Monday, December 9, 2019

Ben Holmstrom Autograph Card

Ben Holmstrom was one of those undrafted College kids that sign with a professional team when they reach maturity, which is usually seen as less of a risk to the pro team, seeing as the player is already an adult, has been training at school and had more practices than games to learn to play a two-way game. Another risk associated with drafting American College kids is they can refuse to sign with the team that drafted them for four straight years and become free agents, resulting in a wasted pick.

A three-year captain - out of a four-year tenure - of the UMass Lowell River Hawks, Holmstrom signed with the Philadelphia Flyers, appearing in 7 games over five seasons, captaining their AHL affiliate Adirondack Phantoms for the last three.

He then moved onto the Charlotte Checkers for one season, and then the New York Islanders organization, where he captained their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, for four years.

After an injury-plagued season, he signed with the ECHL's Norfolk Admirals last summer, the only team in the league to not have an NHL affiliation; his 4 goals, 5 assists and 9 points in 21 games are rather unimpressive, which leaves me thinking the team signed him to please their leading scorer Josh Holmstrom (18 points in 30 games), his brother.

That being said, Ben is the only one with NHL experience. Here he is as a member of the Flyers on card #SI-HM from Panini's 2013-14 Select set and Signatures sub-set:
The card features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph. He looks good in Flyer orange.

This year marks the fourth team with which the Homstrom brothers are teammates; they also played together at UMass-Lowell, in Bridgeport and for the USHL's Sioux Falls Stampede before going to  College.

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