Shea Weber Swatch Card

One captain leads to another, I guess. This time, a card from Nashville Predators captain Shea Weber in what may be the first feature I have of a Preds player.

Weber is part of an exclusive club, the Canadian Golden Boys as I like to call them - players who have won gold representing Team Canada at the World Juniors (2005), World Championships (2007) and the Olympics (2010). In 2009, while playing with Canada's silver medal-winning World Championship team, he made the tournament's All Star Team and was voted best defenseman; he was also on the Olympic All Star Team in 2010.

He currently holds the Predators' record for road goals in a season by a defenseman (12, established in 2009-10) and the team record for goals by a defenseman in a single season (23, achieved in 2008-09). He is the only team captain (out of 5) to have been drafted by the Preds. He was named captain in July 2010, about a month before his mother died of cancer relapse.

With everything he's accomplished so far, it's hard to believe Weber only went in the second round of the 2003 NHL draft; then again, it was an exceptionally great year, possibly among the best crop of all time, spawning no less than 17 NHL All Stars, 5 of which weren't chosen in the first round. He's an All Star himself, having played in the Young Stars game in 2007, and with the big boys in 2009 and 2011.

It's also difficult to remember he's barely 25 years old and has what could very well be his best years ahead of himself.

This card is from Panini's 2010-11 Limited set, is card #83 and is numbered 91/199; it is probably a jersey card, but we can't be sure, because the word 'jersey' appears nowhere on the card; instead, Panini phrases it this way:

The enclosed game-worn swatch is guaranteed by Panini America Inc.

So, all it says is it's clothing, and was worn in a game. Could be a piece of jersey, or a piece of sock; it could have been worn by anybody, too. What it is, though, is a square piece of dark blue fabric.