This road red knit gamer by Maska was worn by Brian Gualazzi circa the late 1970’s. The Minnesota North Stars selected Gualazzi in the 6th round of the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. Brian played for the Greyhounds from 1975-76 thru 1978-79 and was Wayne Gretzky’s teammate in 1977-78. In fact, it was due to Gualazzi wearing the player number 9, and rejecting Wayne’s request for it, that caused the Great One to eventually wear the number 99. Brian’s finest season came in his final year with the Soo. In 68 games he tabbed 74 goals and 134 points, earning his notice from the North Stars scouts!
The game wear on this sweater is solid and consists of stick and slash marks, board burns, board paint transfer, un-repaired burn holes and runs, heavy inner pilling and some fantastic team-sewn repair work across the front, back and sleeves, no less than 20 all told. Some of the repairs are material backed and swatches of material as large as 6” x 8” can be found on the interior! As the story goes, Wayne Gretzky did in fact ask for the player number 9 upon his arrival, but was turned down by Gualazzi. After wearing the number 19 for a few games, Wayne adopted the player number 99 at his coach’s suggestion “that two 9’s were better than one” and the rest as they say is history, intriguing!
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