HEROES OF THE CREASE
ALBERTA COLLECTOR BRUCE CSÁNYI HAS TAKEN ON A TASK WORTHY OF THE HOCKEY HALL OF FAME: COLLECTING A GAME-USED ITEM FROM EVERY GOALTENDER IN NHL HISTORY.
Don’t talk to Bruce Csányi about impossible. The 30-year-old Edmonton native has heard it all too often as he’s embarked on a quest to do something no collector has ever accomplished, or maybe even seriously considered. His goal? Acquire a piece of memorabilia from every one of the 800-plus goaltenders to have appeared in an NHL game. “I don’t listen to the negativity. I recognize it is a nearimpossible task,” said Csányi, who has represented Canada internationally at ITF Taekwon-Do. “But giving up on the project because it is a Herculean task is not my style.” He’s set wide parameters to help him reach his goal, including game-used jerseys, sticks, gloves, pads, and masks. And he’s already well on his way, with 209 unique game-used relics, representing better than 21 percent of the all-time fraternity. “When possible, I prefer relics that are related to some milestone such as a first or last game, or 100th win,” to add to the historical significance of the collection, which he recently incorporated under the name Heroes of the Crease: Goaltending Museum and Memorabilia Ltd., or Heroes of the Crease for short. That decision helps make chipping away at the remaining 79 percent not as daunting as it might seem … and sets the stage for some big plans ahead. Like most collectors, Csányi started small. When his fa
ther gave him a handful of 1992-93 Upper Deck cards that were left behind by the former tenants of their apartment in Burnaby, British Columbia, he was immediately drawn to the goalies.
“I loved how one person is that last line of defense and how that individual has so much influence over the results of a game,” he said.
That love led him to play goal in multiple sports, including hockey, soccer, and handball. Unfortunately, his admiration for goaltenders didn’t translate to success between the pipes. “I wasn’t very skilled,” he admitted. Cards, then, became a way to embrace his passion for the position.
While his collecting interests were initially broad, it wasn’t long before he found a favorite in Latvian superstar Arturs Irbe. “I admired his goaltending style, his level-headed insights off the ice, and his dilapidated goalie equipment combined with his ancient Jofa cage mask that made him look so different than the rest of the netminders at the time,” he said.
For the next decade, Irbe’s cards remained his main focus.
His collection ultimately grew to a point that Csányi was recognized as a Super Collector in an issue of Beckett Sports Card Monthly. But as the years passed and his collection grew, he felt frustration set in.“There were so many other collectors competing for his cards, and card companies kept producing more and scarce singles, making it difficult for me to keep up,” he said. “As a completist who did not like missing out on rare items, my Irbe collection became more stressful than fun.”
Ultimately, it was a Christmas 2010 gift from his dad that led him in a new direction. “It was a 2002-03 goalie stick that Irbe used while with the Carolina Hurricanes,” he said. He called the stick “the light-bulb moment.”
Not long after, he he won a Mark Fitzpatrick Carolina Hurricanes jersey through Classic Auctions. “That was my first game-worn jersey,” he said. Holding both the stick and the jersey in hand, he made the decision that changed his collecting life.
Once he committed to the project, Csányi quickly acquired a Saint John Flames jersey worn by Levente Szuper, the first Hungarian on an NHL active roster, in his AHL debut, and an Anaheim Mighty Ducks jersey worn by Gregg Naumenko in the only NHL start of his career.
“I was hooked,” he said.
Players like Szuper or Naumenko might not have broad collector bases, but Csányi believes every goalie, and every relic, has a story worth telling.
“I find it ignorant when people call any goalie who played less than 400 games a scrub,” he said. “Only 812 goalies have ever played in the NHL, a miniscule number in comparison to the total number of skaters. Every goalie who played even a minute in the NHL (beat) extreme odds to get onto a roster so, to me, one minute or 1,500 games are equally great accomplishments. Former Calgary Flames goalie Leland Irving once told me that goaltending is the hardest job in pro sports (and it) takes a special person to do it well. With my collection, I’m motivated to help everyone appreciate every goalie in history as much as I do.”
The challenges he faces are massive, starting with the financial outlay. Game-used pieces generally tend to go for significantly higher prices than sports cards, so a want list of 812 players (and counting) requires a serious commitment.
Authenticity is another concern, especially with older pieces. “Jerseys and equipment were so often re-used or handed down to minor hockey teams that provenance on some pieces is sometimes difficult to trace,” he said.
Availability is another issue. While memorabilia of legends such as Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek,
or even Terry Sawchuk can routinely be found in major auctions, material for short-timers is maddeningly scarce. “You have to act on them once they appear, otherwise you might be waiting for years before you get another chance,” Csányi said. “Some of the ‘cup of coffee’ goalies, their pieces may no longer exist.”
Despite it all, he’s happy to continue chipping away at the numbers. “I’m realistic,” he said. “I know that, despite my goal, I will never be able to own 100 percent of them. But it’s not about the destination, it’s about the ride. And I’m enjoying this ride every step of the way.”
A good part of that enjoyment comes from the support he receives from others in the hobby.
“Networking with others is absolutely essential in getting some pieces for the collection and also in seeking second opinions/gaining new knowledge about items to gauge authenticity,” he said. “Getting to know people and spreading the roots out from there is so important. Having positive deals, a good attitude, and a clear focus leads to a positive reputation which then spreads around the hobby. The side effect of that is that it makes people more likely to want to deal with you, and (even) offer items that don’t make it out to the general public. It can also help get better prices on items that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive.
“Networking is also much easier nowadays with online forums and social media, though my favorite is still meeting people in person,” he said. “I enjoy opportunities to travel to big events like the MeiGray Expo.”
When he considers how far he’s come with the project, he recognizes he hasn’t done it alone. “I appreciate all the people who have helped me with this over the years, the encouragement given to me, the pieces sold to me, my parents and family for unknowingly starting off this collection and still encouraging it, even those people who give me information on memorabilia that has come up for sale. The collection wouldn’t be what it is today without every one of those people. I definitely had lots of help from the community at large.”
Doing right by others is key to his success. “You really fight an uphill battle if you are negative, you wrong people, or you don’t follow through on deals,” he said. “I feel I’ve done my part to have a generally positive reputation in the hobby and own up to mistakes if I make them.”
That reputation is starting to spread among the netminders themselves.“I’ve made excellent connections with many former NHL goalies, including Warren Skorodenski, Nick Ricci, Leland Irving, Tommy Soderstrom, and David Goverde among others,” he said.
One of those is Steve Passmore, who played 93 NHL
games with the Oilers, Blackhawks, and Kings. Passmore reached out to Csányi in search of one of the jerseys he wore during a six-game stint with Edmonton in 1998-99. “I owned (his) first NHL win Oilers jersey,” he said. “We spoke for some time and eventually made a deal. I traded the jersey back to him in exchange for a Phoenix Coyotes glove of his and a signed photo. More important, I also got a great story and made a new friend. And right afterwards, I acquired the mask he wore in his NHL debut, which I still have today.”
Asking Csányi to name a favorite piece in his collection is like asking a parent to rank their children.
“I honestly appreciate every relic, whether it’s from a legend or a one-game guy, he said. “But if I were to pick a top five right now, they would be Chris Osgood’s 2008-09 Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup Final home jersey, Kelly Hrudey’s 1984-85 New York Islanders road jersey worn in his playoff debut, Bill Ranford’s 1989-90 Edmonton Oilers home jersey, Josh Harding’s 2013-14 Minnesota Wild jersey worn in his final NHL win, and Gilles Meloche’s 1987-88 Pittsburgh Penguins road jersey used for his final two career NHL games.”
Despite having so many players on his wish list, it’s easer for Csányi to list a few key wants. “My dream piece would be one of Irbe’s 2001-02 Stanley Cup Final game-worn jerseys. I have a fair number of Irbe items in my collection already, but that’s my ultimate whale. Then there are some goalies who are very difficult to acquire due to their popularity with some very loyal collectors with seemingly endless budgets. Players like Felix Potvin, Ron Hextall, Evgeni Nabokov, and Ken Dryden are incredibly difficult to find anything of on the open market. Some teams are also relatively challenging to get pieces from, namely the San Jose Sharks or Chicago Blackhawks.”
The Sharks are at the center of one of his greatest regrets. “If there was one item I kick myself over passing on, it would be a mid-90s Sharks Irbe jersey,” he said. “I was a newer collector at that time and didn’t appreciate the rarity of Sharks gamers, nor how tough Irbe would be to find on the secondary market. I passed at what would now be considered a bargain price. It’s about learning every step of the way and moving on.”
Though Csányi has his sights set on completing the collection, that’s not his only goal.
“When I feel that I have enough relics, I want to operate my goalie museum as a traveling visual and educational exhibit dedicated to the history of NHL goaltending. It won’t be a stationary exhibit, though. I want to travel and show off these relics in the hockey capitals of the world, from Vancouver to Helsinki to Moscow, and beyond.”
He’s already had some experience exhibiting the collection. His first showing was in 2014 at the Summit Show in Sherwood Park, Alberta. “I didn’t yet have many pieces, but it was a perfect test to see if the interest would be there in the future should the collection actually get larger,” he said. “I’ve had five additional public exhibits since, each one more impressive and elaborate than the last.”
The pandemic canceled his 2020 plans, but more are in the works.
“There are big things on the horizon and I am excited to be a part of all of it,” he said.
For now, he focuses on maintaining a constant presence online. “I’m active as BRC Goaltending Museum on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I do daily posts about game-worn pieces, along with all things NHL goaltending past and present. I’m also on the major sports card hobby sites under the username IrbeFan4Life and have my personal website for the entire goalie museum collection at heroesofthecrease.com. I can also be contacted at heroesofthecrease@gmail.com.”
As he moves closer to his goal, Csányi has taken stock of what the collection means to him as well as to others.
“Some might say I live vicariously through the collection, and they would be right,” he said. “I get to live the goalie dream in a different way. Being encouraged by former NHLers, by guests at my exhibits, and by my followers of the project on social media shows me that what I am doing is the right thing for the the hockey community.”