1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Craig Patrick #221 Rookie Card California Golden Seals

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Craig Patrick #221 Rookie Card California Golden Seals This is the sleeper of the sheet, and anyone who knows hockey history will recognize why immediately. The 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Craig Patrick #221 Rookie Card California Golden Seals is the first card of a man whose greatest achievements came long after his playing days, shown here in the unforgettable canary yellow and Pacific green Seals sweater against a magenta background that makes the uniform glow. Patrick is hockey royalty, the son of Lynn Patrick and the grandson of Lester Patrick, from the family that helped shape professional hockey on the west coast and gave the league the Patrick Trophy. He arrived in the NHL by way of the United States National Team and the University of Denver, one of the small group of American developed players in the league at the time, and the Seals gave him his first extended shot. What turns this rookie card into a genuine collectible rather than a common is what followed. Patrick served as assistant coach and assistant general manager of the 1980 United States Olympic team that beat the Soviet Union at Lake Placid in the Miracle on Ice, then built the Pittsburgh Penguins into back to back Stanley Cup champions in 1991 and 1992 as general manager, acquiring Ron Francis and Larry Murphy in the deadline trade that tipped the first title. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2001. Add the enduring cult appeal of California Golden Seals memorabilia, a defunct franchise with one of the most collected logos in the hobby, and you have a card with three separate collector audiences competing for it. It also sits in the scarcer high number series of the 341 card Canadian set. The reverse is a true Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, cream and orange, with English and French text noting that he is the son of Lynn Patrick and one of only twenty United States born players in pro hockey that season, plus a cartoon panel and a career record line for 1971-72 California. It is a bilingual statistical back, not a puzzle back. the photos show a vivid front with no creases or wrinkles, corners that are intact with light rounding at the lower left and light fraying at the upper right, a small amount of edge chipping along the left border and the tan bottom border, a faint print dot near the jersey shoulder, and centering that leans right with a wider left border while the bottom cut runs tight to the black frame line. The conservative estimate reflects that tight bottom cut and the corner rounding rather than damage. Grade Estimate: EX 5