Is it just me or is Paul Shmyr’s head just a tad too small here?

Kinda reminds me of the shrunken head guy from the movie Beetlejuice. You know the dude I’m referring to.

I don’t know, there’s just something unnatural about Paul Shmyr’s rookie card. Why is he looking to his left while his body is obviously pointing to the right. Something don’t add up here. Just take another look.

Wait a minute, hang on a sec while I take a quick look at my “oldies” hockey card binder…

Ah ha!

Paul Shmyr’s head isn’t too small. It’s just been cut off. Looks we gots ourselves another one of O-Pee-Chee’s world famous decapitation jobs. Turns out the body in this card belongs to Seals rookie Ron Stackhouse.

Ah, now that’s better.

Paul Shmyr’s rookie card may have been a bit strange, but he overcame that awkward start to his Seals career to become one of the great defensemen of the 1970s, not that anyone knew about him since he spent his best years in the World Hockey Association. After his one season in Oakland, where he quickly became known as a nasty, heavy hitting and hard punching player, he joined the WHA’s Cleveland Crusaders. He scored 309 points in 511 games in the rebel league, and he was named the league’s top defenseman in 1976. He was also part of Team Canada 1974, and provided the team with a physical presence on the blue line. When the WHA was absorbed by the NHL in 1979, many historians believed Shmyr was the league’s all-time best defenseman, even better than the late, great J.C. Tremblay. Sadly, Shmyr passed away in 2004 after a battle with cancer.