Yann Sauvé Jersey Card

Tired of getting loaned left and right to all corners of the AHL and ECHL, Yann Sauvé set his sights towards Europe in 2016-17 and has almost never looked back.

The former Vancouver Canucks draft pick (41st overall in 2008) to be a middle-pairing defenseman, as he was already a hulking shut-down blue-liner in the LHJMQ at 6'3" and 209 pounds, but with players his age or slightly younger, he could also contribute offensively. In the professional ranks however, as is often the case with defensemen - particularly those built rugged - it was a slow process made even slower by a concussion suffered when he was hit by a car in training camp in 2010. It took him two months to recover and he was relegated to the AHL instantly and also playing a bit in the ECHL, which prepared him for the following five seasons, during which he suited up for 13 teams in three different leagues:

from HockeyDB

That's a lot of travel.

When the offer to play for the Croatian KHL team KHL Zagreb Medvescak came (the "KHL" in the team name does not refer to the league they played in but to the Croatian initials for "Ice Hockey Club"), he jumped on it, but when the team failed to make the playoffs in February, he felt it was too early to pack it in until the Fall, so he went back to the ECHL's Manchester Monarchs until German team Munich Red Bulls Ice Hockey Club (or as they're called in he DEL, EHC Red Bull München) requested his services for a playoff run. He had one final regular-season game to play before that, and he decided to make his mark by amassing no fewer than 25 penalty minutes and a game rejection as he got acquainted with his teammates. The team won the league championship.

He spent the 2017-18 season in the U.K., scoring 10 goals with 27 assists for 37 points (sixth in team scoring, first for defensemen) and 96 penalty minutes (second only to fellow Montréaler Mathieu Gagnon's 106) in 54 games with the Nottingham Panthers.

He gave Austria a chance for 2018-19, splitting the season between KHL Zagreb Medveščak (which had jumped leagues for financial reasons that were never resolved) and EC Panaceo VSV after the Zagreb team folded, with similar statistics; he had 6 goals and 8 assists for 14 points with 12 penalty minutes and a -11 rating in 24 games in Zagreb and 2 goals, 10 assists and 12 points with 16 penalty minutes and a -12 rating for for Villach.

He spent the 2019-20 season playing for France's Grenoble Brûleurs de Loups (literally: Wolf Burners), scoring 6 goals with 15 assists for 21 points ion the highly-offensive Ligue Magnus He also had 57 penalty minutes and - more importantly - a +26 defensive rating.

Grenoble seems like a perfect fit for him, and I hope he finds some stability there. As a French Canadian, I believe he's relatively exempt from the "Imported Players" quota when in France, so that's a plus.

This is what he looked like in the Canucks' white (away) uniform, on card #165 from Upper Deck's 2011-12 SPX set and Rookie Jersey sub-set:

It features a karge blue "event.worn" jersey - a rookie photo shoot - and is numbered #318/799. While the foil looks silver in the scan, it's actually gold to the naked eye.