Colton Teubert Autograph Card

My (remaining) childhood team - the Edmonton Oilers - has eliminated last year's Western Conference finalist San Jose Sharks in a tiring, tight but predictable series and will now face the tougher, bigger, faster and meaner Anaheim Ducks.

The Oilers' defense has not looked this good in at least an entire decade, and team chemistry is at its most cohesive since the 2005-06 Stanley Cup Final run. Even the Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson trade is looking great (addition by subtraction in team spirit and cleaning up the air, adding a quality defensive defenseman, and making room to sign a more physical top-six left winger in Milan Lucic are three huge victory points for Edmonton).

Such a trade would not have been necessary, however, had Colton Teubert panned out as the team expected him to when they traded for him with the Los Angeles Kings (along with first-round and second-round picks, for Dustin Penner). The Oilers took a chance on the 6'4", 210-pound former first round pick (13th overall in 2008) because he'd previously been teammates with Jordan Eberle with the WHL's Regina Pats, making the All-Star Game and having Regina mayor Pat Fiacco proclaim January 8, 2010 as "Jordan Eberle and Colten Teubert Day". Yeah, that happened.

However, the Oilers were pretty bad, and their AHL affiliate Oklahoma City Barons weren't great either, and his development stagnated; he fell into the minuses, took a lot of penalties, and ultimately was forced to sign in Germany to pursue his dream of playing professional hockey. And he's actually doing fine there:

from HockeyDB.com

He has won gold (2008 World U-18 Championships and 2009 World Juniors) and silver (2010 World Juniors) medals playing for Team Canada and, at age 27, seems to have found his groove.

Here he is as a tough Oilers prospect, wearing the classic blue (now-home) uniform on the Bronze variant of card #MM-30 from Panini's 2013-14 Titanium set and Metallic Marks sub-set:

It features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph.