The Roster - 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier

Today's post features one of the "top shelf" sets that hit the hockey card universe in 1990-91, O-Pee-Chee Premier.  This set featured a solid design and some big name rookies including Jagr, Roenick and Fedorov to name a few.  While it has crashed back down to earth in terms of book value, I think the design has really held up over time.  The Whalers are represented on 5 cards from the 132-card set:

#2 - Jergus Baca

Jergus certainly has an entertaining name.  He played in all of 10 career NHL games, all with the Whalers, but it was at the turn of the decade when card companies were starting to go crazy, so you'll be seeing more of him on this blog.

 #23 - Kevin Dineen

#32 - Ron Francis

Ron is certainly worthy of inclusion in this set, one of the game's all-time best.  I always liked this shot.

#43 - Bobby Holik

Another solid selection, Bobby went on to have a very good career in the NHL.

#128 - Carey Wilson

The Whalers could never decide whether they wanted Carey Wilson or not.  He came to them in a trade from Calgary for the second half of the 1987-88 season, and actually did quite well.  34 games into the next season though, they turned around and dealt him to the New York Rangers.  Fine, maybe they had seen enough and wanted to go in another direction.  A year and a half later however, he was back in a Hartford sweater, returning from New York in the deal that brought Michael Nylander to Hartford.

If you're a casual hockey card collector, or just looking for a decently priced older hockey set to pick up for fun, you could certainly do worse than 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier.  You should be able to score a complete set for around $20 or so, and I remember a time 20 years ago when a few of the individual cards booked for more than that!  Just the 132 base cards and no inserts, how refreshing.