Ales Hemsky Jersey Card

With two goals against the Ottawa Senators on the day before the trade deadline and three assists for them tonight, Ales Hemsky has had a busy week...

I've been a fan of Hemsky's since before he even started in the NHL, as he played his Junior career with the Hull Olympiques, less than two hours away from Montréal, and I saw him play a couple of times, right when I was getting re-acquanited with hockey (I stopped watching it save for the Stanley Cup Finals from the Patrick Roy trade in 1995 until Wayne Gretzky's last game in Ottawa in 1999, which like twenty five years).

He managed to compile 197 points in 131 games in the LHJMQ, and he kept producing at the NHL level. Sure, Edmonton Oilers fans wanted and expected more out of their 2001 first-round draft pick (13th overall), but look at these statistics:

2002-03 (rookie season): 30 points in 59 games
2005-06: 19 goals and 77 points in 81 games (plus 17 points in 24 playoff games)
2006-07: 53 points in 54 games
2007-08: 20 goals and 71 points in 74 games
2008-09: 23 goals and 66 points in 73 games
2009-10: 22 points in 22 games
2010-11: 14 goals and 42 points in 47 games
2011-12: 20 points in 38 games

Reads like clockwork to me.

He made the roster for the 2011 All-Star Game, and has won Olympic bronze with the Czech Republic (2006), as well as World Championship gold (2005) and bronze (2012).

So I never considered parting with this 2006-07 Series 1 card (#J-AH of the UD Game Jersey sub-set) from Upper Deck:

I wrote to him in 2011 and sent along 4 cards at the time, but never heard back, unfortunately.