Top 30 NHL Players of All-Time: #29

Next up on the list and perhaps you may begin to get a sense of what I value or may not value from a player.

#29. Brett Hull. The Golden Brett lead the NHL in goals 3 times including an amazing 86 goal season. He was the 1991 Hart Trophy winner and he’s a 3x All-Star. One of the best pure goal scorers who was an underrated passer. 741 career goals and one of the most infamous Cup goals.

88-89 OPC Rookie

10-11 Limited Auto /49

What is the greatest single NHL season goal total? Many including myself would say it is Wayne's 92 goal season. That number was insane and to this day has never been broken. However, what would happen if you gave Joe Malone an 80 game season back in 1917-18? Would he have scored more? He did have 44 goals in just 20 games. However each era needs to be measured with a slightly different yard stick. Some statisticians try and do that by normalizing game numbers, average offensive output etc. When you take the approach that Hockey Reference does, you'd learn the greatest season is Brett Hull's 86 goal season in 90-91. 90-91 Wasn't as offensively open as some seasons in the 80's and more offensive than anything in the past 20 years but his numbers would normalize to a 78 goal season which is the highest by 6 goals over Ovi's normalized 72 goal season in 07-08. 

Hull was a monster when he played much like his father and he was indeed an excellent passer and decent all-round player who'd end up on some Selke ballots in 02-03. Brett lead the NHL in goals 3 times and is 8th in goals per game all-time as well. 

Personally I like him higher than Dionne as if I needed one more spot to fill a one game win all line-up, Hull is that difference maker who could take over a game or seal the deal on the PP. However, he did have his weaknesses too and as a result isn't higher on my list as well. 

Thanks for stopping by, #28 is coming next. 

Sets of Yesteryear - 1991-92 Parkhurst PHC

Well the past few weeks of exams and report cards sure took a lot out of me but I want to thank you patience while waiting for this post. Truth is I would have snuck in a post or two if I hadn't promised a big post this time around but alas I painted myself into that corner so it was my job to get myself out which only took a bit of time!

My regular readers will know I am a bit of a Parkhurst nut and honestly it was the 91-92 release that I first chased and subsequently was hooked on the brand for life. The 91-92 Parkhurst set is my second favourite set from the 90's right behind the amazing 90-91 Upper Deck set. In my opinion it was the best set Pro Set ever created, but I am slightly biased of course. In the set, there were a small batch of inserts including a Santa Claus Card and the PHC Insert set. PHC stands for Parkhurst Collectible and I for one ended up collecting a good number of these cards thanks to probably purchasing a case worth of this product as a kid. 

The design of the PHC cards was nearly identical to the base cards but on the front there was a badge in the upper right signifying the reason for the card and then the back side was numbered PHC 1 through 9. PHC 1-5 were found in series 1 packs and 6-9 were in series 2 packs.



PHC 1 Gordie Howe Front

 

The front side of this card has a nice old time colour photo of Gordie Howe and I love the simplicity of the shot and the fact the Mr Hockey is the only player in the shot. The colours look nice even today and I felt that this set has aged rather well in comparison to some of the drek to come out of the 90's (yes Score I'm looking in your direction). 

Backside

 

The backsides are clean and again very similar to the base set except it's all text here instead of a season by season break down and vital info. I do like how the Parkhurst watermark in the background works with the overall design of the back. You also get a second image of the player on front and in this case it's a B&W photo of Gordie. If I'm not mistaken, this looks like a cropped head shot of his Rookie Card photo and Bee Hive photo.

PHC 2 Alex Delvecchio Legend

Here's another one of the NHL great's and one of my main PC's Alex Delvecchio. I love that this photo features the white Red Wings jersey instead of the red which contrasts nice with these two cards in the binder. This features Alex later in his career after he has been made captain and the write up on the back features a nice summary of his career. 


PHC 3 Ken Hodge Rookie Leader

Oh Ken Hodge. I remember stocking up on your Young Gun rookies hoping you would be even better than your father Ken Hodge Sr. Well, you broke out of the gate hot scoring 30 goals in 70 games as a rookie but then sadly would only score 9 more goals over another 70+ games before taking your talents elsewhere. This card commemorates your amazing rookie season where you were the rookie leader in "Rookie Shooting Accuracy" which if you're wondering, he was 21% on the season.


PHC 4 Robert Kron Rookie Leader

Robert Kron is not a player I stocked up on in terms of rookies but perhaps I should have as Robert did put together a pretty solid NHL career spanning over 700 games. There aren't many horizontal cards in the set but this is the first of two in the PHC insert set and I like the look of this card. Robert Kron was the "Rookie Shorthanded Goals Leader".


PHC 5 Sergei Fedorov Rookie Leader

The final card you could pull from Series 1 packs was this gem. Love the wood Louisville TPS stick, no composite here kids! Fedorov would of course turn out the be the best of these three showcased rookies and this particular card is in honour of his season where he was "Rookie Shorthanded Goals Leader" as title he shared with Robert Kron.


PHC 6 Brett Hull Award Winner

One thing I love seeing is the All-Star uniforms from time to time and here is an example of such. In the case of this card, it is very fitting because Brett Hull was the MVP of the All-Star game.


PHC 7 Mario Lemieux Award Winner

Mario Lemieux makes an appearance in the PHC set as an award winner. In the case of Mario it is a season accomplishment and it recognizes his winning his third Art Ross Trophy.


PHC 8 New York Rangers Award Winner

Uh oh, Messier is touching the President's Trophy, maybe he shouldn't have and the Rangers would have won the Stanley Cup? Truth is the Penguins were stacked and there was no stopping them but it's fun to poke at the Rangers all the same!



PHC9 Terry Sawchuk Legend

Like series 1, series 2 PHC inserts include a former legend and yet another Red Wing, Terry Sawchuk. I like the B&W photo used here and clearly it is an in-game action shot. Maybe my favourite feature of this photo is his blocker which looks like an over-sized oven mitt.

Well there you have it a nice and simple insert set that I felt has aged rather well in the past 25 years. The player selection is nice and varied and while they could have showcased a few better rookies from the previous year, who honestly knew Ken Hodge would have been a big bust. The set fits nicely on a single 9 card page and is very affordable to any hockey fan out there. Book price is 15 dollars and can probably be found for less at your LCS.  I still check out this set from time to time in my collection and have even been fortunate enough to have the first two cards signed by Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio. While the set isn't amazing or game changing I think its a timeless set and worthy of a 4.0 out of 5 rating.

My next couple posts are going to highlight some of the amazing people out there including one card company!

Back Checking - 1991-92 UD SP1 Glasnost On Ice

glas·nost
noun \ˈglaz-(ˌ)nōst
- a Soviet policy permitting open discussion of political and social issues and freer dissemination of news and information (a definition given on Merriam-Webster.com for the word "glasnost")

Back in 1991-92 when the NHL had their 75th Annversary and hockey card collecting had exploded to what was likely it's all-time peak in popularity, a special event happened. This event, which I had no idea it has occurred until it was captured on cardboard.

1991-92 UD SP1 Glasnost On Ice

Back in 1991 that would have been EVER kid's dream, step on the ice with Wayne and Brett. If you didn't like one chances are you liked the other. If you didn't like either, then you were a Habs fan or Russian, but don't worry Valeri Kamensky and Denis Savard were there too so only the haters were left in the dark on this one.

I first saw this card when my step-father pulled one like it from a pack of 91-92 UD. It was the first of what would be many "SP" cards, I am not sure how rare they were but after opening at least 5 boxes worth of the stuff, I never pulled one myself. I did build a couple base sets and countless rookies and Hull's Heroes, but no SP1. At the time, it was a pretty "valuable" card but it would be nearly 20 years before I would finally get mine. Last summer I saw it at my LCS and bought it for 2 dollars. Roughly was I was paying for packs back in 1991, almost fitting really.

Now on to the purpose of the post. For years I knew about the card and had even seen it, but what is more important is what it represents. Glasnost was really the end of one era and the beginning of another. When the walls fell in the USSR/Soviet Union, it opened the world to it's inhabitants and that included hockey players. If you look at the NHL today, there may not be as many Russian hockey players as there once was in the 90's, but the ones there are in the NHL are rather significant. Imagine no Ovechkin, Malkin, or Kovalchuk. Even prospects like Yakupov and Grigorenko wouldn't have had the chance to play in the CHL as juniors. Hockey in North American changed very significantly and this card represents that change happening.

The only think missing would be if one of those kids with Wayne, Brett and Valeri would have made the NHL or something cool along those lines, but from what I can tell, they were just participants witnessing some pretty amazing stuff.

10-11 Limited Brett Hull Auto /49

In my opinion, Brett Hull is the greatest goal-scorer I have ever seen. I am old enough to have seen Gretzky and many others play, but since my watching days began at the age of 8 in 1987, I have never seen anyone as prolific or skilled at scoring goals than Brett Hull. I think it would have been interesting if the NHL's 3rd all-time leading goal scorer would have been born a few years earlier and had a few more seasons in the 80's instead of a few in the 00's. 

Brett's career includes 2 Cups, 741 goals, 650 assists and 1291 points. He also was a three-time first team all-star, he played in 8 all-star games and is 8th all-time in career goals per game with a 0.58 average which is fittingly enough, 0.01 goals per game higher than 9th place Bobby Hull. His 86 goal season will always stand-out in my mind as one of the most phenomenal performances I have seen. Brett was inducted into the HOF in 2009 which I believe was his first year of eligibility.

10-11 Panini Limited Retired Numbers Brett Hull Autograph /49

This is my only Brett Hull auto. I tried getting him to sign TTM which I heard he did regularly, but to this point I have received nothing back. Still, this is a decent copy which features a clear blue sharpie auto on sticker technology. I have several Bobby Hull autos and someday I will likely feature each in a two-card screw down if I ever manage to get a second Brett Hull auto.

How to spot a real Hull OPC rookie

This post is to help people out who may be in the market for an OPC Brett Hull rookie card. As I mentioned in my previous post there is a tell on the front of the card and it is a "dot" in the push pin. This is likely going to be the best way to tell if it is real or not because not all Hull rookies which are fake will say reprint on the back.

Here is a shot of a Hull rookie I stole from Checkoutmycards.com. I currently don't own an OPC version (just Topps), this will have to do!

 Click on the picture and you will see it enlarged and look at the push pin. That isn't a flaw in the picture, it is a flaw in the card's print production. It appears as a little dot and is present in ALL Hull OPC rookies.

Here is a zoomed in shot. I am not sure if it helps some people or not, but here are my two cents!

Someone is going to be disappointed they won this auction! (or how bidding with an Ebay App can really suck)

I think I can officially list one of my hobbies as creeping on eBay auctions. I am always watching like 20-30 at a time just to see what the final sale price is. Sometimes I bid, but I think the watch to bid ratio is like 30:1. Anyway, I was bidding on a Hull rookie last night, and lost (Went for like 12 bucks plus shipping) when I noticed one other one I was watching sold for much higher.

I never bid on this one because in my iPod app the photo didn't look right. I felt it could have been a counterfeit Hull and when I popped onto my desktop I noticed indeed it was.

Funny thing is, if I didn't look at the web version, I wouldn't have seen the super obvious mark on the back....IT SAYS REPRINT!!!!

However, someone may have not noticed that when they paid 18 bucks plus shipping for a worthless card.
How could they have been duped? Here is the ad for the card and pictures below:

"Beautiful and all original 1988-89 Brett Hull O-Pee-Chee NHL Hockey Rookie Card #66. Condition is excellent. This item would be a welcome addition in any NHL Hockey memorabilia collection. Feel free to e-mail me back if you have any questions."

 Look at the front, please notice the perfect "push pin" which can only be found on fake Hull rookies. That is what tipped me off.... But look at the back and there is a true give-away!

Reprint....Doesn't sound "all original" to me.

So is this ebay seller a scammer, or is it buyer beware? The seller has a 99.3% rating on nearly 15k transactions.

#5 - Value Vintage Sets - 89/90 OPC

When I was shopping online last month, I wanted to make my funds stretch as far as they could. Certainly my card collection is far from complete and there were a few holes I wanted to start filling. Most collectors in my age and financial demographic probably have the early 90's nailed down to the extreme and then some sets here and there depending on interests etc.

Well I decided that I needed more vintage sets and I went and got myself a couple for under a 100 bucks total. I based my choices on the best value and substance in the sets. Then I thought it would make a good serial on my blog so I am going to share what I think are the top 5 Value sets from 1970-1989.

Number 5 on my list is the 89-90 OPC Set.

Why you ask? Here are some of the redeeming qualities:

330 Cards

Sets can be had for under the BV of 20 bucks

Great Hall of Fame players and rookies in the set

Design is simple and attractive

You can afford to build the set from packs if you wish (boxes of 36 packs under $40)

The OPC set also has some rookies that can't be found in the Topps version (Fleury, Corson, Tugnett etc.)

Card design:

Here is what the front of the cards look like.

The front looks clean with blue trim on the top and bottom (which is prone to chipping) and a "marble-ized" sides which tend to be a little off centre (my scans ended up all looking off-centre as I used a camera).

Backside of the cards

The back shows both season and playoff stats along with player vitals. Again like the front, the cards look clean and simple.

Key card:

Without a doubt is the Joe Sakic RC.

Joe front side
Joe backside

The BV for the set is 10-20 dollars with the Sakic rookie listing at 5-12 dollars which is a significant percentage of the set.

Other notable cards:

There are plenty of other cool cards in the set including early career cards of Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Brendan Shanahan, Adam Oates, Brett Hull etc.

Hull 2nd year card.

The rookies:

The set contains a fair number of Hall of Fame and star rookies (59 Rookie Cards in total). The rookies include Theo Fleury, Brian Leetch, Joe Sakic, Craig Janney, Derek King, Tony Granato, Ron Tugnutt just to name a few.

Linden RC

Fleury RC

This set is no where near the greatest ever created but there are many intangibles which make this set a great value. The rookies, the stars, the design of the cards and the fact that they can all be yours for much less than a box of 11-12 Victory Hockey all suggest it is jam-packed with value.

I added this set to my collection in the early 90's. I probably bought 2 boxes with of 89-90 OPC and have two complete sets as a result. Certainly the smart way would be to pick up a set at a show or card shop to avoid those pesky shipping charges. Either way, it certainly can be had on the cheap and I think is a must for any hockey card collector.

Do you agree it is a good value? Let me know!

1990 Pro Set Hockey

1990 was the first time I ever opened a pack of cards. I had been interested in hockey for a couple of years but to that point I only ever did the Panini stickers and hockey cards were a foreign concept to me. One day my parents came home from somewhere and I had been baby-sitting my siblings when they showed up with a couple of packs of hockey cards as reward for watching my brother and sisters.

I sat down and looked at the package and saw :

The first card I saw in the pack was "Ray Borque" Needless to say the whole set of cards were full of errors when you can't even spell Bourque's name right.

I never completed the series 1 set, but I may try at some point in my life because the fact is now 20 years later I appreciate the set more now than I did back then.

90 Pro Set was my marijuana to card collecting. It was my "gateway" drug. Even though I never collected it much past 91-92 it lead to other sets and like many of you lots of dollars spent!

Recently I made a trade with Chris from http://hkycardaddict.blogspot.com/ and one card that was apart of our deal was the 90-91 Pro Set Promo Card. I felt I needed this card to help symbolize what got me into collecting and it is the second most valuable card from that set. The most valuable is the Stanley Cup hologram which is the holy grail for Pro Set hockey collectors. If you want to see it check out this link, Sal has a couple of those gems. http://www.puckjunk.com/article.php?artid=20090009

Here is the front of the card

Here is the back. Needless to say, Pro Set even managed to make an error on their promo card. They have an incorrect birth date and games played in the 87-88 season.

Over time, this set look a little better to me than it once did but maybe that is nostalgia setting in.

For all you collectors out there, what set got you into collecting?