Friday, July 18, 2025

Jaroslav Halak Autographed 8x10 Photo

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There was sad news this morning as my favourite NHL goalie of the past 15-20 years, Jaroslav Halak, announced his retirement, five wins short of 300.

Halak made his debut with the 2006-07 Montréal Canadiens, a team that started the season with Cristobal Huet and David Aebischer between the pipes, but when Huet went down with an injury, it was the rookie Halak and not the veteran Aebischer who saved the Habs' season and brought them to Game 82 with a playoff berth on the line, with head coach Guy Carbonneau opting to play the rusty veteran Huet instead of the young gun, and the team ending up losing 6-5 to the Toronto Maple Leafs to miss the postseason. His Spring ended with a participation at the World Championships representing Team Slovakia, while the team he suited up the most often for during the season, the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs, went on to win the Calder Cup with fellow rookie Carey Price filling in for Halak in net.

The following season saw Price and Huet start the season in Montréal, but the experienced French tender getting traded to the Washington Capitals at the trade deadline and Halak getting called up to finish the year in the NHL; ironically, both Huet and Price got Vezina votes that year, but Huet finished ahead despite getting traded a month and a half before season's end. Price would hold the #1 job by default as the "resident NHLer" that year but struggled mightily in the playoffs, unable to carry the weight of the position: 2008-09 was more of the same, as GM Bob Gainey tried to force Carbonneau to use Price over Halak (52 games, 2.83 goals-against average versus 34 games, 2.86 GAA) despite Halak having a far superior save percentage (.915 to .905) and eye test result. Gainey ended up firing Carbo, who had a 35-24-7 record at the top of the Northeastern division while Gainey finished the year 6-6-4 to have the Habs finish second and get swept in the first round by the Boston Bruins, with Price in net and sporting a .878 save percentage and 4.11 GAA (Halak stopped all five shots he faced).

With Jacques Martin stepping in to coach for the 2009-10 season, Price's numbers (.912, 2.77 GAA) were once again short of Halak's (.924, 2.40 GAA), but the games played were still very similar (45 for Halak, 41 for Price), as the Habs made it to the playoffs by a hair; they faced off against Presidents Trophy winners Washinton (featuring Alexander Ovechkin) in the first round, and Halak stifled them to the tune of 45 (3-2 win), 31 (6-5 loss), 10 (pulled in a 5-1 loss), 37 (in a 2-1 win), 53 (in a 4-1 win) and 41 saves (in a 2-1 nailbiter of a Game 7). This prompted some Montealers to deface the city's stop signs as a tribute:
Then it was the reigning Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins' turn, the team with future Hall Of Famers Sidney Crosby, Marc-André Fleury, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. And while the first game scared everyone in town (15 saves, 5 goals against in a 6-3 loss), the others fell in line with the Caps series' boxscores: 38 saves in a 3-1 win, 23 saves on 24 shots in a 2-0 loss, 33 saves in a 3-2 win, 23 saves in a 2-1 loss, 34 saves in a 4-3 win, and 37 saves in a 5-2 Game 7 clinic.

Unfortunately, the entire team had already run out of steam by the time the Philadelphia Flyers rolled around, and at that point so did Halak. Apart from a 25-save 5-1 win, the Habs lost the other four games by a 16-2 margin, getting shut out three times, ending the best postseason run by a Canadiens goalie since Patrick Roy's 1993 and 1986 Cup and Conn Smythe-winning runs.

With three straight regular seasons as the team's best goalie and an incredible playoff run, Habs management (Gainey, new GM Pierre Gauthier, and team president Pierre Boivin) opted to trade Halak over Price during that summer, thinking the former fifth-overall draft pick would eventually be the best suited to bring a Cup back to Montréal; in exchange for the Slovak, the Canadiens received third-line centre Lars Eller and a draft pick from the St. Louis Blues. This trade tree shows how Eller eventually led to the acquisition of Patrik Laine:
Some believe, however, that a trade return for Price may have landed a first-line player or a top-two defenseman instead of a third-rounder while still keeping a goalie who ended up having a similar stat line (.917 and 2.51 in 15 seasons versus .915 and 2.50 in 17 seasons, each with one Cup Final participation), and that such a return may have enabled Montréal to advance further in the playoffs more often, as acquiring offensive talent seems to have been an issue around Price's $10.5M cap hit in his final eight seasons.

In just four seasons with St. Louis, Halak won his first Jennings Trophy (alongside Brian Elliott), got Vezina votes, and managed to put up impressive statistics that show favourably among Blues alumni:
He also ranks third in save percentage, fourth in GAA, and ninth in total saves, on a list that includes Glenn Hall, Grant Fuhr, Curtis Joseph and Jordan Binnington. For a while, it also seemed he would get the first star whenever he was facing the Habs (and especially Price), cementing his reutation of excellence under pressure.

As his five-year contract was coming to an end, the Blues traded him to the Buffalo Sabres with Chris Stewart, William Carrier, a first-round pick in the 2015 draft that became Jack Roslovic and a third-round pick in the 2016 draft that became Linus Nassen, for the other best goalie of 2009-10, Ryan Miller, and Steve Ott. He wouldn't play for the Sabres but by backing up Jhonas Enroth on March 3rd, he became the 10th player in franchise history to suit up but not play a single second in a game for the team. He was quickly shipped off to Washington with a third-round pick in the 2015 draft (Robin Kovacs) for Rostislav Klesla and Michal Neuvirth, and proceeded to have a .930 save percentage and 2.30 GAA and one shutout in 12 games with the Caps, playing behind - and acting as playoff insurance for - Braden Holtby.

Hitting free agency, Halak quickly signed a four-year deal with the New York Islanders, bringing instant stability to the crease and even setting team records, notably beating Hall Of Famer Billy Smith's win records (38 vs 32) in his very first season, including posting a 1.16 GAA with a .948 save percentage during an 11-game win streak. He went 88-65-19, with a 2.69 GAA and a .913 SV% in 177 regular-season appearances for the Isles. he and goaltending partner Thomas Greiss would even remain a pair at the 2016 World Cup, suiting up for a Team Europe squad that finished second in the tournament, with Halak playing both Final games versus Team Canada, facing off against none other than Price. Price had identical 32-save performances playing for the powerhouse team that won 3-1 and 2-1 to sweep the best-of-three series, while Halak stopped 35 of 38 in the first game and 32 of 34 in the second, with Europe spending most of the final bottled in their own zone.

The Isles would pivot to Robin Lehner between the pipes for the 2018-19 season, with Barry Trotz replacing Doug Weight as head coach and with the legendary Mitch Korn taking over goaltending guru duties over Marc Champagne and Fred Brathwaite. All this movement led to Halak signing on as Tuukka Rask's backup with the Boston Bruins for three seasons, the first of which featured 40 games played, a 22-11-4 record, 4 shutouts, a .922 save percentage and 2.34 GAA, as well as a seven-game trip to the Stanley Cup Final. His 2019-20 season was even better, with an 18-6-6 record, .919 save percentage, 2.39 GAA and 3 shutouts in 31 games (and another Jennings Trophy for his mantle), as well as appearances in nine postseason games, including one in the Covid era-specific seeding round, three wins in three games versus the Carolina Hurricanes, and the entire Conference Final series against eventual Cup champions Tampa Bay Lightning. His final season in Boston was bizarre, with a three-goalie rotation between Rask, Halak and Jeremy Swayman, and Dan Vladar also suiting up in 5 of the 54 games for good measure; only Swayman looked good, and by the summer Halak signed on as the Vancouver Canucks' backup, which would be followed with one season of doing the same with the New York Rangers.

All told, Halak leaves the NHL with a 295-189-69 record, 53 shutouts, franchise records, the most exciting Conference Final run in recent memory, one Cup Final, a couple of Jennings trophies, and standing up to the Canadian team in international play. Not bad for a perennial underdog who was drafted in the ninth round in 2003.

He signed the picture atop this piece while playing for the Islanders. It shows him wearing the Blues' third jersey from the 2008-16 era. I wish him the best in retirement.

Thursday, July 17, 2025

My Team Canada Numbers Project

Well, I have Numbers Projects for so many teams now (my Habs Numbers Project, my Oilers Numbers Project my Sens Numbers Project, my Canucks Numbers Project, my Nordiques Numbers Project, my Flames Numbers Project and my Expos Numbers Project), I figured why not make one for Team Canada as well?

It'll be easier in some regards with all the national teams at all the levels (including but not limited to the World Juniors, the World Championships, the Spengler Cup, the Canada/World Cup, the Summit Series, and the Men's and Women's Olympic teams), but I'm again at a loss for #99 (Wayne Gretzky) and likely will be for my entire life.

The plan is to stick to hockey, but who knows, maybe I'll get to add some from other sports as well; it might be my only shot at a #99.
So far, I have featured 35 players representing a total of 26 jersey numbers.

Here they are:

1: Braden Holtby: check!
2: Meghan Agosta: check!
3: Eric Brewer: check!
4: Thomas Hickey and Chris Phillips: check!
5: Bryan Allen, Drew Bannister and Samuel Morin: check!
8: Laura Fortino and Pierre-Luc Dubois: check!
9: Anthony Beauvillier (also wore #21) and Joe Veleno: check!
10: Dale Hawerchuk, Brayden Schenn and Charles Hudon (also wore #16): check!
11: Zachary Boychuk: check!
12: Julien Gauthier: check!
13: Caroline Ouellette: check (and check again)!
14: Thomas Hickey (also wore #4): check!
16: Kerby Rychel, Jayne Hefford and Charles Hudon (also wore #10): check!
17: Marcus Foligno: jersey card check!
18: Jean-Pierre Dumont and Pierre-Luc Dubois: check!
19: Alexandre Daigle: check!
20: Guillaume Latendresse, Jason Ward and Louis Leblanc: check!
21: Anthony Beauvillier: check!
22: Frédérik Gauthier and Owen Tippett: check!
23: Jason Botterill, Rob Niedermayer and Daniel Audette: check!
24: Patrice Brisebois and Logan Couture: check!
25: Tessa Bonhomme and Raphaël Lavoie: check!
28: Nathan Beaulieu: and Victor Mete: check!
29: Marie-Philip Poulin: check!
30: Dustin Tokarski: jersey card check!
31: Geneviève Lacasse and Olivier Roy: check!
32: Charline Labonté: check!
33: Ann-Renée Desbiens: check!
37: Patrice Bergeron: jersey card check!
51: Ryan Getzlaf: jersey card check!
97: Joe Thornton: jersey card check!

Captains: Poulin, Hickey

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Joe Veleno Autographed Card

(team and product links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

The Montréal Canadiens signed a former first-round draft pick to a one-year, $900K contract earlier today, a left-shot centre who should see time in the bottom-six (I would guess Jake Evans is slotted as the third-line pivot which would relegate Joe Veleno to the fourth) and will essentially replace departed free agent Christian Dvorak.

He'd been practising with Habs players at the team's Brossard practice facility this summer, so GM Kent Hughes (his former agent) got to see him quite a lot before putting ink to paper.

He thus becomes the third hometown kid to get repatriated over the summer, after the free agent signing of Stanley Cup (St. Louis Blues, 2019) and Calder Cup (Abbottsford Canucks, 2025) winner Sammy Blais and trade acquisition Zachary Bolduc (from the Blues, for Logan Mailloux).

At age 25, Veleno will aim to change the perception on his career trajectory, as the second member - with Sean Day - of the five-man club of players granted "exceptional status" in Juniors, i.e. players who were allowed to make their Junior hockey debuts at age 15 (one year ahead of usual phenoms) and reached their prime age without achieving "impact player" status at the NHL level; John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, and Connor McDavid have all reached stardom, while a trio of youngsters who were also given that chance - Shane Wright, Connor Bedard, and Michael Misa - have yet to reach those peaks but get a pass due to their age.

As a 16-year-old high schooler in 2016-17, he helped his Saint John Sea Dogs win the LHJMQ's league championship, with 20-year-old Matthew Highmore, 19-year-olds Mathieu Joseph, Thomas Chabot, and Jakub Zboril, and 18-year-old Julien Gauthier.

He split the next season between the Sea Dogs (6 goals, 25 assists and 31 points in 31 games, with 26 penalty minutes and a -10 rating) and Drummondville Voltigeurs (16 goals, 32 assists and 48 points in 33 games, with 22 penalty minutes and a +14 rating, plus 11 points and 10 PIMs in 10 playof games), leading the Detroit Red Wings to pick him 30th overall at the 2018 draft, ahead of Alexander Romanov (Montréal Canadiens, 38th), Ryan McLeod (Edmonton Oilers, 40th), Jack Drury (Carolina Hurricanes, 42nd), Martin Fehervary (Washington Capitals, 46th), Kirill Marchenko (Columbus Blue Jackets, 49th), Sean Durzi (Toronto Maple Leafs, 52nd), Jack McBain (Minnesota Wild, 63rd), Lukas Dostal (Anaheim Ducks, 85th), and Philipp Kurashev (Chicago Blackhawks, 120th). With 306 NHL games played, Veleno currently ranks 15th in his draft class, while his 81 points place him 22nd for now.

He followed that up with 104 points (42 goals, 62 assists) in 59 games in 2018-19, with 19 penalty minutes and an astonishing +63 plus/minus rating for his final season in Juniors before turning pro. He then posted 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) in 54 games with the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins in 2019-20, opted to play overseas with the Malmö Redhawks (20 points and 18 penalty minutes in 46 games) before finishing the season with the Griffins (3 points and 4 PIMs in 4 games) and Red Wings (1 point and 4 PIMs in 5 games). He's mostly been an NHL regular with the underwhelming Wings and Blackhawks these past three seasons. This upcoming season may well be his first true shot at a playoff berth in the NHL as the Habs look to repeat last season's success and perhaps even go deeper in the postseason.

Here is the Player of The Day sporting Team Canada's red uniform in the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, where his team placed fifth, on card #70 from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Team Canada Juniors set, signed a couple of years ago in blue sharpie:
He captained the team to the championship the following season. As a matter of fact, his international record is pretty stellar, with gold medals at the 2020 World Juniors (6 points in 6 games as assistant-capitan) and 2023 World Championships (5 points in 5 games with current Habs teammates Blais and Samuel Montembeault), and fellow Quebecers Devon Levi and Pierre-Olivier Joseph).

Saturday, June 28, 2025

John Gibson Autographed Picture Card

(team and product links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

As an Edmonton Oilers fan, I've been on John Gibson trade watch for the better part of the last three years, hoping beyond hope that a competent enough GM would be able to swing a trade with the Anaheim Ducks and make the three-time All-Star's salary work under the team's cap and propose a package that was enticing enough to Anaheim to convince them to part ways with their at-times disgruntled starter.

Earlier today at the 2025 NHL draft, the Detroit Red Wings put those dreams to rest, acquiring Gibson for a package that included an objectively less-heralded goalie in Petr Mrazek, as well as a 2027 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick. No first-rounder, no top-rated prospect, just a backup goalie, and essentially two lottery tickets, as second-rounders have a 34% of making it to the NHL, and only 7.9% of fourth-rounders end up playing in 100 NHL games.

This leads me to think it was solely the cap hit that the Oilers couldn't find their way around - or that GMs Ken Holland (2019-24) and successor Stan Bowman simply didn't like the player, because on the surface Gibson is still a top-15 or top-20 goalie in the NHL. He had a .912 save percentage in 2024-25 - albeit in only 29 games - after five straight seasons below .910, although he had started each of those seasons extremely well (twice the best goalie in the league before Christmas) before running out of steam as the Ducks accumulated the defensive zone breakdowns when the going got tougher. But we're still talking about a .910 career save percentage, two Conference Finals, gold at the World Juniors and U-18s, bronze at the World Championships for Team USA, and this stat line playing against the best available adults:
Sure, that was more than a decade ago, but he still shows flashes of that today, and at 31 years of age, he should still has three or four good years left.

I was able to grab this piece via trade a little over a year ago:
It was originally part of a larger piece (a 4x6 photo of his helmet that hadn't printed well and was pixelated), which autograph collector BG cut into a card-sized piece to facilitate moving on from it. It was signed in (fading) black sharpie.