Keith Primeau Jersey Card

As I was putting my collection in order, I realized I had a Keith Primeau jersey card I hadn't featured before, though with the same white (home) Philadelphia Flyers uniform as a card I had. Last time it featured a black swatch, this time it's a white one, from Upper Deck's 2002-03 Vintage set (card #FS-KP of the Framed Sweaters sub-set):

It's a beautiful card, numbered 21/50, cleaner than the scan would lead to believe.

Primeau was one of those guys, a home team favourite but little-known elsewhere type of player, like Tomas Plekanec is these days. He was the captain of his team, and more often than not was the top centerman (except for his time with the Detroit Red Wings, where he fell behind both Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov).

He wasn't a point-per-game player (266 goals and 619 points in 909 regular-season games), but had his clutch moments, including two 73-point seasons, three 30-goal seasons, and two terrific postseasons (13 points in 18 games in 1999-2000, and 9 goals and 16 points in 18 games in 2003-04, inspiring the Tampa Bay Lightning's Vincent Lecavalier to adopt a tougher playing style, which got him to be named the 2004 World Cup MVP).

However, Primeau will always be remembered as one of many players whose career was cut short by concussions. He officially announced his retirement on my birthday (September 14th), in 2006, about a year after his last NHL game.