This road blue knit gamer by CCM was worn by Bryan Fogarty during the 1995-96 NHL pre-season. The Quebec Nordiques selected Fogarty 9th overall in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft, 6 picks ahead of their other 1st round draft choice that season, Joe Sakic. This should speak volumes about the talent that Fogarty possessed. Bryan was a 6’ 2” 205 lb. defenseman who, in his last year in juniors, shattered all of the scoring records for a defenseman, including Bobby Orr’s goal scoring record. The 1988-89 season saw Fogarty play for the Niagara Falls Thunder. He partook in 60 games, scored 47 goals and added 108 assists for an incomporable 155 total points! With his juniors career in the books, Bryan was being discussed as one of the greatest junior players in Canadian hockey history! Sadly, tragedy would soon enter this story.

Fogarty would spend 6 seasons in the NHL and became the only defenseman in Quebec Nordiques history to score a hattrick, though ultimately he never lived up to his immense promise thanks to substance abuse problems. While in the NHL he became close friends with another tragic figure, John Kordic. The two were in rehab together and eventually became roommates with Quebec in 1991-92, helping each other battle their substance abuse demons. In January 1992, Kordic began using drugs again and soonafter died of a heart attack. Fogarty took the passing of his close friend very hard and actually blamed himself for Kordic’s death. Quebec traded Fogarty away a couple of months later and things were never the same in his career. After the trade he spent a brief amount of time with the Penguins, and then a couple of seasons in Montreal. He also inked free agent deals with several other clubs but failed to make their rosters. Fogarty did spend a number of years in the minor leagues following his NHL days, doing what he could to earn a living. Merely a year after retiring from hockey, in March of 2002, Bryan was found dead in his hotel room while on vacation in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. He had reportedly spent the entire day at the bar and never woke up to see the next morning.

Offered here is Fogarty’s road gamer from his time with the Buffalo Sabres. Fogarty inked a free agent deal with Buffalo after having spent 2 years with Montreal. The game wear on this size 54 sweater consists of stick and slash marks, board burns, board paint transfer, un-repaired burn holes, fine inner pilling, a fight strap that has lost the battle to salt and rust and a team-sewn repair. Worthy of mention is the faint outline of a nameplate change. A nice old-school blue and gold Sabres gamer that was donned by this immensely talented but tragic figure.