1972-73 O-Pee-Chee 157 Rick Martin Hockey Card (Front)
1972-73 O-Pee-Chee 157 Rick Martin Hockey Card (Back)
1972-73 O-Pee-Chee NHL Checklist
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Card Notes
A coming superstar in the NHL, Rick has given Buffalo fans plenty of hope for the future. He was runner-up for rookie of the year last season, and figures to be a regular All-Star performer in the years to come. Was a key member of the Memorial Cup winning Montreal Junior Canadiens as a junior, and scored a league leading 71 goals in his final season in the OHA.
En Français
Richard devrait devenir une super-vedette de la LNH. La saison dernière, il fut la deuxième meilleure recrue dans la ligue. Etoile des Canadiens Junior quand ils décompteur de buts de l’AHO avec 71 durant sa dernière saison comme junior.
Details
Rick Martin scored his first NHL goal in his second NHL game and just kept going from there. He was a bright spot on a lackluster 1971-72 Buffalo Sabres squad that finished just three points out of dead last in the league. Martin led the team with 44 goals and tied Gilbert Perreault for the team lead with 74 points.
Martin and Montreal’s Ken Dryden were neck and neck for Calder Trophy voting with the iconic goalie winning the rookie of the year award. Also in the running were Marcel Dionne, Gilles Meloche and Dave Burrows.
His numbers stayed pretty much the same in his sophomore 1972-73 season but the following year, Martin’s goal scoring rocketed. In 1973-74, he became the first Buffalo player to reach the 50 goal plateau with 52, a mark he equaled in 1974-75. To date, Rick and Danny Gare are the only Sabres players to have multiple 50 goal seasons.
The 71 goals he scored in 1970-71, his final year of junior hockey, led the league with just a single goal edge over Steve Shutt. His 122 points were good for sixth in the race for the Eddie Powers Trophy, 21 points behind leader Marcel Dionne. These numbers were nearly triple what Martin had contributed in each of his first two years with the Junior Canadiens.
Between 1971-72 and 1981-82, Rick Martin played 685 regular season and 63 playoff games in the National Hockey League with the Sabres and Los Angeles Kings. His time with the Kings was limited to just five games over his final two campaigns.