Two Yann Danis Jersey Cards

You might know him best as the guy who now watches Martin Brodeur play every night, but once upon a time not too long ago, Yann Danis was a top NHL goaltending prospect.

It started while he was in high school, in his rookie year in Junior A when he was named to the Rookie All Star Team and Academic All Star Team; then came Junior AAA and another All Star nomination, and a scholarship from Brown University, where he received just about every award imaginable (including for best goaltender and best player of the league), recording three seasons with a save percentage of .929 or higher, and two with a goals-against average under 1.90.

Undrafted, he was signed to a free agent contract by his hometown Montréal Canadiens, with whom he played 6 games in the 2005-06 season, going 3-2-0, with a very respectable 2.69 GAA and .908 save % - but he spent most of his time with their AHL affiliate Hamilton Bulldogs, where he spent 5 seasons. Tired of not getting a real chance with the Habs, he signed as a free agent with the lowly New York Islanders in 2008-09 (31 games, 10-17-3, 2.86, .910) before joining the New Jersey Devils for the current season (with a GAA under 2.00 and a save % over .925 in 8 games so far).

These cards are from the 2005-06 Upper Deck set, the Rookie Threads sub-set. For this sub-set, Upper Deck was in such a rush to be the first to produce rookie jersey cards that they set up a photo shoot to have pictures with the players, then cut their jerseys to pieces and put them on the cards. If the picture on the card matches the piece of memorabilia (i.e. if he was indeed wearing the Canadiens' white jersey), it would mean that the first patch, all red, would be from either the shoulder, wrist or waist of the jersey, a rare enough piece, while the two-colour blue and white patch would inevitably be from the waist.

The red patch goes for $10-20 on the open market, while the dual-coloured one can reach $30-40. Imagine if he had his chance at putting up those high numbers in more games - the sky is the limit.