Sticky Whalers

The most recent trade package I received from longtime friend of the blog Douglas Corti, aka buckstorecards, contained enough Hartford Whalers stickers to coat a Trapper Keeper!  In fact, inside was close to an entire team set of 1988-89 Panini Stickers.

Amazingly, I had none of these in my entire collection prior to receiving this group.  The players are nice, but I like these first couple of stickers even more.  The logo sticker that led off the post is cool, but this one featuring the home and away "kits" (sorry, my inner soccer fan sneaking in there) is even more interesting.  This is back during a time when the white sweater up top would be home and the dark would be away.

For a smaller sized surface area, Panini did okay with the design for these.  The larger right portion of the sticker contains an action photo, and the left a portrait shot with player and team name.

I'm betting there are some epic mullets to be found on the checklist, but the Whalers stickers are fairly tame by '80s hockey hair standards.

Kevin Dineen gives you a nice look at those solid green road get-ups!

Ron Francis' 'fro looks like you could bounce a quarter off of it!

The last two Whalers cards on the checklist are kind of cool...

...as they each represent one half of a complete team photo.  Put them together and you get something like this:

I would have probably stuck these all over the place when I was a kid, was very thoughtful of Douglas to hook me up with all of them and give my Whalers collection a nice boost.

Oh and he included one baseball card too, an awesome autograph of catcher Blake Swihart from 2014 Bowman Sterling.  Because Douglas is just that kind of guy!

Thanks for the great cardboard always!  I'll have a return PWE on the way up north within the next few days I hope...