My obsession with Daignault-Rolland (D&R) Hockey Equipment from the Early 90's: An Ask from my Subscribers

Especially the iconic "Centurion" gloves: Jagr wore em!

It occurred to me as my subscribers have accumulated to provide a curioso about myself that might personalize me to my audience, while also gauging how effective crowd-sourcing my subscribers to assist in facilitating my restricted interest might be! Without further ado:

The obsession began for me as a youngish hockey kid and growing up watching one of my boyhood idols: Jaromir Jagr. In short, I watched him get drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins and suffice it to say was immediately enamored by him and his unique, dominating one-on-one playmaking ability. And, his unique odd-looking gloves.

Jagr as a rookie (note the gloves he is wearing):

The rest, of course, is predictable. I had to have the gloves he wore. Now of course, playing hockey in the Washington, D. C. area where I grew up, my team colors were of the Washington Capitals variety (red, white, blue). So, as fortune would have it, one Christmas Santa left me a pair of gloves I used from high-school on and still have:

I actually made the Washington Post once, but they misspelled my last name lol.

My collection to date:

+ the original Jagr model (a bit worn-found them from a local guy here in Pittsburgh via a Facebook group dedicated to the D&R line of equipment)

+ the leather variant of the black & white model Jagr wore (almost new, hardly worn, found via a connection in the same Facebook group mentioned above from a guy in Markham, Ontario, outside of Toronto):

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So, which variants of the D&R Centurion gloves am I most possessed to locate and hopefully acquire? From West Coast to East Coast:

Vancouver Canucks colors: (Igor Larinov)

Calgary Flames colors: (Sergei Makarov)

Minnesota North Stars colors: (Ulf Dahlen)

New Jersey Devils colors: (Viacheslav Fetisov)

And a random color scheme that I came across (maybe Chicago Blackhawks):

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So far, I have been most successful finding these gloves either via Ebay or Facebook Marketplace, but the search must be relentless and one has to oftentimes get lucky depending on when a listing is made. But, search terms and other idiosyncratic search criteria can often make the difference, I think. Also, depending on one’s location (i.e., my readers), they may know of other places to look. More of these vintage mits have to still exist, I think, and I am hoping to leverage my readers to see if anything can turn up. As a bonus, if one finds a pair of these mits that are available—or even a listing I can look at it—I will gift them a free subscription for my regular writing!

And just in case you couldn’t glean my restricted interest isn’t authentic, here is an add from D&R back in the day marketing the Centurion line and below that, my shin collection. All my shins are in good shape, and I sometimes still wear them when I play.

And just for kicks, my ‘office’ setup:

Fingers crossed! Thanks in advance for any effort on behalf of my subscribers. I appreciate you all.

-J.D.