Johnathan Aitken Autograph Card

Here's another card (#75, with a blue sharpie signature) is from The Score Board's 1996-97 All Sport PPF set - for more about that set, read this morning's entry on Josh Holden. This time, it's former Boston Bruins first round pick Johnathan Aitken (here wearing his WHL Medicine Hat Tigers uniform and having his name mistakenly spelled ''Jonathan'', like a kid from my high school who went missing in 1993, and like a disgraced former British minister who was convicted of perjury).

Never really an offensive threat, Aitken has only managed to collect a single assist in 44 NHL games, split in two seasons 5 years apart, first with the Bruins, then with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2003-04. He has also played for 4 different AHL teams, in the ECHL, in the Czech League, and he played a season in the Austrian league in 2006-07 before retiring.

He had been chosen 8th overall in the 1996 NHL draft, a weak one, considering Alexandre Volchkov, Ric Jackman, Boyd Devereaux, and Erik Rasmussen were all chosen ahead of him, and other not-quite-big-name players such as Lance Ward, Dan Focht, Holden, Mario Larocque, Matt Higgins, Matthieu Descoteaux, Jeff Brown (not the one from the late 80s, obviously), Craig Hillier, Peter Ratchuk and Jesse Wallin completed the first round.