Mark Messier Memorabillia Buying Guide
Posted by Adam Bierenbaum on August 24th, 2011
Mark Messier’s nickname “ The Moose” is a tribute to his size, strength, and determination. A player renowned all over the world for his leadership abilities and one of the all-time leading NHL scorers. Messier emerged from the great Edmonton Oilers teams of the 1980s to become a hockey superstar. He was a powerful skater who combined playmaking skills and a goal scoring touch with the toughness necessary to survive and thrive in the NHL. Six times his teams sipped from the Stanley Cup and on two occasions Messier took home the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player.
Like Gordie Howe, Messier is credited with being the most complete player of his generation. He aquired his multidimensional game during a childhood filled with hockey in his hometown of Edmonton. At the age of four, he was attending his father’s minor league practices. At age 11, he was a stick boy for the Spruce Grove Mets, in the Alberta Junior Leagues, the team he would star on just five years later.
In 1979 the Edmonton Oilers selected him as the 48th overall pick in the NHL’s entry draft. In his third season in the league he scored 50 goals, which had doubled his total from the year before, and was selected to the NHL’s first All-Star team. When the Oilers won their first of four Stanley Cups in five years in 1984, Messier, who was playing along side NHL greats such as Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey, and Grant Fuhr, was the most valuable player in the playoffs. Though Gretzky was the dominant offensive player on those teams, Messier was the perfect two way player, he was fast, powerful, and physical, which allowed him to excel at both ends of the ice.
When Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988, Messier was made the Edmonton Captain, though many predicted the Oiler’s success would leave with Gretzky. In the 1989-90 season though, Messier had a career year, finishing second to the great one in points with 129, and he also won the hart trophy for being the leagues MVP. That year he dominated in the playoffs to lead his team to the Stanley Cup, his fifth with Edmonton.
Messier was traded to the New York Rangers prior to the 1991-92 season. In 1994, Messier was at his very best in the playoffs, engineering one of the great moments in New York sports history.
The Rangers were down 3-2 to the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference finals. Messier then publicly guaranteed a game six win. He followed up on his promise with a legendary performance, scoring a hat trick to bring his team back from elimination and force a seventh game. Messier and the Rangers dispatched the Devils and then won the cup in another thrilling series against the Vancouver Canucks. With the championship, the teams first in 54 years, Messier became the first player ever to captain two different teams to Stanley Cup titles.
Following a lock out year in 2004-05, Messier made the decision to call it a career. Both the Edmonton Oilers and the New York Rangers retired his number 11. The NHL also decided to create the Mark Messier Trophy, a monthly leadership award.
