Saturday, May 25, 2019

One Random Pack: 1990-91 Pro Set hockey


Pro Set? Hockey? Saturday? I know, but I'm not doing this one for the views, or the comments, just trying to switch things up a bit. Plus, there's that whole Stanley Cup finals thing starting on Monday, so this post will be sort of timely as well.

I have opened more Pro Set football packs than I can remember, but never did open even a single Pro Set hockey pack, so when I saw some packs for a quarter each awhile back, I figured why not give one a go?

Anybody that's ever come around here before, probably already knows that hockey isn't my forte, so if any of the info is wrong, blame the internet.

A member or the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. I didn't even know that there was a United States Hockey Hall of Fame! So apparently he's good enough for our HOF, but not THE Hall of Fame?

The last time I watched a hockey series, this guy, and his Mighty Ducks were playing in the Stanley Cup Finals -- although I'd be lying if I said that I remember him specifically, or anyone else from the series for that matter.

The first name in the pack that I recognized, and that's only because he was once a member of the Portland Winter Hawks. I did have to go look up when that was though, saw that he was on the 1982-83 squad that won the 1983 Memorial Cup.

As I'm reading about some of these guys, I'm starting to notice a trend here, in that half of this pack so far has a Whalers connection, and that's a team that I actually know a little bit about thanks to Chris.

From what I've gathered, this is basically the "good human" award.

And here's your good human of 1990! Evidently being good paid off for Mr. Lowe, as he also has six Stanley Cups to his name.

Hey, Vincent! One word... dehumidifier! It'll work wonders :)

Went to school at Bowling Green State University, I don't really associate Ohio with hockey, but what do I know?

Another Whaler! He also has a fairly well known brother, who may or may not be coming up later in this pack? [spoiler: he will be]

Apparently Petri was hot sh*t over in Finland, came over here and didn't do so well against the NHL's better player's, then went to Denmark and became a legend.

The first player to go straight from high school to the NHL after being drafted.

I'm kind of amazed at how long most the guys in this pack played, at eight seasons, Todd had the shortest NHL career, at least from the fellow's that we've already seen.

John had his career ended by a bout with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which is unfortunate, but he did beat it, and is still alive and kicking 20+ years later, so eat it, cancer!!!!!!

P.S. Also another former Whaler.

Ooh, the first member of the real Hockey Hall of Fame in the pack. He's also the all-time leader in power-play goals (274).

Another all-star, and another Hall of Famer! Coincidence? I'm not even going to try and list any of his accomplishments, otherwise we're gonna be here all day. Also another guy who spent some time in Hartford... former Whalers are all over this pack.

And with the last card in the pack, we get to the only other name that I knew. I would've bet money that Pierre was in the HOF, but apparently he isn't, anyone know why? I didn't see anything that talked about why he wasn't, I did read about the Punch-up in Piestany though, and how a lot of his teammates were disappointed in his lack of participation. Makes me wonder if something like that could be what is holding up his induction?

It was kind of neat to get a pair of brothers in the same pack, I would imagine that it would have been really cool to do so back in 1990.
I'm sure that everybody who opened these packs back in the day is quite familiar with the coupon cards, but they're new to me, so that's why I'm showing it.

I'd be curious to know if anyone ever used any of these, and if so, what did you get? Kind of interesting too seeing the three states that these couldn't be used in, I kind of wonder what that was all about as well?

Overall it was a pretty fun pack, got some Hall of Famers, got a guy with Portland ties, and learned a few things while putting the post together. The place where I got this has boxes for $8, which is a little high for me on something like this, but I wouldn't mind picking up a few more quarter packs somewhere down the road.

And I'll probably only be keeping Ray Ferraro, so if anybody wants any of the other cards, don't be shy about saying so.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

24 comments:

  1. Another nostalgic pack for me. I sold a crap ton of these at the card shop back in the day, although hockey wasn’t our prime focus.

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    1. There was a lot less to choose from back then, so that alone probably helped move some packs.

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  2. 1990-91 Pro Set has taken the early lead as my favorite set for the sport. And it's super common so I actually have hopes of completing it one day, not counting all the variations and error/corrections. Amazingly, one of the players in the set, Jaromir Jagr, is still active!

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    1. Anything Pro Set is super common, like everyone else at the time, they printed an awful lot of cards. I knew that Jagr was still active, but I didn't know that he had been playing that long!

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    2. Wasn't that Jagr's Rookie year ?

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    3. I checked, and yes, it was!

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  3. Fun post and I love the Pro Set cards. Good stuff. I wish I knew more about hockey but I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a pack of these.

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    1. Well, don't worry, I know very little about hockey as well.

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  4. I was snickering even as I read Dampy's name then your comment - perfectly priceless.

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  5. Love this set! Pro Set, Score, and Upper Deck really shook up the hockey card industry that year by producing some fantastic looking sets.

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  6. 1990/91 Pro Set is an interesting set. For 25 cents you can't go wrong. Loads of rookies and Hall of Famers. Love both the Jets and Canucks retro logos. Sylvain Turgeon has a base card in 1994/95 Pinnacle that usually sells for around $30.00 give or take. You'll have to google why if your interest has been piqued. His brother Pierre will be inducted into the HHOF some day. His numbers back it up. That 1983 Memorial Cup winning team also had some kid named Cam Neely on the team. And not that I was able to reach for a Bruins mention, I'll end it here.

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    1. I am interested to know why that card sells for so much, and I will be Googling it after I finish up here! Ooh, I've heard of the Cam Neely! I guess I'll have to go see who else was on that team... after I look up the Turgeon card :)

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  7. This is the set that got me into hockey (and hockey cards) as my mom mistakenly grabbed a pack when i asked her for Pro Set football. Very cool that you recognized some Whaler connections; Ray Ferraro is a color commentator in Canada and I think he's married to Cammi Granato. I didnt know he played in Portland though.

    I'm not sure why Pierre Turgeon isn't in the HHOF. Jeremy Roenick isn't either, which is also surprising to me. This exact topic was one of my first posts on The Collector.

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    1. I like that story. It's kind of amazing to think that just one wrong pack could lead to a lifelong interest, almost like it was fated for your mom to buy the wrong pack? I think because of you, from here on out, I'll always notice anything Whalers related. Cammi Granato? There's another person that I'll have to go look up.

      Hey, an old post link! After reading it, and then reading Marc's comment on it, I'm even more confused as to why he hasn't already been inducted?

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  8. Oh man, I opened plenty of these packs when I was a kid. Fun set. I think they had a Series II as well.

    You did very well with your hockey research. One more interesting factoid about the Turgeon brothers: Both were first-round draft picks. Sylvain went second overall in 1983 (by Hartford!), and Pierre went first overall in 1987.

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    1. Yeah, they do. Apparently I forgot to mention that these were series 1 (I think).

      Thanks, I was hoping that I wouldn't screw anything up. And that is interesting, now I'm curious to know if they were the only brothers to ever do so?

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    2. No. It's happened before, and presumed #1 pick in the draft coming in three weeks is the younger brother of a top 10 draft pick last year...and a third brother will likely join them in a few years when he gets old enough.

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    3. Thanks, Billy! You saved me the trouble of trying to look it up :)

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  9. I grew up a kings fan and certainly followed them more closely during my college years in socal which included the 90-91 season. I have no recollection of Todd elik

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    1. If it makes you feel any better, I wasn't familiar with him either :)

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  10. Long ago I worked at a school that was attended by Pierre Turgeon's kids. Nice guy, classy. I follow hockey, not a die-hard by any means, but I do not think his exclusion from the hockey hall has anything to do with the punch up. He's over 500 goals and 1000 points, but he never won a Cup, and outside of his years with the Islanders he was never the star player on the team's he played for. The Canadians had Patrick Roy, the Blues had Hull, Pronger, and MacInnis, Stars had Modano, and the Avs had Sakic.

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    1. All of this is news to me... thanks for the insight :)

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