Craig Anderson Autographed Card

By trading away Robin Lehner along with David Legwand to the Buffalo Sabres, the Ottawa Senators kept their most proven goaltender - and legitimate #1 goalie - within the organization. Craig Anderson's contract runs for three more years, thus securing the position for the mid-term.

The San Jose Sharks reportedly had interest in the American netminder, and with good reason: although he was injured and then had to sit while Andrew Hammond enjoyed a career run, when Hammond faltered against the Montréal Canadiens in the playoffs, Anderson stepped right in, winning two of four games and outplaying Hart, Pearson, Jennings and Vezina winner Carey Price in three of them, the other game being an equal battle.

Since the Sens are the second team I follow most, and because I probably rank Anderson among the top-10 most dependable goalies in the league, I was glad they kept their association going; I'm also a fan of the Sharks losing, a trend he might have helped buck.

I met him twice during the last playoffs after games in which he'd been nothing short of spectacular. On one occasion, I had him sign a Sens card and a Team USA card, but today I decided to feature him with the Colorado Avalanche, another team for which he was solid, so that I could store all my Avs cards of his together on the same row in my binder:

It's card #27 from Upper Deck's 2009-10 Champ's set and shows him with the Avs' traditional burgundy uniform. My previous two of his in the Avalanche uniform were of the white variety, when he signed for me through the mail in 2011.