Jets Preview: Troy Murray: Two Autographed Cards

(team and product links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: I liked doing last year's format, so I'll be doing it the same way this season as well, partly because of that but also because as a father of a toddler and a baby, I just do not have enough time to write two separate posts per day on each blog. I'll copy these on each one instead. Like last year, the entire scope of the analysis will take place here and the player will have some sort of direct connection to what's written.

Caveats: At this point, despite training camp being set to start, several players haven't found a team yet, many RFAs haven't signed with their respective teams, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.

Key exits: Mason Appleton (C), Mathieu Perreault (C/LW), Tucker Poolman (D), Laurent Brossoit (G), Derek Forbort (D), Nate Thompson (C), Trevor Lewis (C)

Key Arrivals: Nate Schmidt (D), Brendan Dillon (D), Riley Nash (C)

Top prospects: Cole Perfetti (C), Ville Heinola (D), Dylan Samberg (D), David Gustafsson (C), Kristian Vesalainen (LW), Chaz Lucius (C), Mikhail Bergin (G), Dmitri Kuzmin (D), Simon Lundmark (D)

Now that they've added to their blue line via the low-key Norris-level Schmidt and dependable Dillon, the Winnipeg Jets are once again a force to be reckoned with, with the best goalie in the world in Connor Hellebuyck, tremendous leadership in Blake Wheeler, star power in Mark Scheifele, the NHL's most underrated forward in Kyle Connor, and another potential first-line centre in Pierre-Luc Dubois, who underperformed last season after coming in a couple of weeks late due to Canadian Covid-19 protocols and never really getting enough time to catch up, but who has proven in the past that he can carry the load. And Schmidt's arrival will send Neal Pionk and Josh Morrissey in ideal slots (they were fine operating as the top-two defensemen but will be elite #2s and #3s).

What makes their odds look good:
A team with Hellebuyck between the pipes makes the playoffs. A team with him and Schmidt, Pionk and Morrissey might win a round. Add two potent offensive lines and a full cast on D (including Dylan DeMelo) and you may get a Conference Final.

Question marks: Eric Comrie is now in his 8th season trying to make it as the Jets' backup goalie. Will it work this time? He's a bit too good for the AHL and no longer has anything to prove there, he just needs to step up and have a save percentage above .905 to keep his head above water. This team is strong but not especially deep. A couple of key injuries could derail a lot of good things - and one to Hellebuyck would be deadly.

Outlook:
Don't sleep on the Jets. In a relatively weak Central Division where only the Colorado Avalanche are a powerhouse, there is a path to the third round that's wide open, and Winnipeg's talent level ranks on par with that of the St. Louis Blues, and above the Minnesota Wild, Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars.

Prediction:
Second in the Central Division.

Troy Murray was only a member of the Jets for a year and a half before the team - which had acquired him from the Chicago Blackhawks prior to the 1991-92 season - sent him back to the Hawks in February of 1993. The Jets ended up with the rights to Warren Rychel (who never played in Winnipeg) and Steven Bancroft while the Hawks landed Bryan Marchment (one of the meanest and dirtiest players of all time) and Chris Norton. Murray was by far the best player in any transaction, captaining the Jets for the duration of his stay in Canada and winning the Selke trophy in 1985-86 as well as the Stanley Cup in 1996 with the Colorado Avalanche alongside Rychel.

He was also captain of the Team Canada squad that took home the gold medal at the 1982 World Juniors.

After two stints with Chicago spanning 12 seasons and one year playing for the IHL's Chicago Wolves (posting 21 goals, 29 assists and 50 points as well as 63 penalty minutes in 81 games), Murray joined the Hawks' broadcast team upon retiring as a player, and it was announced just last week that he had been diagnosed with cancer. I wish him the best of luck in his fight for his life.

Here he is wearing the Jets' white (then-home) uniform, on card #215 from Pro Set's 1992-93 Series 1 collection:

And here he is in action pivoting in front of New York Islanders goalie (and fellow current broadcaster) Glenn Healy, with Jeff Norton in possession of the puck:

Both were signed in blue sharpie while he was in town with the Hawks, around 2015-2017.

Brad Shaw Autographed Card

(team links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

The Gatineau/French Ottawa region's main newspaper Le Droit made an interesting parallel today betweeen the current edition of the Ottawa Senators and the first-year expansion team their uniforms reverted back to this season, noting that original captain Laurie Boschman makes it a point to watch every Sens game this season, and comparing the teams' respective records after 11 games (1-9-1 in 1992-93, 2-8-1 in 2020-21, both teams winning their first game by a 5-3 score).

One of my favourite players from that first edition of the Sens was Brad Shaw, one of seven (!!!) former Hartford Whalers on the inaugural team (with Peter Sidorkiewicz, Norm Maciver, Sylvain Turgeon, Jim Thomson, Jody Hull, and Steve Weeks), to go along with a handful of former Buffalo Sabres and nearly the same amount of former New Jersey Devils. Add that up, and it's no wonder the team finished with 70 losses in 84 games, including a span of 20 in 21 games, with a tie against the Sabres thrown in for good measure.

Shaw looked like a hockey player, quick on his skates, a wonderful passer, decent if not flawless defensively (seasons of -47 and -41 in Ottawa were more a testament to the team's lack of depth and how often he had to be thrown on the ice than any additional danger when he set foot out there). He was a top point producer in the OHL, AHL and IHL, and his point-per-game average was better in the playoffs than in the regular season in each of those leagues, which is a testament to how he could elevate his game in important moments. Unfortunately, despite making the All-Rookie Team with the Whalers in 1989-90, his time in Ottawa burned his NHL bridges in the mid-1990s, which is why he suited up with the Atlanta Knights (1994-95) and Detroit Vipers (1995-99, where he was officially a player and assistant-coach) until he had a late-season surge with the Washington Capitals (4 games) and St. Louis Blues (12 regular-season games, 4 in the playoffs) to close out the millennium.

Still, for me, with the All-Rookie credentials in Hartford and a co-captaincy with the Sens in 1994-95 after the team bought out Boschman, he'll always remain a member of those two teams first and foremost in my mind.

He retired as a player following his short stint with the Blues and immediately (re)turned to coaching, as an assistant with the Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL), as head coach of the Vipers (IHL),then assistant with the Springfield Falcons (AHL), Cincinnati Mighty Ducks (AHL), assistant (first half) and head coach (second) with the New York Islanders (NHL, 06), nine seasons as either assistant- or associate-coach with the Blues under four different head coaches (NHL), and his most impactful tenure, assistant to John Tortorella with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

It is in Columbus that he helped forge the team spirit that has produced results year in and year out despite improbable odds, a high roster turnover (mostly of star players) and strong divisional rivalries. After all, the Metro Division is home to the Caps and Pittsburgh Penguins, winners of three of the last five Stanley Cups.

Today's Sens are closer to the 2007 Pens than the 1994 Senators, however, full of promising young guys who just need to adjust to the speed of the NHL game and learn to win as a team. And those uniforms are just amazing, as seen on card #151 from Fleer's 1994-95 Fleer Ultra set:

It's one of my favourite NHL uniforms. Shaw signed the card during his short time with the Isles. Of those hard times in Ottawa, he says:

They say you learn more in defeat than victory; I can say we learned more than anybody in the league that year. It was hard, but each day you have to remind yourself that you're priviledged to play in the NHL. (...) And some veterans tried to lighten the mood up; Doug Smail once got up and said: "guys, it's not that we're a terrible team, it's just that we're playing in a very good league" - the entire room had a good chuckle.

Nearly half the players on that team never suited up for another NHL club afterwards, but the vast majority kept playing, either in minor leagues or in Europe. I admire their dedication and resilience.

Anthony DeAngelo Autograph Card

(team and product links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

The New York Rangers have put one of their best defensemen, Tony DeAngelo, on waivers after an altercation with goalie Alexandar Georgiev and alternate captain Chris Kreider.

As good a hockey player as DeAngelo is, his personality was always an issue. While this is the first time I have personally heard a lot of this (I knew he was a Trump supporter, but my Quebecer bias thought a hockey player might have only been a passive supporter or at worst gone "cult-light" unlike, say, the Capitol insurrectionists), it is substancially documented that he has always had issues.

There was a bout of anger after a loss as a youth, an eight-game suspension in the OHL for using racial slurs on a teammate that shed light on the fact that it was at the time his second disciplinary measure in such circumstances, and he's been suspended in the OHL and NHL for (physical) abuse of officials. And the intention to leave Twitter for Parler speaks loudly to his worldview as well.

I don't know how I missed a lot of this. I kept wondering why he wasn't mentioned by the Canadian (and Hockey) media in general, and it felt off that a top-four regular who is among the league leaders in points would be so often overlooked, but I get it now, they were just sweeping it under the rug. I have (at least) three of his cards, so one more to feature here after today's post - and I'm fairly certain no one will take them off my hands even if I don't want them in my collection anymore. I'll have to recycle them as a "teaching tool" for my kids, I guess. And I didn't mention it here today, but even in the NHL, he's been a dick to a Black teammate, K’Andre Miller, so I guess I already know what I'll write about next time.

We'll see how that all develops. Deadspin - which looks intent on calling all hockey players inherently racist while overlooking the fact that skaters from 21 countries and 30 nationalities whose homelands may be dealing with racial issues in ways that differ from the Amerian white/Black/OPOC paradigm form their "white" contingent - are on DeAngelo's case and dug out quotes from his father that show this is how he was probably raised. I'm confident they'll get at the bottom of the story.

Here is today's subject, on card #176 from Fleer's 2016-17 Fleer Showcase set and Hot Prospects Autos sub-set, manufactured by Upper Deck:

It features a blue-sharpied, on-sticker autograph and shows him as a member of the Arizona Coyotes. It is numbered #200/499.

Wild Preview: Mikko Koivu Jersey Card

This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: 2020 is a different beast and requires adaptability; in my case, it means the joint posts with my "main/personal" blog will not be in the "player here/analysis there" format but rather the entire scope of the analysis will take place here and the player will have some sort of direct connection to what's written. Caveats: at this point, despite the season being set to start in Mid-January, several impact players haven't found a team yet and quite a few teams are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.

GM Bill Guerin is reshaping the Minnesota Wild (player links go to other posts on my blog, team links are sponsored by Amazon): gone are Eric Staal, Alex Galchenyuk, Jason Zucker, Devan Dubnyk, Luke Kenin, Ryan Donato and even long-time captain Mikko Koivu, in are Cam Talbot, Marcus Johansson, Nick Bonino, Nick Bjugstad, and Dakota Mermis... so far.

What makes their odds look good:
Talbot isn't a bad goalie, he had a Vezina-worthy season in 2016-17 - far enough to doubt, close enough for Wild fans to believe. Kevin Fiala, Mats Zuccarello, Jared Spurgeon and Matt Dumba are top-unit players, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter still play top-unit minutes, Marco Rossi and Matthew Boldy look like solid prospects and Kirill Kaprizov actually has a fair shot at a Calder Trophy with what he accomplished last season in the KHL (first in goals, third in points, All-Star at age 22, one of a handful of point-per-game players in the entire league).

Question marks:
Other teams have used Johansson as a middle-six forward, the Wild may not have that luxury, and it remains to be seen if he can produce at top-line level. Does Suter start breaking down now taht he's in his mid-30s? Will Parise get injured again? How many young guys steal jobs from veterans with their play?

Outlook:
Minnesota is clearly in a rebuild; Guerin wants veterans he knows and trusts to not disrupt the process and perhaps help win a few games here and there, but this roster is the middle-point in a huge turnover, and it's unclear who will be there three years from now save for Rossi and Boldy. Still, in a top-heavy and shallow West Division, the Wild have a legitimate shot at a playoff spot; they'll battle for fourth place with the Arizona Coyotes.

Prediction:
Fifth in the West Division, a point or two behind Arizona.

There was a loud minority clamoring for Koivu's departure online these past few years, but I've never seen it reflected in the larger realm of Wild fans. Instead, most praised his effort level and two-way (although more and more on the defensive side as the years went on) play and saw him as a fine captain, just perhaps overpaid in the twilight of his career. Because it seems too commonplace in today's NHL, I wasn't exactly shocked when Guerin announced #9 would not even be re-signed as a fourth-line center, but found it sad that a player of his stature who had played his entire career with the team and been the first player in franchise history to hit the 1000 mark (and scoring the shootout winner in the milestone game) would not be allowed to retire in green and red. Here he is wearing the team's original white (home) uniform on card #HM-MK from Fleer's 2007-08 Hot Prospects set and Hot Materials subset, manufactured by Upper Deck:

It features a nice, dark green ame-worn jersey swatch.

I believe he will get along fine with John Tortorella and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Stéphane Quintal Autographed Card

The Winnipeg Jets are experimenting with their forward depth these days and possibly eyeing the future as they are turning first-line winger and captain Blake Wheeler into the second-line centre they've been looking for for the past three years and slotting Patrik Laine in his spot alongside Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor.

The thinking is if Wheeler can remain effective as a centre playing behind Scheifele, both will see advantageous match-ups - perhaps even more so Wheeler - as opponents will now have two lines with the potential to take over a game and pay attention to.

With goalie Connor Hellebuyck back to his Vezina-level ways, that just leaves the defence as a point of concern, particularly the right side, which reminds me that Stéphane Quintal has once held that position as a 25/26-year-old, as can be attested by card #245 from Fleer's 1994-95 Fleer Ultra set, which he signed in black sharpie at his induction into the LHJMQ Hall Of Fame last year:

You tend to forget how simple and beautiful their white (home garbs were at the time, because you mostly see the dark jersey nowadays, but "WOW". The veteran of 1037 NHL games is still the Assistant-Director and Senior VP of Player Safety for the NHL but would listen if an NHL team came calling with an offer for a front-office job.

Cliff Floyd Autographed Card

I've been hearing rumours of the existence of a sport I once thought was extinct: baseball. Apparently, not only is it still going on, but we would be in the midst of their playoffs, and an imaginary team called the Washington Nationals would be a part of it; I can't wait for the New York Yankees to win the World Series so things get back to normal and I can focus on hockey and football again without having the sports highlights be interrupted by bat-glove.

In a former life, I used to go to the Olympic Stadium in the East end of Montréal to watch the Montréal Expos keep pace with the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies until early September, then just crumble like dead leaves as hockey training camps got underway.

One player I had a love/hate relationship with was Cliff Floyd, who was essentially there to replace my favourite player of all time, Hall of Famer Tim Raines, which was a no-no and a no-win, in my book - and that was just in his first stint with the team, back when it actually still was one.

You see, after the fire sale following the 1994 players' strike which possibly cost the Expos a World Series berth, fans stopped going to the games in protest against an administration it felt was just out to collect money without trying to field a winning team, essentially just developing players until they're good enough to be traded for more prospects, and eventually the team was sold to an American con man, who bought low, sold high, collected millions by the boatload in the years in between while not selling local TV or radio rights and went on to scam the good people of Florida out of money for a stadium and yearly guaranteed millions in revenue without having to field a competitive Florida Marlins team, all because MLB passed him over as owner of the Boston Red Sox for someone who wouldn't ruin their legacy. Sound familiar?

Well, while Jeffrey Loria moved on from the Expos and set his sights on the Marlins, MLB was operating the Montréal team, handcuffing its GM into not hiring or re-signing free agents, actually over-fulfilling the fan prophecy of the team being more or less the development farm team for the other franchises.

Then came the trade that sent Floyd back to the Expos - with utility pitcher Claudio Vargas, Wilton Guerrero, and cash - for workhorse reliever Graeme Lloyd, pinch hitter with two seasons batting at .280 or better in Montréal Mike Mordecai, Carl Pavano, prospect Justin Wayne, and Donald Levinski. The Marlins re-loaded two-for-one on equal or better talent than what they gave away.

Also: cash. The Expos didn't need cash, they were operated by the league. They could have printed money; instead, the owners of all other teams decided they just wanted a cut of what was left of that team, had them acquire cash and refused to let them use it.

But wait, there's more!

Floyd was back in town for just 15 games before moving on... to the Red Sox, with whom he batted for a .317 average in 47 games. In return, Montréal received Korean pitchers Seung Song (never played in MLB) and Sun-woo Kim, who appeared in a total of 118 games with four different teams in a six-year span. Another fleece in a series of questionable deals made that summer, the second involving the same power-hitting All-Star Floyd.

Here he is on card #154 from Fleer/Skybox's 1997 Metal Universe set, which he signed in black sharpie in 2003 or 2004:

At the time, Skybox was owned by Marvel, and many of its comic book artists had a say in the set's design, which incorporated comic book-type elements into the all-foil graphics. This card is not as "black" to the naked eye but remains quite dark, representing a stormy sky that ranges from purple to dark blue.

I have to say Mr. Floyd was very nice and gracious when I met him. We talked about the politics and economics of the sport, and he was both lucid and engaging the entire time.

Marc Savard Autograph Card

Marc Savard was a terrific hockey player. In Juniors, he collected points at the same rate as any future superstar, with two 130-point seasons sandwiching another one at 87... in just 47 games. He was a point-producing machine for the Oshawa Generals, and even holds the franchise's points record (413, in just 238 games); notable Generals alumni include the likes of Eric Lindros, Dave Andreychuk, Alex Delvecchio, Ted Lindsay, Bobby Orr, John MacLean, Derek King, Jarrod Skalde and John Tavares.

It was the mid-to-end of the 1990s, when the New Jersey Devils and their god-awful, anti-hockey trap ushered the NHL into the Dead Puck Era of clutching and grabbing the best players to not let them pick up any speed nor give them room to make plays. It was the age of the 6'3", 220-defenseman who was allowed to do just about anything short of murder to stop any forward from even coming into their defensive zone.

It was a time when a natural talent like Savard could fall to the fourth round (91st overall, New York Rangers) because he was "just" 5'10" and 170 pounds.

The top five draft picks that year were Bryan Berard (6'2", 195 pounds, Ottawa Senators, 323 career points in 619 games), Wade Redden (6'2", 210 pounds, New York Islanders, 457 points in 2013 ganes), Aki-Petteri Berg (6'3", 216 pounds, Los Angeles Kings, 85 points in 606 games), Chad Kilger (6'4", 215 pounds, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, 218 points in 714 games), and Daymond Langkow (5'11", 185 pounds, Tampa Bay Lightning, 672 points in 1090 games). None have won a Stanley Cup.

The top five career points leader from that draft are Jarome Iginla (11th overall despite being 6'1" and 210 pounds, 625 goals, 675 assists and 1300 points in 1554 games, one Cup Final as team captain), Shane Doan (7th overall, 6'1" and 220 pounds, 402 goals and 972 points in 1540 games, decade-long reign as captain of the Phoenix Coyotes and Team Canada captain as well), Petr Sykora (18th overall, 6'0", 190 pounds, 323 goals and 721 points in 1017 games, two Stanley Cups in five Finals), Savard (706 points in 807 games, a Stanley Cup), and Langkow.

Although Savard had fine numbers in his "true" rookie season with the Rangers (45 points in 70 games in 1998-99), he was still sent to the Calgary Flames where he had an even better output (three straight seasons with point-per-game ratios of 0.59 or better with a high of 0.84, i.e. 65 points in 77 games in 2000-01) and even then was moved to the Atlanta Thrashers for the rights to Ruslan Zaynullin, who never played an NHL game.

In Atlanta, head coach and fellow Franco-Ontarian Bob Hartley told him he was going to give him a chance, and that if he seized it, his talents would forever be recognized and no one would be able to take it away; true to his word, Harley paired him with a duo of superstars in Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk, and Savard went on to have a 1.16 point-per-game average in 2003-04 (with 52 points in 45 games), but it was coming back from the locked-out lost season that he posted a 97-point season that was good for eighth in the league.

Following that, the Thrashers would be unable to meet his salary demands as a free agent, and he signed a four-year deal with the Boston Bruins, with whom he continued his top-ten point-racking for three more years.

Until The Hit by the coward Matt Cooke:

Want to hear him talk about it?

I wish I could give you my perspective on the hit that changed my life, but I don’t have a perspective. I have no memory of the actual event. Anything I tell you would just be me going off of the same YouTube clip that everybody else has seen. Even when I watch the video now, it’s like the hit is happening to a different person. 

I was out cold for 29 seconds. Or at least that’s what my trainer told me when I came to and asked him what had happened. My head hurt, bad. My vision was cloudy.

The only only memory I have is of being taken off the ice on a stretcher, and then realizing that my kids were at home watching the game. So I put my hand up to let them know that Dad was O.K.

I wasn’t O.K.

I had experienced three or four minor concussions before, but nothing like this

It took him a while, through dark times, at times punctured with suicidal thoughts, sleeping all day with blinds to shut the sunlight out, getting up at 11PM with pounding headaches and off-balance to survive until the next day, exhausted and aching all over, but he came back.

Except...

The thing that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy is the moment when you know that it’s all over. Everything you’ve worked for since you were a kid … it’s really over, and you can’t fool yourself anymore.

For me, that moment came in Colorado on January 22, 2011.

I was coming down the wing at full speed. Matt Hunwick leaned in and hit me clean. Unfortunately, he caught me just right, and my head whiplashed off the glass. Back then, Colorado’s glass was seamless. It was notoriously unforgiving.

I immediately dropped to my knees. I had my eyes wide open, and I couldn’t see anything. Everything was black. I shut my eyes, and then opened them again. All black.

That’s when I started to panic. Because I knew it was over. I just knew. I remember hearing the voice of our trainer, Don DelNegro, asking me what I felt.

And I just kept saying, “Why me? I don’t understand, Donny. Why me?”

My teammates escorted me to the dressing room, and I had a tough couple of minutes in there. I was sobbing. I remember my coach, Claude Julien, coming in and trying to console me. But I couldn’t be consoled. I knew I had just played my last game in the NHL. I kept thinking: “I have kids. I have a family to worry about. I’m only 33. What am I going to do? I can’t go through this pain again. I can’t go through these dark days. Again.”

33 years old, a second near-death experience, the inability to compete in any type of sporting event ever again, perhaps not even exercise ever again. And six months later, his Bruins won the Cup. He had to watch it on TV, sound muted, brightness at "0".

It had to be bittersweet. Yet it's never the first thing people think about when he comes up in a conversation, and it's never the first question he gets asked; it's always about the Cooke hit.

I'll let him have the final word on his playing days:

It was an honor (to be an NHL player) for 14 years. Then one night, it was over. Maybe right now, a lot of people remember me for that night in Pittsburgh.

But you know what?

Every time someone looks at the Stanley Cup, for the rest of history, they will see a name engraved along with the rest of the 2010–11 Boston Bruins.

MARC SAVARD.

That’s forever.

Indeed it is. And I wish I had a card of his from his days with the Bs, but I can't find one at the moment, so here's one where he's sporting the Thrashers' best-looking uniform, the dark blue barbs, on card #I-MS from Fleer's 2006-07 Flair Showcase set and Showcase Inks sub-set by Upper Deck:

It features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph.

About a week ago, Savard - who had been doing analysis for Sportsnet and NHL Network - accepted a job as an assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues where he will focus on special teams.

Best of luck.

Yves Racine Autographed Card

Yves Racine was chosen 11th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1987 NHL Draft, ahead of Joe Sakic (15th), Andrew Cassels (17th), John LeClair (33rd), Jeff Hackett (34th), Éric Desjardins (38th), Mathieu Schneider (44th), and Theoren Fleury (166th).

He was a blue-chip prospect and proved it by posting 94- and 108-point seasons for the LHJMQ's Victoriaville Tigres after being drafted, then went on to post two 40-point seasons with the Wings before getting traded to the Philadelphia Flyers, where he had a career-high 52 points in 1993-94.

He then made his way to the Montréal Canadiens as a free agent, unfortunately landing on his hometown team the year it parted ways with legendary GM Serge Savard, Stanley Cup-winning coach Jacques Demers and the best goalie of all time, Patrick Roy. To add insult to injury, the Habs already had offensive-minded defensemen on the roster (Schneider, Patrice Brisebois, Jean-Jacques Daigneault, fellow former first-rounder Bryan Fogarty), which meant his skill-set was overly redundant, particularly on a team that lacked on-ice chemistry and defensive acumen.

He had short stints with the San Jose Sharks, Calgary Flames and Tampa Bay Lightning (in his third turn with Demers as coach, after Detroit and Montréal), but his reputation was already too tarnished to continue playing in the NHL as he turned 30, so he exiled himself to Europe, playing one season in Finland and four more in Germany before returning home to play in the LNAH for the Thetford Mines Prolab for a couple of years.

He then went into business with the Prolab's owner, Réal Breton, investing and obtaining a huge return in the building and selling of condos. Nowadays, he owns and operates a hardware and lumber company, Fixatech. He still suits up for the Habs' alumni team for charity events, a dozen or so times a year.

Here is is sporting the Wings' red (then-away) uniform, on card #287 from Fleer's 1992-93 Fleer Ultra set, which he signed in black sharpie during his time in Thetford Mines:

I should also have a few of him in Flyer orange and the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge as well, somewhere.

Garry Galley: Three Autographed Cards

Garry Galley is a Montréal-born All-Star defenseman who spent most of his prime playing for two of the Montréal Canadiens' most bitter rivals, the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers.

He actually started his career with the Los Angeles Kings, though, having been drafted 100th overall in 1983; he then spent a year and a half with the Washington Capitals before signing in Boston as a free agent.

Playing behind Ray Bourque on the Bs, Galley was among the best second-pair defenders in the league, helping the team reach the Stanley Cup Final in 1989-90 and playing in the 1991 All-Star Game. He even scored an overtime winner against the Habs in Round 2 of the 1990 playoffs that was compared to Bobby Orr's classic 1970 Cup-clinching "Superman" goal.

In February of 1992, however, the Bruins took advantage of his high value and sent him to the Flyers with Wes Walz for Brian Dobbin, the similarly-talented Gord Murphy and the draft pick that became Sergei Zholtok.

The Flyers ended up very happy with the trade, as Galley had his two most productive seasons in the NHL in Philly, posting 62- and 70-point seasons in the City Of Brotherly Love. He would appear as a member of the Flyers in the 1994 All-Star Game.

Once again taking advantage of his high tgrade value, the Flyers sent him to the Buffalo Sabres for former Habs defenseman/scout - and current player agent of most Czech players - Petr Svoboda. His two full seasons with the Sabres stand as a perfect example of what the mid-1990s clutch-and-grab style did to hockey, as can be attested by his stats line:

from HockeyDB

It's not that Galley regressed, it's that the entire NHL stopped scoring because everybody was imitating the New Jersey Devils' trap system to varying degrees of success, creating what became known as the Dead Puck Era.

After that, Galley spent three seasons with the Kings before playing out his final year with the New York Islanders.

Nowadays, he lives in Ottawa, where he provides game analysis to Ottawa Senators games on local radio and colour commentary on CBC's and Sportsnet's coverage of Hockey Night in Canada.

He's pretty cool in person, which is how I got him to sign these three cards in blue sharpie, starting with this one of him wearing the Bruins' classic black uniform from my youth, on card #71 from Score's 1991-92 Series 1 set:

And there are two from the Flyers, with the home and away variations of their 1980s/1990s uniforms:

On the left is the orange (away) uniform, featured on card #156 from Fleer's 1992-93 Fleer Ultra set, while on the card shows him sporting the white (home) uniform, from Upper Deck's 1992-93 Series 1 set (card #319).

For each of them, he also added the correct jersey number - 28 with the Bruins, 3 with the Flyers - in a bubble below his signature.

Scott Lachance Autographed Card

Scott Lachance came into the NHL as a highly-touted offensive defenseman from Boston College, ranked second behind Eric Lindros by NHL Scouting in 1991; he eventually fell to fourth-overall (New York Islanders), with Pat Falloon and Scott Niedermayer chosen ahead of him.

He would flourish in today's NHL, with a perfect first pass and good foot speed, and not too much of a liability in his own zone - a bit like a cross between Nathan Beaulieu, Justin Schultz and Dmitry Kulikov - but his relative lack of production (only one 20-point season, 24, coming in his rookie year in 1992-93) often relegated him to a second- or third-pairing role, and to the second wave of any powerplay.

At the time, I thought his 6 points in 57 games with the Montréal Canadiens in 1999-2000 were bad (then again, the entire team was terrible), but his five points and -43 record in 138 games spread over two seasons (2002-04) with the Columbus Blue Jackets probably takes the cake. It was during that time that he signed card #369 from Fleer's 1993-94 Fleer Ultra Series 2 card for me in blue sharpie:

It shows him wearing the Isles' classic blue (then-away) uniform.

Following his two disappointing seasons in Columbus and the NHL lockout, he didn't play at all during the 2004-05 season, then spent one season in Swtzerland with the Kloten Flyers and a final turn in North America with the AHL's Lowell Devils. He then remained with the New Jersey Devils' organization and is currently a scout for the team.

Kevin Dallman Jersey Card

Kevin Dallman is a star in the KHL; he was already the Barys Astana's four-year captain - i.e. for the duration of his stint, which included four All-Star berths and a Best Defenseman trophy - when his family was kicked out of Kazakhstan after his wife posted about country-wide corruption on her blog, a must-read in the Kazakh capital.

He'd been made a Kazakhstani citizen in 2010 so he could join the national team, but the regime doesn't take criticism too well.

And so he remained in the Russian-based league, playing with St. Petersburg SKA for two years before returning to Barys. Now in the fourth season of his second stint in the Kazakh capital, he has an astonishing 16 points (2 goals, 14 assists) in 24 games in the low-scoring league.

The club is 15-8-1-2, firmly entrenched in second place within its division, on the strength of productive seasons from Dallman and the likes of Linden Vey (32 points in 26 games), Nigel Dawes (24 goals and 30 total points in just 22 games), Matt Frattin (23 points in 24 games), Darren Dietz (16 points from the blue line in 15 games), and Martin St-Pierre (16 points in 23 games). Henrik Karlsson is the starting goalie, with a 13-7-2 record, 2.26 GAA and .923 save percentage with 2 shutouts in 24 games.

Although he was undrafted, the Boston Bruins are the team that signed Dallman to his first professional contract, although they traded him to the St. Louis Blues midway through his rookie season. After faring well in St. Louis, he signed a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Kings before being out of chances in North America and opting to move overseas.

Here he is wearing the Bs' black (home) uniform, on card #RU-KD from Fleer's 2005-06 Fleer Ultra set and Rookie Uniformity sub-set, manufactured by Upper Deck:

It features a yellow jersey swatch that was worn in a rookie photo shoot that peers through an R-shaped hole, for "Rookie".

Jeff Tambellini Jersey And Autograph Card

In keeping up with the "matching daily team articles on both blogs" theme, after predicting the Los Angeles Kings would finish 5th in the Pacific in 2017-18, I thought I could focus on the career on one of their former prospects, Jeff Tambellini.

Tambellini was a fine player for the Michigan Wolverines in the NCAA and perhaps the best skater in his age category when the Kings made him their first-round pick (27th overall) in 2003; unfortunately, they also viewed him as soft and unreliable defensively, so despite his putting decent numbers up (56 points in 56 games) with the AHL's Manchester Monarchs, they sent him (and Denis Grebeshkov) to the New York Islanders for Brent Sopel and Mark Parrish in March 2006.

While in the Isles' organization, he developed into a fine two-way player, thanks to his speed in coming back in the defensive zone when his team lost possession of the puck. He also further developed his offensive attributes (namely his quick wrists and good, deceptive shot) with their AHL affiliate Bridgeport Sound Tigers (138 points in 113 games) but just couldn't stick in the NHL, accumulating 46 points in 176 games on Long Island.

In 2010-11, he tried his luck with the Vancouver Canucks, yielding similar results: 17 points in 62 games when he was up, 5 goals and 2 assists for 7 points in 7 games with the Manitoba Moose.

He then tried his hand in Europe, finding some success in the Swiss League with the Zurich Lions (45 points in 50 games in his first season there, 12 in 27 the following year), prompting a downfall that would be consistent save for two fine playoffs and another decent turn in the AHL for good measure:

Courtesy of HockeyDB

As far as I know, he is currently a free agent and would thus be eligible to suit up for Team Canada at the Olympics in February... He does have a silver medal from the 2004 World Juniors...

Here he is dating back to his days with the Kings, wearing their black-and-purple uniform on the "all dressed" version of card #241 from Fleer's 2005-06 Hot Prospects set and Prized Prospects sub-set, manufactured by Upper Deck:

It's got everything a card collector hates, from the blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph to the black swatch (they call this one a "patch" on the back of the card, though I don't see it myself) coming from a jersey used in a rookie photo shoot.

It's numbered 225/349.

Justin Williams Jersey Card

It's unclear what Justin Williams had in mind this summer when he signed a two-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes, who will likely not be making the playoffs during that time.

Perhaps he was chasing the money, as he'll be making an average of $4.5M on a 35-year-old (i.e. "un-buyout-able") contract when he made $3.25 in his previous deal with the Washington Capitals. Maybe the pressure of being nicknamed "Mr. Game 7" got to him, as the Caps once again fell in the second round last season; not to worry, Williams will now be appearing at World Championships under the Team Canada banner during the NHL postseason from now on.

He'll find these Canes are a far cry from the team he won the 2006 Stanley Cup with, despite Cam Ward still plying his trade in nets and the likes of Ron Francis (GM), Rod Brind'Amour (assistant-coach), Glen Wesley (defensemen development coach), Sergei Samsonov (player development coach), Jeff Daniels (scout manager), and Ray Whitney (pro scout) still around the team after retiring.

Then again, at least he's found work. I'm currently unemployed, as are the likes of NHL free agents Dennis Wideman, Milan Michalek, Thomas Vanek, David Pastrnak, Brooks Laich, Drew Stafford, Nick Schultz, Mike Ribeiro, Jakub Kindl, Nikita Zadorov, Jiri Hudler, Teddy Purcell, P.A. Parenteau, Chris Neil, Boyd Gordon, Scottie Upshall, and former captains Jaromir Jagr, Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, and Brian Gionta.

Williams should, in my opinion, be designated as the team's captain for the couple of years that the team still plays its games in Raleigh and when it's unclear which of the next generation of players will be able to take on that responsibility and lead the team back to respectability.

Which is why I chose to feature him today wearing the Canes' former red (home) uniform, hints of which will be found on their new Adidas uniforms:

That's card #UA-JW from Fleer's 2008-09 Fleer Ultra collection and Ultra Uniformity sub-set, manufactured by Upper Deck, featuring a white game-worn jersey swatch. The team's 10th Anniversary patch is on full display in the picture.

Mika Zibanejad: Two Autographed Cards

As mentioned yesterday, there were numerous signings on July 25th, enough that I had to push back talking about Mika Zibanejad's to today. Which isn't to say it was the least important one; the New York Rangers signaled their intent on making him their first-line center following the Derek Stepan trade by signing him to a five-year, $26.75M deal that will count for $5.35M per season on the team's salary cap. It's the cap hit he was looking for in arbitration on a one-year deal - while the Rangers were aiming at paying him $4.1M - but extending the term to five years made it reasonable to both sides.

The question is, for many Rangers fans, whether Zibanejad has what it takes to carry that load and bear that pressure, and I think the former Ottawa Senators first-round pick (6th overall in 2011) does, indeed. After all, he's improved his points-per-game ratio in every single season so far, and already has two 20-goal campaigns under his belt. He doesn't get penalized much, only once reaching the 20-minute plateau, and he had a 0.66 PPG average last season, a year in which only seven players reached the 80-point mark. Only nine had a PPG average over 1.0, and that includes Steven Stamkos' 20 points in 17 games.

He also comes with tremendous pedigree, having scored the game-winner (and lone goal) in the 2012 World Juniors final, securing gold for Team Sweden against Team Russia. He has also won silver at the 2011 U-18 World Championships, and bronze at the 2010 U-17 Worlds, where he finished tied with current Rangers teammate J.T. Miller for fifth in tournament points with 9 in 6 games, behind American Rocco Grimaldi (14) and Russians Alexander Khokhlachev (13), Mikhail Grigorenko and Anton Zlobin (10 apiece).

The Rangers are particularly strong on left wing, with Mats Zuccarello being able to post some 40+ assists and 60-some points, and both Chris Kreider and Rick Nash having the potential to score 30 goals; on right wing, Michael Grabner scored 27 goals last season, Jesper Fast scored 15 in just 68 games and Pavel Buchnevich is looking to break out and has the potential to become a player similar to Artemi Panarin, meaning 30 goals and 70 points per season are not out of the question in his case. And the aforementioned Miller should also fit somewhere in there as well.

All of this is to say that playmakers such as Zibanejad and new acquisition David Desharnais - as well as returning third-line center Kevin Hayes - should have a blast this year.

Here he is from his Senators days, first wearing the white (away) uniform, checking Washington Capitals forward D.J. King in his lone 2011-12 game (with just 6:58 of ice time), on card #335 from Panini's 2012-13 Score set:

And here he is wearing the Sens' beautiful black "O-logo" jersey, on card #124 from Fleer's 2014-15 Fleer Ultra set, manufactured by Upper Deck:

He signed both in blue sharpie, tagging his jersey number (93) at the end, during the 2015-16 season.

Alexander Radulov Jersey card

Coming off a terrific comeback season with the Montréal Canadiens, Alexander Radulov will go from a team that has Jordie Benn in its top-six on defense to the team that got rid of him as their seventh guy but is captained by his brother (Jamie Benn), the Dallas Stars. Indeed, the former Nashville Predators first-round draft pick (15th overall, 2004) has just signed this summer's most lucrative free agent deal, a five-year, $31.5M deal that carries a $6.25M cap hit.

It's a mixed summer for Habs GM Marc Bergevin, as he signed the Washington Capitals' best defensive defenseman (in my opinion, the best of the second-tier guys who do what he does, behind the top-four of Marc-Édouard Vlasic, Marc Methot, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm), but lost his team's best forward last season in Radulov, is playing hardball with one of the organization's best defensemen of all time in Andrei Markov, and looks primed to sign goalie Carey Price to the team's highest-paying contract of all time, likely top in the league by over two million per season (edit: actually by $3M, and since most of the money is in the form of signing bonuses, cannot reasonably be bought out to minimize the cap hit, as signing bonuses are guaranteed money), which will handicap the team's chances of building a contender for eight years. It's like he's hockey's Donald Trump, doing his best to get fired.

Oh, and he followed the league-wide trend of signing veterans to $1M/one-year contracts, but instead of opting for, say,  Michael Cammalleri (Los Angeles Kings), Patrick Sharp (Chicago Blackhawks), Scott Hartnell (Predators), Nail Yakupov (Colorado Avalanche), David Desharnais (New York Rangers), Dominic Moore (Toronto Maple Leafs), Kyle Quincey (Minnesota Wild), Jussi Jokinen (Edmonton Oilers), Brandon Bollig (San Jose Sharks), or Benoît Pouliot (Buffalo Sabres), he went for injury magnet Ales Hemsky.

The Stars' Jim Nill, however, is looking to build a contender, after missing the playoffs entirely due to shaky goaltending following a first-place finish in the Central Division. Antti Niemi was bought out, Ben Bishop was brought in via trade-and-sign, and Kari Lehtonen will back him up for one season. The aforementioned Methot was acquired in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights, and the team still boasts Tyler Seguin, Benn and Jason Spezza on offense, in addition to signing Martin Hanzal, who could be Nill's mistake of the summer, as he's shown with the Minnesota Wild last season to be slow and unable to make those playing with him better.

Because of that, I envision the Benn/Seguin first-line pairing to remain intact, I expect Spezza to hit 50-60 points playing with guys who can finish his plays a small portion of the time (Antoine Roussel and Mattias Janmark) and Radulov to take Hanzal on his back and get him to some 40-50 points, which should also get casual fans thinking "Radu" is having a disappointing season while Hanzal's producing at his expected rate, when in fact the Toothless Russian will have carried him all season long. Case in point: Phillip Danault, who I like a lot, but whom Radulov got to the 40-poin mark despite his having never even reached that production level in the Chicago Blackhawks' AHL system and had obtained a grand total of 10 NHL points in his previous 53 NHL games spread over two seasons. Hey, this type of situation made Phil Kessel turn Nick Bonino into a "prized free agent" and two-time Stanley Cup winner...

As a reminder, Radulov is not only one of the hockey players that is most difficult to knock off the puck and an adept playmaker and scorer, but also a two-time World Championship gold medalist with Team Russia (2008 and 2009), a Gagarin Cup winner with Ufa Salavat Yulaev (2011) and Memorial Cup champion with the Québec Remparts (2006), as well as the KHL's second all-time leading scorer behind Sergei Mozyakin.

Here he is wearing the Preds' former home uniform, on card #HM-AR from Fleer's 2007-08 Hot Prospects by Upper Deck:

It features a matching white game-worn jersey swatch.

Jordan Eberle & Devan Dubnyk Jersey Card

Here is a card that features two players who are no longer playing with the team they are featured in on the card, the Edmonton Oilers, Jordan Eberle and Devan Dubnyk:

It's #U-DE from Fleer's 2013-14 Showcase set and Uniformity sub-set by Upper Deck, with blue game-worn jersey swatches from each player. It's the same set as this previously-featured card of Eberle's.

Indeed, Eberle was sent to the New York Islanders for prospect Ryan Strome, in what seems to be both a reaction to Eberle failing to produce in the playoffs and a move to clear up cap space for Connor McDavid's next contract, which will definitely not be a bridge deal and should make him the league's highest-paid player.

For the record, in my opinion, McDavid should be offered a two-year deal paying somewhere in the $7-9M range (per) before surpassing the likes of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin on his next one, if only so he can have another Art Ross- and Hart-winning season to prove he is now the best forward in the league; it's not like $7-9M is bad money, either...

Eberle could very well have a 40-goal season playing alongside Isles captain John Tavares, so this move is an excellent one for GM Garth Snow, who clearly got the best player in the deal, although Strome could make Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli happy by producing alongside either McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. This move ensures Snow qualifies as one of the five best GMs in the NHL in the past five years with how he's improved his team, alongside Steve Yzerman (amazing signings thanks to Florida's tax laws, and shrewd trades), Stan Bowman (the best in the league in managing the salary cap, replacing high-paid players with fine prospects and signing returning veteran free agents to cap-friendly/low-paying deals, though I think he got hosed in the Artemi Panarin trade), Jim Rutherford (sure, he was dealt a great hand by inheriting a contender with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but his cap management and the team's development program combine to take the Pens' dynasty from a "could-have-been" to a "longer-than-it-should-have"), and Dale Tallon (who, after building the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks championship team, built a division winner with the Florida Panthers, only to have it be taken apart by his successor in a single summer, now tasked with building another one a year later).

Dubnyk leaving Edmonton has to do with the team's previous administration's inability to draft or build a defense in a decade of rebuilding, leaving half a dozen goalies helpless in trying to stop odd-man rushes and looking awful in the process, so bad that Dubnyk even spent time with the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs when the Montréal Canadiens acquired his rights from the Nashville Predators in an eventful 2013-14 campaign that saw him play for three separate organizations before signing on with a fourth one as a free agent - the Phoenix Coyotes - in the off-season.

Then, at the 2014-15 trade deadline, the Coyotes traded Dubnyk - their best goalie that year - to the Minnesota Wild, enabling them to make the playoffs and immediately turning them into a division-lead contender. In two of the last three seasons, Dubnyk was the second-best goalie in the league, which made him a finalist for the Vezina once (should have been twice, as Carey Price should not have been a finalist this year), finished fourth in Hart voting, and won the Bill Masterton Trophy.

Two award-winning Team Canada alumni that the Oilers had to get rid of to be the playoff team they are today - and the Cup contenders they hope to be for the next decade.