Scott Mellanby: 6 Autographed Cards (Part 1)

Today was an awesome day for returns, my best in a couple of years for sure!

In honor of the Philadelphia Flyers' win over the New York Rangers earlier tonight, I thought I'd start with one of their former 25-goal scorers, Montréal-born hard-nosed power forward Scott Mellanby.

The 27th overall pick of the 1984 draft, Mellanby proceeded to play his first two games less than two years later, at the tail end of the 1985-86 season. Over the course of the next seven seasons, spent between the Flyers (5 years) and the Edmonton Oilers (two), he was a steady 20-goal, 40-point, and 150-penalty minute man, playing a rough shut-down game that included punishing opponents and scoring clutch goals - usually game winners.

He had two deep playoff runs with the Flyers, 24 games in 1987 (10 points and 46 penalty minutes) and 19 games in 1989 (9 points and 28 penalty minutes), both times losing in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Oilers, who he was traded to (essentially for Jari Kurri) prior to the 1991-92 season.

These two cards show him wearing the Flyers' 1980s uniform I grew up watching:

On the left, in the white (home) uniform, is card #242 of Pinnacle Brands' 1990-91 Score (American), while the card on the right, in the orange (away) uniform, is from Pro Set's 1991-92 Series 1 collection (card #172).

Because the Oilers were so deep, though, he was relegated to a lesser role in Edmonton despite entering his prime; sure, he got 50 points in his first season with the team, but in 16 playoff games, he was only credited with two goals, an assist and 29 penalty minutes. These two cards are from that era:

On the left, wearing the Oilers' classic blue (away) uniform, is card #119 from Upper Deck's 1992-93 Series 1 set, while the card on the right - showing him in the team's white (home) uniform - is from Topps' 1992-92 Topps set (card #444).

        (continued in the following post)