Marc Chouinard Autograph Card

Hockey runs in Marc Chouinard's veins; his father Jean played in the IHL, uncles Jacques (captain) and Pierre (alternate) suited up for the Québec Remparts in the LHJMQ and each wore a letter, uncle Guy played in the NHL for over a decade with the Atlanta Flames, Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues before coaching in the LHJMQ for 30 years and in the Québec Collège system for the past decade or so, and cousin Éric Chouinard was a first-round selection of the Montréal Canadiens, so when Marc's name was called 32nd overall by the Winnipeg Jets in 1995, narry a soul was surprised.

Marc may have been 6'5" tall, he wasn't much over 200 pounds for a lot of his career, usually playing between 200 and 205, only reaching 218lbs in 2003-04; he was likely drafted to become a power forward, but even in the "Q" - a league that produced a fair portion of the NHL's toughest players from 1995 until the year-long lockout - he was more of a point-per-game gentlemanly player than a tough guy.

He had his best offensive seasons around the lockout, posting 11 goals and 21 points (with 17 penalty minutes) in 45 games in 2003-04 and 14 goals and 30 points (34 PIMs) in 74 games in 2005-06, both spent with the Minnesota Wild. He only started piling up penalty minutes when he moved to Europe, first with 30 points and 72 PIMs in 54 games over two seasons playing for Swtzerland's HC Fribourg-Gotteron, then 11 points and 20 penalty minutes in 19 games with the Cologne (Koln) Sharks in Germany in 2009-10. In both places, he was a much better point producer in the playoffs than the regular season, doing so at a near point-per-game clip.

I feel the best uniform he's worn, however, is the Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim's turn-of-the-millennium garbs, as seen on the signed insert version of card #18 from In The Game's 2001-02 Be A Player Signature Series set:

It looks darker in the scan than to the naked eye; it's really sharp in person, the silver and darker grey foil letting the uniform's colours pop out of the card. It is signed very clearly, in black sharpie.