Alex Delvecchio’s National Hockey League career spanned over twenty seasons from 1951-52 to 1973-74, all with the Detroit Red Wings. He played in 1550 regular season games and contributed 1281 points to the Red Wings cause. For twelve of those years, Delvecchio was team captain. He was the longest reigning team captain in team history until Steve Yzerman came along.
Delvecchio was a product of the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey Association. he played just one season with Oshawa, 1950-51. In 54 games, he scored 49 goals and assisted on 72 more for 121 points. The point total was just three shy of linemate Lou Jankowski who took the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as the league’s leading scorer. The two were dubbed the “Payoff Pair” in Oshawa. Jankowski played just 127 games in his NHL career with Detroit and the Chicago Black Hawks.
Delvecchio began his NHL career just as Parkhurst re-introduced hockey cards to the mass market. The 1951-52 Parkhurst series is better known for the Gordie Howe rookie card, but Alex’s is quite sought after by collectors, as well. The Alex Delvecchio rookie card, #63, is worth up to $400, according to Beckett Hockey Monthly
Alex Delvecchio Collection:
Alex’s last card (not including all the ‘legends of hockey’ style crap that gets put out every year) came in the 1974-75 Topps / O-Pee-Chee series. The Delvecchio card from that 1974-75 series features him as the coach of the Detroit Red Wings and is unrated by Beckett. His last card as a player came the year before and the 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee #1 card is worth $5.
His time spent with Detroit was rather productive. He found himself among the top scorers in the league on several occasions but could never get past Howe to win an Art Ross Trophy. Among players that spent their whole career with just one team, Delvecchio holds the record for most seasons and games played. He was part of three Stanley Cup winning teams in Detroit and won the Lady Byng Trophy three times as the league’s most gentlemanly player.
Delvecchio coached the Red Wings from 1973-74 to 1976-77 but unfortunately it was the Dead Wings era and the team failed to make the
playoffs once with Alex behind the bench. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1977 and his number 10 was retired by the Red Wings in 1991.