7 GREATEST MAINSTREAM SETS
These cards were the staples of playground trading sessions and endless games that involved flipping, wall tossing and more.
1971-72 O-Pee-Chee
How can you argue with one of the greatest checklists of all time? This 264-card set features the RCs of Ken Dryden, Guy Lafleur and Marcel Dionne, three players who have to rank among the top-25 players of all-time, along with a solid supporting cast of Richard Martin, Reggie Leach and Rick MacLeish. It also has a brutally tough checklist card (#111) and retirement tributes to Gordie Howe and Jean Beliveau. Plus it delivers one of the greatest designs ever, featuring the player framed in an oval, the team name in bold colors up top and the logo at bottom right. Simple, but classic.
1972-73 O-Pee-Chee
While it lacks a headline RC, this four-series collection of 340 cards is the epitome of ‘70s hockey cards. This set really leans into the era with a variety of brightly colored backdrops that would have seemed wildly inappropriate just a few years earlier. It also includes the first cards of the expansion Atlanta Flames and New York Islanders, along with an entire fourth series dedicated to players from the new World Hockey Association. Hard to imagine a manufacturer mixing two rival leagues into the same set today, but the decision carved a unique station for this set in hobby history.
1979-80 O-Pee-Chee
You can make the case that card #18 – you know, Wayne Gretzky’s RC – is the most important card in the hockey hobby, so its presence alone ensures this 396-card beauty a spot in the top three. The set also is memorable for the blue borders that make collecting it in top condition absolute murder. Add in players from the four WHA teams absorbed into the NHL, along with the final career cards of Howe, Hull, Dryden and Stan Mikita, and you have a truly generational set.
1970-71 O-Pee-Chee
This 264-card set – a behemoth, at the time – is revered for a stunning array of HOF RCs, including Gilbert Perreault, Bobby Clarke, Darryl Sittler, Brad Park and Guy Lapointe. It also features a stunning subset of NHL trophies, along with the gorgeous black background All-Star subset. But what really makes this set pop is the design, with studio shots superimposed on a brightly colored backdrop with spotlight splashes. It’s just a great looking set.
1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA
At just 66 cards, this is the smallest set to make the list. Size, however, doesn’t reflect its significance. This was the first mainstream set to focus exclusively on the stars of the renegade league, which worked to legitimize it in the eyes of many youngsters who previously focused exclusively on the NHL. And while it lacks any RCs of enduring significance, it includes most of the key NHL defectors, including Bobby Hull, Gerry Cheevers and Gordie Howe, who is pictured alongside sons Mark and Marty on card #1.
1974-75 O-Pee-Chee
The classic design, featuring a hockey stick along the left border with the team logo over the blade, marks this as one of the best sets of all-time. At 396 cards it was 50 percent larger than the Topps set that season and it was packed with RCs, including those of Denis Potvin, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming and Steve Shutt. It also returned coach cards to the mix for the first time in years. Two of them, Don Cherry and Scotty Bowman, were key to the set’s resurgence in the 1990s.
1978-79 O-Pee-Chee
Although a definite drop-o from the first six sets, the 396-card ‘78-79 series does have its charms. The key RCs include Mike Bossy, arguably the greatest goal scorer of all-time, along with regional favorites Doug Wilson, Bernie Federko and Dave Taylor. It also features a card commemorating the retirement of Bobby Orr, who was pictured not as a Hawk or a Bruin, but with Team Canada from the 1976 Canada Cup. It’s a fairly straightforward set, and relatively easy to build without breaking the bank.