91-92 Rob Brown Hartford Whalers Jersey

January 27th, 2008

This is the 1991-92 Hartford Whalers home jersey of Rob Brown.

Brown originally came to the Whalers the previous season in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Scott Young.

Later that same year, the Whalers would make another trade with the Penguins… Yep, the one that essentially doomed the Hartford franchise and won the Pittsburgh franchise two consecutive Stanley Cups.  (basically, it was Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson for John Cullen and Zarley Zalapski)

During the 1991-92 season, Brown started the season with the Whalers and recorded a respectable 16 goals and 15 assists in 42 games, but it wasn’t the type of production he’d put up Pittsburgh and he was dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks on January 24, 1992 for defenseman Steve Konroyd.

Being a 91-92 jersey, this one features the NHL’s 75th Anniversary patch that every team in the league wore.

This is the only knit Whalers jersey from the green era in my collection. All others are mesh or airknit. For the 1992-93 season, the green road jersey was abandoned in favor of a blue road jersey. Jerseys were knit in that season as well.

The Maska fly tag has Brown’s #44 penned in in black sharpie. Every single one of my Whalers game worn jerseys has this in common. The jersey is a size 52.

The jersey shows pretty heavy wear with stick marks and board burns throughout. There are a few unrepaired slices along the hem and the sleeves show some staining from Brown’s gloves. The CCM logo on the rear hem is embroidered in a blue-blue-green pattern next to the old black and orange NHL logo.

Best of all, some of the marks on the right arm and in the striping on the hem can be photomatched to Brown’s 1991-92 ProSet hockey card (card #606).

I originally acquired this jersey from Brian at the Detroit Hockey Company in the late 1990’s.

Posted in Hartford Whalers, National Hockey League | 2 Comments »

96-97 Derek Armstrong New York Islanders Jersey

January 25th, 2008

This is the 1996-97 New York Islanders home jersey of Derek Armstrong.

Army played in 50 games that season for the Islanders. At the time, it was the most NHL ice-time he’d seen in his career, having bounced up and down from the minors in the previous season.

I originally purchased this jersey from Milt Byron in the summer of 1999. By then, Derek Armstrong was the star player for the Hartford Wolf Pack. I already had one of his Hartford Wolf Pack jerseys in my collection, and added a New York Rangers Armstrong jersey courtesy of Meigray that same summer, so while leafing through one of Milt’s photocopied lists with colored stripes all over the mailing label (remember those?), the name Armstrong caught my eye.

Now, this was *way* before the Fisherman jersey gained it’s popularity — I think I paid less than $200 for this jersey.

Milt had a bunch of them at the time, and in hindsight, picking the Armstrong probably wasn’t the wisest move, but it fit my theme, and it’s still one of the jerseys in my collection that gets the most inquiries.

The jersey shows some decent wear — though most of it is on the dark areas of the sleeves and the front hem. A few unrepaired holes in the shoulder areas as well, though they are all small. No repairs.

It’s a size 52 (players weren’t all wearing tents yet in 1996), and it’s a sublimated airknit manufactured by CCM with the CCM logo embroidered in orange and navy on the right rear hem beside the old black and orange NHL logo.

A lot of people talk about how the Fisherman Isles jerseys had their crests replaced. Mine definitely shows a glue residue around the entire crest in the shape of a slightly larger version.

On that, I’d assume the crest was replaced, but quite honestly, the larger version of the crest could not have been much larger than the current one. I’m not sure why they would have bothered.

The jersey also features the Islanders 25th Anniversary patch. The four little Stanley Cups are a nice touch.

Looking at the back of the jersey, it’s no wonder this style didn’t last. The nameplates must’ve been a bear to put together, following the curve. They must’ve had an endless supply of numbers and letters on hand because each letter/number would almost have to be custom based on where it fell on the curvy wave.

This was also the first jersey in my collection where the name and numbers were that herringbone pattern type of fabric. You see it on jerseys a lot now, but back them, pretty much every team was just using plain old tackle twill.

Of all of the email I receive regarding this jersey, the one question everyone asks is if Joe McMahon’s signature is behind the crest. The answer is yes.

Joe McMahon was the Isles equipment manager at the time and often signed the insides of the jerseys behind the crest. Thinking about it, I’ll have to check my 1990-91 Jeff Finley Isles jersey for it now…

Posted in National Hockey League, New York Islanders | No Comments »

05-06 Vitali Yeremeyev Dynamo Moscow Jersey

January 22nd, 2008

A few weeks ago I added a couple of HC Dynamo Moscow jerseys to my collection.

I’d always wanted to add one of their 2005-06 jerseys because they featured a collar — much like that of a soccer jersey or the 2000 and 2001 NHL All Star jerseys for the World team.

They turn up on eBay from time to time, usually courtesy of Alex Brokhman in Ohio, but I’d never seen a player that fit my theme until fellow collector (though with much more of a Russian slant) Ron Webb showed me a couple of his most recent additions…home and road 2005-06 Dynamo Vitali Yeremeyev jerseys.

Never being one to keep his sources secret, Ron passed along the info to me to inquire about the second set jerseys. A couple of days later, I’d added a home and road just like the jerseys Ron had showed me earlier. My fourth and fifth Yeremeyev jerseys. Woo-hoo!

I think his showed a bit more wear than mine, but that’s okay since he’s more of a Russian collector than I am — he should have the set with better wear. I believe mine are from the second set based on a photomatch to a game played in January of 2006.

Anyway, during the 2005-06 season, Yeremeyev appeared in 26 games — splitting time with Sergei Zvyagin — during the shorter Superleague season and the jersey shows it. Being a goaltender, there aren’t a lot of board burns, but there is some pilling on the cuff of the sleeves and numerous puck marks on the front of the jersey.

Peculiarly, the home white jersey is a size 56 and the blue road is a size 58. Neither are marked as a goalie cut, but the sleeves are very wide, though they don’t look customized, it must be a goalie cut.

I also don’t think the lace in the neck on the home jersey is original as it appears that the white sets usually had blue laces, though not always. But I can’t find a picture of Yeremeyev with the lace in place — it’s always removed, probably because it would catch the chin of his mask on occasion.

Either way, a welcome addition to the collection as Yeremeyev suited up for 36 games for the Hartford Wolf Pack during the 2000-01 season — his only complete season in North America.

Posted in Dynamo Moscow, Russian Super League | 1 Comment »

01-02 Brad Smyth Hartford Wolf Pack Jersey

January 14th, 2008

It’s funny how things work out sometimes.

I’m not sure when it happened, exactly, but at some point I decided to focus my collection of getting at least one jersey from each style that the Hartford Wolf Pack have worn.One style that had eluded me was one of the alternate sets that they gave away as a “Shirt off the Back” promotion. It was the 2001-02 5th Anniversary jersey.

A few years ago, one surfaced on the market and if I’d had the money at the time, I would have bought it. A fellow from Australia had a Kevin Hilton jersey — not exactly my first choice of player as he only played one game for the Wolf Pack, and only warmed-up once in the alternate, but it was the first to come along on the open market.

Then, roughly a year ago, another collector offered up a Layne Ulmer 5th Anniversary alternate. The price tag was $535. Hmmmm… Ulmer was a regular for the Wolf Pack for a few seasons, so that part was attractive, but the price tag was just too much. I knew I’d kick myself later for letting it get away, like the Hilton, but I just couldn’t justify such a hefty price tag.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. Another one popped up on the forum! This time it was Vicky Gould offering up what she called a “Wolf Pack 5th Anny Jersey” for a fair price. No mention of player name.

I was skeptical, at first, having seen some collectors call every jersey from that season a “5th Anniversary” jersey because of a little patch on the shoulder. I emailed her immediately to confirm that it was indeed the red jersey I’d been searching for.

Even better, it was a Brad Smyth jersey — a player which I now have 5 jerseys from.

Smyth is one of the bigger stars in team history (all-time scoring leader) and that specific season, he played in all but one game so even this infrequently used alternate shows some wear.

In a matter of 15 minutes we closed the deal. A sum of cash her way, an envelope full of stinky polyester headed my way. Mmmm…

Posted in American Hockey League, Hartford Wolf Pack | No Comments »

RSL Jerseys Suddenly look more Attractive

January 13th, 2008

I used to steer away from the Russian jerseys because of their flimsy construction and all of the advertisements on them. The smell was also a turn-off.

I have a few in my collection though, mostly because of the low price tag, but partly because, well, they’re so much different than the stuff we see here in North America.

But after seeing this bench clearing brawl between Kazan Ak-Bars vs Chelyabinsk Traktor from a few days ago, well, I’m actively seeking the white number 30 jersey of the fearless guy on Ak-Bars.

I can’t remember the last time I say a bench clearer like that… 1987’s WJC Canada/USSR fight, maybe? Good to know that they still teach the Russian kids to pull the jersey up and over though.

Good stuff.

Posted in Russian Super League | No Comments »

Welcome

January 13th, 2008

Trying something new out here on my jersey site…

It seems everyone has a “blog” these days, so why not me, right?

Basically, the plan is to highlight one jersey in my collection at a time — and showcase all of the unique features it has.

I’m thinking I’ll start with jerseys from my Wolf Pack collection pointing out the slight variations I’ve noticed from set-to-set and season-to-season because that’s the team that I like to think I’m an expert on.

I also plan to pop in from time to time and sound off about the happenings in the NHL. None of the day-to-day stuff, but the big topics of conversation. Not that anyone will be reading it, but sometimes it’s just fun to voice your opinion on things…

We’ll see how it goes…

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »