Marian Gaborik Jersey Card

I had a post on scoring machine Marian Gaborik during the Olympic break last season, when he had 35 goals in 58 games with the New York Rangers and the Slovak team was making its way to the medal round. He finished the season with 42 goals and 44 assists (good for 86 points) in 76 games with the Rangers, who missed the playoffs by a single point by losing in the very last NHL game of the season to the Philadelphia Flyers - the Stanley Cup finalists - in overtime.

He was injured early on this season but is returning to the ice tomorrow against the Buffalo Sabres - expect a hat trick. So far this season, he has yet to score, netting two assists in three games.

This beautiful jersey card is from Panini's brand-new 2010-11 Certified set (card #MG), the Fabric Of The Game sub-set. Taking a cue from Upper Deck's playbook, the back of the card vaguely states ''the enclosed game-worn material is guaranteed by Panini'', which is both all the certification one needs but also far from the vocabulary used a decade ago when companies would specifically say the item had been worn by the same player in an official game, naming the player. But unlike UD's jsersey cards, this one has nice facts and tidbits of information about Gaborik's NHL career, namely that it'll take a while before anyone on the Minnesota Wild's roster beats his team records, which is well deserved.

I'm not sure how much this specific card is worth yet, but 5-card packs are going anywhere from $10 to $25, with 10-pack boxes going $100-155 - and he is one of the league's most gifted forwards, albeit not a household name like ''Crosby'' or ''Ovechkin''. Yet.