Sunday, April 27, 2014

Stéphan Lebeau: 6 Autographed Items (Part 2)

        (continued from the previous post)

The next season started slower for most of the team, and Stéphan Lebeau was among those who paid for it, as he was traded mid-season to the Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim. Over two half-seasons in Anaheim - the second one due to the lock-out - Lebeau had 34 points in 60 games; to put it into context, his 16 assists in 1994-95 were second in team totals and his 24 points were good enough for third, despite having missed 10 games due to injury.

From that era, here is a beautiful 1994-95 Pinnacle card (#67 in the set) from Pinnacle Brands (notice how his skate bottoms are now black):
Teal and purple, so 1990s! I chose to feature Lebeau today because of this card: the Anaheim Ducks winning last night, and the Los Angeles Kings (notice the defender on the left of the card?) playing a team that is usually teal-coloured tonight (the San Jose Sharks).

Still, despite being one of the team leaders in Anaheim, the Mighty Ducks chose not to offer him a new contract, and he spent his final six years of pro hockey in the Swiss League, playing for three different teams for two seasons each, totaling 349 points (143 of them goals) in 222 games.

Upon retiring, he first moved back to Sherbrooke and became involved in minor hockey at Bishop's College (Midget AAA), until he was named an assistant coach with the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs this year. My guess is he'll be the team's head coach before next Christmas.

I had sent him these 5 cards on April 3rd, 2014, care of the Bulldogs, and got them all back signed in black sharpie - with his jersey number (47) on the top-right of his autograph - 22 days later (April 25th, 2014), along with this note on one of the index cards I'd used to protect the cards:
It reads: ''Hello Sebastian, thanks for your comments, Stéphan''.

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