Custom Cards: 1990-91 Pro Set Jaromir Jagr & Martin Brodeur draft pick cards

jagr brodeur
1990-91 Pro Set Hockey Series One consisted of 405 cards. Included were cards of Owen Nolan and Petr Nedved, the first overall and second overall picks in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft. However, Pro Set missed out by NOT including fifth overall pick Jaromir Jagr or 20th pick Martin Brodeur. So I decided to make custom “Draft Picks” cards of these two players.

jagrOther companies, such as Upper Deck and Score, included cards of Jaromir Jagr from draft day. The photo used above is actually taken from Jagr’s Upper Deck rookie card. Pro Set put out a card of Jagr, playing with the Penguins, in Pro Set Series Two later that year.

brodeurMartin Brodeur, on the other hand, never had a Pro Set card. Other than a five game call-up in 1991-92, Brodeur spent 1990 to 1993 either with his junior team or in the minors. For this custom card, I found this photo, which was taken soon after the New Jersey Devils selected Brodeur 20th overall.

Seeing as how utterly comprehensive Pro Set tried to be, I am surprised that they did not issue “draft day” cards of all 21 first round draft picks. That would have made for a nice snapshot of one of the deepest drafts in NHL history.

Question: Looking back 23 years later, who should have been the first overall pick in the 1990 draft: Jaromir Jagr or Martin Brodeur?

Custom Cards: 1990-91 Pro Set Mario Gosselin, Ron Scott & Three More

1990-91_Pro_Set_Mario_Gosselin 1990-91_Pro_Set_Ron_Scott
Those of you who read this blog no doubt recall my endless love for the 1990-91 Pro Set Hockey set. Between its colorful design and comprehensive player selection, it will always be one of my all-time favorites.

But Pro Set could have been a little more comprehensive that year. Continue reading “Custom Cards: 1990-91 Pro Set Mario Gosselin, Ron Scott & Three More”

Custom Cards: 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee Joel Otto & Moe Lemay

1986-87 O-Pee-Chee - Joel Otto custom card 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee - Moe Lemay custom card

Everyone who has the 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee Hockey set is no doubt annoyed by the cards of Joel Otto and Moe Lemay.

1986-87 O-Pee-Chee #247 - Joel OttoJoel Otto’s rookie card pictures Moe Lemay of the Vancouver Canucks.

1986-87 O-Pee-Chee #249 - Moe LemayMoe Lemay’s card in the set pictures Joel Otto, and adds the text “Now with Canucks.”

This mix up always irritated me. These guys do not have similar names or play for the same team (as were the causes of confusion in the infamous Steve Larmer / Steve Ludzik mix-up). Heck, these two cards aren’t even next to each other in the set. So, this error just seemed to be laziness or ineptitude on the manufacturer’s part. All they had to do was look at the stats for either player to see that they weren’t traded to new teams.

So, I decided to “correct” the mistake, doing a simple photo swap and removing the “Now with Canucks” text on Otto’s photograph. Here are bigger versions of the results:

1986-87 O-Pee-Chee - Joel Otto custom card

1986-87 O-Pee-Chee - Moe Lemay custom cardI actually printed these two customs out on photo paper, cut them out, and placed them in the 9-pocket pages in front of the error cards. They look pretty convincing, even when compared to the real cards in the set.

I plan on sending a printed copy of the Joel Otto “correction” to get it autographed.

Custom Cards: Darren Eliot

1985-86 Custom Darren Eliot card eliot_darren
Darren Eliot
had an admirable collegiate career and played for Team Canada in the 1984 Winter Olympics. He made his NHL debut with the Los Angeles Kings in 1984-85, playing in 33 games.

1985-86 Custom Darren Eliot cardHowever, Eliot did not “earn” a card in the 1985-86 O-Pee-Chee set, since that year O-Pee-Chee scaled back its set size from 396 to 264 cards. He was beat out by Kings’ starting netminder Bob Janecyk–also a rookie in ’84-85–as the lone Kings’ goalie in the set.

In 1985-86, Eliot played 27 games for the Kings. But again, he was omitted from the 1986-87 card sets, while teammate Janecyk was featured in both the Topps and O-Pee-Chee sets for 1986-87. That year, he played another 24 games for the Kings, but that did not get him a card in the mainstream 1987-88 sets (though he did get a Panini sticker that year).

eliot_darrenEliot did have three cards in sets issued by the Kings, but never a mainstream trading card. So, at the request of a friend, I made custom cards of Eliot in the design of 1985-86 and 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee cards.

Eliot is currently an in-studio analyst for Detroit Red Wings games. He suited up in 3 games for the Wings in 1987-88.

Custom Cards: Paul McIntosh

Paul_Card_front Paul McIntosh is a former NHL defenseman. He played 48 regular season games and 2 playoff games between 1974-75 and 1975-76 for the Buffalo Sabres.

But he never got an NHL trading card.

I don’t know Mr. McIntosh personally, but we share a mutual acquaintance who volunteered my graphic design skills to create a card for him. The only pictures Mr. McIntosh had were two black-and-white team issue photos.

paul_headshot paul_skatingSince cards from the 1970s used color photos, I decided to not use an old Topps design. It just wouldn’t have looked right to use a black-and-white picture. (Had that portrait photo been in color, then it would have looked perfect on a 1974-75 Topps design.)

Instead, I decided to tint the photos, pulling a shade of blue from the Buffalo Sabres logo. Since color borders always look odd on black-and-white pictures, I opted for no borders, and used a simple “hockey stick” design for the player’s name.

Paul_Card_front

While I could have used a color photo found on the internet, our intentions were to have this card printed out professionally for Mr. McIntosh to give to his family and friends.

The back of the card has Mr. McIntosh’s biographical information and his NHL stats.

Paul_Card_back

After designing the card, I had copies of it printed by a company called My Custom Hockey Trading Cards. For $59, plus shipping, you can get 150 cards printed that are as good as Upper Deck in quality. Cards are printed full-bleed, full color and have glossy UV coating on both sides. (True, I am an advertising partner with My Custom Hockey Trading Cards, but only because they do great work.)

After having the cards printed, my friend gave the cards to Mr. McIntosh, who lives in Buffalo but works as a scout for the Dallas Stars. He was happy to finally get a trading card showing him with the Sabres.

Custom Cards: 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee Jeremy Roenick & Curtis Joseph

2007-08_OPC_Joseph  2007-08_OPC_Roenick
Those of you who follow this website are probably familiar with my Autograph Blog. But few of you probably knew about my now-former Custom Hockey Card blog.

Yep, I had a custom hockey card blog. And I hadn’t updated it in 2 years, so I decided it was time to let that one go. If only all webmasters were so conscientious and would clean up cyberspace by deleting their abandoned blogs.

Anyway, I’m still going to make custom cards. And I am going to show off some of the cards I made in the past. Here are two customs from the 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee set.

2007-08_OPC_JosephCurtis Joseph appeared in 9 games for the Calgary Flames in 2007-08. All of his cards from that season picture him with his previous team, the Phoenix Coyotes. The following year, he’d play for the Toronto Maple Leafs. No cards were made of Joseph with the Flames, so I made a custom using the 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee set. It’s not the greatest looking set, but it is easy enough to spoof. I used this card to fill in a gap in my Career in Cards article about Joseph.

2007-08_OPC_RoenickOn the other hand, Jeremy Roenick did not get any cards made of him during the 2007-08 season, save for a few Jersey cards. Roenick said prior to the start of the season that he was going to retire, but San Jose Sharks General Manager (and former teammate of Roenick) Doug Wilson talked him into playing 2 more years with the Sharks. Like Joseph, I also did a Career in Cards article about Roenick, so I needed something to put for that season. J.R. netted his 500th goal in 2007-08, so it is disappointing that he didn’t get any cardboard that year.