1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Bryan Lefley #252 Rookie Card New York Islanders

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Bryan Lefley #252 Rookie Card New York Islanders Every dynasty has a first roster, and this is a card from the very beginning of the New York Islanders story. The 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Bryan Lefley #252 Rookie Card New York Islanders is an inaugural season issue of an original Islander, photographed in the crisp white home sweater with the first version of the famous NY and Long Island crest, set against the hot magenta background that makes this O-Pee-Chee design so recognizable on a shelf. Lefley was claimed by the expansion Islanders in the summer of 1972 after developing in the Rangers system, part of a wave of young defencemen handed real NHL minutes because a brand new franchise had nowhere else to turn. Born in 1948 in Grosse Isle, Manitoba, he was one half of a hockey playing family, with brother Chuck Lefley enjoying a long career that included a Stanley Cup with Montreal, and the card back makes a point of that connection. The 1972-73 season is the one that changed hockey forever, with the Summit Series, the birth of the WHA, and the arrival of the Islanders and Flames, which is precisely why first year Islanders cards carry lasting demand from team collectors who trace the franchise back to its 12 win first campaign before the Potvin and Trottier era arrived. This is a true rookie card, the first O-Pee-Chee issue of the player, and it sits in the tough high number series of the 341 card Canadian set. The reverse is a Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, printed in cream and orange with English and French biographical write ups, a cartoon panel, and a career record box that reads NOT IN N. H. L., the classic marker of a genuine first year card. It is a bilingual statistical back rather than a puzzle back and carries the Printed In Canada line. the photos show a bold, high contrast front with excellent magenta saturation and no evidence of creases, wrinkles, or surface wrinkling when viewed at an angle, corners that are notably clean at the bottom pair with very light touch wear at the top left and top right tips, a small amount of edge chipping visible along the tan left border and a few tiny print specks in the background, and centering that shifts slightly to the right with a wider left border while the top to bottom cut is nearly even. The back shows even aging with no writing or creasing. The conservative estimate accounts for the small corner touches and the mild left to right cut rather than any damage, and the card presents considerably better than the grade suggests in hand. Grade Estimate: EX-MT 6