Wayne Gretzky’s familiar Jofa helmet had a thin plastic shell and little room for padding. Even the company making it called attention to how slight it was.
In 1998, SHC Hockey representative Anne Flynn described the shell as “paper thin” in Sports Business Journal. She added: “He even takes some of the foam out of it.”
The familiar blue bucket has now returned to Edmonton’s dressing room as a team award, introduced by Connor McDavid. Its place in Oilers history starts well before that presentation, with a Swedish design that Gretzky was already wearing before his NHL debut.
From a Swedish workshop to the WHA
Jofa began in 1926 in Malung, in Sweden’s Dalarna region. The equipment-history archive What Skates traces the business to Niss Oskar Jonsson, whose early work included ski bindings made from leather offcuts. The company’s name came from Jonssons Fabriker AB.
The archive dates Jofa’s VM hockey helmet to 1963 and credits designer Leif Skottheim with the later shape associated with Gretzky, developed in 1973 with a mould made by hand. That dates the design. It does not establish when Gretzky first wore it.
The classic low-profile style is commonly called the Jofa 235 or 235 51 in equipment collectors’ accounts. Jofa made other helmets with different shapes and construction, so the name on a player’s forehead does not, on its own, identify Gretzky’s model.
A Canadian Press inventory of Shawn Chaulk’s Gretzky collection in 2013 listed a Jofa helmet from the 1978 World Hockey Association season. It also included NHL examples from 1979, 1983 and 1987. The inventory establishes a Gretzky connection before Edmonton joined the NHL, although it does not identify his first game in the helmet.
Why the padding became a story
Flynn’s description was reported by John Rofe in September 1998, while Gretzky was still playing. As assistant marketing director at SHC Hockey, which manufactured Jofa equipment, she was speaking for the business making his helmet.
Rofe reported that the NHL had introduced helmet standards in 1997, allowing players aged 25 and older who were already wearing substandard headgear to continue. That provision let familiar equipment remain on the ice while newer players came under a different requirement.
Gretzky was not alone in a similar Jofa. A 1996 Los Angeles Times report also identified Igor Larionov and Marty McSorley.
The manufacturer was already withdrawing older equipment. Flynn said SHC had discontinued models that lacked approval from both the Canadian Standards Association and the Hockey Equipment Certification Council.
When did they stop making it?
The exact last production date for Gretzky’s model has not been established in the records reviewed for this story. The manufacturer’s 1998 statement does, however, put the withdrawal of uncertified models before the ownership change often used as shorthand for Jofa’s disappearance.
Reebok’s 2004 annual report records its acquisition of The Hockey Company in June that year. The business included CCM, Jofa and Koho. That is a verified takeover date, not a record of the final classic helmet leaving a production line.
A surviving bucket, with its own provenance
The photograph accompanying this story shows a blue Gretzky Oilers helmet catalogued by Lelands for its June 2004 auction. The listing calls this example Jofa model 51234 and describes orange 99 decals on the back, Oilers logos on both sides and wear inside and out.
Lelands said it came from the Oilers’ locker room in the late 1980s, with a letter of authenticity from Brad Foote. The recorded sale price was $2,580.48. Those details belong to that auction item; the listing does not connect it to the helmet McDavid presented this week.
Jofa is back, while the helmet has a new job
CCM launched a new Jofa protective range on September 10, 2026, marking the brand’s centenary, with Filip Forsberg featured in the campaign. The announced collection includes shoulder pads, elbow pads, shin guards and gloves. The classic Gretzky helmet is absent from the listed range.
In Edmonton, the old bucket has become an honour passed around the dressing room. After his five-point game in Vancouver on October 1, McDavid introduced an original Gretzky helmet award and presented it to coach Mike Babcock. He said the Oilers wanted a connection to their winning history. The Sporting Page’s game story covers McDavid’s performance and the presentation.
