When the Kings win the Cup, so do I!

When the Kings won the Cup a couple years ago, they beat my beloved Devils I might have felt like I lost, but I did win something! This time around my Devils didn't make the playoffs so I was able to cheer guilt free. However, they got themselves into some trouble early on but when it was said and done they were the best team in the NHL and as a result won their second Cup in franchise history.

In the beginning Casey warned us the prizes were going to be awesome and man o man, they were better than anyone including me could have expected. Without further ado, here is the loot:

91-92 Parkhurst Niklas Lidstrom Rookie

 One of my favourite sets from the 90's and my absolute favourite from that year. A rookie of a future HOF defenseman is not a bad way to start.


 91-92 Parkhurst Dominik Hasek Rookie

 While this is one of my favourite sets of all-time, this isn't one of my favourite players. Not even close to one. But he too will likely find his way into the Hall of Fame some day and not just as a visitor. I do to just remember him as a Hawk because it seems like after he left everything went down hill as far as respect goes.


91-92 Upper Deck Dominik Hasek Rookie

 Hate the set and hate the player. Still a future HOF rookie so it isn't all bad!


91-92 Upper Deck Teemu Selanne Rookie

 Future HOF rookie? Yep, and maybe you are noticing a pattern with this awesome look. While I dislike the set, I did like the Canada Cup cards at the beginning of the set, it is more the base card design and over production that I disliked.


90-91 Upper Deck Pavel Bure Rookie

 I could own 100 of these and it won't diminish the coolness of Bure's only rookie card. K is for Kaptain.


95-96 SPx Daniel Alfredsson Rookie

 Very cool card and one design I haven't actually seen before. I wasn't into collecting much during this time period and only have his Young Gun from this year thanks to me still going after Collector's Choice. However, this is a neat enough card to have me interested in the set and this is another example of a future HOF rookie I am sure.


77-78 OPC Cleveland Barons

 Fun cards you can only find in the OPC release of 77-78. I have a Colorado Rockies one and this makes two. I wish Topps included this so I could try and track them all down as part of my set chase which I will post about at a later date.


76-77 OPC KC Scouts Team Checklist

 Back when the Devils franchise began. Just a cool card that of course means Casey cares.


77-78 OPC Craig Patrick

 Another card from a set I like more than the average collector (again more on this in another post). I don't have many from the OPC release so this card is another welcomed addition.


88-89 OPC Steve Yzerman 5th year

 Back on the HOF/future HOF track. Stevie Y from the iconic 88-89 OPC set.


87-88 OPC Steve Yzerman 4th year

 Here is Steve from the not-so iconic 87/88 OPC set. I really don't know why this set isn't loved as much (design is a little weak). Oates and Robitaille rookies are the biggies here but a few good sleeper rookies like Damphousse, Mike Vernon, Stephane Richer, Claude Lemieux and Bill Ranford to name a few.


86-87 OPC Steve Yzerman 3rd year

 One of the coolest Yzerman cards coming my way and one I definitely didn't own but really wanted to have.


89-90 Topps Brian Leetch Rookie

Tired of the HOF and future HOF rookies yet? I am definitely not. Another one I might already own but is in amazing shape like all the cards that came my way and is truly appreciated.


79-80 OPC Barry Melrose Rookie

 This rookie books for higher than Simmer AND Tonelli! Make sense? Not to me but this is a pretty cool rookie nonetheless. Check out the upper left of the photo, looks like a printing error and I never noticed that before this post.


74-75 OPC WHA Anders Hedberg Rookie

 WHA HOF'ers! This package I got from Casey is amazing and there was a pair of WHA HOF rookies.


74-75 OPC WHA Ulf Nilsson

 Ulf is another WHA HOF rookie in the collection. Even though I already had these two cards, the condition they are both in are superior to the ones I have in my set and so I am very pleased to have doubles!


90-91 Score Martin Brodeur

 Wow. Best Devils goalie ever. Top 5 in NHL history if you ask me and maybe even top 3 depending on what we are talking about. Another very fine specimen for the collection.


02-03 Crown Royale Tim Thomas Rookie Purple /799

 Didn't have this one at all and glad I do now. Not a big fan of him, but I love rookies and I was missing one from the former Vezina winner.


02-03 SPx Ryan Miller Rookie /999

Another top notch player and perennial Vezina candidate in rookie form. Like Thomas, I really would like to have owned one but didn't have it high enough on the priority list to make the purchase. Really glad to see this one in the package.


84/85 OPC Steve Yzerman Rookie Leader

Part of the base set but from Stevie's rookie year is this leader card. I have a couple of his base rookies but only one of these cards which is in the set as well. Very happy to add this to my collection and I would LOVE to get it signed some day. Not sure if he does TTMs but I will check into it as this might be an awesome mail away.


62-63 Topps Jean Ratelle 2nd year

The 2nd oldest card in the lot and one of the coolest is Jean Ratelle. This is his second year card and the stats on the back are all from his rookie season. This card is OLD and in amazing shape. Another huge addition to the collection and one I didn't have but always wanted.


57-58 Topps Alex Delvecchio

Holy PC love Batman. Just pure amazing this card is.


79-80 OPC Gordie Howe Final Year

Another card I always wanted but didn't have. I have two of these in Topps form but not the cooler OPC. This card is amazing and in such superb condition it has been sitting on my display mantle for weeks now. Another winner for the winner!



77-78 OPC WHA Gordie Hower

Last card is another amazing Howe card. This is one I already had in my set but the one Casey sent was superior is quality and is also on my mantle at home. Just amazing when you consider all the cards and you have two Gordie Howe's from his playing days. Many consider Gordie the greatest of all-time and some day I would like to have one of every card from his playing days and having a couple not in a set I am building/already have is pretty nice.

Thank you very much Casey, all of these cards are going to be well taken care of and appreciated for a very long time!

Sets of Yesteryear - 1991-92 UD Eurostars

Another thing I am going to do on my blog is feature sets and subsets (both good and bad) that I have picked up over the years. In cases that are subsets I will try and show as many or all the cards and in the case of sets I will highlight some of my favourites. First one I am going to do is the 1991-92 UD Euro-Stars insert set. I managed to get many of these cards back in the day, but a couple months ago, my local card shop was selling complete sets for like 2 bucks so I snapped one up.

This set was released during the 1991-92 season as a 1-per jumbo pack insert with the 1991-92 UD hockey. Packs featured 17 cards including 1 Euro-Star card instead of 12 cards in the regular hobby packs. The set itself consisted of 18 cards featuring many of the young European NHL'ers as well as a couple veterans. One notable exclusion was Pavel Bure, for some reason Robert Kron made it into the set instead of him. Well, strap on your time machines and lets party like its 1992!    

Card 1 - Jarmo Kekalanien

Jarmo was a pretty popular name in the NHL at one point, those of you in my age range might also remember Jarmo Mylyss of Minnesota and San Jose fame. However, Jarmo Kekalainen was more Euro than Star and only lasted in the NHL 55 games.


Card 2 - Alex Mogilny

The first true star in the set. Mogilny may or may not find himself in the Hall of Fame, but the kid does have a Cup ring, 8-30+ goal seasons and a 76 goal season which really was sensational for all those that remembered it! As you can see from the card fronts, the design is very similar to the 91-92 UD Base set and the Euro-Stars emblem on the front features the flag from each country the player was born in.

Here is what the backs of the cards look like. Simple and all text.


Card 3 - Bobby Holik

One of the best two-way players in the whole set. He could punish you with hits or punish you on the score sheet. Bobby might be best remember by some for scoring a huge 9 mill a year deal from the Rangers, but I will always remember him for his 9 seasons with 20+ goals.


Card 4 - Anatoli Semenov

Anatoli was nearly 30 when he finally came over to the NHL. During the 80's he was one of Moscow Dynamo's best offensive players before coming over to the Atlantic. Unfortunately, there wasn't much left in the tank and he couldn't produce the same number in the NHL. He did bounce around a few clubs before retiring in 97 after scoring 68 goals and 194 points in 362 NHL games.

Card 5 - Petr Nedved

Petr was the second overall selection in the 1990 NHL draft. That means that he was picked higher than 250 other players. He did put together a rather nice career which includes career highs of 45 goals and 99 points in 95-96 with the Pens. I really think he did turn out to be a top 10 pick in the draft, even maybe a top 5 pick. However, Canuck fans, if you could do it all over again, do you think Jagr might have been the better Czech choice?

Card 6 - Jaromir Jagr

Very few would disagree, one of the best players in the set and one of the best players to play in the last 20 years period. I have never been too sure where I stand with him personally, but I do respect his talent!

Card 7 - Tomas Sandstrom

Oh what could have been! Sandstrom was a player who had just great natural goal scoring talent, but he trouble staying in the line-up. There were two occasions where he scored 40+ goals and both time were seasons he didn't even get to 70 games played. During his 15 year career he would only average 65 games a season but still managed to average 26 goals a season. His rookie card can be had dirt cheap and I think he was one of the best Finnish players of all-time.

Card 8- Robert Kron

Robert Kron was the rookie shorthanded goals leader in the 90-91 NHL season. Not really an offensive star, he did break 20 goals twice and lasted a solid 771 games in the NHL. A good player yes, a Euro-Star...maybe not.

Card 9 - Sergei Fedorov

In the early 90's his rookie cards were must, I remember a french UD version of his rookie selling for nearly 200 dollars. If the dotcom bubble busting in 2000 didn't cause that guy to take a bath with his toaster, knowing the rookie is only worth $4.50 today might! With that being said, Fedorov took a page from Steven Yzerman and did an amazing job evolving from an elite offensive threat to an even better two-way player. Another amazing player in this set!

Card 10 - Esa Tikkanen

Ahhh the Tick. Tikkanen and Claude Lemieux are the two names that come to mind when you combine clutch with agitation. In 1990 the Oilers won the Cup without Gretzky and one of the main reasons was Esa's 13 goals during that post-season.    

Card 11 - Christian Ruuttu

If you were to spell his last name in Scrabble, it would use almost all the U's in the bag. Ruuttu had some pretty solid years with the Sabre from 86-91, but then fall off a bit before being out of the NHL at the age of 31.

Card 12 - Peter Bondra

Certainly one of my favourite players in the set! Bondra was one of the more under-appreciated goal scorers from the 90's who still managed 500 career goals in 1083 career games. He has a higher career goals per game average than some HOF's including Yzerman, Howe, Believeau and Shutt. If he had been able to stay a little healthier or had a quality centre, I felt he could have had 600 goals easily.

Card 13 - Mats Sundin

If I could ask Mats Sundin one question, it would be: "Do you wish you could have stayed in Quebec?". There is no doubt that Mats was a great player and a good leader. Just imagine him with Sakic, Forsberg, and Roy. When Quebec moved to Colorado, they could have easily won a few more Cups with Sundin in the line-up.  

Card 14 - Dominik Hasek

The only horizontal card is for the only goalie in the set. Love him or hate him *I am the latter, he is one talented player and this card is a pretty good one from his rookie year. Of course, being an insert card it isn't classified as a true rookie, but for collectors of Hasek, this card is a must.

Card 15 - Johan Garpenlov

Anyone who has the complete set of 90-91 UD will remember Johan as the other guy on the Young Gun Checklist with Sergei Fedorov. He spent a majority of his career with expansion teams and was greatly inconsistent collecting 20 goals seasons and non-20 goal seasons. His most successful season was with the Panthers when they went all the way to the Cup final in 96, he scored 23 goals that season and another 4 goals in the playoffs. He would only score 23 more regular season goals in the next 4 seasons before leaving the NHL for the Swedish Elite League in 2000. 

Card 16 - Alexander Godynyuk

Please don't let the number fool you, this isn't Doug Gilmour. Alex wasn't even brought in to the NHL to score, but what he was brought in to do isn't entirely clear. He didn't last very long and is another example of a player that was more Euro than Star.

Card 17 - Ulf Samuelsson

I am not sure even after all these years if Ulf is allowed back in Boston yet. While he might be best remembered for laying the knee on knee hit that would hamper the rest of Cam Neely's career, he was a reliable defenseman who won a couple of Cups with the Pens.   

Card 18 - Igor Larionov

So what if he was 31 years old, he was Euro and a Star right? Still I might have complained more if Sergei Makarov had made the set! In reality, Larionov did have a very long and product NHL career despite the late star. His best NHL season came at the age of 35 when he scored 21 goals, 71 points. Igor was named to the hockey hall of fame in 2008.

Well there you have it, the 1991-92 UD Euro-Stars set. 18 cards of some of the best players in the NHL at the time born outside of North America. I do think it was a shame Bure was not included, but apart from that, the set is strong and has aged rather well. For as much as I disliked the super over production of cards from UD that year, this set is a nice little collection that would fit in 2 binder pages and offers collectors a nice assortment of Europe's best. I certainly give this set a favorable 4.5 out of 5.