Back Stories: Woolley Bully

"Jason came over from Florida to join Pittsburgh during the 1996-97 season, his sixth year in the league. He was originally selected by Washington in the third round of the 1989 NHL entry draft. Woolley won a silver medal with Canada at the 1992 Olympics."

Jason was on that rag-tag expansion "Rat" Panthers team that eliminated the Penguins from the playoffs just one year earlier before getting traded to Pittsburgh. The Penguins also received Stu Barnes in the deal, sending Chris Wells to Florida in exchange. 

He was on the 1992 Team Canada squad at the Olympics as the card notes. At 20 years old, he left Michigan State after his junior year, making the Olympic roster after four months of tryouts. What the card fails to mention is that he has the distinction of being the first Canadian to score in an Olympic shootout. 

Oh, and you remember the "skate in the crease" goal by Brett Hull in the Buffalo/Dallas Stanley Cup? He had a front row seat to that. After only 57 games for Pittsburgh, he was traded to Buffalo for a 1998 5th round pick (which turned out to be Rob Scuderi).

This #mailday card comes from the 1997-98 Pacific Crown Collection set. This one is the "ice blue" parallel version of the base card. The card is number #279 in the set. Fun fact about this set, card #66 is missing and wasn't printed. Coincidentally (or the complete opposite), Mario Lemieux doesn't appear on the set checklist. On April 5, 1997, he announced his retirement due to the lingering health problems he faced. In 2001-02, Pacific would later rectify the missing card by including it in their flagship release.  

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