25 most bizarre goalie masks in NHL history
By C.L. Kohuss
No. 17: Wayne Stephenson and the Flyers mask
In an era where goalies were probably more focused on trying to make children cry than win a Stanley Cup, there’s this one. We don’t know if Wayne Stephenson could see the future and was hoping to replicate a Super Mario Bros. character, and we don’t care. Where can we get one of these?
Throughout his 10 years in the NHL, Stephenson wore a few different masks that were all sorts of crazy and kinda awesome. There’s this style he had for the Washington Capitals, a look similar to what he had in his previous years with the Flyers.
Early on with St. Louis, Stephenson also had a much different goaltender’s mask. We won’t show you here, suffice it to say it was more or less a wad of spaghetti someone threw at his face and it stuck for 40 plus games.
Yet nothing can top that Philly cage. The creativity itself is pure choice. From the Flyers color scheme (it’s readily available for viewing online) and the use of the logo to create a pair of creepy raccoon eyes, to the way it tapers off towards the neck and has a sense of length not seen in most masks of the time.
Notice if you will how small the pads are. If he came out and told us he was using a pair of dirty couch cushions, we’d darn well believe it.
We couldn’t tell you what Stephenson was truly going for with this mask. It doesn’t matter. We love this one. To ice it off, he won a Stanley Cup. So invariably that thing is either in a museum somewhere, or on a mantle giving guests to his house heart palpitations.