1988-89 Rick Tocchet NHL All Star Game Worn Jersey

Tocchet tortured the Penguins from 1984 to 1991, before being dealt to them in a massive deal involving Paul Coffey, Mark Recchi, Ken Wregget, Kjell Samuelsson, and more. The Penguins had just won their first Stanley Cup the previous season, but were floundering midway through 91-92. Tocchet brought grit and skill as an elite power-forward, helping to turn their season around with 30 points in 19 games, and then adding 19 points in 14 playoff games en route to a second consecutive cup.

After being traded to the Kings for Luc Robitaille in the summer of 1994 (the highest scoring left winger in NHL history pre-Ovechkin), a move that many say was orchestrated by Wayne Gretzky, Tocchet would return to the Pens in 2014 as an assistant coach, once again instilling a tough-guy attitude and helping a star-studded squad to bring it every night. He would go on to win back to back cups with the team, accomplishing a feat he narrowly missed in ‘91 and ‘92.

This CCM All Star jersey was worn by Rick Tocchet on February 7th, 1989 at the 40th NHL All-Star game in Edmonton. He was in the middle of one of his best seasons, scoring eighty-one points in sixty-six games. Tocchet notched two assists in the third period of the game, an eventual loss to the Campbell Conference. The jersey shows very light wear, as players wore a different jersey for every period. Fortunately, it is photomatched to a press photo where the spacing of the twill of the numbers on the left arm lines up exactly with those of this jersey. There’s also what appears to be blood stains on the cuffs, as Tocchet was cut on his nose at the time of the photo.