Philippe Cornet Autograph Jersey Card

As I had predicted when I wrote about Philippe Cornet a year and a half ago, the Québec-born left winger has resorted to pursuing his hockey career in Europe; he currently has 4 goals and 6 penalty minutes in 6 games with the Finnish League's Hämeenlinnan Pallokerho, who stand in fourth place (out of 15 teams).

He spent last season playing with the Stavanger Oilers in Norway, scoring 23 goals with 22 assists for 45 points in 50 games, leading his team to the GET-ligaen championship.

I used to pull cards of his in nearly every set by Panini a couple of years ago, including this one, which looks great:

That's card #123 from the 2012-13 Prime collection, numbered 75/249 and part of the Prime Rookies sub-set. It features no less than four event-worn jersey swatches and an on-card signature in blue sharpie, along with a mention that it is his Rookie Card.

The gold-plated foil everywhere on the card makes me think Donald Trump designed it, which would explain why border-crossing Cornet has been exiled to Europe.

It shows him wearing the Edmonton Oilers' classic blue (now-home) uniform. The Oilers are doing great this year, finally fulfilling all the promises their fans had been hearing for the past decade. All it took was Connor McDavid and Cam Talbot...

Gabriel Bourque Autograph Card

Technically, at 25 years old, Gabriel Bourque should be entering his prime years as a point producer in the NHL. The diminutive winger - listed at 5'10" and 190 pounds, and while the weight seems right, he seems a couple of inches shorter than that in person - was drafted (132nd overall in 2009) by the Nashville Predators specifically because he was a point-per-game performer in Juniors, both in the regular season and the playoffs.

However, an undisclosed injury and added forward depth in the Preds' line-up have limited him to 22 games in Nashville (plus 4 with the Milwaukee Admirals on a conditioning stint); in fact, he only has 4 points to show for this year, partly because he's only averaging 12 minutes per game, down from nearly 16 just three seasons ago, when he had 11 goals and 16 points in 34 games.

He's quick and is as good setting up teammates as he is burying the puck in the net, but I do realize that having, say, both Bourque and Mike Ribeiro on the same line makes for a trio that is likely to get pushed around by rough teams such as the Anaheim Ducks.

Still, it must not have been easy for Bourque to be a healthy scratch since his call-up over a month ago, particularly considering his last NHL action was four minutes of play on November 27th.

He'll be a restricted free agent this summer and will have very little bargaining power.

Here he is in the Predators' awful yellow (home) uniform, on card #23 from Panini's 2012-13 Prime set (and Prime Signatures sub-set), which I traded for doubles of Peter Forsberg jersey cards last year:

He signed it on-card in blue sharpie, with his jersey number (57) tagged at the end. It's numbered 43/99.

Mark Stone Autograph Card

I don't know if you saw this goal from last night, but wow, what a play by Kyle Turris, finished by Mark Stone. Play of the year candidate, for sure:

And with that (and the spectacular play of Andrew ''The Hamburglar'' Hammond, of course), the Ottawa Senators move to within just four points of the Boston Bruins and the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, with Hammond riding a 11-0-1 record so far in his NHL career, and the team itself having gone 14-2-2 in its last 18 games.

Stone himself is one of the league's top rookies so far this year, with 18 goals, 28 assists and 46 points in 67 games. The 6'3'', 200-pound, 22-year-old power forward likes to check along the boards to retrieve pucks, has a good shot, and passes better than most good shooters usually do; he has improved his skating (though he still is no Taylor Hall, obviously), and his Hockey IQ is often referred to as being ''off the charts'', pretty much becoming a take-over machine (ranking along the lines of Marian Hossa and Ryan O'Reilly, ahead of Pavel Datsyuk!), and he could eventually turn into a threat on both the power play and penalty kill, à la Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec.

As long as he keeps a cool head about it and continues forward with the same work ethic, there is no limit to what the former sixth-round draft pick (178th overall) can achieve.

He now wears #61 for the Sens, but wore #16 a couple of seasons ago (which belongs to Clarke MacArthur now), as can be seen here:

It's card #45 from Panini's 2012-13 Prime set (part of its Prime Signatures sub-set), signed on-card in blue sharpie and numbered 3/99.

Corey Perry & Devante Smith-Pelly Dual Swatch Card

So the trade deadline came and went, and a few teams made some nifty moves, but the team who made the best ones, I think, was the Anaheim Ducks, who acquired All-Star defenseman Stéphane Robidas for a fourth-round pick and picked up draft picks for players they didn't need (Viktor Fasth and Dustin Penner), in addition to getting point-per-game AHL winger Andre Petersson  for offensive defenseman Alex Grant.

And so, in their honour (and because they just lost to the Montréal Canadiens), I present you this card:

Don't let the scan fool you, the top-left corner is pristine, that's just the penny sleeve bending because the card is so thick

It's from Panini's 2011-12 Prime set (card #5 of the Prime Combos - Dual sub-set, numbered 206/225) of Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry and young gun Devante Smith-Pelly. Ironically, the card shows Perry wearing the Ducks' dark (home) uniform while Smith-Pelly is sporting the white (away) one, but the swatches are actually the opposite.

As I mentioned, Perry has a Hart and a Rocket Richard on his resume (both from 2010-11), a Stanley Cup (2007), three All-Star Game nods and a 50-goal season. He's also a golden boy, both at the World Juniors (2005) and Olympics (2010 and 2014). His number was retired by his Junior team, the London Knights, as he was the OHL's (and Memorial Cup's) best player in 2004-05. And to think he was chosen 28th in total at the 2003 draft...

Smith-Pelly, on the other hand, was chosen 42nd overall in 2010. He's currently in his third season with the Ducks and has 20 goals and 35 points in 44 games so far this year. He had 7 goals and 13 points in his first 56 NHL games spread over two seasons...

Cam Atkinson Swatch Card

Although he was chosen in the 6th round by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2008 (157th overall), Cam Atkinson has proven to be a goal-scoring machine at every level - particularly of the hat trick variety.

In 2009-10, he led all NCAA scorers with 30 goals in 42 games for the Boston College Eagles (he scored 31 in 38 the following year, but didn't lead). During a 10-game stretch in 2009-10, he scored three hat tricks.

In his first stint with the AHL's Springfield Falcons following his collegiate career, he scored 3 goals and added two assists for 5 points in 5 games. In his actual rookie season, he played in the All-Star Game and when called up to the NHL, he went 7-7-14 in 27 games including... a hat trick against the Colorado Avalanche.

I got this little gem of a card on Ebay two weeks ago for a cool $4. It's from Panini's 2011-12 Prime set (card #45 in the Prime Time Rookie sub-set, numbered 6/25), and features an amazing 3-colour swatch involving multiple stitching that came from the (game-worn) jersey's arms.