This home white knit gamer by Maska was made for Yvon Cournoyer’s use during his final NHL season. The Roadrunner had an illustrious career spending all 16 of his seasons as a member of Les Habitants. Yvon became Montreal’s Team Captain upon the retirement of Henri Richard following the 1974-75 season. In all four of his seasons as team Captain, he guided his Canadien’s to 4 consecutive Stanley Cups which spanned 1975-76 thru 1978-79.

This was a team considered by many to be hockey’s greatest all-time dynasty. Cournoyer posted 428 career goals and was a member of 10 Stanley Cup winning squads in 16 years. His immense talent earned him four 2nd Team NHL All Star berths in addition to partaking in 6 NHL All Star games. In addition, Yvon was the 1973 Conn Smythe winner as the playoffs Most Valuable Player.

Yvon suffered a career ending back injury after playing in only 15 games in this, his final season. Cournoyer was determined to make it back into action for the 1979 playoff run and thus this gamer was prepared for him. Unfortunately hockey fans didn’t get to see Yvon hoist the Cup one last time in 1979, but if he had, this was the jersey that he would have been wearing. In franchise history the Canadiens had never done so prior or since, but for some reason decided to use a nameplate with heat pressed lettering for the 1979 dynasty run. So unhappy was the team with the results of this experiment, that they stripped off these nameplates and when reusing these Maska knits the following season, sewed on traditional lettered nameplates.

This fragile nameplate, while still attached, has split at the far right side. Though never worn in an NHL game, this jersey’s use was put on afterwards. This gamer was originally sourced by a friend of Cournoyer’s who made it available to the hobby for the first time some 4 odd years ago.  It is a nice piece of Canadiens history.