Friday, April 8, 2016

Adam Deadmarsh Autographed Card

Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos is pretty adamant that his team will NOT move to Québec City in the next few months, going as far as to "guarantee it", although there are never any guarantees in Life, least of which what one's succession chooses to do upon an owner's death, who it sells assets to, and what those people choose to do with said assets. Keep in mind, the main group trying to get a team to Québec, Vidéotron/Quebecor, is actually a media empire from Montréal, meaning they could run the team in Carolina for a few years without it affecting their bottom line all that much.

Still, what better time to check off #36 from my Nordiques Numbers Project with this card of Adam Deadmarsh's, wearing the team's superb blue 1990s uniform:
It's card #251 from Upper Deck's 1994-95 Series 1 set and Star Rookie sub-set; it is his main rookie card. He signed it in blue sharpie.

Deadmarsh was a Juniors sensation, posting 30 goals and 60 points in 68 games as a 16-year-old rookie with the Portland Winter Hawks in 1991-92. He followed that up with 33-goal (69 points) and 43-goal seasons (99 points) before graduating to the Québec Nordiques post-lockout in 1994-95, who had drafted him 14th overall in 1993, posting 9 goals and 17 points in the 48-game shortened season.

He had a lot of team success, winning gold for Team Canada at the U-18 Pacific Cup in 1992, the Stanley Cup in 1996 when the Nordiques moved to Denver to become the Colorado Avalanche, the 1996 World Cup with Team USA (he has dual citizenship) and silver with the Americans at the 2002 Olympics.

He posted 17 points in 22 playoff games when Colorado won the Cup. He also led the Avs with 33 goals in 1996-97 as they won the Presidents' Trophy as the best team in the league, which ended up being is career high.

Prior to winning their second Cup in 2001, the Avs traded Deadmarsh to the Los Angeles Kings for defenseman Rob Blake, with both teams facing off in the Conference Finals and the Avs winning in seven games.

Although concussions would take their toll during his time in L.A., limiting him to 20 games in 2002-03, he still posted 17 points that year on the strength of 13 goals, no less. The previous season, he had a career-high 62 points (29 of those being goals) in 78 games as he finished second in team scoring to Jason Allison's 74. This was in the heart of the Dead Puck Era, as the Kings' goalies, who were middle-of-the-pack, showed impressive goals-against averages, with Félix Potvin showing a 2.31 GAA (in 71 games) and Jamie Storr's 1.90 (in 19 games) being equally striking.

Deadmarsh retired in January of 2005, having not played a game in three years.

His post-concussion troubles came back in 2011-12 when he was in his third season on the Avs' staff, his first as an assistant coach, forcing him to retire from hockey for good.

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