1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Paul Curtis #266 Los Angeles Kings

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Paul Curtis #266 Los Angeles Kings Step into the purple-and-gold era of Los Angeles hockey with the 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Paul Curtis #266 Los Angeles Kings card. Curtis is featured in a close portrait against a mint-green background, wearing the Kings’ original gold sweater with its deep purple collar. The vertical Los Angeles Kings name, crown shield and tan border make the card an instantly recognizable piece of expansion-era design. It is an appealing single for Kings team builders, vintage defenceman collectors and fans who appreciate the bold colour combinations that defined O-Pee-Chee’s early-1970s hockey releases. Curtis was a steady, defence-first player whose career connected several important teams and leagues. The Peterborough, Ontario native developed with the Peterborough Petes before turning professional. He made his NHL debut with Montreal, then found his most substantial NHL role in Los Angeles. Curtis played 64 games in each of the 1970-71 and 1971-72 seasons, supplying dependable blue-line minutes during the Kings’ formative years. He later joined the St. Louis Blues and continued his career in the World Hockey Association with the Michigan Stags and Baltimore Blades. Across 185 NHL games, Curtis recorded three goals and 34 assists; he added 76 WHA appearances. His season-by-season record shows 155 games with Los Angeles and a 1972-73 campaign split between the Kings and Blues [3](https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=1210). The card preserves the look of a working NHL defenceman from a period when expansion clubs were still establishing their visual and competitive identities. The reverse carries card number 266, Curtis’s position and personal details, an illustrated note about injuries, and a bilingual biography describing his defensive work. A year-by-year NHL record appears below. This is explicitly a Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual English/French biography and statistics back, not a puzzle back. “O-P-C” and “Printed in Canada” are visible along the lower edge. The 1972-73 release is known for this combination of solid-colour fronts, tan borders, vertical team lettering and Canadian bilingual reverses [5](https://www.beckett.com/hockey/1972-73/o-pee-chee). The front shows four intact corners with mild softening, most visible at the upper-right and lower-left. The top edge has small areas of fibre exposure, the left edge retains a rough factory cut and the bottom edge shows a narrow line of whitening. The green background remains attractive but contains several tiny print specks, including small white dots near the portrait. The tan border is evenly aged. On the reverse, light toning is joined by scattered tiny spots and a small brown X-shaped or fibre-like mark near the lower cream area. The orange print remains strong, and no writing, erasure or paper loss is visible. Centering is approximately 51/49 left to right and 50/50 top to bottom. No clear crease, wrinkle, pinhole or major stain is apparent in the scans; sleeve glare may hide extremely fine surface bends. A conservative EX 5 estimate is appropriate. The card is well centred and visually pleasing, but the corner touches, rough edges, surface specks and small reverse mark keep it from an EX-MT assessment. For a collector seeking an honest raw Kings card with authentic Canadian production characteristics, this example offers excellent period colour and a direct link to the franchise’s original visual identity. Grade Estimate: EX 5