1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Len Fontaine #244 Rookie Card Detroit Red Wings

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Len Fontaine #244 Rookie Card Detroit Red Wings Add a distinctive Canadian rookie to your vintage hockey collection with the 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Len Fontaine #244 Rookie Card Detroit Red Wings. Fontaine’s close-up portrait is set against a bright green field, framed by the release’s warm tan border, yellow name strip and classic winged-wheel emblem. The uncluttered studio composition gives this card an unmistakable early-1970s look, while the vertical Detroit Red Wings lettering provides instant Original Six identity. As Fontaine’s recognized O-Pee-Chee rookie card, number 244 is especially well suited to player collectors, Detroit team collectors and builders working through the challenging later portion of the 340-card Canadian set. Fontaine’s route to the NHL was a classic story of persistence. An undersized but productive forward from Quebec City, he built his reputation in the International Hockey League before earning a contract with Detroit. His card back notes his strong minor-league play and identifies the 1972-73 campaign as his rookie NHL season. Fontaine appeared in 39 games for the Red Wings that year, scoring eight goals and adding ten assists, then returned for seven games in 1973-74. He later played in the World Hockey Association with the Michigan Stags and Baltimore Blades. Across his NHL career he recorded eight goals and eleven assists in 46 games, while his broader professional career extended well beyond that brief major-league window. Contemporary statistical summaries confirm his 1972-73 Detroit production and his later WHA appearance [2](https://www.quanthockey.com/hockey-stats/en/profile.php?player=1778). The card therefore captures the precise moment when a proven minor-league scorer finally received his NHL opportunity. The 1972-73 set is admired for its solid-colour portrait backgrounds, vertical team names and bilingual Canadian reverses. Card #244 carries Fontaine’s vital information, a hockey cartoon, a short biography in English and French, and the notation that he had no previous NHL record when the card was prepared. This is explicitly a Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual text back, not a puzzle back. “O-P-C” and “Printed in Canada” are visible, reinforcing that this is the original licensed Canadian issue rather than a modern reproduction. The checklist identifies Fontaine as a rookie within the set [1](https://www.cardboardconnection.com/1972-73-o-pee-chee-hockey-cards). In the supplied sleeve scans, all four corners remain intact but show light softening, with the lower-left and upper-right corners displaying the most visible fibre wear. The left edge has a typically rough O-Pee-Chee cut and minor darkening, while the top and bottom edges show small chips rather than heavy paper loss. The green portrait field remains bright, though scattered tiny print dots or surface specks are visible, and a fine pale curved line near the upper-left border appears to be a light surface scratch, fibre or scanner artifact rather than a confirmed crease. The reverse shows even cream toning, minor edge wear and a few small age spots near the lower field. Centering is approximately 52/48 left to right and 50/50 top to bottom. No definite crease, wrinkle, writing, pinhole or paper loss is visible. Because the card was photographed inside a sleeve, extremely fine defects cannot be excluded. A conservative EX 5 assessment balances the strong eye appeal and good centering against corner touches, rough-cut edges, toning and scattered surface marks. This is an appealing, honest raw rookie with attractive Red Wings colour and clear bilingual Canadian provenance. Grade Estimate: EX 5