Stéphane Quintal Autograph Card

I wanted to take a post to congratulate Stéphane Quintal, who was officially appointed as the NHL's new discipline czar earlier this week. He was originally an assistant to Brendan Shanahan when he held the position, and had replaced him for the playoffs in an interim role.

As chief disciplinarian, Quintal will oversee all actions that, in his playing days, would have resulted in his dropping the gloves to defend his teammates - only this time, he will punish culprits with suspensions and fines.

The 14th-overall pick of the 1987 draft (one spot ahead of Joe Sakic) had a decent career as a stay-at-home defender, spanning 16 seasons and 1037 regular-season games in which he scored 63 goals, was credited with 180 assists (good for 243 points) and totaled an impressive 1320 penalty minutes; he also played in 52 playoff games, in which he 'only' spent 51 minutes in the sin bin with two goals and 12 points in total.

Seven of his 16 seasons (and 507 games) were spent with the Montréal Canadiens, including his 1000th NHL game. He also played with the Boston Bruins (who had drafted him), St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks; he played on two-thirds of the Original Six teams.

Here is a card showing him with the Habs' classic red (then-away) uniform, from Pinnacle's 1997-98 Be A Player set (card #94), an autographed insert signed in black sharpie:

I had originally featured him in the Habs' white (then-home) uniform five years ago, in the second-ever post on this blog. Back then, I wasn't trying to tie my show-and-tells with the news...