Alex Killorn Swatch Card

I thought I could use my last post of the year to feature a player I've grown to like in the past two and a half seasons, Alex Killorn of the Tampa Bay Lightning - and not just because we share a birthday and having grown up in Montréal. (He attended Loyola High School, which was located maybe ten streets from where I grew up myself, though we have a ten-year age difference).

After starring in the final three of his four seasons with the Harvard Crimson in the NCAA, Killorn won the Calder Cup with the Norfolk Admirals in 2011-12, and then graduated to the NHL where he has been consistent in his point-per-game averages, on pace for 40 points per 80 games every year.

As a center, he will undoubtedly play behind Steven Stamkos for the duration of his career in Tampa - which isn't the worst place - and should reach the 20-goal mark quite a few times - maybe five or six - and I've got him penciled for the 60-point mark three or four times as well.

He was close to a point-per-game producer in the AHL, so once experience and getting used to better teammates sets in, he should gain the consistency to avoid longer slumps and, combined with his decent speed (I'd say he's in the upper-30% of the league in terms of skating) and once his body weight remains over the 200-pound bar consistently, he can work in becoming the ideal #2 center, capable of containing the opposition on most nights and generating offense at the same time.

He should also be able to replace Jonathan Drouin on the first-line left wing in a few years in injury situations, once he sees how a top-level passer sets up a top-level sniper in more than just a straightforward manner. With a full degree in political science from Harvard, he's proven he can learn.

At just 25 years old, he's already an important part of what makes the Lightning contenders this season, and for perhaps the next three to five. And things are looking up!

You can imagine how happy I was to unearth this 2013-14 Crown Royale silver foil card (#HT-AK of the Heirs To The Throne and Dual Rookie Class sub-sets) by Panini last year, featuring him in the team's blue (home) uniform, with a white event-worn swatch: