Éric Desjardins Autographed Card

After Andrei Markov and Larry Robinson, why not continue with a third All-Star defenseman from the Montréal Canadiens? As I hinted to last year at around this time, I got this Éric Desjardins card autographed in person a long time ago:

It's card #467 from Pro Set's inaugural 1990-91 Series 1 collection, showing the Team Canada alumnus in the Habs' classic red (then-away) uniform, probably in Buffalo. He signed it in blue sharpie, which dates this either from 1995 or 2002-06.

For a while, probably relating to Pro Set's failed flooding of the card market that almost killed it with cheaper and cheaper cards, I'd grown unhappy with this set. But talking about it with other collectors (including Puck Junk's Sal Barry a few years back), I remembered how much I loved the design, how many players were included in it, how it could be found anywhere, and how the pictures were clear action shots... when they were of the correct player, that is.

It was an error-filled set, which is ironic to say in a post about Desjardins, who rarely made any. He was as clutch as can be in that second-tier of defensemen, just below Hall Of Famers such as Chris Chelios, Ray Bourque and Chris Pronger.

I love that boxes of it can still be found between $5-10, and that many of the players in it are now coaching or managing in the NHL or AHL, and therefore still relevant in a way.

Habs fans still view Desjardins as the #1 defenseman on their last Stanley Cup-winning team in 1993, a key cog in their last great very good team. Philadelphia Flyers fans actually got him at the peak of his career when he finished in the top-5 for Norris Trophy voting and made the end-of-season Second All-Star Team twice while captaining the Broad Street Bullies deep into the playoffs three times.

Éric Desjardins Autograph Card

I saw the news items about Éric Desjardins being inducted into the Philadelphia Flyers Hall Of Fame - but it didn't compute until I had already written this post on Janne Laukkanen last night.

Desjardins is a bizarre case for Montréal Canadiens fans, because even though he was a big part of the team (alternate captain, a key member of the 1993 Stanley Cup-winning team with a hat trick in the Finals against the Los Angeles Kings, a member of Team Canada at the 1991 Canada Cup), he himself identifies more with the Flyers, which is normal considering he spent 11 years there, with some success, twice finishing in the top-5 in Norris Trophy votes, and twice on the NHL's Second All-Star Team, captaining the team for nearly a hundred games.

And yet, while they should, many Flyers fans and bloggers don't remember just how great he was. We're talking about their #1 defenseman, a powerplay quarterback with a hard, low shot perfect for deflection and rebounds, and a near-perfect penalty killer. With the Flyers, he made the Canadian team twice more - at the 1996 World Cup and 1998 Olympics. He even won the team's ''best defenseman award'' a record 7 times - the only other multiple winner is Mark Howe, who merely earned it 4 times.

He played in three All-Star Games - once representing the Habs (1992), and twice the Flyers (1996 and 2000). He was also an impact player when the playoffs came around, as can be attested from the following statistics when he made deep runs:

1992-93: 4 goals, 10 assists, 14 points in 20 games
1994-95: 4 goals, 4 assists, 8 points in 15 games
1996-97: 2 goals, 8 assists, 10 points in 19 games
1999-00: 2 goals, 10 assists, 12 points in 18 games

He has also posted over 40 points six different times, with a high of 55 in 1999-2000. He was part of one of the two trades that shaped the Flyers for a decade - the first one being the Eric Lindros trade - coming from the Habs along with the preeminent powerforward of his era (John LeClair) and sniper Gilbert Dionne for Mark Recchi and the pick that became Martin Hohenberger.

And while I do have a card of his with the Habs that was signed in person, I thought it'd be fair to showcase him solely with the Flyers for today, showing him in their white (home) uniform from my youth, from In The Game's 1998-99 Be A Player set (card #253, the 'Gold' variant of the signed insert series, with an on-card black sharpie autograph and his jersey number, 37, tagged at the end):

For most of his tenure in Philadelphia, he was an alternate captain, so I'm happy this card shows that.