Shoebox Memories: Lars Molin

Check out the lid on this guy:

That's Lars Molin, a skilled, Swedish forward from the 1980s, best known to North American audiences as a member of the Vancouver Canucks. The specialty teams specialist played three seasons in the NHL, from 1981 through 1984, registering 33 goals and 98 points in 172 career games. Aside from some strong play in the Canucks unexpected march to the Stanley Cup finals in 1982, Molin's NHL career is mostly forgotten, except maybe for his helmet and those awful Canucks "V" jerseys.

The image above is not a hockey card, but rather a sticker produced by OPC/Topps in the 1982-83 season. We would collect stickers (this particular set had 263 to search for) and post them in an accompanying sticker album, such as the one pictured here to the right.

Hockey stickers of this sort have existed in similar variations since at least the 1960s, and continue to be an interesting and generally cheaper alternative to hockey cards to this very day.

By the way, Molin enjoyed a lengthy and noteworthy career in Sweden when not playing with the Canucks. The native of Ornskoldsvik (a small hockey hotbed that later produced Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund and the Sedin twins) starred for years with the local club Modo. He also represented Sweden on the national team many times, winning Olympic bronze medals at both the 1980 and 1988 Olympic games, and a gold (1987) and silver (1981) medal at the world championships. He also represented Sweden at the 1981 Canada Cup.