Under-rated: 1973-74 Dave Keon O-Pee-Chee #150

Rated at not much more than a common card, the 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee #150 card should be a prized possession of any Toronto Maple Leafs fan. The O-Pee-Chee #150 is of Toronto team captain Dave Keon, but from the picture on the front of the card, you’d have a hard time determining that.

The 1973-74 series featured mostly studio pictures of the players with a few ‘action’ shots mixed in. None included as many hockey greats as the Keon card. The picture is taken at the faceoff circle with the puck about to be dropped in a game between the Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres. Taking the draw is number 9 for Toronto, Norm Ullman, and an unrecognizable Sabre centreman (if you know who this player is, please add to the comments below).

Keon (#14 for the Leafs) is on the wing, lined up against former teammate and Hockey Hall of Famer, Tim Horton (#2 for Buffalo). Behind Keon, wearing #19 and the helmet is Paul Henderson, hero of the 1972 Summit Series for Canada.

Three of these four players are enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Horton entered posthumously in 1977 after dying in a car crash during the 1973-74 season. Norm Ullman was next in 1982 and Keon entered in 1986. Paul Henderson’s possible place in the HHOF has been debated for years.

The O-Pee-Chee #150 is valued by Beckett at just $5.00. Tim Horton’s card from the same series is valued at $6 and Ullman’s comes in at $5. Paul Henderson’s card is not rated so would most likely fall in the semi-star range and be valued at $3. The 1961-62 Parkhurst Dave Keon rookie card is valued much, much higher.

Of course, the Sabres were a brand new time at the time, entering the National Hockey League for the 1970-71 season, along with the Vancouver Canucks. It would only be a few years later that the team would reach the Stanley Cup finals, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers in 1974-75. As of yet, Buffalo has not won a Stanley Cup championship and visited the finals only one other time, 1998-99. However, their Cup drought is still three years shorter than Toronto’s.

The same picture is on the Topps version. Dave Keon’s card is number 85 in the American set.

If anyone can tell us who the Buffalo centreman and the Buffalo player behind Tim Horton are, as well as who the linesman is, it would be greatly appreciated.