1970-71 Williams Förlags Vladislav Tretiak

When I came across this little gem on eBay, I just had to have it. I believe I paid around $10 for it but still have no idea of it’s actual value. It’s a standard sized Panini style card that would fit into a standard Panini album. However, it seems to be a dual project with Williams Publishing (Williams Förlags AB) from Sweden.

The 1970-71 Williams set consists of 384 total cards measuring 65mm X 47mm. The series is a mix between players from the Swedish elite league and international team members from Sweden, Finland, Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and East Germany.

Card number 230 features the great Vladislav Tretiak (Tretjak) and a lesser known but great (in Russia) defenseman Yevgeny Paladiev (Evgeny Paladjev). The Swedish player is not named.

Vladislav Tretiak is, of course, the greatest goaltender in Russian hockey history. Arguably, he is one of the greatest hockey goaltenders to play the game period. Tretiak won three Olympic gold medals and and ten World Championships gold medals playing for the USSR. He played internationally for the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1984. He played in the Russian elite league with CSKA Moscow from 1968-69 to 1983-84.

Tretiak was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in the seventh round of the 1983 NHL Amateur Draft, 138th overall but couldn’t get clearance to leave the Soviet Union. His hockey career ended not long after with still so much left to give. Vladislav was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989. He was the first non-North American player that never played in North America to enter the Hall.

Yevgeny Paladiev played internationally for the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1973. He was a member of Torpedo Gorky in the Russian elite league from 1965-66 to 1967-68 and Spartak Moscow from 1968-69 t0 1974-75.

Paladiev appeared in three games for the Soviets in the 1972 Summit Series. He played in the games at Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. The defenseman was replaced because he wasn’t prepared for the Canadians.

Yevgeny became a member of the Soviet Hall of Fame in 1969. He died in 2010 at the age of 62 of heart disease.

This is the translation from Swedish of what is written on the back of the card (using Google Translate):

A THREE CROWNS – attack averted by Evgeny Paladjev and – in the bag Vladislav Tretjak, who hid the puck in his glove picking. (Williams  Publishing Ltd) Printed in Italy by Panini 1970 – Prod No. 653

I stumbled across a great website dedicated to the legends of Soviet hockey. Check out CCCP Hockey International.