Brent Ashton Autographed 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)

When I was a kid, say grades 3 to 6, I lived near downtown Montréal and the mythic Montréal Forum, where the Montréal Canadiens played. Of course, the entire school rooted for the Habs, and Patrick Roy was my boyhood idol, but the rebel in me needed to go against the grain, so I started rooting for the Québec Nordiques. We're talking 1986-1990, so the Nordiques were on their way to a very bad place, and there were many reasons why players didn't want to play there, from the team bottoming out to many American products not being available in the smallish town to the fact that at the time, Québec was a majority-French city where even the team's contracts were drafted in French first.

One player who was rumoured to be part of that mindset at the time was Brent Ashton, but not only is it very difficult to find any corroborating evidence of that today, but he denied it himself when he signed this card (in black sharpie) at a trade show roughly 15-20 years ago (and initially re-signed with the team for four seasons):

It's card #181 from Topps' 1986-87 Topps flagship collection, showing him wearing the best uniform in sports, the Nordiques' blue away uniform.

Do you know who didn't want to play in Québec, though? John Ogrodnick, the guy Ashton was traded to the Detroit Red Wings for.

My Nordiques Numbers Project

You're probably used to it by now, what with my Habs Numbers Project, my Oilers Numbers Project, my Sens Numbers Project, and my Canucks Numbers Project, but I decided long ago that I would also have one for my favourite team growing up, the Québec Nordiques.

As a reminder, the goal is to have an autographed card of a player representing each jersey number worn/used by the franchise. If I can't find an autographed card, autographed pictures, postcards or jersey cards can count.

Originally founded as a WHA team in in 1972, they joined the NHL with the New England/Hartford Whalers, the Oilers and the Winnipeg Jets when the WHA folded with the agreement that four teams would merge with the NHL, pending a transfer fee and the loss of their superstars whose rights belonged to existing NHL teams.

Because the franchised relocated to Denver to become the Colorado Avalanche in 1995, it's a tad harder to complete this set than my previous ones, because it gives me a limited number of years to access and fewer players having the chance to wear certain jersey numbers.

I'm starting this project with the mindset of limiting myself to the 1972-1995 time period, ignoring the Avs part of the team's history - and also skipping over former teams based in the same city, such as the Stanley Cup-winning Québec Bulldogs.

Here's the list of those I have featured here thus far:

1. Ron Tugnutt and Richard Sévigny: check!
2. Sylvain Lefebvre: check!
4. Paul Baxter: check!
5. Réjean Houle and Brent Severyn: check!
6: Craig Wolanin: check!
7: Robbie Ftorek and Lane Lambert: check!
9: Réal Cloutier and Brent Ashton: check!
10. Guy Lafleur: check!
12. Chris Simon: check!
16. Michel Goulet once: (and twice) check!
18: Marian Stastny and Mike Hough: check!
19. Michel Dion (also wore 30): check!
21: Randy Moller: check!
22. Ron Sutter: check!
28: Tony Hrkac (also wore #40): check!
30. Michel Dion (also wore 19): check!
31. Stéphane Fiset: check!
32. Dale Hunter: check!
33. Mario Gosselin: check!
36: Adam Deadmarsh: check!
40: Tony Hrkac (also wore #28): check!
41: Doug Smail: check!
44: Mario Marois: check!
48. Scott Young: check!
49: Kip Miller: check!
51: Andrei Kovalenko: check!
55: René Corbet: check!
59: Dave Karpa: check!

That's 27 numbers. Some will be harder than others to acquire (Peter Stastny's 26 and Joe Sakic's/Owen Nolan's 88), but I'm actually fairly confident with this one. This and the Habs one, fittingly, should near completion before I get bored with having these projects!

Wesley Sutton Jersey 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 Montréal Alouettes closed the 2026 regular season in first place of the Eastern Division with a 14-4 record, despite resting most of their starters in recent weeks. Their next game is the Eastern Division final, next Saturday at 3 PM, against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

One player who has been consistent year-to-year for the Als is 30-year-old defensive back Wesley Sutton, from Chandler, Arizona. In 14 games this season, he has 43 defensive tackles, one sack for a seven-yard loss and two interceptions. His best season was in 2022, when he had 79 tackles, 4 sacks and one interception. He was part of the Grey Cup-winning team in 2023.

I am proud to add him as #37 in my Alouettes Numbers Project with this card:

That is the Game Jersey version of card #77 from Upper Deck's 2024 CFL set. It shows him wearing the Als' current dark blue (home) uniform, matching the swatch that is included on the card.

My Habs Numbers Project: An Introduction

So many hockey collectors have ''special projects'' they pursue to make their hobby even more fun, from trying to gather specific cards from every single Vancouver Canucks goalie to having an autographed card of every player who has reached the 1000-point mark.

I decided to start a project myself: to gather a special piece (jersey cards could work, but ideally an autographed card) from a player from every number worn by a member of the Montréal Canadiens.

Here's a look at the task that's ahead of me, starting with those I have:

Head Coach: Scotty Bowman: check!
1: Brian Hayward, Roland Melanson and Rick Wamsley: check!
2: Gaston Gingras (also wore #29): check!
3: Sylvain Lefebvre once (then twice), and Brian Engblom: check!
4: the one and only Jean Béliveau: check!
5: Stéphane Quintal and Guy Lapointe: check!
6: Ralph Backstrom: check!
8: Brandon Prust: check!
10: Guy Lafleur: check!
11: Claude Larose and Ryan Walter: check!
12: Yvan Cournoyer and Mike Keane: check! (also: Darcy Tucker)
13: Alex Tanguay: check!
14: Mario Tremblay: check! (also, Tomas Plekanec, who also wore #35)
15: Réjean Houle once, (then twice), and Bobby Smith: check! (also: George Parros)
16: Henri Richard: check!
17: Georges Laraque and Benoît Brunet: check!
18: Valeri Bure: check!, and Serge Savard: signed lithograph check!
19: Larry Robinson: jersey card check!
20: Phil Goyette and Nicolas Deslauriers: check!
21: Brian Gionta: once, then twice, and Christopher Higgins: check!
22: Steve Shutt, Steve Bégin and Gilbert Dionne: check!
23: Turner Stevenson: check! (twice)
24: Andreas Dackell: postcard check!
25: Vincent Damphousse: check!
26: Josh Gorges: check!
27: Alex Kovalev: jersey card check!
28: Kyle Chipchura and Éric Desjardins: check!
29: Gaston Gingras (also wore #2) and Brett Clark: check! 
30: Mathieu Garon: postcard check, Peter Budaj, and David Aebischer: check!
31: Carey Price: check! (also Jeff Hackett)
32: Travis Moen: check!
34: Peter Popovic: check!
35: Alex Auld: check! (also, Tomas Plekanec, who wore #14 as well)
36: Marcel Hossa (also wore 81) and Matt D'Agostini: check!
37: Steve Penney and André Racicot: check!
38: Nikita Scherbak: check!
39: Cristobal Huet: check!
40: Maxim Lapierre: check! (also, this Éric Chouinard postcard)
41: Jaroslav Halak: check!
42: Alexander Perezhogin: check!
43: Patrice Brisebois and Andrew Cassels: check!
44: Stéphane Richer: check!
45: Gilbert Dionne: check!
46: Andrei Kostitsyn: 8x10 check!
47: Brendon Nash and Stéphan Lebeau (also wore #50): check!
48: Jean-Jacques Daigneault, and James Wyman: check!
49: Brian Savage: check!
50: Stéphan Lebeau (also wore #47): check!
51: David Desharnais: check! (also wore #58)
52: Craig Rivet: postcard check!
54: Patrick Traverse: postcard check!
55: Francis Bouillon (also wore #51): check!
57: Blake Geoffrion: check!
58: David Desharnais: check! (also wore #51)
59: Brock Trotter: check!
60: José Theodore: check and check again!
61: Raphael Diaz: check!
62: Artturi Lehkonen: check!
63: Craig Darby: check!
64: Greg Pateryn: check!
65: Robert Mayer and Andrew Shaw: check!
67: Max Pacioretty: check!
68: Yannick Weber: check!
70: Zachary Fucale: 4x6 picture check!
71: Louis Leblanc and Mike Ribeiro: check!
72: Mathieu Carle: check!
73: Michael Ryder: check!
74: Alexei Emelin: check!
75: Yann Danis: check!
76: P.K. Subban: jersey card check!
77: Pierre Turgeon: check!
79: Andrei Markov: check!
80: Ben Maxwell: check!
81: Lars Eller: check!
84: Guillaume Latendresse: check!
91: Scott Gomez: check!
94: Yanic Perreault and Tom Pyatt: check!
95: Olivier Michaud: check!
Captains: Béliveau, Gionta, Turgeon


Which means I'm looking to fill these:

7: This will be the hardest, seeing as Howie Morenz died in 1937 and the number was soon retired...
9: There are signature cards of Maurice 'The Rocket' Richard, but I don't think I'll ever be able to afford one!
33: Of course, my boyhood idol is Patrick Roy. Richard Sévigny would also be fine.
53: Rory Fitzpatrick and Ryan White have worn this number the longest
56: David Wilkie, Alain Nasreddine, Scott Fraser and Stéphane Robidas are the only ones to have worn this number in Montréal
66: Has only been worn in pre-season games
69: another pre-season number
78: I probably have some Éric Landry stuff somewhere...
82: It'd be nice to have Donald Audette's signature on a Canadiens' product
83: I don't even remember Éric Bertrand, but I'll gladly take the refresher course
85: never been worn, huh
86: Jonathan Ferland
87: never been worn
88: Chris Higgins wore it for a short while, as did Xavier Delisle
89: never been worn
90: I have lots of Joé Juneau cards, none of them signed
92: never been worn
93: the one and only Doug Gilmour
96, 97, 98, 99: have never been worn

My Alouettes Numbers Project

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

It's been a while since I started another Numbers Project after my Habs Numbers Project, my Oilers Numbers Project, my Sens Numbers Project, my Canucks Numbers Project, my Nordiques Numbers Project, my Flames Numbers Project, my Expos Numbers Project, my Jets Numbers Project, my Whalers Numbers Project, and my Team Canada Numbers Project, so I thought I might start one for my local Canadian Football League (CFL) team, the Montréal Alouettes.

The goal is simple: to gather a special piece (jersey cards could work, but ideally an autographed card) from a player from every number worn by a member of the Als, regadless of era (I had to give myself a chance).

As you may know, the first iteration of the Alouettes lasted from 1946 until 1981, with its peak during the 1970s, winning three Grey Cups in six appearances in the Grey Cup Final during that decade. The team's owner would hit hard financial times in 1982 and would hand the team back to the league in May - roughly a month before the start of the regular season; Montréal Expos (and Seagram) owner Charles Bronfman would retain most of the team's sports staff, players and employees as the Montréal Concordes, but the team stank and was unable to draw a decent attendance; Bronfman briefly went back to the Alouettes name, but the team folded before the 1987 regular season got underway.

In the early 1990s, the CFL tried expanding in the U.S., and the most successful franchise in that endeavour was the Baltimore Stallions, who made the Grey Cup Final in their first season in 1994 and won it the following year. Unfortunately, Art Modell, owner of the NFL's Cleveland Browns, announced that he planned to move his team to Baltimore, which would have relegated the Stallions to a second-tier team (due to playing in a second-tier league) in their city; after negociations and legal procedures, Modell was awarded a "new" NFL franchise - the Baltimore Ravens - and was allowed to retain most of the Browns' staff and players, as long as he forfeited the Browns' history and trademarks; the Browns were revived in 1999. This, however, rendered the Grey Cup champion Stallions homeless; after attempts at moving them to Houston (after the loss of the Houston Oilers and before the arrival of the Houston Texans), the CFL (and its commissioner Larry Smith, a former Als 1970s legend) was able to convince the team to move to Montréal to become the third iteration of the Alouettes.

So far, I have featured the following players:

19: S.J. Green: check!
26: Tyrice Beverette: jersey card check! 37: Wesley Sutton: jersey card check!

I understand I still have a ways to go, but one reason why I started is that I believe I have enough to at least make it fun!