Hurricanes Preview: Rod Brind'Amour Dual Jersey Card

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

This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: Unlike in the distant past where I would post different texts on this collectibles blog and my personal one, I've been using a new format for the past couple of years, where I'll copy the same text on each one. As a father of two young kids, I just do not have enough time to write two separate posts per day on each blog. This year again, the entire scope of the analysis will take place first and the featured player will have a direct or perhaps indirect connection to what's written, below.

Caveats: At this point, despite training camp being set to start in a little over a week, several players haven't found a team yet, (at least) three star players have active trade requests, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much left to do.

Key exits: Frederik Andersen (G), Mike Reilly (D), Noah Philp (C)

Key Arrivals: None.

Top prospects: Bradly Nadeau (LW, 21), Felix Unger-Sorum (RW, 20), Charles-Alexis Legault (D, 22),Semyon Frolov (G, 19), Justin Poirier (RW, 19), Charlie Cerrato (C, 21), Justin Robidas (C, 23), Nikita Artamonov (LW, 20)

The only departures were an oft-injured, 37-year-old goalie, a depth defenseman, and a fourth-line centre - and with no notable arrivals, their replacements will come via the team's system, which will inject some youthful energy to a group that played until the end of June. Alexander Nikishin is at a contractual impasse and may be used as trade bait for a player in a similar situation from the Detroit Red Wings, a top-end goalie from the Winnipeg Jets, as part of a package for a defenseman from the Minnesota Wild, or any other roster player who used to warrant $7.5M in salary and whose value rose above $12M this summer.

What makes their odds look good:
They won the Stanley Cup in just 19 games (only three playoff losses) mere months ago, and the only lineup changes so far have been limited to letting depth guys go and replacing them with younger options. These guys have been playing this system for years and it's paid off well in every regular season so far.

Question marks:
Will the goaltending hold up with Brandon Bussi as the #1 guy and Pyotr Kochetkov being asked to triple his workload from last season? Does it even matter, though?

Outlook:
They won't necessarily coast to a first-place finish because, like Charlie Sheen, they only have one speed ("Go!"). But they are a machine that will only be stopped by time and the effects of years of compound physical play, like last year's Florida Panthers.

Prediction:
1st in the Metropolitan Division.

Head coach and former captain Rod Brind'Amour is no stranger to the Carolina Hurricanes' success, as he has them playing just like he used to himself, with speed, skill, strength, intelligence, stamina and led by willpower.

As a player, Rod The Bod amassed 452 goals, 732 assists and 1184 points in 1484 regular-season NHL games that included the entire Dead Puck Era, as well as 51 goals and 60 assists for 111 points in 159 playoff games, culminating with a Stanley Cup in 2006 (and another Final in 2002) and two Selke trophies as the league's best defensive forward. He has better credentials than many current Hall of Famers. He also won a gold medal with Team USA at the 1994 World Championships.

As a coach, he won the Cup last summer, but is also one of the rare winners of the Jack Adams Trophy (best head coach, 2020-21) to not get fired the very next season. Maybe that's his way into the Hall.

Here he is wearing the Canes' red (home) uniform on card #AF-RD from Upper Deck's 2008-09 SP Game-Used Edition set and Authentic Fabrics and Dual Jerseys sub-sets:

As implied, it features two (black) game-worn jersey swatches.

Michael Frolik Autographed Card

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

After signing him to an affordable one-year deal right before Christmas Day, the Montréal Canadiens assigned Michael Frolik to their AHL affiliate Laval Rocket on a conditioning stint earlier today. He and fellow veteran Corey Perry had cleared waivers ahead of opening night; I believe most skaters will clear this year, what with the flat cap, quarantine rules and taxi squads, but GMs may be willing to try to upgrade their third-string goalies on the rebate wire as the playoff races get tighter.

Frolik has had an up-and-down last few years. He was usually good for a half-point per game on average (he was around that mark for nine of his 12 NHL seasons), and he did manage that in two of the past four seasons with the Calgary Flames, but his 4 points (1 goal, 3 assists) in 19 games with the Buffalo Sabres to finish off the 2019-20 season is probably the biggest reason why he only signed a one-year deal near the league minimum, coupled with the warining sign in the form of a 25-point season (10 goals, 15 assists) with a -19 rating in 70 games with Calgary in 2017-18, although he had been +13 the year prior and was +24 the next.

He even earned some Selke Trophy votes with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2012-13, the year the Hawks won their second of three recent Stanley Cups. He also has an impressive collection of bronze medals as a member of the Czech Republic Team from the 2004 and 2006 U-18s, the 2005 World Juniors, and the 2011 and 2012 World Championships.

He was originally a first-round pick in 2006, having been selected 10th overall by the Florida Panthers and he currently stands 12th of his draft class in career points with 384, so pretty much in the right spot though a ways away from the top-five of Nicklas Backstrom (4th overall, 954 points), Phil Kessel (5th, 877), Claude Giroux (22nd, 837), Jonathan Toews (3rd, 815) and Brad Marchand (71st, 673), and a case has to be made for defensemen Erik Johnson (1st, 304 points) and Jeff Petry (45th, 275 points), as well as goalie Semyon Varlamov (23rd, one Vezina nomination). Here is what he looked like wearing the Cats' black (home) Reebok-era uniform:

That's card #333 from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Power Play box set, which he signed in blue sharpie during the 2016-17 season.

Avs Preview: Milan Hejduk Dual Jersey 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 biggest change the Colorado Avalanche (team links lead to Amazon sponsored pages, player links to relevant pages on my blog, and news links to their source) made this off-season is completing the switch to new uniforms from navy blue to baby blue by removing the black helmets, gloves and pants and making them blue as well. It's both gorgeous and extremely bizarre. Apart from that, GM Joe Sakic didn't overhaul his Stanley Cup-contending roster, with depth players departing (Nikita Zadorov, Vladislav Namestnikov, Colin Wilson, Mark Barberio, Kevin Connaughton and Matt Nieto), and depth players coming in (Brandon Saad, Devon Toews, Dennis Gilbert and Mikka Salomaki). After a career year at the age of 36, I also expect Sakic to obtain value for Ian Cole via trade, possibly for a high draft pick. I see him going back to a former team like the Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues or Toronto Maple Leafs.

What makes their odds look good:
They have the most valuable NHL forward in Nathan MacKinnon, who is one of the three best forwards in the game yet only makes half of Connor McDavid's salary, leaving plenty of room under the cap for Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, Saad, Samuel Girard, goalies Pavel Francouz and Philipp Grubauer and eventually star defensemen Cale Makar and Bowen Byram when they get off their ELCs. We'll see ten years from now if the Edmonton Oilers end up having as many Cups as the Avs, but my gut tells me "no" (unless they each have zero or one).

Question marks:
The Avalanche do not have question marks anywhere on their roster. Not many things stand in their way of a championship, save for Covid-19, the Vegas Golden Knights in their own division, and the Tampa Bay Lightning being the reigning champs and still the best hockey team of the past 20 years on paper, with or without MVP Nikita Kucherov.

Outlook:
Sakic has one job: to not mess around with the roster. I think he knows it. This is a contender for the next five years as is.

Prediction:
First in the West Division.

This is the second time in the team's 25-year history that they have the make-up of a dynasty; unlike the 1995-2002 team, however, they do not need to have a Patrick Roy-level legend in net to get there, partly because there is currently no one like that in the league, and also because the game itself has changed and is more methodical and chess-like at nearly every position save for a few elite game-changers. The Avalanche have MacKinnon and Makar that fit the bill, and Rantanen is just a notch below.

If the "original" Avs had two MacKinnons in the form of Hall of Famers Sakic and Peter Forsberg (there was no salary cap at the time), and their Rantanen was Milan Hejduk, no slouch himself, as The Hockey Writers have aptly shown here. In addition to matching or surpassing Sakic and Forsberg on many an occasion, he did win the Rocket Richard Trophy as the lone 50-goal scorer of the 2002-03 season and stil only got a Second Team All-Star nod at his position at the end of the year, behind Todd Bertuzzi. Talk about a clash in style and personalities...

375 goals and 805 points in the Dead Puck Era (including 98 points in the worst of it in the early 00s) is equivalent to 1200 points in the 1980s. Never forget Hejduk, he was a heck of a player.

Here he is wearing the Avs' Reebok Edge burgundy (home) uniform with the awful vertical piping on cad #AF-MH from Upper Deck's 2008-09 SP Game-Used Edition collection and Authentic Fabrics/Dual Jerseys sub-sets:

It features not one but two matching game-worn jersey swatches. These types of cards were much thinner back then, they feel thinner than many modern base cards.

Pens Preview: Maxime Talbot 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 Pittsburgh Penguins have done an amazing job of rebuilding on the fly, particularly after the departure of GM Ray Shero; sure, Jim Rutherford inherited Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-André Fleury and Kris Letang in their prime, but Shero had failed to complement them with pieces that would help them remain contenders while strapped by the salary cap, whereas Rutherford was able to add value on the wings in his first two weeks, by trading James Neal for Patric Hornqvist, for instance. And whenever a signing or trade didn't work out, you could count on Rutherford to move the player within a year, usually to everyone's satisfaction. On the surface, this hasn't changed; however, this season is going to be unique, and the Pens are in the same division as Stanley Cup contenders Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins, plus Barry Trotz' New York Islanders, all of whom would normally be locks for the playoffs - and that's not counting the up-and-coming New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres. A very good team is going to miss the cut this year, and I have a feeling it might be Pittsburgh.

What makes their odds look good:
Crosby, Malkin and Letang are still there, while Fleury made way for Matt Murray, who was pushed out himself by Tristan Jarry by the end of the 2019-20 season. Bryan Rust can score 30 goals even in a shortened season, Jake Guentzel and Jason Zucker can score 20 - which, pro-rated to an 82-game schedule, would be 30 - and John Marino is ready for prime time on defense.

Question marks:
The thing with goalies is how unpredictable the position has shown to be in the last 10-15 years; even the best in the world have off years, and they usually take a little longer than before (mid-to-late 20s instead of 23-25 years old) to be ready, so Jarry holding up is a toss-up; I also question the team's depth, but head coach Mike Sullivan has shown to be better than I anticipated at making the most of what he has.

Outlook:
I do not fear for Pittsburgh; whenever Crosby, Malkin and Letang inch out of their primes, there will be someone ready to take their place; one might say Marino is already there to cover for Letang. It's just that this particular season might be a write-off.

Prediction:
Fifth in the Metro/East Division.

Even in the Shero era, the Penguins made great use of depth player, none more so than Maxime Talbot, an 8th-round pick (234th overall) in 2002. Needless to say, if there was a re-do, he would probably be selected between 22nd and 45th overall, as he ranks 24th in point production and 17th in games played, and there were a few notable goalies available that year, such as Cam Ward (25th overall), Kari Lehtonen (2nd), Curtis McElhinney (176th), Josh Harding (38th), Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers (31st) and Hannu Toivonen (29th).

Talbot started turning heads right after being drafted, as he was named the LHJMQ's Hull/Gatineau Olympiques's captain thereafter, and led the team to consecutive league chamionships, winning the playoff MVP title both times; it was a sign of things to come, as he would wear the alternate captain's "A" in Pittsburgh, partly on the strength of terrific playoff performaces, including scoring both goals as they won Game 7 of the 2009 Final against the Detroit Red Wings. Talbot was such a clutch playoff performer that he would routinely finish in the minuses in the regular season and yet, in much fewer games, be in the pluses in the playoffs:

He was also known for scoring shorthanded goals, as 8 of his first 30 in the NHL were scored down a man; he even scored four goals against Pittsburgh in the 2012 playoffs while playing with the Philadelphia Flyers, two of which came shorthanded. All told, 16 of his career 91 regular-season goals came down at least a man, and he had 14 game-winners as well; in the playoffs, 4 of his 18 goals were game-winners.

Here is is wearing the Penguins' black (home) uniform from 2002-16, on card #233 from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Power Play boxed set:

He signed it in blue sharpie during his time with the Bruins (2014-16). He then moved on to the KHL, where he played under Bob Hartley for the Avangard Omsk in his final season in 2018-19.

Marco Scandella: Two Autographed Cards

All season long so far, Montréal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien has been telling GM Marc Bergevin through the media that he doesn't like his options for the bottom-two roles on defense; while Shea Weber, Victor Mete, Jeff Petry and Ben Chiarot have been playing a bunch of minutes, Brett Kulak, rookie Cale Fleury and Mike Reilly have been alternating with call-ups Christian Folin, Otto Leskinen, Gustav Olofsson for some playing time, with veterans Xavier Ouellet and Karl Alzner also available with the AHL's Laval Rocket. And the NHL season hasn't even reached the halfway mark yet!

Kulak, Reilly, Olofsson, and Folin were all acquired via trade by Bergevin and re-signed afterwards; Ouellet, Leskinen and Alzner were free agent signings. All of them were chosen to be on the roster by the GM. And the coach cannot find a way to use any of them properly.

A few hours ago, Bergevin moved Reilly - a good skater with a decent pass and some offensive vision who at times makes bizarre decisions in his own zone, not unlike two-time Stanley Cup champion Justin Schultz or now-appreciated veteran Ron Hainsey - to the Ottawa Senators for a late-round draft pick and a career minor-leaguer and followed that up by acquiring Marco Scandella from the Buffalo Sabres for a fourth-rounder.

Scandella, a Montréal native whose uncle Sergio Momesso played with the Habs in the late 1980s and won a Stanley Cup here in 1986, is understandably ecstatic about coming home. His $4M cap probably no longer represents the kind of player he's become, but in his mid-20s, he was capable of playing upwards of 21 minutes per game (with a high of 23:19 in his first season with the Sabres in 2017-18), was good for some 20 points per season despite limited powerplay time and was a cornerstone of the Minnesota Wild's defense, playing in a shut-down role while Ryan Suter took care of the offensive-zone starts and easy minutes.

The wild's second-round pick in 2008 (55th overall) played his Juniors career with the LHJMQ's Foreurs de Val d'Or, where he had such an impact that he was their captain for two-thirds of his time there. He's a born leader and will make for a calming presence to help Fleury develop more effectively... provided Julien plays him that way. We're talking about the same coach who plays Chiarot upwards of 30 minutes per game and has a history of benching his most talented young players (Phil Kessel, Tyler Seguin, Charles Hudon, Jonathan Drouin).

Here is Scandella wearing the Foreurs' "classic" dark (away) uniform in his rookie Juniors season - notice the awful socks - on card #94 from In The Game's 2008-09 Heroes And Prospects set:

And here he is wearing the Reebok Edge uniform, with asymmetric lines and terrible piping (albeit with better socks), on card #103 from In The Game's 2009-10 Heroes And Prospects set, sporting the captain's "C":

Both were signed in blue sharpie back when he played for Minnesota. I look forward to having him sign a card showing him with the Canadiens. I also wish him the best of luck in this circus, where the team is in danger of missing the playoffs the third straight season and the fourth time in the past five years.

Kyle Turris Jersey Card

It's been an interesting first decade into the career of Kyle Turris.

He started off as the third-overall pick of the 2007 draft, behind Patrick Kane and James van Riemsdyk, and ahead of Thomas Hickey (4th), Karl Alzner (5th), Sam Gagner (6th), Jakub Voracek (7th), Logan Couture (9th), Brandon Sutter (11th), Ryan McDonagh (12th), Lars Eller (13th), Kevin Shattenkirk (14th), Max Pacioretty (22nd), Mikael Backlund (24th), David Perron (26th), P.K. Subban (43rd), Aaron Palushaj (44th), Wayne Simmonds (61st), Evgeny Dadonov (71st), Yannick Weber (73rd), Alex Killorn (77th), Robert Bortuzzo (78th), Nick Palmieri (79th), Alec Martinez (95th), Colton Sceviour (112th), Matt Halischuk (117th), Jamie Benn (129th), Jake Muzzin (141st), Patrick Maroon (161st), Carl Hagelin (168th), Nick Bonino (173rd), Paul Byron (179th), Carl Gunnarsson (194th), Justin Braun (201st) and Paul Postma (205th).

It wasn't too long before he essentially asked out of Phoenix, however; indeed, as soon as his ELC ended, he asked for $4M per season so the Coyotes would balk at the offer, and said "trade me or pay me double my market worth for me to stay", so he was sent to the Ottawa Senators, where he was pretty much the go-to centre for his tenure, particularly starting in 2014-15, following Jason Spezza's departure.

Another contractual impasse led to his being sent to the Nashville Predators via the Colorado Avalanche in a three-team trade in November 2017, and he promptly signed a six-year, $36M deal ($6M per) to remain in Nashville as their 1B/#2 centre.

He did well enough - albeit not exceptionally well, but he did have to get used to new surroundings, new teammates and a new playing system - in his first season in Music City, with 42 points in 65 games to finish up his old contract, but his 7 goals, 16 assists and 23 points in 55 games last season can only be described as unbecoming of a $6M contract.

At 29 years of age, there should still be at least three more seasons of high-end, second-line hockey left in the fluid-skating, swift-passing Turris, and his two-way smarts and hockey sense should carry him over to potent checking-line centre in the final two years of his deal... if all goes well.

The main problem with him throughout his career is that almost every time he was set to take on a larger role in an organization, or as soon as people started realizing the good he was doing, or if he was relied upon too lead like- let's say - in the playoffs, he would enter a long slump that would mess everything up. Not just for him, usually for the team as well.

Case in point: as the Preds made their way to the second round in 2017-18 - a year removed from a Stanley Cup Final when the expectations were that they would go on another long run - he couldn't score a single goal and could only muster up 3 assists in 13 games. Same thing this past Spring, where he was limited to a goal and an assist in 6 games.

And the Preds have two such overpaid/under-performing middle-of-the-lineup centermen with Bonino, not to mention another underachieving $8M first-line centre in Ryan Johansen, who has reached the 70-point mark only once in his career - and never with Nashville. It's a problem the team will have to address, and at some point, one they'll have to stop trying to address by sacrificing very good defensemen (Subban, Samuel Girard).

Here is Turris from his days in Arizona, wearing their white (away) uniform on card #RJ-KT from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Be A Player set and Rookie Jerseys sub-set:

It is numbered #20/299, with a fairly big burgundy jersey swatch, although UD is using double-speak to try to pass this event-worn jersey for a game-worn one on the back of the card:

That is some bullshit if I've ever seen any: "Game-used" and "been used in a rookie photo shoot". I guess those Upper Deck photo shoots have real stakes that no one knows about.

Erik Cole Autographed Card

A power forward is typically someone who can score at least 30 goals in a season while throwing his weight around enough to get 100 hits; they also usually get close to or more than 100 penalty minutes and act as a net-front presence to attract attention while leaving the puck-carrier free to roam, and to pounce on a rebound or deflect the puck in the net.

In his 13-season NHL career, Erik Cole surpassed the 25-goal mark four times, hitting 30 with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2005-06 and 35 with the Montréal Canadiens in 2011-12. He usually led his teams in hits, hovering between 10th and 20th overall in the category.

He also suited up for the Edmonton Oilers (63 games in 2008-09), Dallas Stars (160 games between 2012 and 2015) and Detroit Red Wings (11 games in 2014-15). He retired after spending two full years away from the game trying to convince his body that his style of play and a certain 2006 hit by Brooks Orpik that broke two of his vertebrae wouldn't be able to stop him from playing the game he loves so much, but ultimately, he failed; at least the Canes - with whom he played for in parts of nine seasons over two stints - offered him a one-day contract to retire as a member of the team, before moving on as a team ambassador.

What surprised me most about his short time in Montréal is how much of a team player he was; he came in rocking a four-year, $18M contract and, although he expected top-line minutes, he never complained that those minutes came with a 22-year-old semi-rookie who was essentially to serve the same role as him on the right flank (Max Pacioretty) and his undersized best friend David Desharnais at center, while the team's best centerman (Tomas Plekanec) was given more minutes but tougher assignments (facing the opposition's top line, second-unit powerplay time, penalty killing) while simultaneously asked to revive all struggling (Lars Eller, Andrei Kostitsyn, Travis Moen, Rene Bourque) or injured wingers (Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta).

Even more impressive was when the team's 2009 first-round pick, local boy Louis Leblanc was recalled from the minors to play in his first game, Cole bought Leblanc's parents plane and game tickets so they could see their son face the Anaheim Ducks in California.

That's leadership, right there. That's the kind of thing that makes you forgive his being a Habs-killer for all those years.

I told him as much when he signed my card in blue sharpie in 2012:

That's card #162 from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Victory collection, depicting him wearing the Canes' white (away) uniform.

Tomas Plekanec Autographed Card

Tomas Plekanec, one of the players I respected the most during his playing days, has lived through his share of bittersweet - mostly bitter - moments in 2018.

First, he was traded to forever rivals Toronto Maple Leafs at the trade deadline last year, then re-signed by the Montréal Canadiens - playing his 1000th NHL game at home at the Bell Centre - only to see his contract be annulled/bought out a month into the season.

"Pleky" had always been a leader with the team, taking his licks more often than deserved, whether it be waiting his turn behind Chris Higgins, Michael Ryder and many others to get a chance to make his mark offensively, to constantly being asked to carry struggling wingers back to productive times to being passed over twice for the captaincy (while carrying the title for the Czech Republic internationally, usually on teams that included Jaromir Jagr), then suffering the insult of being a healthy scratch to start the year.

He had immersed himself in Montréal so well that despite his wife (Lucie Plekancová Vondráčková) being a superstar singer and actress in the Europe, their two children's first language was French.

He twice led the Habs in scoring, both times so much ahead of everyone else, it was ridiculous:

2009-10, via HockeyDB

2010-11, via HockeyDB

And most of the time, he was also far ahead in plus/minuses as well, despite always playing against the opposition's top lines and starting in the defensive zone, even in his rookie season:

via HockeyReference

Honestly, objectively, he should have retired with at least one Selke Trophy, despite his career overlapping the likes of Pavel Datsyuk, Patrice Bergeron and Jonathan Toews.

It's not over yet, either, as he signed on to play with Jagr for Rytiri Kladno but accepted a loan to Champions League team HC Kometa Brno when it was clear Jagr was injured long-term.

He knew he was one of my favourite players and many times sent me unrequested autographed cards, such as this 2008-09 Series 1 card (#96 in the set, signed in blue sharpie) by Upper Deck:

I'm fairly certain I'd have even more of those if I didn't move every other year like the average Montrealer.

Hats off, Mr. Plekanec, and congratulations on a solid NHL career. 2018 wasn't easy for you, but you handled it with class, once again setting an example for the rest of us to follow. You will be missed.

Nicolas Deschamps Autographed Card

Nicolas Deschamps was a second-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks (35th overall in 2008) after posting better than point-per-game averages over three seasons in the LHJMQ, mostly with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens.

He then had up-and-down seasons in the AHL, oscillating between nearly point-per-game runs and a few deeply ineffective ones as well, such as his lone assist in 12 games with the Syracuse Crunch in his last go-round in 2014-15.

He mostly toiled around in Europe for the past four seasons, spending time in Austria, Finland, Germany, and Sweden, before finding his niche with France's Rouen Dragons, with 20 goals, 28 assists and 48 points in 44 games so far for the second-place team (with a 30-9-3-2 record in 44 games).

He signed this card for me in 2012-13, a season during which he spent time with both the Toronto Marlies and the Hershey Bears in the AHL:

It's card #97 from In The Game's 2008-09 Heroes And Prospects set. It shows hiom wearing the Sags' beautiful blue (away) uniform.