1965-66 Topps: Top Valued Goalie Cards

The 1965-66 Topps NHL set consists of 128 hockey cards featuring players from all six ‘Original 6’ teams. Best known for containing the Phil Esposito rookie card and the special card commemorating Gordie Howe’s 600^th National Hockey League goal, the set also contained the rookie cards of two future Hockey Hall of Fame goaltenders. Gerry Cheevers and Ed Giacomin are among the top three most valuable goalie cards in the 1965-66 Topps set.

Gerry Cheevers – Boston Bruins

Card number 31 serves as the rookie card of legendary goalie Gerry Cheevers of the Boston Bruins and has a book value of $200. Gerry would play just seven games in 1965-66 for the Bruins. His only other NHL experience came in 1961-62 when he played two games with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

As always, hockey cards celebrate the previous season. In 1964-65, Cheevers was the starting goaltender for the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League. In fact, he played all 72 regular season games for the Amerks, posting a 2.68 goals against average and recording five shutouts. Gerry was awarded the Harry ‘Hap’ Holmes Award for the goaltender with the lowest GAA in the AHL. He then played all ten games in the playoffs as Rochester captured the Calder Cup championship with a victory over the Hershey Bears in the finals.

Cheevers started slow with the Bruins with just the seven games in 1965-66 and 22 more in 1966-67. By 1967-68, he was Boston’s number one goalie. Gerry played in the NHL until the end of the 1979-80 season. The rest of his career was spent with Boston, with exception of a four year stint in the WHA with the Cleveland Crusaders from 1972-73 to 1975-76. Cheevers was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1985.

Ed Giacomin – New York Rangers

Number 21 in the 1965-66 Topps set is the Ed Giacomin rookie card and is has a book value of $150. Like Cheevers, Giacomin spent his entire 1964-65 season in the American Hockey League. He appeared in 59 games for the Providence Reds, posting a less than stellar 3.84 goals against average.

Ed saw his first National Hockey League action in 1965-66, thrown right into the fire with 36 games between the pipes for the Rangers. By 1966-67, he was playing nearly every game for New York. That year, he played in 68. The following year he appeared in 66 games and in both 1968-69 and 1969-70, Giacomin played in 70 games for the Rangers.

Giacomin played in the NHL until the end of the 1977-78 season. He finished his career with the only other NHL team he would play for, the Detroit Red Wings. Ed was traded to Detroit during the 1975-76 season. He won the Vezina Trophy in 1970-71 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987.

Terry Sawchuk – Toronto Maple Leafs

Well over a decade after his rookie card appeared, the value of Terry Sawchuk’s hockey cards had not diminished much. Number 12 in the 1965-66 Topps set featured Terry as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs and has a book value of $75.

In the 1964-65 NHL season, Sawchuk shared duties between the pipes in Toronto with Johnny Bower. Sawchuk played 36 games, recording a 2.56 GAA and posting one shutout. Bower played in 34 games for the Maple Leafs. The two were co-winners of the Vezina Trophy that year. It was the last of four times Terry would win the award.

Sawchuk first played in the National Hockey League in 1949-50 when he appeared in seven games for the Detroit Red Wings. He played in the NHL until the end of the 1969-70 season and along with his three separate stints with Detroit, Terry also played for the Bruins, Maple Leafs, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers.

Along with his four Vezina Trophy wins, Sawchuk was named the Calder Trophy winner in 1950-51 as NHL rookie of the year. He was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1971 after dying shortly after the end of the 1969-70 season.

1964-65 NHL Season

In the third last Original 6 season, the Detroit Red Wings placed first overall while the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins did not make the post season cut. When it came to the Stanley Cup finals, Detroit was nowhere to be found. Instead, the Montreal Canadiens were victorious in seven games over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Stan Mikita was awarded the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer with teammate Bobby Hull was awarded the Hart Trophy as league MVP. It marked the final season for ‘Terrible’ Ted Lindsay of the Red Wings.