colintimberlake.comTell her it wasn’t you…

Few players in NHL history have enjoyed anywhere near the impact of Wayne Gretzky, the man who holds virtually every single-season and career offensive record in the league. Goals in a season. Assists in a season. Points in a season. The same for his career, almost 1,000 points ahead of the man in second place, former teammate Mark Messier.

As a result, it is no surprise that Wayne Gretzky’s 1979-80 professional rookie card is considered by many to be the holy grail of hockey collectibles. With each one in existence now 30 years old, it is increasingly difficult to find one in stellar condition. They’re actually not that easy to find, period.

Like Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, and Eric Lindros after him, expectations were high for Gretzky as he entered the professional ranks. However, in the late 1970s, few could have predicted that he would singlehandedly revolutionize the game and rewrite the league’s scoring records to an extreme that had really never been previously seen in professional sports. No man had ever scored 160 points in a season. Gretzky would score 200 four separate times. Nobody else has ever scored 200 before or since.

In a confusing convention for hockey cards, the cards are designated by the hockey season during which they were released, not the season of play which the statistics on the back of the card represent. Therefore, Wayne Gretzky’s 1979-80 rookie card is actually the publication made for his 1978-79 season. The card was produced by both O-Pee-Chee (OPC) and Topps.

This season of Gretzky’s actually occurred in the now-defunct World Hockey Association (WHA), a competitor league to the NHL that was absorbed by the larger organization in 1979, the following year. This subsequent season was Gretzky’s first in the NHL. Because of his professional season in the WHA the prior year, he was not technically considered a rookie and was not eligible for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, despite leading the NHL in scoring in his first year with 137 points.

In his first professional season, designated by his rookie card, Gretzky split the year between the Indianapolis Racers and the Edmonton Oilers (who joined the NHL in the WHA merger). The season was a smashing success, with 47 goals and 110 points, incredible totals for a rookie. Regrettably, his WHA totals are not included in his record-setting NHL numbers (despite a comparable level of competition) or his career NHL statistics would be even more impressive.