Nigel Dawes Autographed Card

Lost in the shuffle of hockey news was the announcement that the Connecticut Whale were returning to their original name, the Hartford Wolf Pack. One thing I find odd about it is their parent NHL team, the New York Rangers, letting Global Spectrum run the team, seeing as they're in the same amalgam of corporations owned by Ed Snider and his Philadelphia Flyers, one of the Rangers' fiercest rivals. Strange bedfellows indeed...

I have at least one Wolf Pack card, and this is the first one that popped up when searching, from In The Game's 2005-06 Heroes And Prospects set (card #234), Nigel Dawes.

A fifth-round pick of the Rangers, Dawes was Canada's leading scorer at the World Juniors in 2004 as he helped them win silver; he won gold in 2005 in a lesser role, on a team that boasted the likes of Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Getzlaf and Sidney Crosby.

A scoring threat in Juniors, he was also a point-per-game player in the AHL, but failed to impress his coaches at the NHL level, be it for the Rangers (parts of 3 seasons), Phoenix Coyotes (12 games), Calgary Flames (66 games), Atlanta Thrashers (9 games), or Montréal Canadiens (4 games). After the 2010-11 season, he lost patience and bolted to the KHL, where he put up 67 points in 103 games over two seasons and is tearing it up in the playoffs with 7 goals (and 9 points) in 7 games.

I got him to sign this card (in blue sharpie) in 2011 when he was with the Habs, after a game.