Jeremy Morin Autographed Card

I try to attend a couple of Hamilton Bulldogs games per year, usually one or two weekend-long treks where I can cram in two home games each time, or one in Hamilton and one in Toronto, or maybe a trek down to Albany - nothing too crazy, no more than 8 hours' drive. I went to see them play the Rockford Ice Hogs last year (or was it the year before that?), hoping to catch Carter Hutton, Brandon Pirri, Kyle Beach or Martin Saint-Pierre (I had three items of each) - and ended up with neither.

But I did catch Jeremy Morin (don't let the name fool you, he's an American, not a Quebecer) who signed this 2010-11 Score Hot Rookies card (#633 in the Rookies And Traded set) by Panini for me in blue sharpie:

Since I'd mentioned how beautiful I found the Chicago Blackhawks' uniform to be on that particular card, he made it a point not to sign on it, but the ad on the boards make it hard to decipher his signature. Still, I count it as a huge win for me.

Morin was originally a second round draft pick of the Atlanta Thrashers (45th overall in 2009), but the Hawks acquired him in the trade that sent Brent Sopel, Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager and Akim Aliu to Atlanta and Marty Reasoner, Joey Crabb and two other draft picks (Kevin Hayes and Justin Holl) Chicago's way.

Morin's been sharing his time between the NHL and AHL since 2010-11 and has 10 points and 39 penalty minutes so far in 30 NHL games, showing glimpses of steady play in just about 7 minutes of ice time per game on a team whose lineup is pretty hard to crack.

He's on a point-per-game pace in the AHL this season, and registered 30 goals and 58 points in 67 games in Rockford last season. With a bit of polish in his defensive game, he could become a solid second-or-third liner in the NHL.

He has some experience on the world stage, winning gold (2010) and bronze (2011) at the World Juniors as well as the U-18 (gold in 2009, bronze in 2008) with Team USA.