Well, remarkably this happened. And after a recent eBay pickup, I'm pleased to have autographs now for all three brothers. Here they are:
In hockey conversation, Peter is the brother you'll hear about first, simply because he was the most talented. Just how talented? How about this stat:
Wayne Gretzky scored more points from 1980 through 1989 than any other player in the NHL. Guess who's second on that list? Yep, that's right. Peter Stastny.
That's not to say his brothers were slouches, however. Check out the stats on the backs of their 1984-85 cards:
And that's not even the half of it.
Many hockey fans—and sports fans in general—are familiar with the story of Soviet or Cuban athletes defecting in order to pursue their professional careers here in North America. But I think fewer fans know that athletes from Czechoslovakia under the Soviet influence faced the same dangerous path.
And in 1980, the Stastny brothers—Peter, Marian, and Anton—had quite the experience getting here.
The best article I've found on the subject is here, at BSN Denver:
https://www.bsndenver.com/stastny-brothers-defect-for-nhl/
Please give it a read. Just remarkable.
That's so cool! I wasn't into hockey back then... but I thought it was cool that Sedin twins were drafted back to back and played their entire careers together.
ReplyDeleteGood analogy for sure. The story of the Sutter brothers from the 1980s is pretty amazing as well. What's more amazing is that some of their sons are professional hockey players now, too.
DeleteI had never heard of these guys before, cool story (that article was very interesting), and congrats on the autos - having all three together makes it seem right, if that makes any sense?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon! Yes, having all three autographs is only fitting, especially being that they're all from the same set. Good-looking cards, too.
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