Victor Hedman Autograph Card

By the way, this weekend marked the return of Victor Hedman to the Tampa Bay Lightning, following a month and a half on the long-term injury list. The towering former second-overall draft pick (in 2009) started looking like a Norris trophy candidate last season and was pretty much dominating in the five games he's played in so far to start the year.

If anything, his 7 points in his first 5 games made him one of the most valuable defenders in this salary-capped season, only accounting for $4M of his team's possible $69M. As for Norris talks, I usually hold out until mid-February to have a better idea, when play tightens and the injury situation is clearer, but he's definitely a member of the elite among defensemen now.

He turns 24 in a couple of weeks, with plenty of time to add to his collection of hardware, which already includes World Juniors silver (in both 2008 and 2009), World Championship bronze (2010), and another bronze and gold in U18 and U17 tournaments (in 2007). A Norris (or two), an Olympic medal, a World Cup, and perhaps even a Presidents' Cup / Stanley Cup would certainly look nice on his mantle - and he has at least a decade left to reach for those objectives.

Here's what he looked like when he was drafted:

It's card #19 from the Draft Day Autographs sub-set of Panini's 2011-12 Titanium set, numbered 74/99.  It features a sticker autograph, signed in blue sharpie.