Yann Sauvé Autograph card

I thought I'd check off #47 from my Canucks Numbers Project by featuring defenseman Yann Sauvé, a Montréal-born, Rigaud-raised player currently suiting up for the KHL's Croatian team, Zagreb Medvescak, with fellow Quebecers Francis Paré (undrafted 29-year-old former Detroit Red Wings prospect), Alexandre Giroux (former member of the Washington Capitals), fellow former Vancouver Canucks prospect Alexandre Bolduc, and Samson Mahbod (a player I'd never heard of before who has toiled in Junior A and the ECHL), as well as former NHLers Mike Glumac (St. Louis Blues, never returned my TTM request), Gilbert Brulé (Columbus Blue Jackets, never returned my TTM request), Bobby Butler (Ottawa Senators), Brandon McMillan (Anaheim Ducks), Lucas Lessio (Phoenix Coyotes), and goalies Drew MacIntyre (Buffalo Sabres) and Michael Garnett (Atlanta Thrashers).

You'd think the team would have a decent shot if you underestimated the KHL's talent level, but it stands at 13-17-0 for second-to-last in its division.

But back to Sauvé, a former Canucks second round pick (41st overall in 2008). He claims to have modeled his play after that of Mike Komisarek, which led many to see him as a failure for a high draft pick (he had also been a first-overall pick at the Juniors level), which is usually reserved for offensive-minded players.

Before playing in a single professional game, following the Canucks' young defensemen's streak of bad luck (R.I.P. Luc Bourdon), he was hit by a car, suffering through a two-month-long concussion.

He played in the AHL and ECHL before deciding to move overseas last summer, although he holds the ECHL's All-Star Game hardest shot record at nearly 100 miles per hour.

Here he is wearing the Canucks' retro stick-in-the-rink uniform, on card #SS-YS from Panini's 2013-14 Score set and Signature sub-set:

It features an on-sticker blue-sharpied autograph with his number tagged at the end.

Not many Montrealers remember him, but those who do do so because he was sent down to the AHL by the Canucks on the day that he was to play at the Bell Centre for the first time, in front of dozens of his friends and family in the stands.