014, the booth, a subsidiary of Jets Gear, the team’s retail wing, has been a constant at every home game.

“Most of the (NHL) teams do yearly equipment sales, usually at the end of the season, but from what I’ve come to understand, we might be the only team in the league that does it, game-in and game-out,” says Lelliott, who works full-time outside of his association with the Jets.

One of the questions Lelliott and his associates field most is how often do game-worn jerseys and similar items come up for grabs?

As it turns out, this is the point in the season when it starts to get busy for people in their line of work. Mid-January is generally when NHL clubs begin swapping out the jerseys players have been wearing since the beginning of the current campaign, in favour of fresh sets of duds they’ll sport until the playoffs get underway in mid-April.

(On average, every team is issued two sets of home and away jerseys at the start of the season, and two more of each at the halfway mark, along with a pair of alternates, in the Jets’ case, the heritage blues.)

It isn’t up to the players how often they change jerseys, it’s a decision for the team and league, Lelliott explains, when one wonders if a forward or D-man might want to hang onto a specific top for superstitious reasons, if they’re riding a personal goal or assist streak.

“NHL players do get to keep two of their jerseys for their rec room or whatever — that’s a fairly recent development covered in the collective agreement — but the rest come to us.”

It’s no surprise to learn Jets jerseys bearing the name and number of team leaders such as Kyle Connor and Adam Lowry carry the heftiest price tag — one of Mark Scheifele’s away jerseys is currently commanding $2,500 at truenorthshop.com — but Lelliott points out if a fan is in the market for a jersey that truly looks game-worn, they might opt for that from a reliable third or fourth liner.

“You won’t pay as much for an (Mason) Appleton or (Alex) Iafallo, but let me tell you, from the scuff marks on the crest and whatever, you’ll know that player was working hard, each and every shift.”

Also, if the cost of a jersey, many of which are specifically tailored to a player’s wants (for example, former Jets goalie Ondrĕj Pavelec had Velcro straps sewn into his so it wouldn’t flop around), doesn’t fit one’s budget, there are still bargains to be had. Game-used socks, home and away, are currently available for $10, and officially documented pucks are priced as low as $9.99.

“Even the warm-up jerseys aren’t overly expensive, and for beer-league guys like me, they look super sharp when you wear them for your own game,” Lelliott says, adding he has shipped memorabilia to Jets fans living as far away as Europe and Asia.

Lelliott is admittedly biased, but when it comes to certification, he says the Jets provide shoppers with the best letters of authenticity in the league, “period, end of story.”

Along with a jersey you get a hard-shell folder containing an eight-by-10 print of the player-in-question plus a documented serial number with a photo of where on the underside of the jersey said number is stamped.

“I’ve taken them to memorabilia shows across North America and to a collector, they tell me they’re the most impressive they’ve ever seen.”

And although Lelliott’s is a part-time position, he fully agrees with the saying, find a job you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life.

“I feel very privileged and truly appreciate the opportunity the Jets have given me to interact with fans on a regular basis. That and if you’d told me in ’96 when the team was packing up to leave that I’d be assisting a local NHL club with its equipment sales in 2025, I’d have said you were off your rocker.”

(If you can’t make it to down to Canada Life Centre to have a look at what’s available, Lelliott will be setting up a display on the Jets’ behalf at the PegSpo Sports Collectibles Expo, which will be staged at the RBC Convention Centre on March 8.)

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca