Phil Housley Autograph Card

Once again, I was inspired by a post from fellow blogger Sal Barry for this one, seeings as his Gary Suter card features the same uniform as this Phil Housley card - a lock-out tournament, NHLPA uniform, full of sponsors. It's from a set I've featured often, Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player collection (this is card #S72), which had an NHLPA licence but not one from the NHL, so players were depicted either in NHLPA garb, national team uniforms, or their NHL uniforms with the logo airbrushed out. It is signed in thin black sharpie that is hard to see at first through the red and black of the uniform (and John Vanbiesbrouck's pads), but is quite clear after you've seen it once.

Housley was one of the best offensive defensemen of his era, and perhaps one of the 10 best American defensemen of all time (a case can definitely be made for his contemporaries Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, Mathieu Schneider - although he is half-Canadian -  and Gary Suter as well).

When this card was made, he was a member of the New Jersey Devils, but his cornerstone seasons were spent with the Buffalo Sabres and Winnipeg Jets; he also played with the Washington Capitals, Calgary Flames (twice), Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs, which whom he played just one game, which happened to be his last. He was a member of the 1996 World Cup-winning Team USA.

He is a member of the American Hall Of Fame and ranks among the highest point-producing Americans of all time, despite being a defenseman.