Tyson Barrie: Two Autographed Cards

Good news for Colorado Avalanche and Tyson Barrie fans: the two sides have agreed to a four-year contract that will average $5.5M, after which the then-29-year-old will be a highly sought-after (and highly-paid) free agent.

The two sides had gone to arbitration and signed their deal while awaiting the arbiter's decision between the Avs' two-year $4M per offer and Barrie's $6M one-year rebuttal. The agreement is pretty much a down-the-middle compromise in terms of salary that goes a tad on the player's side, who in turn gives away a year of UFA status.

He will therefore make slightly less than teammate Erik Johnson for the next few seasons, but will likely make a lot more four years from now, possibly in the $8-9M range, barring a career-altering injury.

Barrie won gold with Team Canada at the 2015 World Championships with then-Avs teammates Ryan O'Reilly and Matt Duchene; O'Reilly now plays for the Buffalo Sabres, and Duchene might eventually get traded so that the Avalanche can improve their blue line, which is widely considered to be the team's Achilles heel - and the main reason why the team has failed to make the playoffs for the past two seasons after winning their division in 2013-14.

In the WHL, he had captained the Kelowna Rockets, after leading them to a Memorial Cup appearance; he set the team record for most career points, with 228 (in 256 games). Here he is wearing the Rockets' black (away) uniform, on card #128 from In The Game's 2009-10 Heroes And Prospects set:

And here is he manning the point with the Avalanche, on card #126 from Panini's 2013-14 Score set:

He signed both cards in black sharpie, adding the jersey number corresponding with each - 4 with the Rockets, 41 with the Avs, though he has switched to 4 with Colorado as well now.