Chris Simon Autograph card

It's been four years since the last time I featured Chris Simon, so I figured I'd check in on a player I once admired and see where he was at.

After the 2007-08 season that saw him suit up with the New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild but will mostly be remembered as the one that saw him start the season finishing a 25-game suspension and receiving a 30-game one during it, Simon took his talents to the KHL, which is pretty much where I was at in the last post.

It turns out he played pretty well in his first three seasons with the Chekhov Vityaz, going 8-20-28 with 263 penalty minutes (!!!) in 40 games in his first season in Russia, then 13-12-25 and 110 in 30 games in 2009-10, and 16-12-28 and 111 in 43 games in 2010-11; he even played in the All-Star Game those last two seasons.

It went downhill from there, though, as he merely scored 4 goals and gathered 3 assists for 7 points with 71 penalty minutes in 55 games over the next two and a half seasons. He then retired, at the respectable age of 41.

I liked him the most on my favourite team, the Québec Nordiques / Colorado Avalanche, with which he won the Stanley Cup in 1996; he would also have been an ideal fit with the Philadelphia Flyers - who had originally drafted him 25th overall in 1990 - with his size, grit, hockey sense, strength, shooting accuracy and mean streak - but ended up having his best season with the Washington Capitals when he scored 29 goals with 49 points in 1999-2000.

It's fitting, then, that this 2013-14 Enforcers II card (#A-CS in the Autograph insert sub-set), signed in black sharpie, by In The Game show him with the Caps:

It may have been nice to commemorate his 250-PIM 1995-96 season with the Avs considering this is what this set wants to focus on, though; however, the black eye works very well, as does the referee right in the back, and I always liked his flowing long hair - I had the same style at the time.