This home white knit gamer by CCM was worn by Joe Mullen during the 1985-86 NHL season. Mullen, an undrafted winger who grew up in New York’s tough Hell’s Kitchen, was the first U.S. born player to score 500 NHL goals. A member of the 1000-point club, Joe is a deserving member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and the USA Hockey Hall of Fame. After graduating from Boston College, Joe began his NHL career with the St. Louis Blues where he spent the first 5 years of his vaunted career. He joined the Calgary Flames prior to the deadline in 1985-86 and helped lead his team to the Cup Finals only to fall to the Montreal Canadiens later that spring. Revenge would come a few seasons later as Mullen netted a career best 51 goals and 100 points in 1988-89 with Calgary and helped lead them to their first ever Stanley Cup championship in a rematch against Montreal.

After parts of 5 seasons with the Flames, the Pittsburgh Penguins saw fit to acquire Mullen in 1990-91. As he had done in the past with Calgary, Joe helped the Pens to the Finals in his first season, this time a winning effort that was followed by another the next year as the Pens stormed to back-to-back Stanley Cup titles. Mullen spent 6 of his last 7 NHL seasons playing in the Steel City. Mullen owns a Lester Patrick trophy for outstanding service to hockey in the United States, 2 Lady Byng trophies for the combination of sportsmanship and high ability as well as 3 Stanley Cups championships. On the international stage, Mullen represented Team USA in 3 different Canada Cups and remains one of the greatest born US players of all-time.

Sewn to the left shoulder of this gamer is the 1988 Olympic patch. Sewn into the collar is the born on date ’85-07’. Light but definite use exists on this sweater with stick marks and inner pilling most worthy of mention. A beautiful autograph in Mullen’s own hand has been added to the inside collar on the back of the nameplate. The provenance behind this jersey leads us back to a Charity Auction in the 1980’s. The winning bidder kept this sweater impeccably preserved for the past 3 plus decades before just making it available to our hobby for the first time in 30 some odd years. A beautiful patched example worn by this US born Hall of Famer during the year that Calgary made their first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.