Brendan Gallagher Jersey Card

It's been roughly a year and a half since I last featured Montréal Canadiens pest, leader and sparkplug Brendan Gallagher; he's since been given an ''A'' as an alternate captain, and earlier tonight scored his first goal of the season - a game-tying tally against the Detroit Red Wings - becoming the tenth Habs forward to score this season.

A three-time 40-goal man in Juniors, Gallagher still stands as the Vancouver Giants' all-time goals (136) and points (280) leader; keep in mind, that puts him ahead of the likes of Milan Lucic, Gilbert Brûlé, Cody Franson, Lance Bouma, Evander Kane, and Jordan Martinook.

At the NHL level, he cracked the 20-goal mark last season, finishing with 24, and now has a goal and 4 assists (5 points) in 6 games so far this year, playing on the Habs' newly-formed top line with fellow alternate Tomas Plekanec and new captain Max Pacioretty.

For most of his first three seasons, he'd played alongside Alex Galchenyuk (now converted into a center), with centers ranging from Plekanec to Jan Bulis Lars Eller to Torrey Mitchell to whoever was available and needed a bit of a youthful boost.

To have an idea as to how consistent and surly he's been, former star winger and current team ambassador Guy Lafleur has been pushing him as captain for the last couple of years now.

I think he's the kind of player that ultimately becomes replaceable over time, as a combination of his body wearing down, teams looking for the type of leadership he brings, and an equally hungry and determined youngster coming up in the minors create a marketable value that is hard to ignore.

In the meantime though, me and my fellow Habs fans will continue to encourage him and cheer for him every chance we get. The way he always puts in maximum effort and goes all-out is reminiscent of all the players we're used to cheering, from legends as Maurice ''The Rocket'' Richard and Patrick Roy to stars like Saku Koivu to grinders like Chris Nilan, Francis Bouillon, Steve Bégin, and Bob Gainey.

Here he is in the team's white (now-away) uniform, from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Black Diamond set (in card #ROOK-BG from the Double Diamond Jerseys sub-set):

Because it is also his rookie jersey card, the two matching white jersey swatches incorporated into the card are from a photo shoot, not an official NHL game.