1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Brent Hughes #234 High Series St. Louis Blues

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Brent Hughes #234 High Series St. Louis Blues If one photograph sums up hockey in 1972, it might be this one, a moustached defenceman with a full head of dark hair staring down the camera against a lime green background. The 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Brent Hughes #234 High Series St. Louis Blues is pure period atmosphere, a card that sells itself on style before a buyer even reads the name. Hughes was born in Bowmanville, Ontario in 1943 and built a reputation as a rushing defenceman who was not afraid of the rough stuff, a player who appeared in the scoring summary and the penalty column with roughly equal frequency. He broke in with the Los Angeles Kings during the first expansion wave, spent time in Philadelphia where the Flyers were assembling the identity that would soon terrorize the league, and landed in St. Louis, a franchise that had reached three straight Stanley Cup Finals in its opening seasons and remained one of the most competitive of the 1967 expansion clubs. This card comes from the high number series of the 341 card Canadian O-Pee-Chee set, released late in a season that also delivered the Summit Series, the launch of the World Hockey Association, and the debut of the New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames. Blues team collectors and 1970s enthusiasts both target this card, and it remains one of the more visually striking commons in the entire run thanks to that green backdrop paired with the pale blue Blues practice sweater. The reverse is a genuine Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, cream stock with burnt orange panels, English and French biography text describing him as a good rushing defenceman who plays big, a cartoon panel, and a full NHL career record grid with games, goals, assists, points, and penalty minutes across Los Angeles, Philadelphia and St. Louis. It is a bilingual statistical back rather than a puzzle back and carries the Printed In Canada line. the photos show a front free of creases and wrinkles with strong ink and good gloss retention, corners that are present with light wear at the upper left and lower left tips, noticeable rough cut edge chipping along the left border where the tan stock shows white flecking, a typical O-Pee-Chee production trait rather than handling damage, a small nick visible on the right edge, and centering that is close left to right with the top border slightly narrower than the bottom. The back shows even toning with no writing or stains. The conservative estimate weighs the left edge chipping most heavily, since that is the flaw a professional grader would key on first. Grade Estimate: EX 5