This road black knit gamer by Cooper was worn by Mike Hartman during the 1985-86 OHL season. The Buffalo Sabres selected Hartman, a Detroit native, in the 7th round of the 1986 NHL Entry Draft. He began his NHL career in 1986-87 with Buffalo where he played for 5 seasons. Mike went on to represent the Lightning for a partial year and then the Rangers for parts of 3 seasons before resuming his career in the minor leagues. During his brief 397 game NHL career, this enforcer accumulated an astounding 1388 PIMS!

Hartman spent most of the 1985-86 season with the North Bay Centennials after being traded by Belleville. This was Hartman’s 2nd professional season and the one where he developed into a goon. In 53 games for North Bay, while wearing this sweater on the road, Hartman scored 19 goals, 35 points and rang up 205 PIMS. His efforts caught the attention of the Sabres Scouts and Mike found himself in Buffalo merely a year later.

The game wear on this sweater is solid and consists of stick and slash marks, loads of board burns, plenty of board paint transfer and un-repaired burn holes, a number of runs in the stretchy Cooper knit material, gobs of inner pilling and a handful of team-sewn repairs. A customized old-school fight strap can be found proficiently affixed to the inside of this vintage minor league sweater. A nice pre-rookie offering donned by this former NHL goon.