Scott Young Autograph Card

Well, the St. Louis Blues are certainly keeping busy this off-season, signing a ton of players and shaking up their roster with a couple of trades so far, acquiring Konrad Abeltshauser from the San Jose Sharks, and Troy Brouwer, Phoenix Copley and a draft pick from the Washington Capitals for Team USA Olympic hero and playoff underachiever T.J. Oshie.

It reminds me a bit of the late 1990s - ironically during the era where their uniforms were the same as their current/throwback ones - when they went through an awful lot of player changes, with Al MacInnis coming in, Pierre Turgeon passing by, along with the likes of Scott Young, Craig Conroy, Doug Weight, Marty Reasoner and Geoff Courtnall.

It's been five and a half years since I last featured Young, who returned to his alma mater Boston University Terriers as Director of Hockey Operations last year, after doing the same coaching the St. Mark's hockey team at the high school level for three years.

Young brings a wealth of experience, not just as a good scorer (one 30-goal season with the Québec Nordiques and a 40-goal season with the Blues) with a tremendous slap shot in the NHL, but also some international experience, with gold (1996 World Cup), silver (2002 Olympics) and bronze (1986 World Juniors) medals with the American team at various levels and in different decades. Oh, and Stanley Cups with the 1990-91 Pittsburgh Penguins and 1995-96 Colorado Avalanche.

He's been around the block a few times and knows a thing or two about a lot of things, so the kids at BU are in good hands to learn about Life in a sports context.

Here he is wearing the Blues' dark blue (then-away) uniform:

It's the signed insert of card #278 from In The Game's 1998-99 Be A Player set, signed on-card in thin black sharpie.