Blake Hillman Autograph Card

Blake Hillman was part of an entire crop of College players who signed a shorter-term ELC in their early 20s, but unlike a lot of seniors who were free agents for never having been drafted or waiting for their fourth year to not play with the team that owned their rights, he chose to sign with the Chicago Blackhawks, who had selected him 173th overall in 2016.

He got to play in four games at the tail of of the season, scoring a goal in his second game; however, with the Hawks' logjam on defense last year and the NHL limit of 50 active contracts, the team elected not to extend him a qualifying offer last summer, and he became a UFA at the age of 23.

He signed a one-year deal with the ECHL's Toledo Walleye and appeared in five AHL games with the Grand Rapids Griffins, but he hasn't shown the type of offensive game that will make it easy for him to have another shit at the NHL soon.

He may have to sign a few AHL deals or spend a year or two in Europe to show that his defensive game is strong enough to warrant a bottom-pairing role in the Big Show.

Here he is wearing the Hawks' white (away) uniform on the signed insert version of card #146 from Upper Deck's 2018-19 SP Game-Used Edition collection and Authentic Rookies sub-set:

It features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph with his jersey number (55) tagged at the end.