Tim Cheveldae Autographed Card

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This series was over the moment Mark Scheifele decided venting his frustration was more important than attemptiong a comeback, some time around midway in the first game of the series, way before he actually crossed the line and deliberately injured Montréal Canadiens rookie Jake Evans. He left the Winnipag Jets - already without second-line center Paul Stastny, on the cusp of losing #2 defenseman Dylan DeMelo for a long time - without their top playmaker, a point-per-game player who had helped shut Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers down in the first round.

As his eyes got more and more filled with rage from being stifled by Phillip Danault and clobbered by Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Joel Edmundson and Ben Chiarot, you could almost read the prediction of how the series would go by the expression on his face, from "Jets in 6" at the opening faceoff to "Jets in 7" in the middle of the second period to "Habs in 7" to start the third, "Habs in 6" five minutes later, and "Habs in 4" when it became clear Scheifele would get a lengthy suspension.

The referees did a good job of not letting any part of this series get out of hand, even calling out Stastny for a penalty for a cross-check after a goal in Game 3, making sure the last ten minutes of play wasn't just scrum-after-scrum of frustration masquerading as "message sending" with the potential for more useless injuries.

I love a tough game; I would love for every team to have a Blake Wheeler on one wing and a Josh Anderson on the other to bang and bruise their way to the opposition's net, but dirty plays at the speed of this sport cannot be tolerated, and as much as I really love the Jets, that the series was decided on a bonehead play after an empty-net goal is well-deserved. Wheeler seemed to agree that the suspension changed the course of the series:

You can't describe the impact of losing him. He's a top-10 player in the NHL. I'm not saying that we would win the series in five games because he was in the lineup. But it just changes our team. He makes me better, he makes Kyle Connor better. It just makes our team look a lot different, so it's a damn shame.

I don't believe Scheifele gets the Nazem Kadri treatment and gets shipped out of town, and hopefully he learneds his lesson from this unfortunate situation.

Still, these are good times for Jets fans. They have had a very good team for the better part of a decade now, have the best goalie in the game (Connor Hellebuyck), are exciting to watch, have a good tactician in coach Paul Maurice (although at this point perhaps a motivator might be what they should be looking for)... they did not sweep the Oilers by accident.

They are missing two key elements for me: a top-four defenseman and a return to one of their old uniforms, such as the mid-1990s oen as sported by Tim Cheveldae on card #212 from Pinnacle Brands' 1995-96 Score set:

The Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes have recently all embraced the retro trand, as has Adidas with their "Reverse Retro" series, I think the Jetsshould also embrace the pre-rebirth history of the NHL in their town.

Cheveldae was a typical Detroit Red Wings goalie: a workhorse for a small number of seasons (three), not quite an established #1 that gets you palyoff success, a scapegoat for postseason failures, and not a Vezina-caliber game-changer, although he did garner some votes in two of his seasons in recognition for games played (72 in 1991-92, for a total of 4236 minutes, and 67 games/3880 minutes the following year, but he had no chance of actually winning with Patrick Roy and Ed Belfour in their prime).

He was replaced in Detroit by Chris Osgood before moving to Winnpeg where he shared the net with Bob Essensa and Nikolai Khabibulin before phasing out of the NHL and into the IHL (Fort Wayne Komets in 1996-97, Las Vegas Thunder in 1997-98, both with a .878 save percentage and nearly identical 3.96 and 3.95 goals-against averages). He rocked the Heaton equipment well in Winnipeg, but my best memories of him are donning the Vaughn pads in Detroit.

Steve Smith Autograph Card

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I've featured Steve Smith before, both with the Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks, essentially glossing over the three seasons he played with the Calgary Flames after coming back from retirement in the late 1990s; I will not right that wrong today, instead featuring him shirtless during his time with Chicago, on card #S123 from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player collection:

It somehow seems fitting, what with his losing his job as assistant coach with the Buffalo Sabres, seemingly the short print in head coach Ralph Krueger's firing.

Most articles detailing the firing seem to celebrate it, deriding Krueger's previous job as president of a soccer team - the Southampton Saints of the Premier League - and minimizing his achievements as head coach in Austria as well as with the Swiss Team - oftentimes the only team to beat powerhouse editions of Team Canada - and Team Europe, which finished second to Canada at the 2016 World Cup (when most pundits didn't see them finishig in the top-four). I've even seem some mock his having written a book on motivation when he was fired in the midst of a 12-game losing streak.

I have no idea if Smith - a "classically-trained" NHL veteran and assistant-coach - fully endorsed Krueger's innovative methods (that seemingly work better with hard-working underdogs than overpaid, overhyped and over-rated underachievers), but at the very least he has probably learned a few new tricks to add to his arsenal, after working under Brian Sutter (Calgary, 1997-98), Tom Renney (Edmonton, 2009-12), Krueger (Edmonton, 2012-13), Dallas Eakins (Edmonton, 2013-14), Bill Peters (Carolina Hurricanes, 2014-18), and Phil Housley (Buffalo, 2018-19), though as I venture a guess that he may have learned the bulk of his knowledge playing a leadership role under Glen Sather and John Muckler while winning three Stanley Cups as a player with the Oilers, and Mike Keenan (Cup Final), Darryl Sutter (Conference Final) and Craig Hartsburg with the Hawks.

He's the type of guy whose pedigree will land him a new job next season, possibly perhaps under Darryl Sutter again, this time in Calgary.

Ralph Backstrom: Two Autographed Cards

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Ralph Backstrom passed away in his Colorado home yesterday, at age 83, following an illness.

I previously mentioned how he was a six-time All-Star in his first 12 NHL seaons with the Montréal Canadiens, winning the Stanley Cup in 1959, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1968, and 1969 in the process as part of two Habs dynasties, living through the transition from the Maurice "Rocket" Richard/Dickie Moore/Jacques Plante era to the Henri Richard/Yvan Cournoyer/Lorne "Gump" Worsley/Rogatien Vachon one.

He was also an All-Star in the WHA following stints with the Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks and a member of Team Canada at the 1974 Summit Series against the USSR with Gerry Cheevers, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Mark Howe and André Lacroix. His 8 points in 8 games were one shy of tournament leader Hull.

With a Calder Trophy, seven 20-goal seasons in the NHL and two 30-goal campaigns in the WHA, Backstrom is the type of player of belongs in the Hall Of Very Good - just shy of a Hall Of Fame career, yet too good to be allowed to be forgotten. Furthermore, he and Canadiens GM Sam Pollock are responsible for building the Habs' last dynasty - the one from the 1970s, which included the 1977 and 1978 editions, arguably considered the best lineups of all time, ahead of or a close second to the 1980s Edmonton Oilers. That is because Backstrom eventually grew tired of being "the best third-liner in hockey" and wanted a shot at more ice time to pad his own statistics, and face the oppositions' checkers instead of their best offensive elements, and Pollock eventually acquiesced, but in a wry, sly way.

The GM had traded Montréal's first-round pick and forward Ernie Hicke to the California Golden Seals for the Seals' first-rounder (believed to be the first-overall, since the team that finished last in the league got the first pick at the time) and local minor-league defenceman François Lacombe, who never played in the NHL. The best player in Juniors that year was a young man who was believed to be a "generational talent", Guy Lafleur, and the second-best player was no slouch himself, Marcel Dionne. But mid-way through the season, the Kings had a worse record than the Seals, so Pollock made them an offer they couldn't refuse: Backstrom - who was good enough to move directly onto L.A.'s first line - for Gord Labossière, Ray Fortin and hockey's most-traded commodity: future considerations. Fortin, a Quebecer, played 92 NHL games - none for the Canadiens; Labossière, despite belonging to the Habs twice, never suited up for the team in his 215 career NHL games. Backstrom's 27 points in just 33 games was the team's 10th-best mark, as he was far and away ahead of the rest of the team in points-per-game, leading the Kings ahead of not just the Golden Seals but also the lowly Pittsburgh Penguins. Lafleur would win two Hart Trophies, three Lester B. Pearson Awards as best player as voted by his peers, three Art Ross Trophies and a Conn Smythe, leading the Habs to five Stanley Cups.

But Backstrom was a natural in the bleu-blanc-rouge, as seen on card #7 from the 1992-93 Ultimate set by the Ultimate Trading Card Company:

And he looked just as good wearing the white (home) uniform:

That's card #64 from Parkhurst's 1995-96 Parkhurst Reprints set, the third such set by the revived card brand, this time hypothesizing how a 1966-67 set would have looked like. I have another one of these, signed in much thicker black sharpie.

Devils Preview: Claude Lemieux Autographed Card

This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: 2020 is a different beast and requires adaptability; in my case, it means the joint posts with my "main/personal" blog will not be in the "player here/analysis there" format but rather the entire scope of the analysis will take place here and the player will have some sort of direct connection to what's written. Caveats: at this point, despite the season being set to start in Mid-January, several impact players haven't found a team yet and quite a few teams are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.

The New Jersey Devils (team links may bring forth referral money for me) started off with 6 losses, then in December proceeded to lose 10 of 12, leading to the justified and overdue firing of head coach John Hynes, who inexplicably found employment with the Nashville Predators afterwards. Rookie coach Alain Nasreddine was able to garner points in 26 out of the team's final 38 games, but that wasn't enough for GM Tom Fitzgerald, who instead went with Old Boys' Club lifetime member Lindy Ruff to lead the team in a shortened season with little to no real training camp and no pre-season games, which is a huge mistake in my book (and yet another example of a French Canadian getting the shaft uselessly). Playing it "safe" may cost him in the end.

What makes their odds look good:
Oh, boy. There are players who are doing an ok job in a first-line role when they could perhaps be better used on a second line instead (Nico Hischier at this point in his career and Kyle Palmieri), terrific prospects up-front in Nolan Foote (20 years old, 6'4" and 200 pounds, three years from an NHL job and five from his prime), Alexander Holtz (18, 6'1", pro-level shot, needs two or three years in Europe and to add weight), Dawson Mercer (19, dominating in Juniors, three or four years away) and Jack Hughes (19, never should have made the team last year). On defense, Ty Smith (20, best defenseman in the WHL, two years from NHL job, five from his prime) is a great cornerstone to build upon, and P.K. Subban, Damon Severson and Will Butcher can each play much better than they did last year. Mackenzie Blackwood has looked like the real deal, mostly, compared to Cory Schneider.

Question marks:
Well, technically, everything written above was true. But Subban and Butcher could also continue stagnating; Subban in particular seems at a loss when not playing for high stakes (then again, when the guy who acquires you pretty much loses his job over it, the best player on the team wants to leave, and the fanbase is hoping to tank for a high draft pick, it's probably hard to find motivation). Is Pavel Zacha's niche as a third-line center? There are active first-rounders who have thrived after finding a home in the middle of the lineup after aiming for more prime minutes, such as Lars Eller with the Washington Capitals, so it's not unheard of, but it's a far cry from calling him the steal of his draft year, as former GM Ray Shero did. Points given for enthusiasm, (more) points taken for failing to manage expectations.

Outlook:
I thought the team was trending up, I really did. Adding Ryan Murray and Dmitri Kulikov on defense solidifies the back end, Andreas Johnsson didn't cost anything and is a solid second-liner, and adding Corey Crawford to platoon with Blackwood looked like a great idea... until he retired earlier this morning, less than 24 hours after taking a leave of absence for personal reasons. He had yet to play a single minute, and it's still the team's biggest loss since Ilya Kovalchuk. I'll give him a proper send-off later this year.

Prediction:
Eighth in the East.

The Devils have three Stanley Cups (1994-95, 1999-2000, and 2002-03), which they won on the strength of playing the trap and a trio of unique defensemen: the speedy Scott Niedermayer, the punishing Scott Stevens, and the bruising Ken Daneyko. Stevens won the Conn Smythe Trophy in the 2000 Final, and opposing goalie Jean-Sébastien Giguère from the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim won it in 2003.

1995 was a different, special beast. It was a lockout-shortened season, for one, and the first since 1980 where a Canadian team didn't make it to a Conference Final: the most efficient playoff performer of all-time, Patrick Roy, missed the postseason cut for the only time of his career; the first seed in the East, the Québec Nordiques, were ousted in the first round by the defending champion New York Rangers, opting to play rookie Jocelyn Thibault in a high-pressure situation he perhaps wasn't ready for; the Philadelphia Flyers plowed through Dominik Hasek and his Buffalo Sabres before sweeping the Rangers, while the West saw multiple sweeps leading to the Cup Final, but the fast-skating Detroit Red Wings of Sergei Fedorov, Paul Coffey, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Nicklas Lidstrom were unable to get through the wall of D at the Devils' blue line, and a certain Claude Lemieux, who they would get to know much better in the next five years as a member of the Colorado Avalanche, led all playoff skaters with 13 goals, including a couple in the Final, one of them a game-winner.

This is what he looked like wearing the Devils' red (away) uniform:

That's card #258 from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Series 1 set and Mike Milbury's Scouting Report sub-set, because you really want "Mad" Mike Milbury's take on players... here's what he had to say about Lemieux:

I've been prone to hyperbole myself and, sure, a case can be made for Hall Of Fame consideration when it comes to Lemieux, but to deem him to have Hart Trophy potential in prime Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, Dominik Hasek, and Fedorov era, and even compared to his own Avs teammates the following year in Roy, Joe Sakic, and Peter Forsberg is, well, madness.

Kirk McLean Autographed Card

I must admit I was surprised when Twitter showed #RIPKirk trending among Vancouver Canucks fans with one man specifically asking Canucks fans to tweet a farewell to his father "Kirk", who had "just passed away". It turns out it's either a hoax or just someone sharing the same same name, not the guy featured wearing the team's beautiful 1985-1997 black uniform on card #16 from Donruss' 1995-96 Donruss set:

You might not be able to see it, but Kirk McLean signed it for me in fading black sharpie via snail mail to the Canucks a few years ago. I was a Brian's man myself, but I'm hit with a bit of nostalgia looking at those Vaughn pads and glove (I could do without the brown blocker).

McLean to me is part of the trifecta of Best Canucks Goalies with Roberto Luongo and Daniel Bouchard, not quite the Hall Of Famer Luongo was, but a two-time Vezina nominee nonetheless, the guy who stopped 52 shots in Game 1 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Final to lead Vancouver to a 3-2 win over destiny's New York Rangers.

He won the Molson Cup (most Three Stars selections) honours three times at a time when Pavel Bure and Trevor Linden were on the team, which says a lot about the weight he carried on the ice. He's also participated in the 1990 and 1992 All-Star Games and played for Team Canada at the 1990 World Championships, finishing in fourth place.

In ten and a half years in Vancouver, he got to write a lot of the team's record book, and most of the enviable ones (wins, shutouts) were beaten by Luongo in some 70 fewer games, but he still has those for games played, playoff games played (68 vs 64), playoff wins (34 vs 32) and losses.

he's also played for the New Jersey Devils, Florida Panthers and New York Rangers, but he'll always be Vancouver's Goalie In Black to me. With this regular-sized card, he knocks Luongo's 4x6 picture off my Canucks Numbers Project for #1.

Don Sweeney: Two Autographed Cards

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the Boston Bruins would finish fourth in the Atlantic Division in 2019-20).

Nowadays, people see Don Sweeney as an executive - the reigning GM Of The Year - but he's also a 16-year former NHLer who spent the vast majority of his career with the Boston Bruins (15 years) as the great Raymond Bourque's defensive partner.

You learn a thing or two in such circumstances, including the need to keep a winning/contending team together so the star players don't have to leave to win that elusive Stanley Cup. And not only was he able to do so with his current roster, he also re-signed RFAs Charlie MacAvoy and Brandon Carlo to team-friendly bridge deals that fits right under the cap, with the understanding that they'll cash in on their next deals, when Zdeno Chara, David Krejci, David Backes and even Patrice Bergeron will no longer be on expensive deals.

It's ironic that what he does best - managing the salary cap - was his predecessor Peter Chiarelli's biggest weakness. Then again, Sweeney spent four years at Harvard while honing his skills instead of trying to play in Canadian Juniors.

While the Bruins' uniforms always remain close to their roots, my favourites were the ones from 1969-1995, which are the ones he's featured in on the cards he signed for me in black sharpie last year, starting with the white (home) ones:

That's card #244 from Pro Set's 1992-93 Parkhurst collection, and it's unclear if he's falling from being checked, from attempting to check an opponent or attempting some odd defensive maneuver in which he'd clear the puck with his hand whislt tripping.

There is also card #91 from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Collector's Choice set, showing him wearing their black (away) uniform, taking control of the puck in his own zone in front of journeyman goaltender Vincent Riendeau and New Jersey Devils forward Randy McKay:

Those are simply classic - simple and beautiful, perfect colours and stripes.

Paul Ranheim Autograph Card

It's now official: the Boston Bruins have swept the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final, in a show of force unseen since the days of the Adams Division and the lowly Hartford Whalers.

Which brings me to Paul Ranheim, who has played for the Whalers and the Canes, spending parts of seven seasons in the organization before spending some time with the Philadelphia Flyers and Phoenix Coyotes.

His best season, statistically, though, was his rookie year with the Calgary Flames, in 1989-90, scoring 26 goals with 28 assists for 94 points - all career highs. As a matter of fact, all three of his 20-goal seasons came in Calgary, and he never went over 10 in any of his other NHL seasons. He never hit the 40-point plateau with any other team either, with a 30-point season (10 goals, 20 assists) with the Whalers in 1995-96 standing as the other outlier year in a career spent as a checking forward.

Here he is wearing the Whalers' dark (away) mid-1990s uniform on the signed insert version of card #87 from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player set:

I must admit I felt some nice nostalgia when the Canes sported their retro Whalers uniforms this season, especially since they did so against the Bruins.

Kirk Muller Autographed Card

A cool nickname, "Captain Kirk". The second-overall pick of the 1984 draft. Captain of the New Jersey Devils and Montréal Canadiens. Stanley Cup winner. All-Star. Had he had his say, that's the way the story would have ended for Kirk Muller, a path that may have led him to the Hal of Fame.

Instead, after assurances from GM Serge Savard that he would not get traded - and that if he were to be, that it be to a contending team - he was sent to the New York Islanders on April 5th, 1995, along with Mathieu Schneider and Craig Darby.

What had changed? Isles GM Don Maloney felt his team needed to add grit and a hard work ethic to his team, and made captain Pierre Turgeon - a French Canadian star - available, for one; also, the Habs needed to get rid of Schneider after a fistfight with star goalie Patrick Roy in Philadelphia in a personal matters issue that was never going to be resolved. Schenider's value didn't match Turgeon's, so the Habs added their own captain and a prospect to the deal, and the Isles added Vladimir Malakhov, an extremely talented but enigmatic (and perhaps lazy) defenseman, on their end.

But Muller wanted nothing to do with the Islanders. So much so that he didn't report to the team. At first, Maloney offered him to take some "personal time" to get his "affairs in order", but when it looked like he was never going to report to the team, Maloney had to promise to try to trade him over the summer, after which Muller suited up for the team's last 12 games of the season.

Then the team introduced its "Fishstick Fisherman" jersey, and half the team wanted out. I don't know what it took to get Muller to smile here, but I bet it had something to do with the photographer telling him he was probably never going to have to wear it on the ice:

That's card #115 from Topps' 1995-96 Topps set, which he signed in blue sharpie in his first stint as a Canadiens assistant coach.

When the 1995-96 season came along, Muller's trade value had plummeted, with every GM in the league knowing full well he wanted out and trying to short-change the Islanders in a deal. Muller flat-out stopped trying and was sent home in early November to await a trade, with his full salary. Due to his inability to deal with the issue, Maloney was fired on December 2nd, replaced by "Mad" Mike Milbury, who sent him to the Toronto Maple Leafs in January, with veteran goalie Don Beaupre, in a three-team swap that netted the Isles Martin Straka, Bryan Berard and Ken Belanger.

He had a bit of a resurgence with the Leafs, posting 25 points (9 goals, 16 assists) in 36 games, but the following season it became clear he had lost a step and could no longer contribute as a second-liner. He would play two and a half years with the Florida Panthers (to little fanfare) before joining fellow former Habs leaders Guy Carbonneau, Craig Ludwig, Mike McPhee, Mike Keane and Brian Skrudland with the Dallas Stars, where he spent his final four seasons.

And how do Isles fans feel about his short time on Long Island? Here's an interesting take:

We've heard about French Canadian players avoiding signing with the Habs because of the pressure their fans will put on them. Take my word for it, that's a good problem to have. It means the players understand exactly what will be expected of them and, if they're not up to the challenge, you probably wouldn't want them anyway.

Players avoiding the Islanders is a horse of a different colo(u)r, though. They're usually borne from not understanding, or wanting to understand, what the hell's even going on over there on Long Island. This is a much larger problem to have. And until it's fixed for good, every big-time player could potentially fill Kirk Muller's old unwanted jersey.

Which was number 9. Which was Clark Gillies' number. Who is still a god on Long Island. Which is yet another reason to hate the piece of shit prick Muller.

It's the complete opposite in Montréal, where Muller is one of two non-French-speaking coaches (with McGill University alumnus Mike Babcock) fans would accept as head coach of the storied Canadiens - and that's saying a lot.

Steve Larouche Autographed Card

Like many Montrealers, I keep moving (on average every other year); with each move comes a trial period while I try to figure out how to display some of my stuff (DVDs and Blu-rays, signed cards, signed pictures in frames, paintings, show artwork) and I always temporarily misplace stuff.

Right now, I can't find the thousand cards I had slated to feature next starting in April, but I did find another box of "unused" autographs like this one of Steve Larouche, sporting the Ottawa Senators' old white uniform, with the somewhat-rare #74:

It's card #38 from Topps' 1995-96 Topps set, which he signed in blue sharpie in 2010-11.

He had his finest NHL moments with the Sens, posting 15 points in 18 games, including his lone NHL hat trick against the team that drafted him 41st overall in 1989, the Montréal Canadiens, on April 3rd, 1995.

I have many more of his cards... somewhere!

Stay tuned, I should be able to post them before 2030.

Bob Sweeney Autograph Card

The 1990s weren't kind to the New York Islanders, as GM Mike Milbury traded away an entire roster of first-round draft picks and quality role players like defensemen Vladimir Malakhov, Zdeno Chara, Wade Redden, Bryan Berard, Eric Brewer, Darius Kasparaitis, Scott Lachance and Bryan McCabe; Olympic goaltenders Roberto Luongo and Tommy Salo; and forwards Olli Jokinen, Todd Bertuzzi, Tim Connolly, Jean-Pierre Dumont, Raffi Torres, and the second overall draft pick from 2001 which became 100-point center Jason Spezza.

That's a pretty impressive cast to just send away at the four corners of the NHL. It was as if Milbury, a Boston native, was still trying to work for the Boston Bruins despite their having fired him four years prior; he single-handedly ran a once-dynastic franchise to the ground for a full decade.

Another Bostonian who played for his hometown Bruins for a long time and ended up with the Isles in the mid-1990s was Bob Sweeney, seen here wearing the infamous "Fisherman" jersey (albeit with the logo airbrushed out because of copyright issues), on the signed insert version of card #26 (therefore known as S26) from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player set:

He's fighting for rink real estate with a Pittsburgh Penguins player - I want to say Chris Wells, but I might be wrong.

The 1995-96 season was Sweeney's last in the NHL, split between the Isles and the Calgary Flames. He then spent one year in the IHL with the Québec Rafales before spending five seasons in the German League (DEL).

Despite what some folks will have you believe, the present-day Islanders have a good, balanced team (as long as John Tavares remains with them), a work of art and patience built by a savvy, smart and bold GM in Garth Snow, who may have been handed the job in a bizarre manner (slotted in as Rick DiPietro's backup, owner Charles Wang had a talk with him and realized he had detailed knowledge of every team's players, systems and coaches, and ideas on how to make all of them better, Isles included), but the reason he did replace Neil Smith was because he basically delivered a better interview and had better knowledge of current-day players than Smith, who'd been away from the day-to-day operations of running a team for six years.

I believe in Snow, and I believe Snow has built a good enough team to enter the playoffs as the East's First Wild Card team, ahead of the New York Rangers and last year's Atlantic Division-leading Montréal Canadiens.

Tavis Hansen Autograph Card

Tavis Hansen was born in Saskatchewan, but playing Junior Hockey with the WHL's Tacoma Rockets (now the Kelowna Rockets) in the early-to-mid-1990s paved the way for his moving to Seattle upon retiring from hockey in 2007.

Between that, the Winnipeg Jets third-rounder played 34 NHL games with the Jets (1) and Phoenix Coyotes (33), but mostly toiled with the AHL's Springfield Falcons, even climbing the ranks to become their captain.

He also played sparsely for the Hershey Bears after suffering an injury against them that plagued him for much of the 2000-01 and 2001-02 campaigns, before moving onto the San Jose Sharks organization and playing with their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Barons.

During the 2004-05 lockout, Hansen made his way to the Asia League (nine teams split between Russia, Japan and China, mostly), playing for the Oji Eagles, scoring 21 goals with 18 assists for 39 points in 39 games, then suiting up for two seasons with Austria's Innsbruck HC Tiroler Wasserkraft, who play at the OlympiaWorld Innsbruck complex, site of the 1964 and 1976 Olympics as well as the 2005 World Championships. Today, HC Tiroler Wasserkraft currently employ former NHL prospects Andy Chiodo and Jared Spurgeon, among others.

Here is Hansen from his days in Tacoma, on the signed version of card #14 from minor-league set 1995-96 Draft Day by Signature Rookies, with the team's logo airbrushed out:

It's a card I got in a repackaged box that guaranteed autographs, probably at the beginning of the decade; he signed it in blue sharpie, and it's numbered 2436/4500.

Doug Bonner Autograph Card

There's been a lot of talk concerning which goalies would be made available for the future Las Vegas NHL team to choose from at next June's expansion draft, and although I have been one of those who spent a lot of ink and saliva on the subject - even going so far as to email the team to suggest GMs, coaches and perhaps myself as goalie scout - today I want to look forward to the next expansion... to Seattle.

They have yet to build an arena and no owner wants to take on a team, despite interest from nearby Portland and their own billionaire Paul Allen. But it got me thinking about Doug Bonner, a native of Tacoma, Washington who played his junior hockey just over a half an hour North, for the WHL Seattle Thunderbirds.

He was drafted in the sixth round (139th overall) in 1995 by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and spent five seasons in their organization, splitting his time at first between the ECHL and AHL, but mostly the former, and entirely so for the final two, with the now-defunct New Orleans Brass.

In 2000-01, he attempted to rise through the ranks of pro hockey by signing a free agent contract with the UHL's Missouri River Otters, but despite similar numbers, only appeared in 18 games to Benoit Thibert's 46.

He does appear in the ECHL's record books, albeit for a reason that has little to do with his skills: at one point, he had made the third-fewest saves in a playoff game in league history.

Here he is wearing the Thunderbirds' white (home) uniform, albeit with the front logo airbrushed out for copyright reasons, from Signature Rookies' 1995-96 Draft Day set (card #5 in the series, numbered 927/4500, signed on-card in blue sharpie):

He currently works in selling educational tools for the company Amplify in Lafayette, where he played from 1997 until 1999, for the ECHL's Louisiana IceGators (not the same as the current version of the team, which plays in the SHL).

Alexandre Daigle Autograph Card

When word got out this weekend that Nail Yakupov had requested a trade from the Edmonton Oilers, I found it hard to believe, considering he was doing well with Connor McDavid earlier this year and had found his game last year alongside Derek Roy as well; it turns out the main reason would be his relegation to third line duties and lack of decent playing time, so we'll see how that develops.

But the comments section on many websites were getting rather mean, going to great lengths to insult him; one such comment was that he was "the biggest choke job since Alexandre Daigle", which I thought was disingenuous for more than one reason, attacking two players who did not deserve it.

Let's compare a bit, shall we?

First off, let's go on "pure stats":

Daigle: 129 goals, 198 assists and 327 points in 616 games. Got a fair amount of Lady Byng votes in 2003-04. Not numbers that scream "First Overall Pick", and not close to the second pick of the 1993 draft, Hall Of Famer Chris Pronger, but still a player I'd choose ahead of the third pick, Chris Gratton. Thus, NHL material, for sure. Add to that 166 points in 164 Swiss League games and 71 points in 72 AHL games, and the fact that his entire NHL career took place in the Dead Puck Era (1994-2004) and you've got a case that he isn't the worst pick one could make, though he's not a game changer per se.

Yakupov, so far: 48 goals, 59 assists and 107 points in 248 games. He's barely 22. He was chosen ahead of the likes of Ryan Murray (2nd), Alex Galchenyuk (3rd), Morgan Rielly (5th), Hampus Lindholm (6th), Mathew Dumba (7th), Jacob Trouba (9th), Slater Koekkoek (10th), Mikhail Grigorenko (12th), Cody Ceci (15th), Teuvo Teravainen (18th), Olli Maata (22nd), Mike Matheson (23rd), Malcolm Subban (24th), Colton Sissons (50th), Dalton Thrower (51st), Joonas Korpisalo (62nd), Shayne Gostisbehere (78th) and Matt Murray (83rd).

And, no offense to all of these guys who have already achieved more in hockey than I ever did, but I don't see any of them knocking on the Hall Of Fame's doors, save perhaps for Murray if he keeps improving and dominating at every level.

So Yakupov was part of a weak draft, which means his being the #1 pick isn't entirely his fault to begin with.

In terms of first-overall busts, one might be more inclined to look at Patrik Stefan, however, the first pick in 1999, whose career stats in the NHL read: 64 goals, 124 assists and 188 points in 455 games, numbers that Yakupov could surpass in two decent years or three average-to-mediocre ones.

And just to dig further in, here are five others from the Class of 1999: Daniel Sedin (2nd), Henrik Sedin (3rd), Martin Havlat (26th), Mike Comrie (91st), and Henrik Zetterberg (210th). That's three Hall Of Famers and two All-Stars. Those are mistakes a GM pays for dearly. In this case, Don Wadell was given the chance to mess the franchise up again, enough to only make the playoffs once in its entire history, but also to get pretty much nothing in return for Marian Hossa to ensure they never make the post-season ever again. He now works in the upper echelons of the Carolina Hurricanes' parent company, so he'll have a chance to move a second team to Canada in a matter of weeks (or months).

But back to Daigle, whose trade value went from Pat Falloon and Vaclav Prospal to Andrei Kovalenko to Alexander Selivanov to cash. He became a decent two-way player under Jacques Lemaire with the Minnesota Wild, even leading the team in scoring with 51 points (20 goals and 31 assists) in 2003-04.

He has suited up for Team Canada three times: twice at the World Juniors (1993 and 1995, with 16 total points in 14 games, winning gold both times) as well as the 2009 Spengler Cup (2 goals on a team that was ousted by the champs Minsk Dinamo in the semifinal), an event he'd played in previously three times with HC Davos, with whom he also won three Swiss league championships.

Here he is wearing his country's white ("home") uniform from the 1995 World Juniors, from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player set (and World Class sub-set):

It's card #S188, the signed insert version of card #188, which he autographed on-card in black sharpie.

Claude Larose Autographed Card

In a long-awaited new installment of my Habs Numbers Project, here stands the first of two representatives of #11 (edit: Ryan Walter is now also online), Claude Larose:

It's card #69 from Parkhurst's 1995-96 Parkhurst Reprints set, the third such set by the revived card brand, this time hypothesizing how a 1966-67 set would have looked like. He signed it in person, in thin blue sharpie, with a very clear signature.

A French-Canadian from Hearst, Ontario, Larose was a heavy power forward who made his mark for most of the 1960s and 1970s with three teams - the Montréal Canadiens, Minnesota North Stars and St. Louis Blues - including two separate stints with the Habs that led to seeing his name engraved on the Stanley Cup five times in ten seasons.

He reached the 25-goal mark with each team, with a high of 29 with the Blues in 1976-77, his penultimate season. He reached the 20-goal mark six times and totaled 226 (along with 257 assists, 483 points and 887 penalty minutes) in 943 regular-season games, and another 14-18-32 and 143 PIMs in 97 playoff games.

He had a knack for making his linemates better, as Ralph Backstrom had his best years alongside Larose, and Danny Gare won the Calder Trophy by his side with the North Stars.

He claims to hold a Canadiens record by scoring 9 goals in 3 games, the first being a 4-goal outing alongside Frank and Pete Mahovlich, the second being a hat trick skating with Jacques Lemaire and Steve Shutt, and the third a two-goal performance in what would eventually be Guy Lafleur's spot with #25 and #22.

His son, Guy Larose, played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins - all Habs rivals - in the 1990s. Claude has been a scout with the Carolina Hurricanes since their days as the Hartford Whalers.

Alexei Kovalev Autograph Card

In a repeat performance, Team Russia will face Team USA in the World Championship semifinal in Prague on Saturday after beating Sweden, which was arguably missing the best goalie in the world (Henrik Lundqvist, whose New York Rangers are still in the NHL playoffs).

It is believed the Russians will have Alex Ovechkin for the game, which will be a boost, and reminds me of when another Russian Alex was viewed as All-World and could have a tremendous impact on games, Alex Kovalev.

Easily the best forward to play for the Montréal Canadiens in the past 25 years whenever he decided to ''turn it on'', ''Kovy'' was named the All-Star Game MVP in front of the home crowd at the Bell Centre as he dominated a game that featured Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Carey Price and the rest of the league's star players.

As I wrote nearly a year ago:

Did he have a tendency to take two or three nights off per week? Short answer: yes. In fact, though, the more honest answer would be this: never in important games, never in the playoffs, never when sporting a letter (be it the captain's 'C' or the alternate's 'A') on his chest, and never in front of an adoring hometown crowd cheering him on. And never when he could take center stage.

If there was a spotlight, he wanted it shined on him, no matter who else was there. The only time it didn't happen was during his rookie season, on a Stanley Cup-winning Rangers team, where Mark Messier stole the show; any other time, even playing alongside Mario Lemieux or Jaromir Jagr, Kovalev looked like the best player on the ice... (exactly) half the time.

Here he is deking and going through a Finnish goalie to score a goal while playing for the Soviet Union (notice the CCCP letters on his jersey, which no longer existed when the card set, Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player collection, from which this is card #S182 - the S stands for ''signed insert version'' - featuring an on-card thin black-sharpied autograph, was released):

The card is part of the set's World Class sub-set, where they could use a player's picture while suiting up for his national team.

Two Dennis Vial Autograph Cards

I wanted to start 2015 on the right foot, with some toughness and advancing some projects forward. I couldn't think of a better battler to feature to start the year off than former Ottawa Senators enforcer Dennis Vial.

I mentioned Vial from an old Sports Illustrated quote in this Brent Severyn post. He was strong and a fierce fighter, but also a defenseman who could hit hard legally - or not.

After a Juniors career that saw him get drafted 110th overall by the New York Rangers in 1988, he accrued 351 penalty minutes in his first season in the IHL, with the Flint Spirits, and followed that with 250 more in just 40 games with the Binghamton Rangers the following year - in addition to 61 (from 8 fights) in 21 games with the parent Rangers team, and two more fights and 16 total penalty minutes in 9 games with a Detroit Red Wings team that also included Bob Probert (315 PIMs that year), Randy McKay (183 PIMs) and three other players with over 100 minutes in the sin bin (Shawn Burr, Gerard Gallant, and a rookie Keith Primeau).

He would spend two more seasons in the Wings' system before the bizarre summer that saw him get traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning, drafted by the expansion Anaheim Mighty Ducks, then claimed by the Senators before a single game was played. It was with the Sens that he'd spend his final 5 years in the NHL, with whom he had seasons of 26, 12, 34 (!), 3 and 10 fights, including memorable ones against the Buffalo Sabres' Rob Ray. He was also a frequent sparring partner with Tie Domi, Chris Murray, Donald Brashear, Enrico Ciccone and Severyn.

After his time in Ottawa, Vial spent a year and a half in the IHL with the Chicago Wolves, two seasons in England as captain of the Sheffield Steelers, where he was the instigator of a bench-clearing brawl that was deemed the ''one of the worst scenes of violence ever seen at a British ice hockey rink'' and for which he was fined and suspended not just for instigating and taking part in the altercation, but also for squirting water in the stands.

He played in tough-man leagues such as the ECHL and the Québec Semi-Pro League before concluding his career in the UHL. He had a heart attack while playing in a pick-up game a couple of years ago, and was saved by a nurse who was also playing.

He now resides in Halifax, NS, and will take part in their Long Pond Classic on February 7th, alongside other former NHLers Mike Krushelnyski, Glenn Anderson and Bob Sweeney. I'm tempted to make the 13-hour drive to go see it...

Featuring Vial also checks #21 off my Sens Numbers Project, with these cards, first showing him in the team's white (home) uniform, from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player set (#S131 in the collection where they airbrushed the teams' logos off the cards as they had licenses to use the players but not the teams), signed on-card in thin black sharpie:

And in the Sens' original black (away) uniform, from In The Game's 2013-14 Enforcers II set (card #A-DV of the Autograph sub-set), signed in black sharpie on a sticker made to look like a Band-Aid:

Nearly a decade apart, and his signature remains nearly identical. Not bad, considering the number of hits to the head he's collected over the years...

Valeri Bure Autograph Card

I had already crossed #18 of my Habs Numbers Project with this signed framed lithograph of Hall Of Famer Serge Savard, but if I end up making it harder on myself and count only signed cards, then this Valeri Bure card from the 1995-96 Be A Player set (#S34 in the series manufactured by Upper Deck, signed in thin black sharpie with his number tagged at the end) would become the one that counts:

It shows him wearing the Montréal Canadiens' white (then-home) uniform, without the team's logo showing (for copyright reasons), probably making a pass - and judging by the spectators not staring in the puck's direction the way Bure is, I'd say the picture was probably taken during warm-ups.

Bure has also worn #20 on the Habs, in a career that saw him spend time with the Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers, St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars as well. He played in one All-Star Game, representing the Flames in a season in which he posted 35 goals, 40 assists and 75 points - all career highs - in 1999-2000. He reached the 20-goal mark six times, finishing his NHL career with 174 to go with 226 assists and 400 points in 621 games.

He was less productive come playoff time, with no goals and just 7 assists in 22 games. Those statistics match his international record, where his senior stats read 5 goals, no assists in 19 games; he was part of Team Russia's bronze-winning team at the 1994 World Juniors, and has two Olympic medals, silver (1998) and bronze (2002).

As a player, he and his wife owned a café in Florida, which they closed when he stopped playing for the Panthers; upon retiring, the family moved to California and opened a winery. Recently, it has been his wife, former Full House actress Candace Cameron Bure, grabbing headlines, admitting last January to being submissive to her husband and letting him have final say all the time, and about a month ago opening up about the couple's sex life. They are devout Christians. Valeri also has a brother who played in the NHL, Hall Of Famer Pavel Bure.

Mike Keane Autographed Card

As I mentioned last week when I featured this Yvan Cournoyer return, I had a few option regarding jersey #12 for my Habs Numbers Project, and one of them was Mike Keane, who I got to meet a few times while he was a member of the Montréal Canadiens, and once with the Manitoba Moose.

Though he did have a 15-goal and 60-point season in 1992-93 - the year the Habs won the Stanley Cup, where a lot of their players had career years - he was mostly a grinder who gave it his all on the ice but was better at not costing his team a game than handing it one. It was that reason that got him to briefly serve as the team's captain, before being part of the trade that would send him and Patrick Roy to the Colorado Avalanche for their first Cup win - and cause the Canadiens a decade of misery.

Keane won a third Cup in 1999 with the Dallas Stars, playing with other former Habs Cup winners Craig Ludwig, Guy Carbonneau, Brian Skrudland - the latter two having also worn the 'C', though only Carbonneau had the title (Skrudland served during another captain's injury, perhaps Carbonneau's).

Keane signed this card a little after the turn of the millennium, though I forget what team he was playing for at the time - it could have been in his second stint with the Avs, or that season when he was with the Vancouver Canucks:

It's from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Collector's Choice set (card #153) and was signed in black sharpie.

Keane and Brent Gilchrist pretty much owe Hall Of Fame coach Pat Burns their NHL careers, as he brought them along when he graduated from the Habs' AHL affiliate Sherbrooke Canadiens, and kept handing them defensive responsibilities at the NHL level, where they improved their game immensely.

A Winnipeg native, Keane spent his final 5 seasons playing for the AHL's Manitoba Moose - which he also captained - and his #12 is the only jersey in team history to be retired.

Chad Kilger Autograph Card

Draft day came and went, and so did July 1st. And there were still hockey pundits who justified a draft position or salary not on performance but on a mix of potential and size, and some ability - Benoît Pouliot's deal with the Edmonton Oilers comes to mind.

Pouliot had been a fourth-overall pick in 2005. Alexandre Volchkov was chosen fourth in 1996. As were Bryan Allen in 1998, Pavel Brendl in 1999, Rostislav Klesla in 2000, and Nikolai Zherdev in 2003. Going further back, Jason Bonsignore in 1994, Todd Warriner in 1992, and Darrin Shannon in 1988. Not all of them were the best choice, in retrospect.

Which brings me to the fourth pick of 1995, Chad Kilger. As of four years ago, he was the most popular fireman in all of Cornwall, Ontario, and would have been even without his career 714 NHL games and time spent playing for four different Canadian NHL teams (the Winnipeg Jets, Oilers, Montréal Canadiens, and Toronto Maple Leafs), if only because his father was a career politician in the city.

I don't have anything new to report, just came across this card of his when unpacking:

It shows him wearing the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' white (home) uniform, sporting #95 for the simple reason that it was at the draft and they'd just picked him. It's from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player set (card #S167, meaning it is the signed insert version of card #167 - which is part of the Rookie Quotebook sub-set - and is autographed on-card in thin black sharpie). They don't show the team's logo (nor reference it in any way) for the simple fact that while they may have had the NHLPA's permission to use photos of their players, they hadn't secure an NHL copyright.

His signature includes his jersey number with the Kingston Frontenacs (18), his junior team prior to being drafted.

Funny thing: as I was researching for news to use in this post, I came across this article about possible corruption and wrong-doings regarding his hiring as a fireman... which uses my card from my post 4 years ago without crediting me, who got the autograph in person (same over-cropped bottom, too):

Rob Blake Autograph Card

Now's as good a time as any to congratulate the Los Angeles Kings on their second Stanley Cup in three years, and what better way to do so than through a card showcasing Rob Blake, their long-time captain and current assistant-GM.

Blake has had a Hall Of Fame career, with a Norris trophy (1998), a Stanley Cup in 2001 with the Colorado Avalanche, captaining both the Kings (twice) and the San Jose Sharks, and winning Olympic gold (2002) and World Championship gold (1994 and 1997) with Team Canada.

He ended his storied NHL career with 240 goals, 537 assists, 777 points and 1679 penalty minutes in 1270 games (plus 26-47-73 and 166 PIMs in 146 playoff games) and was immediately thrust into important behind-the-scenes roles, starting as Brendan Shanahan's assistant in the department of player safety (technically ''Hockey Operations Management'') before moving to team managerial positions, first as assistant-GM with the Kings where he won the Cup in his first year replacing Ron Hextall, and last May as the actual GM for Team Canada at the World Championsips (Canada finished 5th).

Here is a card from just about when his career was getting into gear, from Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player set (card #S113, meaning it is the signed insert version of card #150, autographed on-card in thin black sharpie):

You'll notice there is only a mention of the city where he plays but no team name, logo or uniform; that's because UD didn't have an NHL license for this particular product, so they made do with their NHLPA one; in other instances, such as on this Yanic Perreault card, the player is shown in an action shot, but in a position where the logo is hidden; there are also instances, such as on this Pierre Turgeon card, where it is simply airbrushed out.

Another sign that times have changed: back in the 1990s, ''premium'' products such as this one were usually printed on thinner card stock than the regular-issue cards, usually to give it a glossier feel, but also to make them more fragile and worth more over time as pristine copies become rarer as the years go by; nowadays, there are over-the-top sets where a pack of 5 cards costs over $100, but because a lot of them have pieces of jerseys inside them, the bulk of those sets is printed on heavier and thicker card stock, so as to not be too obvious about which pack contains what type of card.