Can I Get Some Cesare on the Side?

The only person happier to hear about the Great Expansion of the NHL in ’67, other than the owners who knew they would get a couple million dollars thrown their way, was Cesare Maniago.

Cesare could not get a break early in his career playing behind Jacques Plante on the Habs and Johnny Bower on the Leafs. Maniago started off playing without a mask, but not long after being claimed by the North Stars, he began sporting the mask. There’s nothing cooler than the goalies of the 60s and 70s when they wore the Jason Voorhees looking masks.

Before Maniago donned the mask, he and Gump Worsley had the best kept hair in the league. But as soon as he put that mask on he looked like a completely different person. He looked more like Doug Jones in Hocus Pocus with a goalie mask on. Maybe he just liked drive to the game with his head out the car window like a shaggy dog, looking all disheveled during the game.

His stature at 6’3” made him look even cooler and popular with the fans as they would chant “Hail Cesare” every time he made a save. These two attributes make Maniago one of the coolest old school hockey cards you can find. You just can't help but ask, “who is that?” when you pull him out of a pack of Parkhursts.

Cesare ended up playing nine seasons with the North Stars before he was traded to Vancouver. Two years later he hung the mask up and retired. Today Cesare owns a sporting good store in British Columbia.