Steve Bégin Autographed Card

With most governments having put a kibosh on education for the remainder of the school year, I decided to revisit a story I had touched upon in 2017, Steve Bégin aiming to finally obtain his high school diploma. He did so at the end of 2018.

I caught up with him in late November 2019 at the launch of his biography, Steve Bégin: Ténacité, Courage, Leadership (written by Luc Gélinas) where he signed this card for me:

That's #7 in Parkhurst's 2003-04 Original 6 (Montréal Canadiens) set, manufactured by In The Game. It shows him wearing the Montréal Canadiens' perfect white "third/1940s" vintage jersey - a work of art.

In a makeshift press conference before the meet-and-greet, he mentioned how he didn't feel worthy of a biography, rightfully mentioning he was never a generational talent like Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux, and wasn't electrifying like an Alexei Kovalev, but that people may have identified with his working-class roots.

I made sure to remind him he was more than that; he always made sure he was the hardest-working person in the building, even on a team that had Saku Koivu, a tireless workhorse if there ever was one, one whose defeat of adversity is almost on par with that if Maurice "The Rocket" Richard's in the Centennial team's history book. And yet, at that turn of the millennium, there is a rightful asterisk there for Bégin's courage, for finishing a shift against the Big Bad Boston Bruins despite what appeared like most of his teeth still remaining stuck in the end boards after an awkward collision and fall.

He killed penalties, won defensive-zone face-offs, was sent to counter opponents' tactics of intimidation despite his generously-listed 5'11" frame and 190 pounds (more like 5'8" and 180 if you ask me, someone who is 6'2" and 300 at the moment). He was a less legendary Guy Carbonneau, which might explain why Carbo had him traded to the Dallas Stars: he recognized himself in him, but where Carbonneau would have sought out the most efficient play, Bégin just dove head-first into any situation, with total disregard to his health at all times - and sometimes that led to injuries, while other times opponents took advantage of his gnarl to score.

Some teams reward those types of players with the captaincy.

It seems odd to say about a guy who "just" played 524 NHL games after being a second-round draft pick and scored "just" 56 goals to go with 52 assists and 108 regular-season points with the Calgary Flames, Habs, Stars, Bruins and Nashville Predators, never suited up for a full 82 games and only once reached the 20-point mark (23, in 2005.06, to go with 113 penalty minutes, on a Claude Julien-coached Habs team), but I stand by it.

"Heart-and-soul guy" gets passed around a lot, but in today's game, the only other non-captain that has what Bégin had is Brendan Gallagher, so, yeah.

His biggest regret in life was dropping out of high school to pursue his NHL dream. How, thanks to ChallengeU, an app developed with UFC legend Georges St-Pierre, he has remedied the situation. I didn't know that he could get more of my admiration, but there it is. So much so, that I can even forgive him for playing with Boston.

But I'm saving that one for another day.

Réjean Houle Autographed Card

When Marc Bergevin traded P.K. Subban earlier this summer, there were many flashbacks of the doomed Patrick Roy trade that Réjean Houle had made in 1995 that set the Montréal Canadiens back for a decade.

Nowadays, Montrealers are wondering which of the two ranks as the franchise's worst of all time, with the Chris Chelios trade being thrown in the mix as well. Time will tell, but I think the Subban trade definitely will rank in the top-5 (worst), while the Roy one will prove to have been more costly, as the Habs were still a Stanley Cup contender at that point (and Roy won two more Cups and an NHL-record third Conn Smythe Trophy with the Colorado Avalanche), whereas the team isn't a true contender nowadays, with Carey Price consistently failing to perform once the playoffs start.

And though I love and respect Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Markov to no end and will defend them until the end of time for being the most consistent Canadiens players of the past decade, perfectly sliding to playing even smarter when their prime/speedier years were seemingly behind them, Max Pacioretty has not proven to be the leader nor the complete player winning teams must have on their top line, having spent most of the 2015-16 season at center ice waiting for a pass that would send him on a breakaway instead of helping his teammates out in the defensive zone; Alex Galchenyuk has not yet been given a full year to show he can withstand the pressure of being that top-line center he was drafted to become; Nathan Beaulieu might never become Markov's successor as two-way top-pairing defender and powerplay quarterback, and it would be unfair to expect 2016 first-round draft pick Mikhail Sergachev to do so right away as well.

There is a fine core to build around in Galchenyuk, Markov, Plekanec, true leader (and thus possibly next-in-line to get traded) Brendan Gallagher, Alexander Radulov for one year and Shea Weber for three, Andrew Shaw, 30-year-old hard hitter Alexei Emelin, Jeff Petry, Zachary Fucale, and Sven Andrighetto to name a few - but important pieces of the puzzle are still missing. Things a workhorse and showman like Subban could hide.

Already, Bergevin's tenure as GM is more fruitful than Houle's simply because of a Conference Final in 2014; it might be the extent of his success, however, and Houle's playing career was a lot more impressive.

Houle wasn't just an extra, he was an integral part of the Canadiens' teams of the 1970s that won him five Stanley Cups, a three-time 20-goal scorer, with a high of 30 in 1977-78. He also had a successful three-year stint in the WHA with the Québec Nordiques, leading the team to the Avco Cup Final (losing to the Houston Aeros) after posting 40 goals and 92 points in just 64 games; he had a 51-goal and 103-point season the following year, good for fifth and eighth in the league, respectively.

Still, he bleeds red, having spent all of his eleven NHL seasons with the Habs, then having been a Marketing VP for the team before being assigned to the General Manager position; even after his dismissal in 2000, he remained on board as a Team Ambassador, greeting fans at games and attending social events on behalf of the Canadiens' various foundations.

It was at one of these events that he signed this card for me in black sharpie, #34 from Parkhurst's 2003-04 Original 6 (Montréal Canadiens) set manufactured by In The Game:

"Peanut", as he has been referred to since his playing days, remains a terrific human being, as can be attested by this heart-wrenching story. And his easygoing and generous personality has served him well in life, everywhere except at the GM position, where his ruthless peers took advantage of him and never returned the favours he did for them.

Chris Chelios Autographed Card

It's funny, I wrote this line in a previous post about Chris Chelios just last month:

I talked about how I viewed him in the top-5 or top-10 of all time about a month and a half ago, and that still stands and will until another suitor is actually worth reconsidering for, which may or may not happen in my lifetime.

After which two-time Norris Trophy winner Duncan Keith had a Conn Smythe-winning run for the ages, averaging more than 30 minutes of ice time per game at a dominant rate. He was seemingly involved in every play, both defensively and offensively, so much so that it didn't matter that neither Jonathan Toews nor Patrick Kane had any noteworthy input in the Final.

Keith's play was very Chelios-like, Chicago Blackhawks era. A dominant force, a true leader. Remember Chelios being the guy who put Jeremy Roenick back in his place after losing in the 1991-92 Stanley Cup Final and two Conference Finals, Roenick claiming ''it's ok, we'll win it next year'' and Chelios letting him know he may never play in another Cup Final - and he didn't, while Cheli won two more Cups with the Detroit Red Wings (in addition to the one he won in Montréal in 1986). Different types of leadership, sure, but exactly what the Hawks needed in each of their eras.

Chelios works for the Wings nowadays, having spent this past season as special advisor to GM Ken Holland, and he will be a special assistant coach next year, in addition to being an assistant coach for Team USA at the World Juniors. I'm certain he'll be a huge help for both teams.

Now, if he could train most Wings the way he trained, Holland might have a team of superheroes on his hands...

Last month, I showed Chelios wearing the Hawks' red (then-away) uniform; now it's time for the white (home) one:

The card itself is #31 from Parkhurst's 2003-04 Original 6 (Chicago Blackhawks) manufactured by In The Game. ITG made boxes of each Original Six team, and Chelios had a card in half of them (#31 in both the Hawks and Montréal Canadiens' sets, #2 in the Wings set). I got him to sign it in black sharpie when he played his last game in Montréal, in 2007, as a member of the Wings. I was under the impression I also had a card of his with the Habs that day, but I can't find it - maybe it's with my McFarlane figurine, which I've also misplaced.

Steve Sullivan Autographed Card

Timmins, Ontario. The place Shania Twain and Stompin' Tom Connors have called home, and where hockey players are bred: Frank Mahovlich, Pete Mahovlich, Don Lever, Dave Poulin, Allan Stanley, Walter Tkaczuk, Eric Vail, Dean Prentice, Eric Prentice, Shean Donovan, Art Hodgins, Bill Barilko... and Steve Sullivan fits right in with those legends.

Plagued by injuries, worse than even Robyn Regehr and Steve Bégin, he has only twice played over 80 games, both times with the Chicago Blackhawks. He was even forced to sit out the entirety of the 2007-08 season with back pain, and many thought he would never play an NHL game again. He proved them wrong, of course, winning a Bill Masterton trophy in the process, an award that I think ranks among the 5 most important that the NHL hands out - along with the Vezina (best goalie), Hart (MVP), Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) and Lester B. Pearson (MVP as chosen by the palyers) - because it rewards dedication to the sport and force of character, two key elements of the game.

Sullivan had his first impressive NHL season in 1998-99 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, scoring 20 goals and netting 40 points, but the Leafs were disappointed in him to start the 1999-2000 season when he only managed an assist in 7 games, so they shipped him to Chicago, where he bested his stats as a Leaf 4 times, with seasons of 22, 34, 21 and 26 goals in his first seasons, and 15 goals - but 43 points - in his first 56 games of the 2003-04 season before the Hawks sent him to the Nashville Predators for two second-round picks after Valentine's Day; he added 9 goals and 30 points in 24 games with the Preds to become their top left winger.

The next two seasons, he produced like a first-liner: 31 goals and 68 points in 69 games in 2005-06, and 22 goals and 60 points in 57 games the following season; that's when the back injury took its toll, and he missed just about two years of play, returning for 41 games in the 2008-09 season, managing 11 goals and 32 points.

During his stint as a Hawk, and now that he's in Nashville, he's pretty much the only player of those teams I'd have loved to have on my team, despite the injuries (keep in mind, those were the pre-Jonathan Toews Hawks... there's a guy I'd trade two captains and 5 first-round picks for!).

This card (#27) is from Parkhurst's 2003-04 Original 6 set, manufactured by In the Game that year; a friend of mine had a bunch of cards from that set, and I didn't feel like purchasing a box of them just to get a few players I wanted (I was still a full-blown Québec Nordiques fan back then), so we agreed on a few trades, and this was one of the cards I had to have. Then, during the time he spent away from hockey because of his injury, he came to Montréal to see back specialists, one of whom introduced me to Sullivan so I could get this card signed. I told him how big a fan of his I was (I even knew his stats by heart) and wished him health, even if it meant he wouldn't play hockey again, and he replied, very calmly but very convincingly, that he would, indeed, play another NHL game. He did, and I taped it, and I cried, and it was amazing.

He signed it in black sharpie, very legibly, and spent time with anyone who wanted to meet him. A class act, all the way.