By the mid 1950’s, Topps had established dominance in the baseball card market. Having outsold Bowman, their main competitor, every year since 1952, Topps was ready to branch out into other sports in an attempt to maximize their reach. But before they made trading cards in basketball (their first set released in 1957) and football (Topps All-American released in the Fall of 1955), Topps made a set of 60 hockey cards in 1954, perhaps as a tester to see if their product could translate into other sports. What followed was the first major hockey card release by a company other than Parkhurst, a C ..read more

In 1971, Rogie Vachon realized he had lost the starting goaltender job in Montreal. Newcomer Ken Dryden stole the show in the playoffs the previous year, leading the Canadiens to their 15th Stanley Cup win. There was no way the Habs wouldn’t make Dryden, a 23-year-old phenom, their guy going forward. This left Vachon, a talented goalie in his own right, without a job. So he demanded a trade. Very early in the 1971-72 season, the Canadiens granted his wish, trading him to recent expansion team Los Angeles. The Kings were not very good, especially defensively, and especially at goaltender. Vacho ..read more

When thinking of legendary, all-time great hockey players, let’s be honest… Steve Shutt is probably not the first that comes to mind. Unless you are a die-hard hockey veteran, or a long-time fan of the Montreal Canadiens, you probably don’t think about Steve Shutt before thinking of players like Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, or Mario Lemieux. But as a five time Stanley Cup winner, and as a guy who finished with more career goals than Paul Kariya and Henri “Rocket” Richard, maybe he should be more well known. Shutt played for the Montreal Canadiens for 13 years between 1972 and 1984. In that time ..read more

Phil Esposito was a Hall of Fame center for the Boston Bruins from the 1960’s and 1970’s. He dominated goal scoring in the NHL for many years, setting many records that would eventually be broken by Wayne Gretzky. In his era, Esposito was the touchstone for all NHL forwards when it came to offensive output. His bulky 6’1″ frame helped him find room in front of goaltenders, putting home rebounds night in and night out, plus his soft left handed touch helped him slide passes over to wingers like Wayne Cashman and Ken Hodge. And he never backed down from a physical challenge, either. The total pa ..read more

After winning his 2nd Stanley Cup with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1975, Bill Clement was traded to the Washington Capitals. It was a trade that would lead to perhaps the worst photo editing job on a trading card to that point, setting the standard for “bad photoshop” in the card industry from that point forward. But first some background. Bill Clement was a hot commodity The Flyers of the early-1970’s, aka “The Broad Street Bullies”, were led up front by Bobby Clarke, Rick MacLeish, Bill Barber, and Gary Dornhoefer. Those players scored most of the goals and caused most of the problems for opp ..read more