Sunday, October 22, 2017

David Booth Autographed Card

After spending two seasons in the KHL, David Booth is back in North America, having secured a fourth-line spot on his hometown Detroit Red Wings, playing short of five minutes per night after making the roster from a camp invitation.

In his prime, Booth was a 20-goal, 40-point winger who peaked at 31 goals, 29 assists and 60 points in 2008-09, his third season. Unfortunately, he suffered two concussions the following season, the first of which was from a dirty Mike Richards hit. He came back to lead the Florida Panthers in goals (with 23) in 2010-11, then was traded to the Vancouver Canucks early the following season. His play declined in three seasons in Vancouver, leading to some time with the AHL's Utica Comets.

It didn't get much better in 2014-15, as he mostly played for the Toronto Maple Leafs but also played two contests (scoring a goal) with their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies.

After a decent turn with the KHL's Vladivostok Admiral in 2015-16, he scored a tryout at the Anaheim Ducks training camp prior to the 2016-17 season, but failed to make the team, leading to his signing with the powerhouse Omsk Avangard, alongside the likes of Vladimir Sobotka, Alexander Perezhogin, Evgeny Medvedev, Nikolai Lemtyugov, Ilya Zubov, Derek Roy, and Nikita Nikitin.

Prior to arriving at the Ducks' camp, however, Booth had a hell of a scare, piloting his own plane from British Columbia to California and having his engine stop working three-quarters of the way there. He was told he could attempt to glide all the way to a Nevada airstrip, which he attempted; during that time, other pilots were calling in, wishing him luck. As he got closer to the ground and the ice around the engine melted, it started working again, and he was sable to make it to Anaheim.

As a devout Christian, he's certain that scare and the couple of years playing in Russia were all just part of God's Plan.

Here he is wearing the Panthers' white (away) uniform on card #180 from Upper Deck's 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee set:
He signed it in black sharpie in early 2015, while a member of the Leafs.

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