1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Rick Smith #284 California Golden Seals

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Rick Smith #284 California Golden Seals Bring home one of hockey’s most unforgettable expansion-era uniforms with the 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Rick Smith #284 California Golden Seals card. Smith is pictured in the Seals’ vivid green-and-gold equipment against a saturated magenta background, a colour combination that makes this card stand out immediately in any vintage display. The circular California Golden Seals logo, vertical team name and warm tan border capture the adventurous graphic style of early-1970s O-Pee-Chee. For collectors drawn to defunct franchises, unusual uniforms or the NHL’s California experiment, this is a particularly attractive piece of cardboard history. Smith brought championship credentials to Oakland. Boston selected the Kingston, Ontario defenceman seventh overall in the 1966 NHL Amateur Draft, and he became a dependable part of the Bruins’ powerful roster. He won the Stanley Cup with Boston in 1970 before being traded to California in February 1972 as part of the deal that sent Carol Vadnais to the Bruins. Smith later joined the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA, represented Canada in the 1974 Summit Series against the Soviet Union and eventually returned to the NHL with St. Louis, Boston, Detroit and Washington. The Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame describes him as a stay-at-home defender, a 1970 Stanley Cup champion and a Team Canada participant in the 1974 series [2](https://kdshf.ca/inductees/richard-allen-smith/). That career gives card #284 appeal across Bruins, Seals, WHA and Team Canada collecting themes. The card’s reverse tells the transition story directly. It notes Smith’s February 1972 trade from Boston to California, includes year-by-year NHL statistics and adds an illustrated “good defensive defenseman” caption. English and French biographies appear together, as expected for the Canadian release. This is explicitly a Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual biography and statistics back, not a puzzle back. The “O-P-C” and “Printed in Canada” markings are visible. Its card number places it in the later portion of a set known for solid-colour player images, tan borders and bilingual text [4](https://www.cardboardconnection.com/1972-73-o-pee-chee-hockey-cards). The four corners are intact with mild touches and slight rounding, most apparent at the upper-right and lower-left. Edge wear is light to moderate: the left edge shows the rough factory texture typical of vintage O-Pee-Chee, while the bottom edge has small white fibre spots. A tan-to-brown age mark is visible near the upper-right front border, and scattered tiny print flecks appear in the pink and green fields. The reverse has even toning, a few small spots and minor chipping along the perimeter, without visible writing or paper loss. Centering is approximately 51/49 left to right and 50/50 top to bottom. No clear crease, wrinkle, pinhole or indentation is visible in the supplied sleeve scans, although fine surface defects may be obscured by the holder. An EX 5 estimate is deliberately conservative. Strong centering, colour and an apparently crease-free structure support Excellent eye appeal, while the corner touches, rough edges, border spot and scattered surface marks prevent a higher call. The result is a vibrant raw example that displays extremely well and celebrates both a Stanley Cup winner and one of the NHL’s most collectible vanished teams. Grade Estimate: EX 5