He might be one of the inaugural members of the Pittsburgh Penguins Hall of Fame. He might have scored 55 goals in a season. He might have been assistant coach when the Penguins won consecutive Stanley Cups in the early 1990’s. However, there’s no cardboard love for Rick Kehoe with his 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee and Topps rookie cards valued as commons.
Junior Hockey
Hockey Card Collection
NHL Career
Coaching Career
Rookie Card
Career Stats
Rick Kehoe – Junior
Kehoe played two years of junior hockey in the OHA, 1969-70 and 1970-71, with the London Knights and Hamilton Red Wings. He was traded to Hamilton midway through his first season when the Darryl Sittler led Knights attempted to trade the future for a championship.
Rick Kehoe Collection
Along with Rick, London traded away Gord Brooks, Mike Craig, Tim Southwick, rookie defenseman Jim Schoenfeld (!) and Joe Widdis in exchange for Gary Geldard and Dave Gilmour. With all their new found youth, the Red Wings did not qualify for the post season. London placed sixth out of ten and after beating the Peterborough Petes in the first round of the Robertson Cup playoffs, didn’t win a game against the Toronto Marlboros in the second round.
In 1970-71, Kehoe led Hamilton in assists and points, scoring 39 goals and assisting on 41 for 80 points over 58 regular season games. The Red Wings reached the playoffs but fell to the Ottawa 67’s in the opening round.
Rick Kehoe – NHL
The Toronto Maple Leafs selected Rick in the second round of the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft, 22nd overall. He played in the National Hockey League from 1971-72 to 1984-85 with the Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins. Over 906 regular season games, his numbers were certainly more than common card worthy at 371 goals and 396 assists for 767 points. He played an additional 39 games in the playoffs and added 21 points.
What stood out over Rick’s NHL career was his clean play. Over his 906 regular season games, he accumulated just 120 minutes in penalties. He sat just two minor penalties in the playoffs. In 1980-81, he was awarded for his sportsmanship, honoured with the Lady Byng Trophy.
Kehoe was a rising star with the Maple Leafs and scored 33 goals in his first full season with the club. However, the Leafs traded him to Pittsburgh for the start of the 1974-75 season, in exchange for Blaine Stoughton. Stoughton played just a year and half with Toronto and totalled 54 points. Kehoe stands today as the fourth leading point producer in Penguins history behind Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Sidney Crosby with Evgeny Malkin within striking distance.
A six time 30+ goal scorer in the NHL, the 1980-81 season was Kehoe’s pinnacle in the league. Playing the full 80 game schedule, Rick scored 55 goals and assisted on 33 for 88 points. He led the Eddie Johnston coached Penguins in goals and points while tying Wayne Gretzky for fourth in the NHL for goals scored, behind Mike Bossy, Marcel Dionne and Charlie Simmer.
Rick suffered an injury to the vertebrae in his neck during a game in February of the 1983-84 season. Just six games into the 1984-85 season, he had numbness in his arm that traced back to the injury the year before. Kehoe was forced out of the game due to the risk of further damage, including loss of mobility. In 1992, along with Bob Johnson and Jean Pronovost, Rick was one of the first three inducted into the Pittsburgh Penguins Hall of Fame.
Rick Kehoe – Coach
The longest serving assistant coach all-time for one team? Kehoe was behind the bench as assistant for the Penguins from 1987-88 to 2001-02 under more than a handful of head coaches. He took his turn as head coach four games into the 2001-02 season and all of 2002-03. In those pre-Crosby days, the Penguins did not qualify for the post season in either year. He was behind the bench as an assistant for Pittsburgh’s back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1990-91 and 1991-92.
Rick Kehoe – Rookie Card
Both the 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee 60 card and 1973-74 Topps 179 card are considered the Rick Kehoe rookie card. The difference from the front is quite simple, the O-Pee-Chee card is bordered in red and the Topps card is bordered in blue. Both cards are rated as commons.
The 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee set is best known as the home of five significant rookie cards. Larry Robinson leads the way with Billy Smith, Terry O’Reilly, Bill Barber and Gilles Gilbert not far behind.
Rick Kehoe Career Stats
| Season | Team | Lge | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 1969-70 | London Knights | OHA | 23 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 6 |
| 1969-70 | Hamilton Red Wings | OHA | 32 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 7 |
| 1970-71 | Hamilton Red Wings | OHA | 58 | 39 | 41 | 80 | 43 |
| 1971-72 | Tulsa Oilers | CHL | 32 | 18 | 21 | 39 | 20 |
| 1971-72 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 38 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 4 |
| 1972-73 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 77 | 33 | 42 | 75 | 20 |
| 1973-74 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 69 | 18 | 22 | 40 | 8 |
| 1974-75 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 76 | 32 | 31 | 63 | 22 |
| 1975-76 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 71 | 29 | 47 | 76 | 6 |
| 1976-77 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 80 | 30 | 27 | 57 | 10 |
| 1977-78 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 70 | 29 | 21 | 50 | 10 |
| 1978-79 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 57 | 27 | 18 | 45 | 2 |
| 1979-80 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 79 | 30 | 30 | 60 | 4 |
| 1980-81 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 80 | 55 | 33 | 88 | 6 |
| 1981-82 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 71 | 33 | 52 | 85 | 8 |
| 1982-83 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 75 | 29 | 36 | 65 | 12 |
| 1983-84 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 57 | 18 | 27 | 45 | 8 |
| 1984-85 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NHL | 6 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| NHL Totals | 906 | 371 | 396 | 767 | 120 |