Monday, February 10, 2020

Alex Galchenyuk Jersey Card

Honestly, it feels like Alex Galchenyuk is running out of chances and will be facing KHL purgatory for at least two or three years, as he's two days away from his 26th birthday, on the final year of a deal that brings him to unrestricted free agency and is in his fourth organization in a year and a half after getting traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Minnesota Wild earlier today, with a first-rounder and a decent defensive prospect, Calen Addison, a 2018 second-rounder who just won gold with Team Canada at the World Juniors, for Jason Zucker.

It looks like Galchenyuk brought the overall deal's value down, which is why the Pens had to include a pick and a prospect for the three remaining contract years of second-liner Zucker.

This is the second time in less than a year that the teams had agreed on a Zucker move, but Phil Kessel has nixed the first attempt with his no-trade clause, and he's the one Pittsburgh sent to the Arizona Coyotes for Galchenyuk.

Galchenyuk is currently on pace for 8 goals, but he had scored 19 in each of the previous two seasons, 17 the year before that and a career-high 30 in 2015-16 with the Montréal Canadiens, who had selected him third-overall in 2012.

Many people at the time thought he may have been the most talented forward in his draft class - Filip Forsberg (11th) has shown this to be incorrect and Teuvo Teravainen (18th) is making a case to relegate "Chucky" further down the line, with Tomas Hertl (17th) also looking to do the same.

It's a shame, too, because he does did have all the tools to be an elite forward, from size (6'1", 207 pounds) to a good vision to good passing skills to way above-average puck-handling and deking skills to decent speed to a very good wrist shot... but he seems a lot slower now when he should be in his prime, and he can't seem to be able to keep up with the type of players that could help him get back to top-six production numbers.

Let's hope he's put in the proper environment to salvage the rest of his 20s and not one where off-ice temptations are too difficult to resist.

Here he is from brighter days, sporting the Habs' classic red (now-home) uniform on card #GJ-AG from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:
It features a white game-worn jersey swatch that is probably from their away uniform.

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