1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Leon Rochefort #204 Detroit Red Wings

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Leon Rochefort #204 Detroit Red Wings Every great team needs the player who does the dirty work, and this 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Leon Rochefort #204 celebrates one of the finest defensive specialists of his generation, a penalty-killing right winger whose career stretched from the Original Six era into the expansion age. The posed portrait against the green backdrop shows the Montreal-born veteran in the winged wheel sweater, and the back bio praises him as a valuable defensive player and penalty-killer who reached the 20-goal plateau in the NHL while never being asked to be a headline scorer. Rochefort's résumé reads like a tour of hockey history, with stops on the New York Rangers, the Montreal Canadiens and, most memorably, the inaugural 1967-68 Los Angeles Kings, where he was part of the very first roster in franchise history and delivered a 20-goal campaign for the expansion club. By the time this card was printed he had brought his quiet professionalism to Detroit, mentoring younger wingers while killing penalties and protecting leads, the kind of glue guy whose contribution never shows up in the box score but always shows up in the respect of teammates. The card belongs to the 340-card 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee release with its signature tan woodgrain border, yellow name banner and circular team crest. The reverse is the true Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, with the English and French biography side by side, the cartoon panel and the career record table, unmistakably the Canadian OPC issue and not the American Topps printing, and it is not a puzzle back design. the front is centered at a pleasing 50/50, the corners are sharp apart from a slight touch at the bottom right, the edges show only light roughness typical of OPC cutting, and the glossy surface is free of creases, wrinkles and print marks, while the bilingual back remains clean with strong orange ink. Applying my conservative standard for raw vintage, that faint corner touch keeps the card at a raw estimate of EX 5 rather than EX-MT, an honest grade that makes this a smart, affordable addition for Kings, Canadiens or Red Wings set builders alike. Grade Estimate: EX 5