This road blue heavy knit gamer by Maska was worn by Basil McRae during the 1983-84 AHL season. McRae began his NHL career with the Quebec Nordiques in 1981-82. After two years with the Nords, McRae joined the Maple Leafs where he spent his next two seasons. Basil next spent parts of two years with the Red Wings in the mid 1980’s before rejoining Quebec for a 33 game stint in 1986-87. In 1987-88 McRae joined the Minnesota North Stars for what would be a 5-year stint. A partial season followed with the expansion Tampa Bay franchise before a mid season deal took Basil to St. Louis. McRae spent parts of the next 4 years with the Blues before putting the wraps on his career with the Chicago Blackhawks.

All told McRae spent 15 years running roughshot over the NHL. Despite appearing in only 576 games during that span, McRae amassed 2453 PIMS, one of the all-time greatest per game averages the NHL has ever seen. His single season best came in 1987-88 with the North Stars, when he rang up 378 PIMS. He followed that up the next two seasons with 365 PIMS and 351 PIMS, wow! Pop in any great NHL fight tape from Basil’s era and you’re sure to witness plenty of footage featuring this legendary pugilist.

Offered here is McRae’s minor league sweater from his first year as a member of the Maple Leafs organization. Basil played in 3 NHL games that season and spent the majority of the year with St. Catherines where he partook in 78 regular season contests and rung up a respectable 187 PIMS. In 6 playoff games Basil added another 40 PIMS for good measure.

The game wear on this prized sweater is tremendous and consists of stick marks, plenty of board burns and colorful board paint transfer, un-repaired burn holes, washed out bloodstains, heavy inner pilling and 15 team-sewn repairs. The standard issue fight strap has been replaced with a custom garter style strap complete with plastic clip and skate lace extensions added for good measure. The fight strap itself has been reinforced a couple of times with some additional team-sewn repair work. A definite grail for the heavyweight fight collector still in search of a great Basil McRae gamer, one of the best McRae’s in the marketplace, choice!