The Ultimate Hockey Card Set - Card #113

Been a while since I did one of these posts. Today we'll choose card #113 for the franken-set of my all-time favorite hockey cards...

Not surprisingly, #113 is not exactly a number that belongs to All-Stars or Hall-of-Famers in most sets. Most of my #113s are like this Scott Young card here, nothing exceptional or really out of the ordinary.

Here's another one, decent player, decent card, but just nothing that special about it.

Peter Stastny is certainly worthy of inclusion somewhere in the set, and this card is unique for sure. The thing is, when I think of Stastny I think of the Nordiques, not the New Jersey Devils.

Steve Yzerman is one of the best players featured on any of my #113s. While the 1995-96 Upper Deck set is great, this card did not make the cut. Besides, I selected Yzerman's rookie card a while back so he's in the set already as it is.

The runner-up was this 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Kevin Lowe. '82-83 O-Pee-Chee is one of my favorite sets of the '80s. Lowe himself should be one of the first few people to come to mind when you think of the Edmonton Oilers. He was the team's first-ever NHL draft pick, has played more NHL games (both regular season and playoffs) in an Oilers sweater than anyone else, and scored the team's first goal (assisted by Gretzky). Since the end of his playing career he has served within the Edmonton organization as an assistant coach, head coach, general manager, Executive Vice President, and President of Hockey Operations (the role he currently holds). Huh, maybe I made the wrong choice here? Here's the card I'm going with over Lowe:

1989-90 Topps - #113 - Joe Sakic (RC)

This was the obvious choice for me for a few reasons. First of all, I've been putting a lot of effort into my 1980-81 through 1989-90 hockey sets lately, and I have a soft spot for the 1989-90 set in particular as it was the first I ever collected as a kid. I'd like to add at least one card from each year of the decade to this franken-set and Sakic's rookie seemed like the best choice from '89-90.

Secondly, and most importantly, Sakic was no slouch. 2 Stanley Cup Championships, 15th all-time in career goals scored, 8th all-time in career points, and twenty years spent with just a single franchise. Joe's a shoe-in for the Hall-of-Fame for sure.

Finally, this gave me a chance to select my very first Quebec Nordiques card, which was long overdue. If you can get past the fact that it's from the '89-90 Topps set, it's actually a significant card and one that I think just edges out the '82-83 O-Pee-Chee Kevin Lowe.

The Ultimate Hockey Card Set, now at 14 cards and counting, can be found here.