Robyn Regehr Autograph Card

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My first reflex upon seeing that the Calgary Flames' "Reverse Retro" uniform was, in fact, the return of the "Flaming Horse" black jersey, was "Cool! A return to the Darryl Sutter and Jarome Iginla era!" I always appreciated that uniform as an alternate; it's really beautiful, even though I have a soft spot for the classic/current red-and-yellow as the "main" team identity.

Of course, at this point, Sutter is actually back behind the team's bench, riding a three-game win streak after defeating Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the rest of the rival Edmonton Oilers last night.

Another staple of Sutter's success is Robyn Regehr, who not only was a member of the 2004 Flames team that made it to Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, but he was also on the 2013-14 Los Angeles Kings team that won its second Cup in three years with a Conference Final sandwiched in the middle. A mostly defensive defenseman, Regehr hit the 20-point mark three times (with a high of 26 in 2005-06) and, while he was rugged, generally remained below the 75-penalty minute threshold and never reached the century mark.

He is remembered fondly, with many seeing him as one of the best Flames players of all time (14th via Flames Nation, and 'best #28" for Matchsticks And Gasoline), which says a lot considering he was traded for the much-beloved Theoren Fleury; my own quick estimate has him ranked around the 20th spot, probably behind Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff, Al MacInnis, Joe Nieuwendyk, Mike Vernon, Mark Giordano, Gary Suter, Fleury, Johnny Gaudreau, Joel Otto, Joe Mullen, Hakan Loob, Kent Nilsson, Lanny McDonald (who in terms of career achievements would likely land top-three or top-five but as a Flame is within reach of the top-10) and perhaps Sean Monahan and Guy Chouinard. In his prime, there was no one in Canada you wanted to avoid meeting in a corner than him.

Of course, he fits perfectly as #28 in my Flames Numbers Project with the signed insert version (gold variant) of card #154 from In The Game's 2000-01 Signature Series collection:

It features a thin black-sharpied, on-card autograph with his jersey number tagged at the end. What a beautiful card!

Jeff Hackett: Two Autographed Cards

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Montréal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien and associate coach Kirk Muller were fired earlier today, and most of the chatter online has been about focusing blame on goalie Carey Price, with reason. However, a loud minority of the voices were sarcastically asking for the return of another wearer of jersey #31, Jeff Hackett, to replace him. My impression is that these are kids who didn't live through the so-called "Hackett era", because he was by far the best and most important player on that team, a team which, at the time, was seen as one of the worst in Habs history, although the current iteration has to contend for that title as well, or at least qualify as most underachieving.

First things first, the firing: had Julien lost the room? Probably. The players were still giving their effort, but in a roundabout way, kind of like when some players with low production still have a high Corsi score by putting up low-probability shots on the opposing net instead of making quality plays: there were hard-fought battles but too many penalties; there were defensive lapses in the exact areas that make Julien cringe; and the $10.5M goalie's play had his teammates go from "we know we can cheat to try to create scoring chances because we know we have the best goalie in the world out there" in the first ten games of the season to "we really have to help our goalie out more, we can't be caught cheating and giving away two-on-ones and three-on-twos like that"; and said goalie has reverted back to his old self of blaming teammates instead of himself for the goals that go in - better yet, he thinks he's playing well. Julien's Habs have ranked 24th on the powerplay and 26th on the penalty kill since 2016. The Canadiens never actually made the playoffs in any full season of Julien coaching in his second stint in Montréal, and only qualified as the last club in the 24-team tournament last year.

Muller likely wasn't kept around for one or all of the following reasons: he went 2-3 in last year's postseason when Julien suffered a heart attack; he doesn't speak French fluently and many fans would have clamoured to have him be named head coach while GM Marc Bergevin probably has other candidates in mind; he was very close to Julien and may follow him in his/their next job, perhaps on the West Coast.

If interim head coach Dominique Ducharme wins a playoff round, expect him to sign a five-year deal; if the team fails to even qualify for the post-season, expect the usual suspects (Patrick Roy, Guy Boucher, Marc Crawford, Pascal Vincent, Benoit Groulx and Bob Hartley) to get interviews. It's anyone's guess what happens should the team lose in the first round.

Regarding Price himself, he's been way below average since the beginning of Julien's reign and has let in upwards of 25 more goals than expected in those three and a half years, which isn't ideal for the highest-paid netminder in the NHL. The window to trade him ends next Fall.

As for Hackett, he was acquired by the Canadiens from the Chicago Blackhawks with Eric Weinrich and Alain Nasreddine for Jocelyn Thibault, Dave Manson and Brad Brown. The trade gave the Hawks an All-Star goalie who may not have developped into one in Montréal, and the Habs finally got to cleanse their palate of the Roy debacle, whose shoes Thibault had never been able to fill. Hackett was so good that he won the Molson Cup as team MVP in both seasons where he was the starter, until injuries started to derail his career, allowing for José Theodore to take over slide into the starter's job. With a .914 save percentage both years (in a league where Dominik Hasek's .919 was tops) and goals-against averages of 2.25 and 2.40, it was no surprise that Hackett got Vezina Trophy votes; it was also not surprising that he didn't make it as a finalist due to the team being so far out of playoff contention.

Here are two cards that depict his playing style very well, as a former stand-up goalie who leaned into the butterfly technique but kept his "pouncing" reflexes:

On the left is card #88 from Upper Deck's 1999-2000 Wayne Gretzky collection and Leader sub-set, showing him ready to stop a puck headed for his stomach; on the right is card #28 from Topps' 2000-01 Premier Plus set, with a flat butterfly pad and the ability to push the rebound to the corner in a far less dangerous zone for his team, giving his defensemen a chance to battle for and regain control of the puck - a move I put high value in as a goaltending coach.

Both show him wearing the Habs' iconic red jersey and were signed in blue sharpie after his departue from Montréal.

I just felt that the recent discourse had taken a lot of credit away from him and the fact that he was very good, gave his honest best effort, and even acknowledged via his helmet that he knew he was getting into a hockey hotbed that Quebecers are thrown in as youth and get more rabid about with each passing year - particularly those years without Stanely Cups, even more so in years without a playoff berth. Heck, among the sixteen who have worn the number for the Canadiens, he's "my" #31, ahead of Price (2008-21), John Kordic (1986-89), Mark Napier (1979-84), Tom Chorske (1990-91) and Michel "Bunny" Larocque (1974).

Coyotes Preview: Steve Sullivan Autographed Card

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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.

It's pretty easy to cast the Arizona Coyotes as a write-off or even a joke, as a team that simply shouldn't exist because it always lies in some kind of limbo, usually financial but also via pyramid-scheme-like ownership struggles, criminal behaviour and having no city to call home. However, despite all this, year in and year out, 25 to 30 professional hockey players do their best most of the time, and sometimes they have results to show for it, such as making the playoffs last year. After years of building through analytics and a seemingly communist approach of "everyone gets a six-year, $5M dollar deal", GM John Chayka gambled one time too many with Phil Kessel and Taylor Hall, then doubled down accepting a job with a competing organization while still under contract and was replaced... twice, in true Coyotes fashion.

What makes their odds look good:
Despite a sub-par season from Kessel (14 goals and 38 points in 70 games) and winning only 14 of 35 games after trading for Hall while giving up no roster player, Arizona managed to make it to the postseason. The goaltending duo of Darcy Kuemper and Antti Raanta rivals that of any team in the NHL, even Stanley Cup finalists Dallas Stars, a hair behind the Boston Bruins. If you can keep the puck out of your net, half the work's already done.

Question marks:
Oliver Ekman-Larsson hasn't looked as passionate about playing in the Desert since they tacked the captain's "C" on his chest, ironically; there was even some trade drama during the entire offseason. Is Jakob Chychrun ready to take on a first-pair role? Which young players among Nick Schmaltz, Clayton Keller, Conor Garland, Christian Dvorak, and Lawson Crouse can take on a prominent, perennial-All-Star role to lead the team to a deep run?

Outlook:
There are a lot of promising prospects on the team, but there seems to be a general lack of direction and identity. Still, year in and year out, the Coyotes' skaters give the middle of the pack a run for their money.

Prediction:
Fourth in the West Division.

I mentionned earlier Chayka being replaced twice... the drama hit right as the Yotes were preparing to enter the Edmonton bubble last summer, and regardlesss whether he quit or was fired, he still had to be replaced, so former player Steve Sullivan, who was assistant-GM, took over the mantle... for a month. He was then replaced by St. Louis Blues assistant-GM Bill Armstrong, but stayed on as assistant afterwards.

Sullivan's used to having to work hard for recognition; in the Dead Puck Era, when 20-goal seasons were considered excellent, he reached that mark for eight seasons in a row and even hit 30 twice - his 34 being second only to Tony Amonte's 35 on the Chicago Blackhawks in 2000-01, as his 75 points were 11 more than Amonte's 64 and his +3 rating was miles ahead of Amonte's -22, and his 31 goals with the Nashville Predators tied Paul Kariya for the team lead in 2005-06, but was achieved in 13 fewer games - and yet Sullivan never played in an All-Star Game and only suited up for Team Canada at two World Championships (2010 and 2011) where the country didn't really have a shot at a medal. The knock on him was usually his size (5'9" and 165 pounds), but it never stopped him from being a productive forward even when 6'4" defensemen were allowed to clutch and grab to defend their zone. Lucky for him (and us fans), he has a lot of fight in him.

Here he is wearing the Hawks' black (alternate/third) uniform from 1996-2009 on card #19 from Upper Deck's 2000-01 SP Authentic set:

He signed it in blue sharpie in 2008-09 or 2009-10 while with the Preds, either during his Bill Masterton Trophy-winning season or fresh off having just won it.

Dale Hawerchuk Autographed Card

The biggest story in sports today isn't what happened on any field but instead the loss of one of the all-time greats, with the passing of Dale Hawerchuk.

He had been diagnosed with stomach cancer in October 2019, and it was believed he had won the fight in April, but it came back in July. He had had a gastrectomy in January.

By all accounts, he was a very good person, a terrific father and a caring Juniors coach, but most hockey fans will remember him as a very good hockey player who broke records everywhere he went, from the Guy Lafleur-besting 8 goals in a single game at the Québec International peewee tournament to the Memorial Cup record of 8 goals and 13 points to being the youngest player to ever reach the 100-pont mark in the NHL (a mark since beaten by Sidney Crosby), he was destined to make history.

And perhaps he'd have made an even larger mark on the game had he not played in the very same division as Wayne Gretzky's dynasty Edmonton Oilers, whom he would face in the playoff nearly every season in the 1980s and thus went home to an earlier Spring than if he'd played in one of 15 other NHL cities.

Heck, even his most memorable international moment with Team Canada is overshadowed by #99, as few people remember Hawerchuk was actually the player who won the defensive zone face-off and made the pass to Gretzky against Team USSR in a 5-5 winner-takes-all game, sending The Great One and a certain Mario Lemieux off on a two-on-one that would seal the game. That goal doesn't happen without Hawerchuk. He was named the MVP of that game, too.

Despite also suiting up for the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers - there will be plenty of time to revisit that later - he remains, in my mind, forever the best centre in Winnipeg Jets history. As a matter of fact, here is my all-time Jets lineup, regardless of league, but just the Jets in Winnipeg:

Bobby Hull - Hawerchuk - Teemu Selanne
Thomas Steen - Ulf Nilsson - Anders Hedberg
Keith Tkachuk - Mark Schiefele - Blake Wheeler
Paul MacLean - Alexei Zhamnov - Shane Doan
Ed Olczyk, Bryan Little

Phil Housley - Dustin Byfuglien
Randy Carlyle - Teppo Numminen
Dave Babych - Fredrik Olausson

Connor Hellebuyck
Bob Essensa

I think it's safe to say he's the #1 Jets player of all time, ahead of Hull, who had his best years with the Chicago Blackhawks. Selanne's rookie season was off the charts, but it's hard to argue with six 100-point seasons, two more over 90 and one at 81 in nine years in Winnipeg. That's elite among the elite.

That's why I traded for card #133 from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Legends set, that he signed with a fading blue sharpie, adding his jersey number (10) at the end:

It shows him wearing the team's classic blue 1980s uniform with the long white sleeves that I miss dearly.

R.I.P.

Antoine Vermette Autographed Card

Just a few hours ago, Antoine Vermette announced his retirement from the NHL, having been unable to find a suitor, as he was looking for a job as a checking center on a contending team.

Having already had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup thanks to a short stint with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2014-15 (19 regular-season games, 20 playoff games); his postseason run was memorable, as he tallied 4 goals, 3 assists and seven points, with three of his goals being game-winners, two of them coming in the Cup Final. His 58.9% playoff faceoff wins percentage was also dominant, although it may have ironically cemented his transition from the top-line center he was with the Arizona Coyotes to the defensive specialist he ended his career as.

I mention the Coyotes because he was often among the team leader in points in the parts of five seasons he spent in the desert, but statistically speaking, his best seasons came with the Columbus Blue Jackets (27 goals and 65 points in 2009-10) and Ottawa Senators (24 goals and 53 points in 2007-08), but those teams had better rosters than the Yotes.

At his best, he was one of the very good #2Cs in the NHL, but he didn't necessarily have the #1C prerequisite star power. He was instead better left in the shadows, accumulating Selke Trophy votes in four separate seasons and Lady Byng consideration in 2009-10. He was dependable on both sides of the puck and finished with the ninth-highest career faceoff percentage since the league started keeping tack of such things in 1997.

His worth can certainly be felt in the returns teams got for him in trades: the Sens got a #1 goalie (Pascal Leclaire) and second-round pick from the Jackets for his services in 2009; the Jackets got Curtis McElhinney, a second-rounder and a fourth-round pick from the Coyotes for him in 2012; and the Hawks gave away a defensive prospect and a first-rounder to secure his services for that Cup run in 2015.

I actually met him earlier this winter, and he signed a couple of cards for me, but today, I wanted to showcase an old card that reminds me of when it all started to come together for him, on card #83 from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Upper Deck Prospects set, which he signed in blue sharpie in 2013-14:

It shows him wearing the Victoriaville Tigres' white (home) uniform, sporting the alternate captain's "A" that he would also inherit in Columbus and Arizona. He'd scored 30 goals with 41 assists for 71 points in 71 games the previous season and had just been drafted 55th overall (second round) by the Sens, making the LHJMQ's Mike Bossy Trophy as best prospect.

Marc Denis: Two Autographed Cards

One thing we know about the Columbus Blue Jackets is that they're really good, extremely balanced, and deep at almost every position. We can add that they have a shrewd GM in Jarmo Kekalainen who is as good at signing reasonable contracts with his RFAs as he is good at winning trades, and that's without mentioning that as head scout for the Ottawa Senators and St. Louis Blues, he had the best eye for talent in the league, as he was responsible for the drafting of such stars and sleeper picks as Marian Hossa, Ray Emery, Martin Havlat, Alex Pietrangelo, T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund, David Perron and David Backes. I predict the Jackets will finish second in the Metropolitan Division this year and should, legitimately, be looked at to win their first playoff series in team history.

Another hockey expert I like to link to the Blue Jackets is their former #1 goalie Marc Denis, who is now the hockey analyst for TV station RDS. In my opinion, he's the best in the business. Sure, he has to say that every Carey Price save is a work of art because his network happens to own part of the Montréal Canadiens, but he is also always insightful, particularly when it comes to the tactical side of the game, as well as defensive positioning and goaltending. It helps that he was the goalie coach for the Chicoutimi Saguenéens at the turn of the decade.

Stylistically, like every Quebecer in his (and my) age range, he was a pure butterfly stopper, emulating Patrick Roy. The initial King of Butterfly Saves, Hall Of Famer Tony Esposito, once said of Denis: "(He) has one of the brightest futures in the game. He has shown the ability to dominate a contest." The year after that quote, Denis appeared in 77 games for the Jackets, setting an NHL record for most minutes played with 4511.

He signed two cards (in black sharpie) from his days in Columbus for me last season, both showing him wearing their then-home white uniform; first, here is card #33 from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Heroes set, showing him receiving shots during a pre-game warmup:

And finally, here is card #68 from UD's 2000-01 Ice set, an amazing see-through plastic card that this scan does not do justice to:

Of course, the back has the reverse of that picture to go with statistics; notice how the signature doesn't penetrate his body:

Year in and year out, Ice and Artifacts are the best-looking and most spectacular cards on the market. I have had this card for years, and I still get happy just looking at it - the autograph just adds to my pleasure.

Steve Konowalchuk Autograph Card

The Washington Capitals have clinched the Presidents' Trophy for the second consecutive season, but getting out of the Metropolitan Division won't be a cakewalk, seeing as it's home to three of the top five teams in the league - points-wise, at least, although the division's basement-dwellers were among the worst in the league - but it must be pointed out that one of those will be eliminated when the Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Columbus Blue Jackets. Hopefully, the Jackets make it through.

The Caps really are a force, having the most offensive depth in the league (Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Justin Williams, André Burakovsky, Tom Wilson, Marcus Johansson, Lars Eller, Daniel Winnik, and Jay Beagle), the best goalie in the game in Braden Holtby, a very reliable defense that operates without a superstar (John Carlson, Dmitry Orlov, Matt Niskanen, Karl Alzner, Brooks Orpik, trade deadline acquisition Kevin Shattenkirk, Nate Schmidt, John Erskine and Taylor Chorney), and one of the best coaching minds in the league in Barry Trotz.

Here's an error card of former Cap two-way center Steve Konowalchuk (spelled "Konowalchuk"), showing him with the team's turn-of-the-millennium dark blue (away) uniform with the Capitol building logo, which is the signed silver version insert of card #13 from In The Game's 2000-01 Be A Player Signature Series set, autographed on-card in thin black sharpie:

When he first joined the Caps, who had drafted him 58th overall in 1991, he was slotted behind Dale Hunter, Dave Poulin, Michal Pivonka and Joé Juneau but climbed the ranks steadily, earning his teammates' respect enough to serve as captain (2001-03) until he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche. He could be depended upon for 40-some points each season in the era between the first two Gary Bettman-led lockouts (from 1995-96 until 2003-04).

He earned enough league-wide respect to not only be selected as a depth player for Team USA's 1996 World Cup run, but even to suit up in a game and help it earn the win. He also played in the 2000 (5th-place finish) and 2002 (7th place) World Championships.

Following his playing career, he spent time with the Avs in player development roles and two seasons as an assistant coach before becoming the WHL's Seattle Thunderbirds head coach in 2011-12; the team lost in the Finals last season and boasts an even better record (46-20-0, for a .681 win percentage) this year.

Steve Bégin: 3 Autographed Cards

Steve Bégin was an impossible-to-dislike grinder and penalty-killing specialist with a huge heart who was almost a spiritual captain on the Montréal Canadiens from 2003 until 2009, often needing a ridiculous injury to keep him off the ice, usually two at once.

He was forced to retire after years of enduring hip pain that the Boston Bruins' medical team had told him was "normal" for "many" hockey players, that could be operated on upon retiring. Three and a half years after retirement, he still ails, despite an operation by the Nashville Predators staff.

Still, he and Georges St-Pierre held a press conference earlier today promoting Challenge U, an app that enables folks to earn their high school diploma. Bégin, who had to quit school to move from Trois-Rivières to Val d'Or to play Juniors, has now vowed to finish high school before his teenage daughters, one of whom is a Senior.

So, yeah, he's still impossible to dislike.

Here he is with the Calgary Flames, the team who drafted him 40th overall (second round) in 1996 and with whom he retired, wearing their red turn-of-the-millennium red (away) uniform, on card #299 from Topps' 2000-01 O-Pee-Chee set and NHL Prospects sub-set:

Like most Quebecers, however, I will remember him most fondly from his days with the Habs.

First, here he is wearing the team's white (then-home) uniform, on card #257 from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Parkhurst collection:

And here he is with the classic red uniform, on card #264 from UD's 2006-07 O-Pee-Chee set:

With that, he is included in both my Habs Numbers Project and Flames Numbers Project (twice).

He signed all three cards in blue sharpie, adding his uniform numbers (7 and 22) at the end, though it seems he mixed up the numbers on the Flames and white uniform Habs cards!

Martin Brodeur Net Fusions Card

Hopefully, I'm not walking down a dangerous path by making an exception for Martin Brodeur - something I've accused the NHL of doing time and time again by awarding him four Vezina trophies when he deserved one at best - by featuring him on a card that is neither signed nor one including a swatch/patch of some kind.

Instead, the Glove-Side Net-Fusions card features a pretend glove netting filling the space between the goal posts:

That's card #12 from Pacific's 2000-01 Paramount set, showing him wearing the New Jersey Devils' red (then-away) uniform. I've seen it selling for $12-15 on Ebay, however, and it's tempting to not shit on it too much so I can pass it on to someone else.

Now you've heard me attack his Vezina Trophy record, but one thing that led to those awards as well as his three Stanley Cups was the Devils' defensive system devised by Jacques Lemaire, which was so effective that not only did it bring about the Dead Puck Era, but gave the team five Jennings trophies, which reward the goalie(s) from the team with the lowest goals-against average - which he's shared with the likes of teammate Mike Dunham but also Philadelphia Flyers goalies Roman Cechmanek and Robert Esche. Ties in this category are uncommon but do happen, as was the case with the Montréal Canadiens (Carey Price) and Chicago Blackhawks (Corey Crawford) sharing it in 2014-15.

Is Brodeur Hall Of Fame material? Of course he is.

Should he be considered on the same plane as Dominik Hasek and Patrick Roy in his era, and Terry Sawchuk, Jacques Plante, Georges Vezina, Ken Dryden or Tony Esposito in the broader spectrum of NHL history? Absolutely not. He did not dominate at any point, hidden between the defensive fortress of Scott Stevens and Ken Daneyko, although he was the best at moving the puck in his time, even forcing the NHL to change its rules bout goaltenders leaving the crease to play the puck. But as far as him being the stopping force that brought his team to the promised land, despite three Cups, he has no Conn Smythe to his name; also, the only time he faced Roy in a Final, he lost while watching Roy get the shut out, which should have been the ultimate mic drop.

And with Team Canada, he was sad to look at in the 2010 Olympics when Roberto Luongo was forced to take over.

Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre Autographed Card

Well, it's done: the Columbus Blue Jackets' all-time consecutive wins streak - and one short of the NHL's mark, held by the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins - ended at 16, with a loss to the Washington Capitals, who needed it more badly anyway in their effort to catch up to the Pens, Jackets and New York Rangers atop the Metropolitan Division.

I went to high school and played on its hockey team with two guys who ended up playing in Columbus, so I thought I could feature them in the next few days, starting with Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, who still lives in the region.

Our school team was the Collège Notre-Dame Sabres and, being from Montréal, we got to see Eastern teams a lot more often than their Western counterparts in person, and when I would look at Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Avalanche or Los Angeles Kings games on TV, I would usually avoid watching them play third-wave expansion teams, except for the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers, for some reason.

All of this meant I saw Jean-Luc play for the Buffalo Sabres a lot more often than with the Jackets, and since we played on a Sabres team, that's the team I identify him with the most; however, he sees himself as a Jacket, what with being on the team for their inaugural season, living through its first win... and becoming a realtor in the area during as well as following his playing career.

Even when he played overseas in Sweden, Finland or Germany, he kept his home in Columbus. And because he was a publicly-affable, genuinely nice person, and a stable defender who was pretty good at dropping the gloves on the ice, the fans took a liking to him immediately, and never wavered. And he's humble enough to not overuse it.

On the ice, he tried to mimic his childhood idol, Chris Chelios, in every way except offensively, as that was not his strongest suit - though he did finish with 20 points (7 goals and 13 assists) that will forever be part of the NHL's record books. Even in Juniors, JLGP was never a point-per-game player, nor was he in Europe, but he had a 17-year professional career (1997-2013) he can be proud of.

Here is a card he signed in blue sharpie, showing him wearing the Jackets' first white (then-home) uniform:

It's #281 from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Series 1 set.

David Legwand Autographed Card

It was a long time coming, perhaps even a season late, but former Nashville Predators second-overall draft pick (1998) David Legwand has announced his retirement.

All told, he played 956 regular-season games with the Preds, scoring 210 goals with 356 assists for 566 points - all standing team records. He also suited up in 47 postseason games with Nashville, with 13 goals and 15 assists (28 points) to show for it, including a three-season run where he accumulated 11 goals, 11 assists and 22 points in 28 playoff games.

The Predators traded him to the Detroit Red Wings at the tail end of the 2013-14 season, enabling him to play for his hometown team. He then spent a year each with the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres before calling it a career earlier today.

At told, he retires with 618 points in 1136 games.

Here he is wearing the Preds' early white (then-home) uniform, on card #32 from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Black Diamond set:

He signed it in thin black sharpie when he was with the Sens, with whom he scored 9 goals with 18 assists (good for 27 points) in 80 games, mostly spent centering the third line.

Vincent Damphousse Jersey Card

Eric Lindros entering the Hockey Hall of Fame definitely put the final coffin on how dominant a player must be and cemented its reputation as the Hall of Very Good Players. The institution, already a bit of a joke for not being located within the walls of the old Montréal Forum, now has to include everyone who's played in All-Star Games, won just one piece of hardware, and/or had two or three terrific seasons - especially those who "might have been even better" had they not gotten injured.

That means Jose Theodore - he of a Vezina and a Hart - is a shoe-in when it should've been a five-year debate; that means Chris Osgood gets a realistic shot, what with his three Stanley Cup wins; that means 1000-point players (of which Lindros was not) now must be included, notably Pierre Turgeon and Vincent Damphousse.

I mean, hey: Damphousse got to 1205 regular-season points (46th all-time), 432 of them goals (68th) and 773 assists (37th), despite never reaching the 100-point single-season mark, though he surpassed 90 four times. He's won a Stanley Cup and captained the most decorated team in hockey - the Montréal Canadiens.

He has 41 playoff goals and 104 playoff points.

Not only was he selected to play in four All-Star Games, he was its MVP in 1991 on the strength of an NHL-record 4 goals.

I wasn't a big fan; I particularly didn't like how he would hit opponents' wrists with his stick when defending against and trailing them, despite the fact that it earned him a fourth-place finish in Selke voting while playing for my hometown Habs. The fact that he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and San Jose Sharks was also too dark a mark to be evened out by playing for the Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers.

Speaking of the Sharks, here is, wearing their teal (then-away) end-of-the-90s uniform, on card #91 from Private Stock's 2000-01 Titanium Draft Day set (the Authentic Game-Worn Jerseys sub-set), manufactured by Pacific:

It features a red game-worn jersey swatch from his days in Montréal; the back of the card specifies that it's from a home jersey (which was white at the time), which would make this either part of the shoulders, wrists or waist parts of the jersey.

Lyle Odelein Autograph Card

Lyle Odelein was the Columbus Blue Jackets' very first captain, serving in that capacity for their first two seasons, before they traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks for Jaroslav Spacek. He'd previously acted as alternate captain for both the Montréal Canadiens and New Jesey Devils, and both in successful Stanley Cup runs (the Habs in 1993, the Devils in 2000).

He was a tough customer, but not an actual enforcer; he didn't back down from a fight but rarely instigated it. Instead, he rarely made defensive-zone mistakes for most of his career (save the early years as he was learning the ropes) but only once did he really make a notable and amazing offensive contribution, an end-to-end rush in which he deked everybody and scored on Ed Belfour. There was also the time where he had 5 assists in a single game, tying a Habs record he now shares with Sheldon Souray and Doug Harvey (for my money, the best defenseman in NHL history).

So, yeah, he may not have been a superstar, but he was kind of a big deal.

So here he is wearing the Jackets' original blue uniform, without the "C", so during a pre-season game, from In The Game's 2000-01 Be A Player Signature Series set (it's the signed insert version of card #88, the silver variant), which he signed on-card in thin black sharpie:

I very much prefer their current uniforms; these original ones are too simple, with too much of one colour and not enough design or thought having gone into it.

Sean Burke Jersey Card

Sean Burke had been quoted as saying he was interested in becoming an NHL General Manager this summer, but the vacant spots have mostly been filled - apart from the three-headed monster over at Toronto Maple Leafs headquarters, which I'm sure he wanted no part in, having to be the lame duck while Kyle Dubas, Brendan Shanahan and Mike Babcock made the actual personnel calls.

Instead, I have a hunch that he may take over for his current boss when Arizona Coyotes GM Don Maloney inevitably gets canned; sure, Maloney has another assistant who has actual GM experience, but that man is Darcy Regier, who turned the Buffalo Sabres into a joke and cut corners in their scouting and drafting departments large enough that years of futility are still years away from bearing any fruit.

The ideal job for him would have been with the Edmonton Oilers, in my opinion. He knows the Western Conference extremely well, having been with the Coyotes in either a coaching or managerial role since 2008. He's also the goaltending coach who ''made'' #1s out of Ilya Bryzgalov, Mike Smith and Devan Dubnyk, and made Chad Johnson (1.21 GAA, .954 save percentage, undefeated in 4 games with 1 shutout), Jason LaBarbera (2.64 GAA and .918 save percentage over 4 seasons), Curtis McElhinney (1.64 GAA and .944 save percentage), Matt Climie (1.88 and .938), and Al Montoya (2.08 and .925) look the part - and the Oilers kind of need an eye for goaltending, and someone who can provide valuable tips.

In today's NHL, Burke is that guy, ahead of even Patrick Roy.

So I guess it's fitting that I feature him as a member of the Phoenix Coyotes, with this card from Pacific's 2000-01 Private Stock Titanium Draft Day set (card #75 of the Authentic Game-Worn Jersey sub-set, mentioning he was drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the second round in 1985):

I'm particularly fond of the back, which specifies that the jersey swatch is from a Coyotes game in 1999-2000; it's also numbered 134/1010.

I've mentioned it before, but Burke was one of my favourite goalies growing up. Roy was the unattainable God, and Burke was the best underdog. Roy may have his (record) three Conn Smythes, and his Vezinas (while Burke has one nomination and three top-10 finishes), but Burke has an Olympic medal (silver, 1992) with Team Canada.

Chris Osgood Jersey Card

I'm reading a lot of nonsense online regarding this current Stanley Cup Final pitting the Tampa Bay Lightning's Ben Bishop against the Chicago Blackhawks' Corey Crawford, and how neither is ''elite'' and how it's a return to the days of the 1990s Detroit Red Wings winning the Cup with Chris Osgood in nets.

First things first: Bishop was nominated for a Vezina last year, and has three shutouts this postseason, two of them in Game Sevens. He beat fellow U.S. Olympian Jimmy Howard, outplayed likely Vezina winner and gold medalist Carey Price and matched the best goalie in the world, Vezina winner, gold medalist and Stanley Cup Finalist Henrik Lundqvist to get to the Final. Is he as stable and consistent as Hank? No, but no one save for perhaps Pekka Rinne is.

Regardless where you rank him, he's got to be in your top-10. He's likely in my top-5, where he only surpasses Crawford because the Hawks boast Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook as their top two defensemen. The last time the Hawks won the Cup, Conn Smythe Trophy winner Patrick Kane famously said ''Crow'' deserved the nod - and he wasn't just saying that. Sure, he has his off games, and like many of this current generation, they come relatively more often than goalies in prior decades (every 8 to 10 games instead of every 12 to 15 like in the 1990s), many of them in groups of two or three bad outings, all of them highly-publicized. But in between those sequences are usually 8-game stretches where his save percentage hovers around the .950 mark, where he'll give up a single goal per game while facing upwards of 35 shots, sometimes over 40; he's not a ''pure stopper'', he won't get the shutout, but he'll be spectacular in letting just one in. He might lose focus and turn a 5-1 sure victory into a 5-3 nail-biter with less than 5 minutes remaining, but when the pressure's mounting and he needs to wake up, he pretty much always does. And that's what elite goalies do.

Granted, Osgood never had to do any of that. He finally learned to do a decent butterfly style ten years into his NHL career, whilst with the New York Islanders. He's mostly known for his postseason prowess yet ranks 10th of all time in regular-season wins (401); on the flipside, he played with the 1990s Wings - one of three teams that contended for Cups consistently for more than a decade (with the New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche) and who kept purchasing the most expensive free agents of the Dead Puck Era.

And the Dead Puck Era is also why his career playoff GAA ranks better than Patrick Roy's, who won two Cups (and two Conn Smythe Trophies along with another Cup Final in 1989) before the Devils flipped The Trap into a Cup-winning formula.

He also scored a goal, which ranks him in the Ron Hextall and Martin Brodeur category, with José Theodore and seven others. But his save percentage was below the .900 mark five times in 17 seasons, and below .910 another four times, so while he may have scored once, he got scored on a whole lot more than that. But he has two Jennings Trophies and was a finalist for the Vezina once.

Arguing his case for the Hall is funny, because some folks are passionate about the subject - regardless of which side of the argument they fall on. Ultimately, he's a ''no'' (I mean come on, Rogatien Vachon's not even in it and he played on Team Canada teams at the Canada Cup and has NHL hardware) in my book, but it's a decent argument. For the record, I'd place Theodore as a ''maybe'' and Curtis Joseph as a ''no'' ahead of Osgood. Mike Vernon as well.

Here he is wearing the Wings' classic red (then-away) uniform, from Topps' 2000-01 Heritage set (card #OSJ-CO of the The Original Six Relics, Authentic Player-Worn Jersey insert sub-set), with a white swatch:

It's actually much darker to the naked eye, I guess when I scanned it over a year ago I forgot to play around with the settings.

Teemu Selanne Jersey Card

It was just a few hours ago that the Anaheim Ducks retired Teemu Selanne's number, in an hour-and-a-half ceremony that was classy, solemn, and yet a tad lengthy (the jersey itself could have taken less than 8 minutes to get to the rafters, for example, even Selanne and his family looked at a loss at some point), but more than his speech or the rising itself, what got to me the most was that both the Ducks and the Winnipeg Jets (not quite the franchise that had drafted him, but its spiritual successor of sorts) wore not just Selanne jerseys, but different ones, with the Jets sporting their early-to-mid-1990s white uniform (with horizontal arm stripes), and some Ducks even sporting the much-maligned Disney third uniform (and too many orange ones from last year's Stadium Series, probably so they could sell whatever's left over):

We could think of no better way to honour Teemu. pic.twitter.com/h0SUmQJlAZ
— Winnipeg Jets (@NHLJets) January 12, 2015

By now, I'm sure you're aware he's going to be a first-ballot Hall Of Famer. Before even coming to North America, he won the Finnish League's trophies for best goal-scorer, most gentlemanly player and his team (Jokerit Helsinki) won its league championship.

He holds the NHL rookie scoring records with an astounding 76 goals and 132 points, and finished his career with 684 goals (good for 11th of all-time) and 1457 points (15th of all-time) in 1451 games. The only team with which he was far from the point-per-game rhythm was his season with the Colorado Avalanche, where his 16 goals and 32 points in 78 games were a bit of a disappointment.

As a member of the Ducks franchise, he leads the team with 457 career goals, and his 988 points are just short of the 1000 mark. He also had 44 goals and 88 points in 130 playoff games, including 15 points in 21 games in 2006-07 when he won the Stanley Cup.

Both his 500th and 600th goals were scored against the Avs.

Sure, he had four 100-point seasons and two more in the 90s, but his point production that struck me the most were his 80 points in 73 games at the age of 39 in 2010-11. He was also - fittingly - the first recipient of the Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy as top goal scorer in 1998-99, marking the third time he led the league in goals.

He also won a Masterton Trophy and was a perennial contender for the Lady Byng and Hart as well, though he was often a finalist but never a winner of those. He did end up on two end-of-season First All-Star Teams, and two Second All-Star Teams as well, and played in a total of 10 All-Star Games.

Internationally, the Finnish Flash has probably won his own weight in medals despite playing for often-neglected and perennial underdogs Team Finland, often classified behind Canada, the United States, Russia and Sweden if only because Finland has a smaller population. Still, he has a silver (2006) and three bronze (1998, 2010, and 2014) Olympic medals, and his 43 career points at the Games are, indeed, an IIHF record, and he also has silver (1999) and bronze (2008) medals from the World Championships. He was named the MVP of the 2014 Games and the best forward of the 2006 ones, and MVP of the 1999 Worlds.

I wrote to him in April, and I never really expected an answer back - I just wanted him to know how I felt about him as a player and as the classy human that he is. I tried to save up enough money for a trip to his final game in Anaheim, but I just couldn't get it together fast enough. It turned out to be a tear-inducer, though.

I have a couple of jersey cards of his, and I thought I could feature this one today, from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Pros & Prospects set (#TS of the Game Jersey sub-set), showing him with the Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim's classic white (home) uniform and featuring a black swatch:

The Finnish Flash retired as one of the most charismatic players in the game; Grandfather Time, Jaromir Jagr, seems poised to take up the mantle, but Selanne will never be forgotten.

Nikolai Antropov Autograph Card

I don't know if all collectors/bloggers can pinpoint the exact moment or exact card that either brought them back to collecting or made them take it that step farther than they were at before, but in my case, it was this card, from Topps' 2000-01 Stadium Club (#LS5 of their Lone Star Signatures sub-set, signed on-card in thin blue sharpie with his uniform number - 9 - tagged at the end):

Sure, it shows Nikolai Antropov with the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team I would repeal from my collection altogether, but it's also the first ''quality insert'' card (autograph or swatch card, not just a ''league leader'' or ''All-Star'' or whatever card) I ever pulled from a pack, and it was at a time where I'd stopped paying attention to hockey (and pretty much all sports) but would still buy a pack or two per year at a dollar store to keep up with where it was and, mostly, for old times' sake and to reconnect with my inner child.

I'd spent a lot of my childhood bringing hockey cards to Montréal Canadiens' games in the hopes of getting one signed, and here was one where someone else had gone through all that trouble for me and all I had to do was open a pack of otherwise beautiful, thick and sturdy cards.

A couple of years later, the Habs would hold preseason jamborees/fan jams where you could meet-and-greet players of an otherwise forgettable era for the team, which brought that extra spark to my collecting because I realized I still had ''ins'' to get stuff signed throughout the organization (before I got into TTMs) to frame and hang on the walls all over my apartment.

And so it is with great irony that the one card that I can pinpoint to getting the ball rolling in that direction is not only of a Leafs player, but its ultimate Habs-killer in Antropov who would have won Art Ross and Hart trophies if half (or even a quarter) of all Leafs' games were against my hometown Canadiens, with Tomas Kaberle a shoe-in for the Norris.

After obtaining a Canadian citizenship in 2007 and playing for the Winnipeg Jets until 2012-13, Antropov spent the last season with the KHL's Barys Astana, with whom he'd also played during the lockout. He is signed through next season, and plays with other former NHLers Cam Barker, Nigel Dawes, Ari Ahonen, Mike Lundin, and Dustin Boyd.

Kimmo Timonen: 4 Autographed Cards

I think Kimmo Timonen will come back for one more season, to retire at the round-number age of 40. And for one more shot at the Stanley Cup. He was a runner-up in 2010 when his Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, and he has a very impressive collection of precious metals collected with Team Finland (Suomi), consisting of silverware (2006 Olympics, 1998, 1999 and 2001 World Championships, 2004 World Cup) and bronze (1998, 2010 and 2014 Olympics). What he needs deserves is a (shot at a) first-place finish.

He's also been one of the most consistent defensemen in the past decade - 40 points year in and year out (sometimes in the 50s), first unit time on both the powerplay and penalty-kill. Granted, he has played less minutes 5-on-5 the last couple of seasons, and he has lost a step, but he rarely makes mistakes in his own end, and is still a fine offensive defenseman with an accurate pass and a precise and hard shot.

Though he was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Kings (250th overall, 1993), they traded his rights to the then-player-less Nashville Predators so they, in turn, wouldn't draft Garry Galley. It took him a few years to cross the pond, but from his second full NHL season on, he was the Preds' defense; on their chronically low-scoring team, he surpassed the 10-goal mark five times, plus scored another 8 in 51 games in his sophomore season.

To represent him during that era, I have these two cards of him in their then-home (white) uniform:

On the left is card #197 from Topps' 2000-01 Stadium Club set, which I bought packs of at a dollar store that year just so I wouldn't completely lose touch with hockey; on the right is card #111 from Upper Deck's 2006-07 Series 1 collection, the first card showing him as alternate captain.

He would serve as the Preds' designated captain for the actual 2006-07 season.

After that season, though, the Preds weren't sure they would be able to re-sign the pending free agent, so they traded his rights to the Flyers, who promptly inked him to a six-year deal. He never reached the 10-goal plateau with the Flyers, but he still got his 40-plus points - except in the locked out 2012-13 season when he registered 5 goals and 29 points in 45 games. And he wore the 'A' with them right away, as evidenced by these cards:

On the left, wearing Philadelphia's then-home (white) uniform, is card #210 in Upper Deck's 2008-09 Power Play set, while the card on the right is from Panini's 2011-12 Score (card #348), with the current home (orange) uniform, a throwback to the Broad Street Bullies' 1970s garbs.

He was a five-time choice for the All-Star game, three times with the Predators and twice with the Flyers.

Internationally, he has represented Finland a whopping 18 times - 13 on the senior team, where his stats are impressive: 14 goals, 36 assists and 50 points in 93 games, good for eight medals, as previously stated.

His current career NHL totals are also pretty impressive, and all are milestone-surpassed: 117 goals and 454 assists - good for 571 points - in 1092 regular-season games, plus 4-31-35 (and 99 penalty minutes) in 87 playoff games.

He holds the same point-producing pace in the Finnish elite league despite having started there at age 17 - much younger than usual.

I had sent Timonen these four cards and a fan letter - at the Flyers' Skate Zone -  on March 17th, 2014; they came back 78 days later, on June 3rd (2014), signed in (fading) black sharpie.

Saku Koivu Jersey Card

It's hard to believe Saku Koivu is already in his fifth season with the Anaheim Ducks, since he was such a huge part of the Montréal Canadiens from his rookie season in 1995-96 until the team's Centennial in 2008-09, often the lone bright spot on offense (and the only Habs player not afraid of the mid-to-end-90s Philadelphia Flyers).

How much of a leader is he? He was the Habs' first European captain for one, but also Team Finland's captain from 1998 until 2010 despite the team counting among its ranks such veterans as Teemu Selanne (the whole time) and Jari Kurri (at first), then Jere Lehtinen. Also, he would have made the team again for the Olympics this year, but withdrew his candidacy days before the roster was announced, having just recovered from a concussion and taking one for the team so it can choose a better-prepared replacement.

While noble, it's still a blow to the team, considering he has led Finland to no less than four Olympic medals (bronze in 1994, 1998 and 2010 and silver in 2002), one World Cup silver (2004) and four top-three finishes at the World Championships (gold in 1995, silver in 1994 and 1999, and bronze in 2008), usually on will power alone.

I think I would name my first-born Saku in is honour.

Which is why I cherish all of my memorabilia of him, including this card from Topps' 2000-01 Heritage set (card #OSJ-SK of the The Original Six Relics, Authentic Player-Worn Jersey insert sub-set) showing him wearing the Habs' legendary red (then-away) jersey, with the matching swatch :

I wrote to him in 2011 to get some cards signed and almost included this one in the lot; I'm kind of glad I didn't, since I never heard back.

Jason Spezza Jersey Card

Should a team losing its #1, league-leading goalie (Craig Anderson), its top Norris trophy-winning defender (Erik Karlsson) and its top center, the second-best passer in the league (Jason Spezza) trade away its short-term assets (Milan Michalek) and hope for the best the following season - or should it keep at it, build on the success and cement team chemistry and keep the ship steady?

The Ottawa Senators have chosen to see what's behind Door #2 and it's paying off dearly: not only are they still in a good playoff position, they're also still leading the Jennings trophy race thanks to the stellar play of future star goalies Robin Lehner (who isn't winning as much as his 2.07 GAA and .944 save % should allow, going 1-0-4 so far but getting the team points in each start) and giant Ben Bishop (the ''worse'' of the Sens' goalies at 4-4-0, 2.54 and .925, which still makes him a top-10 goalie, stats-wise).

It's unclear whether Spezza will return this season, but one thing is for sure: the longer the Sens play and the deeper they get in the playoffs, the better the chances of a comeback this season. I've been seeing the Senators as contenders for a couple of seasons now, and although I'm liking how they're playing minus any of their stars (save for venerable captain Daniel Alfredsson), a team is still better with its best elements present, particularly when they're just added to an already-working mix.

This awesome swatch card is from Upper Deck's 2000-01 CHL Prospects set (card #JS, the Game Jersey sub-set) and features a white swatch of a game-used Mississauga IceDogs jersey in its center.