Keith McCreary 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee Rookie Card – The Case of the Missing Number

1968-69 o-pee-chee 193 keith mccreary rookie hockey card pittsburgh penguins

1968-69 O-Pee-Chee #193 - Keith McCreary rookie card.

A blatant error by O-Pee-Chee in their 1968-69 hockey card set was responsible for a common card becoming one of the more valuable cards in the set. The fact that O-Pee-Chee corrected the error mid-season made the card quite rare. The fact that the player was not much of a star and was probably a throw-away back in the day makes the card even more rare.

Just the facts:

The 1968-69 Keith McCreary RC is only valuable if missing the number on the back of the card.
Keith was twice taken in an NHL expansion draft.
McCreary was the first ever captain of the Atlanta Flames.
McCreary’s NHL career began in 1962 with the Montreal Canadiens.

Number 193 of the 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee set is the rookie card of Keith McCreary. McCreary played his first National Hockey League game in the 1962 Stanley Cup playoffs but didn’t become a regular in the league until the Pittsburgh Penguins picked him up in the 1967 expansion draft. Because several of the 193 card were mistakenly printed without the card number on the back, McCreary holds a place in hockey card history.

Keith played junior hockey for the Peterborough T.P.T.’s (Petes) of the OHA in 1956-57. It was the first year the franchise played in Peterborough after moving from Kitchener where they were known as the Canucks (previous to that, the Kitchener Greenshirts). In 1961-62, McCreary played his first NHL game, a single game for the Canadiens in their semi-final loss to the Chicago Black Hawks. He played nine more games with Montreal during the 1964-65 regular season.

Perhaps one his best seasons in the minors came in 1962-63 with the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens of the EPHL. Keith finished third on the team in points with 61. The team was coached by Scotty Bowman. Bowman too would get his big break with NHL expansion in 1967. Bowman’s coaching career played out with obviously much more success than McCreary’s playing career.

Keith modestly enjoyed his greatest Stanley Cup playoff success in 1969-70 with the Penguins. McCreary played ten games as Pittsburgh swept the Oakland Seals in the quarter-finals before losing in six to the St. Louis Blues in the semi-finals. St. Louis moved forward to be swept by the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals.

Once more a victim of expansion, McCreary was picked up by the Atlanta Flames in the 1972 expansion draft as the Flames and New York Islanders entered the league. Keith played three years with the Flames, serving as the club’s first team captain during his time in Atlanta, before retiring from the game after the 1974-75 season.

In total, McCreary played 532 regular season NHL games. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2003 after a battle with cancer.

The rare 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee Keith McCreary rookie card with no number on the back is valued at $40 by Beckett Hockey Monthly. The corrected card is valued as a common card, as are all McCreary hockey cards that followed.

Posted in 1960's Hockey Cards.

Tagged with 1968-69 o-pee-chee, error card, hockey card, keith mccreary, pittsburgh penguins, rookie card.

6 comments

By Tom – May 16, 2012

The Cardboard Beginnings of the Sutter Empire

In one of those “never to happen again” events, the Sutter family from Viking, Alberta put six of their sons into the National Hockey League. A little Sutter hockey trivia: All six were drafted out of the Lethbridge Broncos of the WHL. All played for either the St. Louis Blues or Chicago Blackhawks during their NHL careers. Four of the six were first round picks. Recently, the Staal’s have come close but have run out of bodies. Check out the rookie cards of these six Sutter brothers that not only played a few games in the Big Show but thrived.

Brian Sutter was the first. The St. Louis Blues took him in the second round of the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft. He played his entire career with the Blues, retiring after the 1987-88 season. For his final nine years in St. Louis Brian was the team captain. The Brian Sutter rookie card appears as number 319 in the 1978-79 O-Pee-Chee set and is valued at $8.00.

Darryl Sutter was a lowly eleventh round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks at the 1978 draft. He played his first games with the NHL club in 1979-80 and captained the team for his final five seasons. He played his entire NHL career with Chicago from 1979-80 to 1986-87. Perhaps better known for his head coacing ability, he has been the bench boss of the Blackhawks, San Jose Sharks, Calgary Flames and, now, the Los Angeles Kings. The Darryl Sutter rookie card is number 65 from the 1981-82 O-Pee-Chee set and is value at $1.50.

Duane Sutter was the seventeenth overall pick of the New York Islanders at the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. He played in the NHL from 1979-80 to 1989-90 with the Islanders and Blackhawks. He was part of the Islanders Stanley Cup dynasty of the early 1980′s. The Duane Sutter rookie card is number 211 in the 1981-82 O-Pee-Chee set and is worth $1.00.

Like brother Duane, Brent Sutter was also a seventeenth overall pick of the New York Islanders, but the following year, 1980. Brent spent from 1981-82 to 1997-98 in the NHL with the Islanders and Blackhawks. He captained New York for parts of five seasons from 1987-88 to 1991-92. He played four times for Canada on the world stage and has coached the World Junior squad twice. 2011-12 was his third year as head coach of the Calgary Flames. The Brent Sutter rookie card is number 216 in the 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee set and is the second highest valued Sutter RC at $3.00.

Rich Sutter was a tenth overall pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1982 but played just nine games with the club. Rich played 874 regular season games in the NHL between 1982-83 and 1994-95 with the Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks, Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs. The Rich Sutter rookie card is number 169 in the 1984-85 O-Pee-Chee set and is valued as a common card ($.20).

Rich’s twin brother Ron Sutter was also taken in the first round of the 1982 NHL Entry Draft. The Philadelphia Flyers took him fourth overall. For two years, 1989-90 and 1990-91, he was the Flyers team captain. Ron played nearly 1,100 regular season games in the NHL over a career that spanned from 1982-83 to 2000-01. Along with the Flyers, Ron also played for the St. Louis Blues, Quebec Nordiques, New York Islanders, Boston Bruins, San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames. The Ron Sutter rookie card is number 170 in the 1984-85 O-Pee-Chee set and is valued at $.75.

Posted in 1970's Hockey Cards, 1980's Hockey Cards.

Tagged with brent sutter, brian sutter, darryl sutter, duane sutter, hockey card, o-pee-chee, rich sutter, ron sutter, rookie card.

No comments

By Tom – May 12, 2012

Cardboard Coaches: A Look at the Bench Bosses of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs

We’re nearly to the final four in the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs and we thought it would fun to look at the coaches of the eight teams that made it to the conference finals. Well, actually it’s seven coaches because there wasn’t a Ken Hitchcock card to be found. These aren’t necessarily the rookie cards of each of the seven and they may not even be of them as players but they certainly are long before gray hair came into effect.

Peter DeBoer, coach of the New Jersey Devils, appears with the American Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals in the above picture. DeBoer played four years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Windsor Spitfires from 1985-86 to 1988-89 before a two year stint with Milwaukee. His only two pro seasons were with the Admirals in 1989-90 and 1990-91. Originally, Peter was a 12th round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1988.

Pictured is Dale Hunter’s O-Pee-Chee rookie card with the Quebec Nordiques. Hunter was also a product of the OHL, playing from 1977-78 to 1979-80 with the Kitchener Rangers and Sudbury Wolves. He played 1,407 games in the NHL from 1980-81 to 1998-99 with the Nordiques, Washington Capitals and Colorado Avalanche.

Peter Laviolette played just 12 games in the National Hockey League, all with the New York Rangers during the 1988-89 season. He played pro from 1986-87 to 1996-97 with several teams in the AHL and IHL. Laviolette was behind the bench for a Calder Cup victory with the Providence Bruins in 1998-99 and a Stanley Cup championship with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2005-06.

A young Darryl Sutter is pictured on his O-Pee-Chee rookie card as a member of the Chicago Black Hawks. Sutter played just over 400 games in the NHL, all with the Hawks. Chicago drafted him in the eleventh round of the 1978 NHL Amateur Draft from the Lethbridge Broncos of the WHL. The pinnacle of his playing career was a 40 goal season in 1980-81.

Dave Tippett is featured on the front of his O-Pee-Chee rookie card. Dave was undrafted but went on to play over 700 regular season games in the NHL with the Hartford Whalers, Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. As a coach, Tippett won a championship with the 1998-99 Houston Aeros of the IHL.

Couldn’t find a hockey card of John Tortorella as a player but there are a few of him as a coach. Tortorella played in the old Atlantic Coast Hockey League in the 1980′s after playing for the University of Maine. He has been head coach of three championship teams: 1986-87 Virginia Lancers of the ACHL; 1995-96 Rochester Americans of the AHL; 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL.

Barry Trotz played junior hockey with the Regina Pats of the WHL in the early 1980′s but that was the extent of his playing career. He jumped into coaching and found himself behind benches in the AHL by 1990. He won a Calder Cup with the Portland Pirates in 1993-94. Trotz has been the only head coach in Nashville Predators history.