1990's Favorites - 1991-92 Upper Deck Euro-Stars

I'm showing off some of my favorite early 90's hockey insert sets as we near the 2011-12 NHL season. So far we've seen:

1993-94 Leaf Hat Trick Artists

Today's post features the 18-card 1991-92 Upper Deck Euro-Stars set. I think everyone who collected as a kid has those few sets that strike a chord, whether they were the first cards in your collection, a set you ripped a ton of, or something that you latched onto for sentimental reasons. For me, 1991-92 Upper Deck falls into the second category, a set that I ripped an insane amount of packs of.

I'm pretty sure that everything I opened came out of standard hobby packs. The 1991-92 Upper Deck Euro-Stars inserts were found in jumbo packs only though. So, I never landed a single one of these as a kid. I rectified that yesterday, picking up all 18 of them at the hobby shop. My cost? A mere $2. Here are all 18 in numerical order:

NHL Career: 55 Games Played, 5 Goals, 8 Assists, 13 Points

Alright, so the set doesn't start off so strong. It's going to get better, and in a hurry.

NHL Career: 990 Games Played, 473 Goals, 559 Assists, 1,032 Points

See, I told you. Is it just me, or does Mogilny not get as much love in the collecting world as some of the other Russian/European snipers of the early 90's like Fedorov, Bure and Jagr?

NHL Career: 1,314 Games Played, 326 Goals, 421 Assists, 747 Points, and...1,421 PIM!

The lone Whaler in the set, and the card featured at the top of the post.

NHL Career: 362 Games Played, 68 Goals, 126 Assists, 194 Points

Semenov's stats are misleading as he played in Russia for the entire decade of the 1980's, his prime years. The design on these is identical to the 1991-92 Upper Deck base cards, with the addition of a small Euro-Stars logo in the lower right corner. The flag of each player's nation is portrayed in the crest of the logo, a nice touch.

NHL Career: 982 Games Played, 310 Goals, 407 Assists, 717 Points

A ton of talent, generally regarded as a soft player though. Bounced around to quite a few teams in his NHL career.

NHL Career: 1,273 Games Played, 646 Goals, 953 Assists, 1,599 Points...and counting!

Surefire Hall-of-Famer. It will definitely be interesting to see how he fares this year in the NHL.

NHL Career: 983 Games Played, 394 Goals, 463 Assists, 857 Points

Big, physical wing. Captured a Cup with Detroit in 1997.

NHL Career: 771 Games Played, 144 Goals, 194 Assists, 338 Points

I saw this guy play more than a few times for the Hartford Whalers back in the day.

NHL Career: 1,248 Games Played, 483 Goals, 696 Assists, 1,179 Points

Always nice to add another Fedorov to the collection. I think I'm over 75 now...

NHL Career: 877 Games Played, 244 Goals, 386 Assists, 630 Points, 1,077 PIM

5-time Stanley Cup winner. Did you know he actually made his NHL debut in the Cup finals?

NHL Career: 621 Games Played, 134 Goals, 298 Assists, 432 Points

Apparently retired from the NHL because he refused to play for the Jets. I find that funny for some reason.

NHL Career: 1,081 Games Played, 503 Goals, 389 Assists, 892 Points

Played the majority of his career in Washington, but hit the 500-goal plateau in his final season as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks.

NHL Career: 1,346 Games, 564 Goals, 785 Assists, 1,349 Points

Joins Jagr and Bondra as the only three 500-goal scorers in this set. Finished his career at just better than a point per game. Impressive.

NHL Career: 389-223-82 Record, 81 Shutouts, .922 Save Percentage, 2.20 GAA!!!

One of the most exciting goalies I've ever seen in net. 2.20 career GAA, not too shabby at all.

NHL Career: 609 Games Played, 114 Goals, 197 Assists, 311 Points

Started his career with the Wings, but was dealt and ended up playing for some pretty bad teams.

NHL Career: 223 Games Played, 10 Goals, 39 Assists, 49 Points

Finally, 16 cards in and we have the first defenseman. Alexander played for quite a few NHL teams, including my beloved Hartford Whalers.

NHL Career: 1,080 Games Played, 57 Goals, 275 Assists, 332 Points, 2,453 PIM

Brutal enforcer who is still blamed in Boston for cutting Cam Neely's career short with a knee-on-knee hit. Current head coach of Modo Hockey in Sweden.

NHL Career: 921 Games Played, 169 Goals, 475 Assists, 644 Points

3-time Stanley Cup champion, and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

There you have it, the 1991-92 Upper Deck Euro-Stars set. I've got at least 3 or 4 more of these posts to go before the puck drops on the upcoming season.