Mike Ribeiro Autographed Card

In a story that pretty much flew under the radar this summer, the Dallas Stars traded Mike Ribeiro to the Washington Capitals at the draft, for Cody Eakin and a second-rounder. No disrespect meant for Eakin, but this was a clear case of new assistant-GM Bob Gainey getting rid of a guy he despises for personal reasons - he's the one who had sent him to Dallas from the Montréal Canadiens in the first place.

We are talking about a guy who has led his team in scoring five times and barely turned 32.

He will now be serving his magical passes to Alex Ovechkin, so I expect both players to gather more than 90 points this season. Ribeiro will also give his team an advantage in the shootout, where he has become a force to be reckoned with.

While I've come across ''Mickey Ribs'' in or around gentlemen's clubs around town, the day I got this card signed was at the Habs' 2002-03 Jamboree, where I spent most of the day chatting with Marcel Hossa:

It's card #111 in Upper Deck's 2002-03 Victory set, and I probably bought the Habs' set on-site. It's signed in blue sharpie but is smudged because I didn't know of the ''eraser trick'' for signatures to stick better on cards, nor did I have any handy. I didn't get to talk to him much because as a budding star, he was sent up in a rigid tent so he wouldn't get mobbed by the crowd. Saku Koivu and José Theodore got the same treatment, so when their turn came, I stayed with Hossa and chilled rather than waste an hour trying to get there and back in the middle of sweaty fans.

I'm happy I'll get to see him more often on home ice now that he'll be playing in the East. In his big return last season - the only regular-season game he's played here as a visitor - he was everywhere on the ice and was voted the first star, just like Jaroslav Halak before him.

Watch the fun, first with the goal:

Then the celebration: