Sven Andrighetto: 8 Autographed Items

Part three (of four) of my tremendous returns from last Friday, this time involving Sven Andrighetto, who was an AHL rookie this year and yet was invited by the Montréal Canadiens to join their taxi squad for the playoffs - the only player among the dozen to not have any NHL experience.

Sven Andrighetto was a pro in Switzerland by the time he was only 16, and by 18 he had 23 points in 38 games in their B league. The Zurich native then made the move to North America, playing in the LHJMQ with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, posting a 36-goal, 74-point rookie season (in 62 games), followed by a 31-goal, 98-point sophomore year (in 53 games) in 2012-13.

Drafted by the Habs in the 3rd round (86th overall) in 2013, he made the move to the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs this year, starting off slowly, but finishing on the team's top line with 44 points in 64 games (second in points and third in goals on the weakest team in the league).

At just 5'9'' and 188 pounds, he is not the power forward fans have been dreaming about, but he has a strong work ethic and good speed. His hockey sense is a definite plus, as he can slip to a third-line role should a slump occur and help the team in a different way than just by posting points.

In a year, he will likely already be the best forward on the Swiss Team in international competitions. I have seen roughly a quarter of the Bulldogs' games this year, and he was one of the most consistent players in the second half (he was benched and scratched a lot when the season started). He'll be a solid second-liner, I'm just not sure it'll be with the already-small Habs...

I had written Andrighetto on March 17th, 2014 and sent along these six custom cards, and received them all back on April 25th (2014), signed in black sharpie, with his jersey number (27) tagged at the end, with the added bonus of signed index cards. It was a 39-day return from Montréal to Hamilton!

Here are the cards, all variants (A, B, C, D, E, and F) of card #58 of my Hell's Kitchen 2013-14 Series 2 set, showcasing all three uniforms worn by the Bulldogs this season, starting with the white uniform:

He's already pretty good at figuring out where to sign... here's one of the ''regular'' red uniform, which I probably could have cropped better:

And lastly, two of the awful-yet-not-so-bad camouflage uniform:

And the index cards, one more centered than the other: