[browna]

I also thought there was merchandising rule with Adidas where teams had to have jerseys for a certain number of years after a change.

This would mainly because they have committments and contracts with everything from factories to distributors, including the league itself, and none of those parties don't, in theory, want teams deciding after 2 years that they are scrapping all uniforms and starting over, which then would have a while lot of already produced jerseys that are sitting in inventory, basically worthless. So, merchandising agreements and commitments are in place for several years for jerseys and the team identity such as main logos etc.

To get out of those commitments, I think the teams could buy up all those old jersey sitting around/payout the previously agreed upon merchandising contract at a cost. Or, keep one of them around like the Flames have, which is also a tribute to KK and HH and other owners, who really pushed for the flags (well, they wanted to use the Maple leaf and Alberta crest from the flag, but rules say you have to use the full flag, as is).

I am sure there are other legalities around that, but its an issue similar to where in some leagues, star players can only change numbers if they buy the inventory of jerseys created under a prenegotiated contract, with their current number.

And yes, from knowledge of this way back, from first draft of an identity/uniform/jersey change submitted to the league, it takes about a year and a half in calender months, for the final jersey to hit the ice, given of course there is an offseason of 4 months in there and as most teams want to debut jerseys at the beginning of a year or US Thanksgiving, this means late winter of the year prior the design is first presented.

Takes time going back and forth with the restrictions of the manufacturing process from Adidas vs the design desired, and making tweaks to the design as a result, and legal and administrative things and contracts, from then, once the design approved, making sure that the current inventory of jerseys is depleted through distributors, and the retooling of factories to create the new jerseys, creation if the new marketing materials etc by the teams, all has to occur in stages, nevermind producing the amount of inventory needed to be sold Day 1.

Again this would be for the jerseys considered full time as the identity of the team, not sure if the reverse retro or things such as the Winter Classic jerseys are the same, because they have a limited manufacturing run (and fall under control of the league I think, not the team itself for merchandising purposes), as they are not the main identity/merchandising of the team as the home and away uniforms are.