This home white mesh gamer by Stall & Dean and Olympic Sporting Goods was likely worn by both Peter Mahovlich and Jim Rutherford during the 1979-80 NHL season. The Detroit Red Wings selected Mahovlich with the 2nd overall pick in the 1963 NHL Amateur Draft. He began his 17-year NHL career in 1965-66 with Detroit. He was best known for his time with the Montreal Canadiens, parts of 9 seasons in all, where he won 4 Stanley Cups during the early to mid 1970’s. Pete wrapped up his career with stints in Pittsburgh and Detroit. In 884 games, Mahovlich scored 288 goals and totaled 773 points. He was 5-times a 30+ goal scorer who was twice an NHL All Star.

The Detroit Red Wings selected Jim Rutherford with the 10th overall pick in the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft. He began a 13-year NHL career with Detroit in 1970-71. Over the course of his career, Rutherford would suit up for the Wings on 3 different occasions, with brief stints in Pittsburgh, Toronto and Los Angeles in between. Jimmy spent parts of 10 seasons between the pipes in the Motor City and appeared in 59 games for them, a single season career high in 1974-75. For those not familiar, Rutherford has served as the Hartford Whalers and Carolina Hurricanes GM dating back to 1994.

Sewn into the collar of this gamer is the Stall & Dean, wash, size and year tagging. Sewn into the hem is the Olympic Sporting Goods tag. The game wear on this sweater is solid and consists of stick and slash marks, board burns, board paint transfer and inner pilling. The old-school fight strap remains perfectly affixed to the back just beneath the player number. There has been a number change from Pete’s #11 to Jim’s #1 as well as the obvious removal of the nameplate on this jersey. We surmise that Mahovlich was the primary user of this sweater during the 1979-80 season and at some point during or after the Wings needed an extra home jersey for Rutherford and used this Mahovlich which already had the #1’s in tow. A nice piece of Red Wings history, worn by not one, but two of the more well known players of their era.