Luke Glendening Jersey Card

Luke Glendening has been a winner and leader throughout his hockey career, starting with two seasons as the University of Michigan Wolverines' captain, leading them a CCHA title and NCAA Final. He then won the Calder Cup with the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins in 2012-13, following a 26-point rookie season in the pros.

After starting the 2013-14 season in the AHL, posting 12 points (5 goals and 7 assists) in 18 games, he was recalled by the Detroit Red Wings, who were facing a ton of injuries, and he hasn't looked back since. Sure, he took a personal step back with just 14 points (3 goals, 11 assists) in 74 games last year, missing the last six because of injuries as the Wings ended a 26-year consecutive playoff streak, but the 28-year-old whose cap hit is below the $2M mark should hover around 10 goals and 20 points per year, and a half-point-per-game average in the playoffs, which makes him a valuable NHLer.

He has a tremendous work ethic and has become a good two-way center who starts most of his team's penalty-killing shifts.

I was extremely happy to pull this card from a raffle/group break last month, showing him in the Wings' red 2016 Stadium Series uniform, which includes the old-school stylized "D" on the chest, although I am not fond of the football-style huge numbers on the arms:

It's card #RW-LG from Upper Deck's 2016-17 SP Game-Used Edition set and Stadium Series Fabrics sub-set, featuring a red swatch worn on February 27th, 2016, as the Wings faced long-time rivals Colorado Avalanche at Coors Field in Denver, a 5-3 Detroit win despite the Avs leading 2-1 after two periods. Glendening had an assist on Justin Abdelkader's 15th of the season, which put the Wings up 3-2.

Glendening was likely to be left available at the expansion draft in a couple of weeks, but an ankle surgery may have the Vegas Golden Knights looking to grab another Detroit player instead.