Caps Preview: Alex Ovechkin Swatch 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: I liked doing last year's format, so I'll be doing it the same way this season as well, partly because of that but also because as a father of a toddler and a baby, I just do not have enough time to write two separate posts per day on each blog. I'll copy these on each one instead. Like last year, 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 training camp being set to start, several players haven't found a team yet, many RFAs haven't signed with their respective teams, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.

Key exits: Brenden Dillon (D), Craig Anderson (G), Michael Raffl (LW), Zdeno Chara (D)

Key Arrivals: Matt Irwin (D), xxx (LW), xxx (C/LW), xxx (C), xxx (LW), xxx (D), xxx (D), xxx (G)

Top prospects: Connor McMichael (C), Hendrix Lapierre (C), Martin Fehervary (D), Alexander Alexeyev (D), Vincent Iorio (D), Damien Riat (LW), Aliaksei Protas (C), Brent Johnson (D), Brett Leason (RW), Kody Clark (RW), Lucas Johansen (D)

Sure, the Washington Capitals' stars are all in their 30s, they have few top-tier prospects that have Toronto-based pundits salivating and have exited the playoffs early every year since their 2018 Stanley Cup win, but this nucleus remains rock-solid with the likes of Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Anthony Mantha, Tom Wilson, T.J. Oshie, John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov. The goaltending position is also in good hands with Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek.

What makes their odds look good:
They can outscore the opposition like few teams can and have better goaltending than the Toronto Maple Leafs. If someone in the Atlantic can eliminate the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team from the Metropolitan Division could make it to the Cup Final.

Question marks: A lot of their firepower is tied into a handful of players, who account for a lot of the team's cap space. There are depth issues, and any injury troubles would mean a huge drop in the standings for the Caps.

Outlook:
This team hired Peter Laviolette as head coach because it is still hungry for a Cup. Regular-season seeding doesn't have to matter much, the postseason is how this team will be judged, now and forever.

Prediction:
Third in the Metropolitan Division.

Fresh off a five-year deal that will realistically lead him to breaking Wayne Gretzky's career goals record, Ovechkin is a man on (another) mission. And while the chase for Gretzky's goals record is huge in itself, Ovie is also chasing Sidney Crosby's two undeserved Conn Smythes, a gimme from a handful of Toronto-based journalists who didn't want to give Phil Kessel his due. Should Ovechkin get a second one, it might even force the Hall Of Fame to waive its three-year waiting period to get him in.

Here he is wearing the team's dreadful red (home) Reebok Edge uniform from a few years back, on the swatch version of card #73 from Panini's 2010-11 Luxury Suite collection:

It features a white game-worn jersey swatch. I got this one on Ebay for just over five bucks; its usual book value is closer to $40-50.

Blue Jackets Preview: Jakub Voracek 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: I liked doing last year's format, so I'll be doing it the same way this season as well, partly because of that but also because as a father of a toddler and a baby, I just do not have enough time to write two separate posts per day on each blog. I'll copy these on each one instead. Like last year, 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 training camp being set to start, several players haven't found a team yet, many RFAs haven't signed with their respective teams, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.

Key exits: Seth Jones (D), Cam Atkinson (RW), Kole Sherwood (RW), Michael Del Zotto (D)

Key Arrivals: Jakub Voracek (RW), Adam Boqvist (D), Jake Bean (D), Sean Kuraly (C), Zac Rinaldo (C)

Top prospects: Kent Johnson (C), Cole Sillinger (C), Corson Ceulemans (D), Kirill Marchenko (RW), Yegor Chinakhov (RW), Andrew Peeke (D), Daniil Tarasov (G), Dmitri Voronkov (LW), Trey Fix-Wolansky (RW), Stanislav Svozil (D), Liam Foudy (C), xxx (LW), xxx (LW)

This is a transition period for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have only a handful of players left from the failed "all-in" season three years ago. Even head coach John Tortorella left, replaced by assistant Brad Larsen. There will be growing pains while a new system is set up, in the same way an expansion team like the Seattle Kraken might face, except exclusively with home-grown young players and draft picks, not hand-picked from the entire league. The four new players coming in look solid to me (even Rinaldo, who will help instill some team spirit).

What makes their odds look good:
The Blue Jackets' top-three on defense consisting of Zach Werenski, Boqvist and Bean will be solid eventually, but the latter two must gain experience first, and it will be trial by fire at least for this season. Goalie Elvis Merzlikins is a very good goalie who may fall into a Vezina Trophy at some point (in the era of Connor Hellebuyck, Jacob Markstrom, Thatcher Demko and Andrei Vasilevskiy, which wil lbe extremely difficult), but he would need his team to make the playoffs for that to happen.

Question marks: Will Patrik Laine regain his offensive touch, or will he bide his time until he can leave himself?

Outlook:
The trade deadline brought in a huge leadership void when captain Nick Foligno and defenseman David Savard were traded for high draft picks, which was compounded by Jones' and Atkinson's summer departures. This will take time to rebuild.

Prediction:
8th in the Metropolitan Division.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the one-for-one trade involving Atkinson (headed to the Philadelphia Flyers) and Voracek - on both sides. Atkinson is still a 30-goal man, a feisty little speedster, and Voracek produces at a 0.75-point-per-game clip at this stage in his career - a very good production rate for a 32-year-old player - but he's lost a bit of foot speed and is an assists collector first and foremost, and I fail to see who he will set up unless he is directly tasked with reviving Laine's game.

He knows what to expect in Columbus, however, having already been a part of a rebuild there to start his career off as the team's 7th-overall pick in 2007. This is what he looked like wearing deep blue, as seen on card #GJ-JV from Upper Deck's 2010-11 Series 1 collection and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It features a white game-worn jersey swatch.

Patrick Kane Jersey Card

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

Earlier tonight, Patrick Kane became the 100th NHLer to score 400 career goals, at age 32, putting him at 1056 points in 996 regular-season games. He's definitely got another hundred in him, maybe 150. He will likely be known as the greatest American-born player in NHL history for at least 15 more years, until Auston Matthews perhaps comes making a run at the title, or someone else who hasn't been drafted yet. But Kane doesn't just score and assist on other people's goals; he's also electrifying, was an integral part of three Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup championships with one Conn Smythe to show for it (although I agree with his assessment that goalie Corey Crawford deserved it just as much as he did) to go with an Art Ross (league's leading scorer in points), Hart (most valuable player as voted by journalists), and a Ted Linsday Award (best player as voted by his peers).

I would not have expected all of that when he began his career, when his behaviour was problematic at best and criminal at worst, and the stories kept adding up while he was in a drunken haze for a couple of offseasons, from the assault of a cab driver (proven true) to his choking a woman at a sorority party (rumoured) to alleged anti-semetic comments (impossible to prove since the witness didn't actually witness any of it, as the altercation took place across the street from him and he couldn't hear) to a rape accusation that grew weirder and weirder with each passing day, for which he was not charged because DNA, physical evidence and forensic evidence did not back the victim's testimony (and there were lies about rape kits being delivered to the victim's mother that had the accusation's lawyer step down from the lawsuit).

Even though he was not charged with the most serious offense with evidence leaning towards the "it didn't happen" category more than the "we couldn't find the type of evidence that gets a conviction", you don't get into this type of smoke without any fire, and he did put himself into bad situations as a young adult. The fact that he was allowed to be given room to change is a positive, although I do wonder if he'd have had the same chance had he been Black in the United States. But that's yet another debate for another day.

What today brings, however, is the Kane dichotomy: I haven't been able to recognize his accomplishments on the ice as the second-highest points-per-game average of any American player ever with the fact that he also had a rough patch from 2012 to 2015 that, yes, cost him endorsement deals, but had they all been proven true would have made him one of the most despised individuals in professional sports. I don't want to "cancel him" altogether for many reasons (including "innocent until proven guilty" and "if you've paid for your crime, you can have another shot at Life", but also because I don't believe "cancelling" is always the best option), but I don't want to whitewash history either. I would like it if we could find "pure" people to look up to who've never done anything wrong, but I can definitely settle for recognizing someone's greatness at one thing while acknowledging their failures at other things - or at the same thing, in the case of the American Founding Fathers, many of whom owned other human beings at a time when it was legal if not necessarily moral. Mother Teresa refused to give her patients the medication that would save their lives, preferring they suffer to "earn their way into Heaven"; Gandhi was a racist: he actually fought so that the Indian people wouldn't be treated as lowly as Black people, without giving the slightest effort in raising their statute at the same time; Patrick Kane mugged and beat a cab driver, may have choked a woman at a frat party he had no business attending, and was (perhaps wrongly) accused of rape - and he's pretty good on skates and at handling a small piece of vulcanized rubber with a stick.

My thoughts will probably evolve on the matter as more light is shed on either side of his permanent record, but for now, he has to be content to contend with Mike Modano as the best American-born hockey player of all time, and this is what he wore the most often while reaching that point:

That's the Hawks' red (home) uniform, with matching game-worn jersey swatch, on card #AF-KA from Upper Deck's 2010-11 SP Game-Used Edition set and Authentic Fabrics sub-set. I traded for it three or four years ago.

Maxim Lapierre Autographed Card

As the NHL and NHLPA negotiate a return to play for the 2020-21 season, others like Maxim Lapierre look the other way, as the feisty pest announced his retirement earlier today.

His career was going great in Europe, the sixth-leading scorer on a team that finished third in the DEL (Berlin Polar Bears) after three seasons starring for famed Swiss team Lugano HC as a point-per-game, two-PIM-per-game player who elevated his game in the postseason, strong off a bronze medal win at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics with Team Canada after securing a tryout from a strong showing at the Spengler Cup.

His last taste of NHL action came with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2014-15, and you got the sense that they acquired him only because he was the best in the league at getting under Sidney Crosby's skin, instead of having him line up in the bottom-six to stop the other team from scoring.

He may not have been a first-liner, but he's had a heck of a career; Montréal Canadiens fans will remember him obtaining points in his first four NHL games, getting Selke votes and finishing +9 under Guy Carbonneau during a 15-goal, 28-point career-best 2008-09 season, and scoring the game-winner against the Pens in the series-tying game of the magical 2010 playoff run; Vancouver Canucks fans will remember him starring alongside Alexandre Burrows, Kevin Bieksa, Ryan Kesler and Raffi Torres - a veritable "who's who" of the most referee-triggering NHLers not named Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara or Brendan Gallagher - on the team that blew a 3-2 Stanley Cup Final win in 2011, with Lapierre scoring the game-winner that brought the Canucks to within one game of their first championship.

When Montréal journalists called Alain Vigneault, his Prince Edward Island Rocket head coach (who would also be the Canucks' head coach a decade later) to inquire about the type of player he was, Vigneault said he would "need to work hard to make it to the NHL", that he was "not a natural scorer", but that he'd "take 20 like him" on his team.

So today I tip my hat to a veteran of 614 regular-season NHL games with five teams (he also suited up briefly with the Anaheim Ducks and St. Louis Blues), scoring 65 goals with 74 assists for 139 points and also making it onto the score sheet with 586 penalty minutes while doing so, with an additional 7 goals, 8 assists, 15 points and 144 PIMs in 80 playoff games. Here he is wearing the Canadiens' white (away) uniform with the team's Centennial shoulder patches on card #223 from Upper Deck's 2010-11 O-Pee-Chee set:

He signed it in blue sharpie while with the Canucks (2011-13) or Blues (2013-15). I'd like him to sign this retro Habs jersey I have of his some day:

He currently co-hosts the weekly La Poche Bleue podcast with fellow retiree Guillaume Latendresse, possibly preparing for a media career in a few years.

Colin Wilson Jersey + Autograph Card

It was poignant, but it was an odd way of announcing his retirement.

I'm referring to this morning's post by Colin Wilson on The Players' Tribune, where he comes out about how OCD pretty much nearly ruined his life.

The son of former Calgary Flames star Carey Wilson and grandson of Jerry Wilson, who suited up for the Montréal Canadiens in the 1950s, Colin had the DNA of a pro hockey player, and a storied career with the Boston University Terriers led to a first round selection (7th overall) by the Nashville Predators in 2008, ahead of the likes of journeymen players and early retirees Cody Hodgson (10th), Kyle Beach (11th), Colten Teubert (13th), Zach Boychuk (14th), Joe Colborne (16th), Chet Pickard (18th), Anton Gustafsson (20th), Tyler Cuma (23rd), Greg Nemisz (25th), Daultan Leveille (29th) and Tom McCollum (30th), but also stars Josh Bailey (9th), Erik Karlsson (15th), Jordan Eberle (22nd), and John Carlson (27th).

Far from beig a bust, Wilson was essentially a 35-to-40-point player on a very defensive-minded Nashville team whose leading scorers barely reached 60, and he scored 20 goals in 2014-15, although he doesn't remember how he did it, as he was struggling with a prescription drug addiction at the time. Preds GM David Poile had tried to warn him about his condition during his rookie season, but Wilson wouldn't hear any of it at the time. He suffered in silence, as many do.

The main reason why he fears this may be the end for him at just 31 years of age is the fact that his last NHL game was over a year ago and he went through two hip surgeries since, neither of which completely fixed his physical issue, while the mental one will remain a struggle forever.

Here he is when things were looking up, on card #CW from Panini's 2010-11 Crown Royale collection and Heirs To The Throne sub-set, wearing the Predators' blue (then-home) jersey:

It's an "all-dressed" card, featuring a game-worn silver jersey swatch as well as an on-sticker autograph with his jersey number (33) tagged at the end. It is numbered 31/50.

I wish him the best in his future endeavours.

Jamie Benn Swatch Card

I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the fact that while he isn't scoring as much as he used to and that Joe Pavelski has also assumed a large part of the Dallas Stars' leadership up-front, captain Jamie Benn is once again looking like a leader in these playoffs.

His last two regular seasons had been a disappointment to say the least - 27 goals, 26 assists and 53 points in 78 games in 2018-19 and 19 goals, 20 assists and 30 points in 69 games in 2019-20 - but he elevated his gaem in both postseasons, and this year in particular, with two three-game goal streaks this season, against noteworthy adversaries like the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights, in key games, no less.

I'm not sure GM Jim Nill sees it as "worth the $9.5M cap hit" per se, but he's probably extremely happy to have him around, that's for sure. Here is the power forward in simpler times, wearing the Stars' black/dark green football-style uniform with the wordmark chest piece and number on the front of the jersey, on the swatch insert version of card #14 from Panini's 2010-11 Certified set and Certified Potential sub-set:

It features a matching game-worn jersey swatch and is numbered #88/99.

Philipp Grubauer Autographed Card

Philipp Grubauer has come a long way since almost wrestling the Washington Capitals' starting job away from Braden Holtby after the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft; Gru was traded to the Colorado Avalanche with one year of Brooks Orpik's monstrous contract to be bought out, for a second-round draft pick. You'd think not having Orpik attached would have netted the Caps something in the same vicinity as Semyon Varlamov once did - a first and a second.

Don't cry for the Capitals, however, because even though Holtby's deal is up now and no one should re-sign him at anything above $3M per - least of whom Washington - the team still has another blue chip young goalie ready to take over, 22-year-old Ilya Samsonov.

But back to Grubauer, who unfortunately didn't finish the Stadium Series game against the Los Angeles Kings tonight, suffering a lower-body injury when colliding with defenseman Ian Cole after stopping Kings forward Austin Wagner on a breakaway. He was having another terrific season for the Avs:

from HockeyDB

I included his career stats to show that when playing with a team that is good defensively, he can be even better, but the Avs are not that at all. For instance, two members of their top line are in the minuses: Mikko Rantanen (40 points in 41 games, -1) and Gabriel Landeskog (26 points in 41 games, -8), on a team that is two points out of first place in their division after that loss to the Kings earlier tonight, with two games in hand on the two teams that occupy that position.

Grubauer is one of the few Avs players with experience winning championships: he's won the Memorial Cup with the Windsor Spitfires in 2010 and was a member of the Capitals when they won the Stanley Cup in 2018.

Here he is from his final season in the OHL, wearing the Kingston Frontenacs' black (away) uniform, on card #36 from In The Game's 2010-11 Between the Pipes set:

He signed it in blue sharpie in 2017-18, but I had lost track of it in my last move. You'll notice his equipment's not the same colour as his uniform; that's because both the Spitfires and the Caps' colour scheme is red, white and blue, while the Frontenacs chose to lean on the Boston Bruins' black and yellow/gold.

Zach Bogosian Swatch Card

I honestly didn't think I'd be writing about Zach Bogosian this soon, but he has reportedly asked for a trade from the Buffalo Sabres, as a pending unrestricted free agent, because being a healthy scratch on a middling team can sometimes be worse on a player's value than asking out of an unfavourable situation.

He's not doing too bad, with three assists in 10 games with an average ice time under of 19 minutes per game - more than two minutes short of his career average, but with the team's surplus of right-handed defensemen - Rasmus Ristolainen, Brandon Montour, Colin Miller, and Henri Jokiharju play the same position, and there's room for three of them per game - it becomes a numbers game that he is in almost no position to win: Ristolainen was dangled as trade bait all summer and there were no takers, while Montour, Miller and Jokirarju are all "new toys" the team wants to play with, having all been acquired via trade in this calendar year.

Not only has Bogosian been playing for the Sabres for six years, but he's been injured often enough that the idiom "out of sight, out of mind" may apply. But trading him won't be easy if they keep scratching him, particularly considering his cap hit that is north of $5M.The only potential destination I see at the moment would be the Winnipeg Jets - the team that signed him to his current deal in the first place - and I don't see them parting with anything more than a fifth- or sixth-rounder for his services, maybe a fourth-rounder if the Sabres agree to keep a good portion of his salary on their cap.

We're a long waya away from the day when the Atlanta Thrashers made him the third-overall pick of the 2008 draft, behind Steven Stamkos and Drew Doughty, and ahead of Alex Pietrangelo (4th), Erik Karlsson (15th), Jake Gardiner (17th), John Carlson (27th), Slava Voynov (32nd), Roman Josi (38th), Travis Hamonic (53rd), Marco Scandella (55th), and T.J. Brodie (114th).

Speaking of which, here he is wearing the Thrashers' alternate uniform from 2008-11 - one of the ugliest jerseys in NHL history, with football-style jersey numbers on the front - on card #15 from Panini's 2010-11 Pinnacle set and City Lights sub-set:

It features a matching red swatch and the following tidbit of information on the back of the card:

First-time Atlanta visitors may get lost at first, making constant turns from one Peachtree street to another and another. In all, there are enarly 60 streets in Atlanta with the word "Peachtree" in their names. A map is a definite must for anyone venturing into this Peachtree orchard.

Kind of explains why that first season of The Walking Dead is so vague in its depecition of the cityscape. Personally, I may have gone with the city's artistic achievements, what with it being the city Outkast, Tyler Perry, Arrested Development (the music act, not the TV show), Ludacris, Akon, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and the rest of TLC, Goodie Mob, Jermaine Dupri, and Bubba Sparxxx called home at the time, a list to which we can add the likes of Donald Glover/Childish Gambino, Kelly Rowland, Ying Yang Twins, Migos, Gucci Mane and 2 Chainz nowadays, not to mention Martin Luther King Jr., Hank Aaron, Ted Turner, Toni Braxton, David Cross, Jane Fonda, Jeff Foxworthy, Oliver Hardy, Ed Helms, Holly Hunter, Robert Patrick, Ryan Seacrest, Keenan Thompson, Chris Tucker, and Steven Soderbergh.

Yeah, I know Spike Lee was born there as well, but he's so New York that I couldn't fathom associating him with the city.

Maxime Fortunus Autographed Card

Does racism exist in hockey? Of course it does, because it still exists in the world.

I was in a special bubble growing up, playing hockey in the NDG district of Montréal where there was at least one girl and four people of colour on every team in every category in our neighbourhood until - and including - Midget. It wasn't by design or by some sort special program - we all grew up loving and playing hockey, and there were enough of all of us to fill two A-level and two B-level "elite" teams and usually a handful to eight C-level "house league" teams per category (from Novice to Atom to Pee-wee to Bantam to Midget) and, statistically, the proportions were often relatively the same at all levels on all teams. It represented our neighbourhood, as did the fact that half the teams were French-speaking and the other half had English as a common language.

As a matter of fact, as most things Montréal, language was a larger factor of discontent, fighting and favouritism than skin colour or gender.

Were insulting words ever said? Absolutely. Until Pee-Wee at least, when folks on both sides start realizing the meaning - both from the person saying it and the person receiving it. A person of Indian descent getting called "Paki" finds it ridiculous until the "all you Brown people are the same category of not welcome" starts kicking in, and the playfulness of an insult stops being funny when the other side gets hurt more than intended. And almost everyone was a target of slurs at some point, from the Francophones ("Frog", "Pepper", "Pepsi") to Blacks to Indians to girls to guys who look more "effeminate" to Indigenous peoples... even straight, "regular" white Anglo-Saxon Canadian males ("Squareheads", "Blokes").

Starting at the Pee-Wee level, ages 12-13-14 (depending on date of birth), people learn to not say hurtful things to people they care about, and eventually we'd just start hearing it more from kids from poorer neighbourhoods, and we'd use it as a rallying point. One of our teams would usually finish in the top-5 of any province-wide end-of-season ranking, and would usually medal in tournaments, even when icing just half a team because said tournament was played in the daytime on a school day, or all day during the Sabbath:

After Midget came the LHJMQ. Girls were no longer part of the equation, but I'm of that generation that produced elite goaltending (Jean-Sébastien Giguère, José Theodore, Roberto Luongo) and tough guys, a lot of them being people of colour (Jason Doig, Peter Worrell, Donald Brashear, Georges Laraque, Craig Martin, Francis Bouillon, Jason Downey). Laraque spoke eloquently (as usual) about the pains he endured as a child climbing up the ranks.

All of this is to say that I'm just a little bit stunned by Akim Aliu's recollection of events that happened in the AHL. Not that it happened at all, but that it happened in the third-best hockey league in the world. You'd think the kind of language used would have been weeded out by encountering other human beings as Bill Peters would have climbed the ranks from Amateur to Juniors to the pros. You'd think someone would have told him it's wrong, would have stood up to him, would have been in a position to threaten his job at some point.

But more than the language, you'd think the Omertà would not have been strong enough to allow for Aliu's demotion to the ECHL simply for standing up to him. And that's one of the major problems with the way the AHL management teams are set up: usually, the AHL team's GM is either the parent team's GM or their assistant-GM, meaning they oversee player personnel and decisions, but from the main offices in the parent team's building, 90% of the time, when what would be required is a continuous presence with the team, to feel its pulse, to not rely on one person's opinion regarding not just the makeup of the team and asset management, but also possibly the player's ability to deliver and become the best he can be - either for the team or for someone else via asset exchange.

Since players are the "product", they should be cherished and nourished to become the best they can be by being put in the best situation for them. Minor-league coaches are only there for their development. Sure, they may eventually earn a promotion... if they succeed at developing impactful players. There should be no other criteria, or goal.

Which brings me to Maxime Fortunus. He's five years younger than me, so I never got to play with him, and I've had all of two minutes of interactions with him in my life. I don't know if there is a reason beyond size and perhaps defensive zone lapses that made him go undrafted or limited him to 9 NHL games, but I know he makes a really good pass and has a booming shot, and I know he wore an "A" on his chest with the Manitoba Moose and the captain's "C" with the Texas Stars, so he at least was a respected presence in an AHL locker room. And I've seen Aliu play, and there is no on-ice reason why the former first-rounder could not have at least been the type of guy who is an AHL star like Fortunus. For God's sake, he's still practising full-time in Toronto in the hopes that an NHL team will call, he knows he's skilled enough.

And, hey, Fortunus left a spot open, as he's now playing in Germany, for the Fischtown Pinguins. Here's a card from his first season with the Texas Stars on card #11 from the 2010-11 Choice team set by Choice Sports Cards:

It shows him wearing the team's white (home) uniform; he signed it in blue sharpie in 2015 or 2016, adding his uniform number (18) to his signature.

Devante Smith-Pelly Autographed Card

Devante Smith-Pelly has been through it all: prized prospect, traded for prized prospects twice, World Juniors bronze medalist for Team Canada, grinder, healthy scratch, Stanley Cup Final hero, demoted to the AHL, training camp tryout that he gets released from, and now signing in the KHL with the Kunlun Red Star, alongside Gilbert Brulé, Spencer Foo, Adam Cracknell, Jake Chelios (son of Chris), David Bondra (son of Peter), Griffin Reinhart, Trevor Murphy, Ryan Sproul, Andrej Sustr, Mikaël Tam, Wojtek Wolski and captain Brandon Yip.

Despite a wealth of North American players and being coached by Curt Fraser, the Chinese team currently sits fifth in the Chernyshev Division and ninth in the Eastern Conference.

A former second-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks (42nd overall in 2010), he has also suited up for the Montréal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals for two seasons apiece.

In Montréal, he is mostly remembered as Alex Galchenyuk's partner-in-crime in extracurricular activities, notably one incident on January 10, 2016 where police were (allegedly) called to the scene of an orgy at a luxury half-apartment building/half-hotel involving alcohol and a lot of cocaine that Galchenyuk's soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend crashed which resulted in an arrest for domestic violence... eventually to Galchenyuk's ex. As the organization is known to do, they got rid of Smith-Pelly quickly and Galchenyuk eventually, as soon as the team finished sullying his name to part of the fan base by constantly publicly questioning his work ethic and moving him around so much he looked lost on the ice.

Fast-forward a couple of years and a Cup and teammate and Caps star Evgeny Kuznetsov tests positive for cocaine. I'm not ready to say the drug is rampant in the NHL as much as it was in the 1980s, but its usage has probably increased in percentage as much as it seems to have in society, which is a lot more than in 1995 or 2001.

I hope Smith-Pelly finds his game again in the KHL and comes back next year on a team that could use his skill-set, like the Philadelphia Flyers or his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs. He's the type of unsung here that is easy to root for because he works hard and seems to leave his all on the ice.

Here he is wearing the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors' (now the Mississauga Steelheads) white (home) uniform, on card #176 from In The Game's 2010-11 Heroes And Prospects set:

He signed it in blue sharpie in November 2018, after one of two games against the Habs. He was shorter than I thought (he plays bigger than 6') but was affable and nice.

Jacob Markstrom Autographed Card

Since taking over as the Vancouver Canucks' #1 goalie in 2017-18, Jacob Markstrom has done an admirable job, often standing as one of the lone bright spots on a team that looked desolate in present times and whose future was bleak.

Fast forward two years and the future is brighter with the likes of Elias Pettesson, Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes, and whether Thatcher Demko pans out or not in net, Markstrom is holding the fort admirably so far, having only surrendered more than two goals in a single game, a 3-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers to open the season.

At 29 years of age, he's got three more years of prime hockey and possibly two more of pretty good play after that, if he can mostly stay at or below the 60-game threshold per regular season (in addition to playoffs and international play).

Of course, he dons Team Sweden's Tre Kronor uniform on the world stage, so he already has gold (2013 World Championships), silver (2009 World Juniors) and bronze (2010 World Juniors, 2010 World Championships) medals and will be looking to add to that resume whenever he can; his team will be among the favourites every time.

Here he is from his silver medal days wearing Sweden's yellow (home) uniform, on card #200 from In The Game's 2010-11 Heroes And Prospects set and International Prospect sub-set:

He signed it in fading blue sharpie after playing great and stopping 31 of 33 shots in a 2-0 loss against the Montréal Canadiens last January.

Alex Stalock: Three Autographed Cards

Alex Stalock's biggest issue at the NHL level has been consistency; he's had full 24-game seasons as a backup where he's posted a .932 save percentage, but followed them with consecutive seasons well below that at .902 (22 games) and .884 (13 games), with the San Jose Sharks finally losing patience with him and sending him packing to the Toronto Maple Leafs before he signed on with the Minnesota Wild, where he's been since 2016-17.

And it's not like he's an AHL-level goalie, because he can dominate at times when he's down there, too.

He's just one of maybe 45 NHL goalies that you have to roll the dice on and hope the team in front of him gives him a fighting chance and the opposition isn't in a state of grace, and you let it play out.

He's been on the ball in two outings this year, surrendering a single goal on 11 shots in just under 25 minutes in relief of Devan Dubnyk in a 7-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and shutting out the Ottawa Senators for the Wild's first win of the season last night.

My high school teammate Ben Guité - now an associate coach at the University of Maine - played with him on the 2011-12 Worcester Sharks.

Stalock signed these three cards for me in black sharpie in 2012-13 when I went to see the Hamilton Bulldogs play a lot. First, here are two Future Stars cards from In The Game:

The one on the left is #2 from the 2009-10 Between The Pipes set, while the one on the right is #47 from the 2010-11 Between The Pipes collection.

The is also card #119 from In The Game's 2010-11 Heroes And Prospects set:

All three show him wearing the (Worcester) Sharks' black (away) uniform, with a different patch chest patch (none, Hyundai, and Be A Leader); they also have his uniform number (32) tagged at the end of the signature.

Mike McKenna Autographed Card

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the New Jersey Devils would finish tied for fourth/fifth in the Metropolitan Division in 2019-20).

Granted, I do not have many Devils-themed collectibles, and I didn't want to feature a retired player who just spent a single season with them (well... a retired star player, anyway), but I did manage to find one player worth talking about, the journeyman of journeymen goaltenders, Mike McKenna.

You might recall McKenna if the 15 NHL organizations he passed through was the one you cheered for, of if you followed the ECHL after the season-long 2004-05 lockout, or if you read his wife's tweets explaining the hardships that come with being traded and/or claimed on waivers many times per season, or his bittersweet - mostly sweet - retirement announcement this summer.

He's played in Springfield (IL), Las Vegas, Norfolk, (Vegas again), Milwaukee, Omaha, Portland (ME), (Norfolk again), Tampa Bay, Lowell, Albany, New Jersey, Binghamton, Peoria, Springfield (MA), Columbus, (Portland again), Arizona (Portland again), (Springfield MA again), Syracuse, Texas (Austin), Dallas, Belleville, Ottawa, sat on the bench in Vancouver, was assigned to but didn't play in Utica, played in Philadelphia, and Lehigh Valley.

That last stretch was pretty insane: three different organizations in four days, six teams in the same week, when the Ottawa Senators re-assigned him to the Belleville Baby Sens, traded him to the Vancouver Canucks, who assigned him after two games backing up Jacob Markstrom to the Utica Comets, only to have the Philadelphia Flyers snatch him on waivers, have him play a game, then send him down to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

It was during his time in Ottawa that he signed card #51 from Panini's 2010-11 All Goalies set in blue sharpie, tagging his jersey number with the Devils (40) at the end:

That was one of his finest masks; in Philly, not taking any chances, he ust had an all-black one. In case.

I respect McKenna a lot. I believe had I continued playing after getting traded from Laval to Halifax in Juniors, I would have had the same kind of trajectory, probably without the ECHL and AHL All-Star titles he has, though.

Evgenii Dadonov: Two Autographed Cards

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

The most complicated thing about Yevengy/Evgeny/Evgenii Dadonov is the correct spelling of his name; everything else is either straight to the point or so well-executed it looks effortless. One thing's for certain, he's not just a third wheel going forward on the strength of linemates Alexander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau, he has earned his spot on the Panthers' top line with his steady play and elite-level zone entries.

He's a right winger who plays like a centre, looking for opportunities to give his linemates the puck but totally able to control it at will as well. And he has a heck of a shot from the slot, which explains his two straight 28-goal seasons since making it back on this side of the Atlantic. He's improved his point production, too, going from 65 to 70 points, and an 80-point 2019-20 is not out of the question if he can stay healthy, particularly if the team isn't stuck in its own zone for long periods of time in a system created by Joel Quenneville and backed by Sergei Bobrovsky.

Of course, it will take time for the team to gel, but once they get rolling around the Holidays, there won't be much to stop them.

I like that I was able to have him sign his rookie card last year, #509 from Panini's 2010-11 Score collection and Hot Rookies sub-set, showing him wearing the team's then-home black uniform:

The Cats would switch the red and black and remove the piping for the 2011-12 season, so this was one of its last instances.

He also signed a card with the Panthers' current away (white) uniform, #185 from Upper Deck's 2018-19 O-Pee-Chee set:

I don't hate it, it's possibly their best white uniform yet, but I still haven't fully gotten used to football-styled numbering on the shoulders.

I don't like the current home (red) uniform, though, that is basically this one with the red and white reversed. It's too "College Hockey", too "KHL" and too "Detroit Red Wings", it doesn't feel unique nor on brand.

Marian Hossa Jersey Card

When all is said and done, Marian Hossa will enter the Hockey Hall Of Fame as one of the best two-way players of all time, the prototypical player of the 2000s and 2010s, a three-time Stanley Cup Champion and five-time finalist, and a guy who should at least have a Selke Trophy to his name but was robbed of one because of the position he plays. Indeed, wingers rarely get the honor, and some centers (Patrice Bergeron, Jonathan Toews, Pavel Datsyuk) - despite being great players in their own right - have at least one too many.

It was learned last month that he will miss the entire 2017-18 season due to a skin disorder that some have equated to an allergic reaction to his hockey equipment, but as someone who suffers from a similar condition, I can say it's much more than that. In my case, it's not body-wide, instead concentrating on the patches of skin binding the legs and groin area, and my underarm on just one side. Rashes appear when in contact with a significant quantity of sweat, salt water, and/or extended friction, as well as some cheap, perfume-y deodorants. It burns so much it can cause the nerves in those areas to extend to create a forced movement, limiting the ability to continue whatever one's doing despite the pain, as the body can react without the brain's consent to change its condition.

Throughout my life, I've mostly dealt with this issue with my skin in contact with t-shirts and boxer shorts, so I can't imagine someone having that reaction while wearing hockey equipment that absorbs sweat on a permanent basis that you keep putting back on, nor can I fathom dealing with that on a larger scale than what I have - and if he's getting medical treatment for it, I assume he has it either in more open areas or has it on a larger proportion of his body.

Sure, some are complaining about his time off coming at age 38, when he's about to enter a four-year span where his salary will be $1M with a cap hit of $5.275M that goes off the books if he is on the long-term injury list; however, those folks need to remember that Hossa was still an important player on the Chicago Blackhawks last season, finishing fifth in team scoring with 45 points (26 goals and 19 assists) in 73 games with just 8 penalty minutes, used as the team's top penalty killer.

The Hawks could definitely still have used his services, and he still has enough skill to be an effective NHLer. As a matter of fact, the Hawks could very well miss the playoffs in his absence, now that they've traded away Artemi Panarin's 31 goals, 43 assists and near point-per-game production. Brandon Saad can almost replace one of Hossa and Panarin, but certainly not both of them.

We'll see how it works out in the end, and there's a small chance he could be back next year (though, at age 39, with a full year out of game shape, those chances are extremely slim), but for now, let's watch him wearing the Hawks' beautiful alternate old-school jersey on card #AF-MH from Upper Deck's 2010-11 SP Game-Used Edition collection and Authentic Fabrics sub-set:

It features a rather large red game-worn jersey swatch.

Ryan Strome: Two Autographed Cards

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, the Edmonton Oilers sent Jordan Eberle to the New York Islanders for former first-round pick (5th overall in 2011) Ryan Strome last week, mostly as a salary cap move to free up space for Connor McDavid's upcoming contract, but also because Eberle was disappointing during the 2016-17 playoffs.

But was this a move backwards in terms of it being a "hockey trade"? Yes and no. Strome may never live up to being a fifth-overall pick - and he's technically the second "failed Islanders prospect" Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli has taken off Isles' GM Garth Snow's hands, after Griffin Reinhart last summer, who will now continue his career as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights - but Strome might be able to jump in and fit in right away in Edmonton, as his ability to play either center or wing should give him reps alongside both McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, in addition to occasionally spending time with another decent player in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

A pretty-much guaranteed top-six role means he will be able to aim at a 50-70-point season like he achieved in 2014-15 (17 goals, 33 assists, 50 points on the nose) because he'll have a John Tavares-esque player next to him regardless of how he slots in the lineup, which should get him back into the  2013-14 AHL groove, when he posted 49 points in 37 games with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and at one point even led the league in scoring (a call-up to the Isles "cost him" a scoring title, but that's one move most players would make).

And we're talking about a guy who has posted 106- and 94-point seasons in Juniors with the OHL's Niagara IceDogs and won the bronze medal suiting up for Team Canada at the 2012 World Juniors, posting 9 points in 6 games.

Speaking of which, here is a close-up of the IceDogs' black (away) uniform, on card #169 from In The Game's 2010-11 Heroes And Prospects set:

And here's a sideways and more global view of the uniform, on card #34 from ITG's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects set:

He signed both cards in black sharpie in January 2015, while the Islanders were in town to face the Montréal Canadiens. I have to say that I already found him to be NHL-ready when I saw him stand at 6'1" and 190 pounds, and he's since added ten pounds of muscle to his frame that should give him an entirely new dimension in the Western Conference.

Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers Jersey Card

I was wondering what happened to Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers recently, finding it hard to believe that a player who was a 31st overall pick (Edmonton Oilers, 2002) and played last season in Germany (with the Augsburger Panther) would be out of work at 33 years old.

Well, I found him when perusing stats from the Chinook Hockey League, as he played 3 games with the Lacombe Generals (posting a high 2.98 goals-against average but a decent .917 save percentage). If you remember this story about Ryan Smyth, they're the team Smyth's Stony Plain Eagles were facing in the Chinook League final. Both teams eventually made it to the Allan Cup, but the Generals made it to the final.

Justice was served, however, as the Grand-Falls Windsor Cataracts won the championship. Of note, the Generals brought no less than five goalies to the tournament: Drouin-Deslauriers, who was the third-string goalie, Steven Stanford, the backup, and starter Kramer Barnstable; Marcel Léger and Jacob Deserres were also on board.

So, yeah, that's where JDD is at these days. He hasn't appeared in a postseason game since surrendering a bunch of goals while with the Oklahoma City Barons in 2010-11...

He currently works as a sales and leasing associate at commercial real estate service company Cushman & Wakefield.

Here he is while with the Oilers, with a nice view of his mask, on card #M-25 (Black Version) of In The Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes set and Game-Used Jersey sub-set:

It features a nice, large, two-colour game-worn jersey swatch from his days with the Oilers.

Scott Hartnell Swatch Card

Scott Hartnell is a polarizing figure in today's NHL. Known mostly as a bruiser, folks tend to forget he's a three-time 60-point man whose career-high is 37 goals with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2011-12, prompting the team to sign him to a contract extension that was sure to come bite them in the ass later, unless they traded him away eventually. Which they did, to the Columbus Blue Jackets, with whom his points totals went from 60 to 49 to 37 this year.

That's fine production for a 35-year-old physical player, by the way. But his playing time dipped in his second season in Ohio, a trend that will continue as the Jackets continue to improve with their current crop of youngsters. Hartnell has already lifted his no-move clause, so the Vegas Golden Knights may want to pick him up this summer. His actual salary will only be $3M while his cap hit sits at $4.75M, which could help the Knights underpay to reach the cap floor, exactly like the poorly managed and always-tanking Arizona Coyotes have been doing for years now. Except I trust the Knights to be a much better team than the Coyotes from the get-go.

I used to dislike expansion teams. The San Jose Sharks, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Anaheim Ducks and the like, they meant nothing to me and I mostly wanted to watch them fail time and time again. It was different for the Minnesota Wild and the Blue Jackets, because those teams were in actual hockey markets (Columbus had a team in the very first professional hockey league, along with Pittsburgh, Detroit, Sault Ste Marie (Ontario) and Sault Ste Marie (Michigan), with Montréal, Toronto and Ottawa, but the teams in non-traditional markets used to anger me. Especially the relocated teams. The Dallas Stars started out rich and bought themselves a championship early on, but I could never get behind the Coyotes and Carolina Hurricanes. I still hate that the Canes have a Stanley Cup, and I hope the Sharks never do.

For some reason, though, I'm rooting for Vegas to do well. Just like I always root for the Jackets and Flyers to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. Which brings me back to Hartnell, seen here wearing Philly's retro/current home jersey, on card #97 from Panini's 2010-11 Pinnacle set and City Lights sub-set:

It features a white game-worn jersey swatch and is numbered #235/499.

Marcel Dionne Jersey Card

Congratulations are in order for the New York Rangers, who have eliminated the Montréal Canadiens in 6 games and will now likely face the Ottawa Senators in the Atlantic Division Final.

We are nearing the end of Henrik Lundqvist's prime, and he has precious little time to finally earn his first Stanley Cup, which brings me to a former Ranger whose name does not appear on hockey's most sacred chalice, Hall Of Famer Marcel Dionne.

For a long while, the Rangers were the team where old stars made their final big-contract stop before retiring, from Mark Messier's second run to Wayne Gretzky to Doug Harvey to Pavel Bure, and almost Jaromir Jagr, too, had he remained exiled in the KHL instead of coming back across the pond.

Dionne had requested a trade from the Detroit Red Wings, claiming he did not want to be part of a rebuild; in two and a half seasons with the Rangers, he was ousted twice in the first round and failed to make the playoffs once - they didn't rebuild or tank, they just sucked and underachieved. He wasn't so bad himself, posting 42 goals, 56 assists and 98 total points in 118 games in New York, but those aren't the type of numbers that got him an Art Ross, two Lester B. Pearson and two Lady Byng trophies, as well as a Canada Cup title (1976) and three World Championship bronze medals (1978, 1983 and 1986), including the Best Forward award in 1978.

Here he is in Ranger Blue, with a matching game-worn jersey swatch:

That's the "Black" version of card #M-41 from In The Game's 2010-11 Decades - The 1980s set.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson Autographed Card

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Oliver Ekman-Larsson will miss the Arizona Coyotes' final (and very meaningless) games as he will travel back to Sweden to attend his mother's funeral, then take time to grieve.

He'll turn 26 this summer, and the Coyotes are about to waste his prime years by remaining bottom-dwellers for at least two or three more seasons. And with the NHL now saying they won't be sending their players at next year's Olympics, the league may also be robbing him of a chance at another medal, after helping Team Sweden to silver at the 2014 Sochi Games.

He's yet to capture gold at any level, having also won silver at the 2011 World Championship, as well as bronze at the 2010 World Juniors, 2010 Worlds and 2016 World Cup.

He's literally All-World and holds the NHL record for most game-winning goals by a defenseman in a single season, with 8 - again, on the Coyotes, who barely win more than 8 games per season as a team. He's also the franchise's all-time leader in powerplay goals by a defenseman, having tied the Winnipeg Jets' 1980s reliable Fredrik Olausson last month, with two years remaining on his current contract and possibly a decade left playing the sport.

This year, there's pretty much no way the Norris Trophy doesn't go to Brent Burns. Erik Karlsson is probably still the best defenseman in the world, skill-wise, while Duncan Keith is probably the "best package".

The rest of the "current elite" class has to include Victor Hedman, P.K. Subban, Aaron Ekblad, Roman Josi, Mark Giordano, Kris Letang, Ryan McDonagh, Marc-Édouard Vlasic, John Carlson, Alex Pietrangelo and Ekman-Larsson, while the "still pretty great but on their way down" crowd includes the likes of Dustin Byfuglien, Zdeno Chara, Shea Weber, Drew Doughty, Ryan Suter, and Andrei Markov. The likes of Seth Jones and Zach Werenski are on the rise.

That is a mighty clogged list of defensemen deserving of end-of-the-year accolades, a rich crop reminiscent of the 1980s (Ray Bourque, Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, Éric Desjardins, Larry Robinson, Al MacInnis, Denis Potvin, Mark Howe, Paul Coffey, Phil Housley, Gary Suter, Scott Stevens, Steve Duchesne, Doug Wilson, and so forth), so he may never get his hands on a Norris.

Our thoughts are with Ekman-Larsson in these hard times.

Here he is sporting the Phoenix Coyotes' former alternate uniform, on card #639 from Panini's 2010-11 Score Rookies And Traded set and Hot Rookies sub-set, which he signed in blue sharpie:

At this point, I'm tired of how pathetic the Coyotes franchise has become. I feel sorry for every talented player they have for how inept their management and ownership has been, is, and likely will remain. They are a joke, which isn't funny for players like Shane Doan, Ekman-Larsson, Max Domi, Anthony Duclair and a slew of other kids whose dreams are about to get shattered by the incompetence of those tasked with developing them.