For 1976-77, O-Pee-Chee and Topps included five hockey cards featuring standout lines in the National Hockey League for the 1975-76 season. The most valuable card of the five features the Long Island Lightning Company line of the New York Islanders. Basically, any card with Bryan Trottier’s face on it in the 1976-77 set was worth more than your average card.
The other four line cards:
- The French Connection of the Buffalo Sabres (Rick Martin, Gilbert Perreault, Rene Robert)
- LCB Line of the Philadelphia Flyers (Bill Barber, Bobby Clarke, Reggie Leach)
- Checking Line of the Montreal Canadiens (Bob Gainey, Doug Jarvis, Jim Roberts)
- Bicentennial Line of the Pittsburgh Penguins (Lowell MacDonald, Syl Apps, Jean Pronovost)
The number 216 card featuring the Long Island Lightning Company is now valued at $5 for the O-Pee-Chee card and $3 for the Topps card. On the front of the card are Clark Gillies, Bryan Trottier and Billy Harris. Billy’s days on the top scoring line were numbered with the arrival of Mike Bossy for the 1977-78 NHL season.
Billy Harris
Harris scored 32 goals and assisted on 38 for 70 points over 80 games in 1975-76, good for 4th on the Islanders in points. Harris played five years of junior hockey in the OHA with the Peterborough Petes and Toronto Marlboros. In his final season with the Marlboros, he led the OHA with 129 points, earning the Eddie Powers Trophy.
The Islanders used their first overall pick to make Harris their first ever draft pick in 1972. Billy played in the NHL from 1972-73 to 1983-84, playing just shy of 900 regular season games with the Islanders, Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs. He was traded to L.A. during the 1979-80 season for Butch Goring and, therefore, missed the Islanders four year Stanley Cup dynasty.
Clark Gillies
Gillies, in his second year in the NHL, finished sixth on the Islanders for points in 1975-76 with 61 on 34 goals and 27 assists in 80 games. Gillies played junior in the WCHL (the current WHL) for three years with the Regina Pats from 1971-72 to 1973-74. In his final season, the hockey gods may have sent a sign with Gillies tying future teammate Bryan Trottier for tenth in the league with 112 points.
The Islanders took Gillies fourth overall at the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft. He played 958 regular season games in the NHL between 1974-75 and 1987-88 with the Islanders and Buffalo Sabres. It took a while but in 2002 Clark was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Bryan Trottier
Trottier finished second on the 1975-76 Islanders to only Denis Potvin with 95 points on 32 goals and 63 assists in 80 games. Like Gillies, Trottier played three years in the WCHL but from 1972-73 to 1974-75. In his final season, he placed second in the league to future rival Mel Bridgman with 144 points.
The Islanders selected Trottier in the second round of the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft, 22nd overall. He went on to play 1,279 regular season games in the NHL between 1975-76 and 1993-94 with the Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins. Bryan found his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, 1997.
The tag line on the card is ‘Top Scoring Line’. However, two defensemen showed them up with Denis Potvin finishing first on the team with 98 points and his brother Jean placing third with 72 points. Jude Drouin finished fifth with one more point than Clark Gillies.