Oliver Ekman-Larsson Jersey Card

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At times, it's looked like the Vancouver Canucks' management team comprising of President Jim Rutherford and GM Patrik Allvin have been in over their heads with this team, which they took over in a different contending window from when they led the Pittsburgh Penguins to two straight Stanley Cups out of the gate, having missed out on one and now being cap-strapped with key building pieces like Thatcher Demko, Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, and Quinn Hughes.

Former captain Bo Horvat was sent to the New York Islanders at the last trade deadline, and rumours abounded that the likes of Brock Boeser, Connor Garland and Oliver Ekman-Larsson would eventually follow suit.

In the absence of a market for OEL's contract, however, the Canucks found themselves left with the option of terminating and buying out his contract, which brings tremendous cap relief this upcoming season and the next but will impact the team until the 2028-29 season.

I expect him to find a taker on a one-year deal around $2M to play on a team's third pair when free agency opens up on July 1st, but anything over those two thresholds would be a risk in my opinion (except for a team looking to reach the cap floor, in which case he'd probably rake in a million more as an experienced former captain for a team like the Chicago Blackhawks or Anaheim Ducks, and maybe also serve as deadline bait, as a rebuilding team would look to trade him for a mid-round (third or fourth) pick to a contender for a playoff run.

He spent his best years with the Arizona Coyotes, where he was one of very few bright spots in his eleven seasons with the franchise, twice leading them in points despite being a defenseman; he captained the team from 2018 to 2021 and represented them in the 2015 and 2018 All-Star Games. Here he is sporting their mid-2010s white (away) unifrom, on card #TS-OE from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Artifacts collection (and Treasured Swatches sub-set):

Artifacts used to be one of the two sets I most looked forward to seeing every year, with Ice.

Habs Preview: Christian Dvorak: Two Autographed Cards

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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: Jesperi Kotkaniemi (C), Phillip Danault (C), Corey Perry (RW), Jordan Weal (C), Cale Fleury (D), Jon Merrill (D), Tomas Tatar (LW), Eric Staal (C), Erik Gustafsson (D)

Key Arrivals: David Savard (D), Cédric Paquette (LW), Mathieu Perreault (C/LW), Jean-Sébastien Dea (C), Mike Hoffman (LW), Chris Wideman (D), Sami Niku (D), Samuel Montembeault (G)

Top prospects: Cole Caufield (RW), Cayden Primeau (G), Kaiden Guhle (D), Mattias Norlinder (D), Jordan Harris (D), Jan Mysak (LW), Ryan Poehling (C), Oliver Kapanen (C), Luke Tuch (LW), Logan Mailloux (D), Gianni Fairbrother (D), Rafaël Harvey-Pinard (LW), Joël Teasdale (LW)

I don't buy that the Montréal Canadiens played in the weakest division last year, because they didn't: the West had the three California teams, which were essentially 30 free wins for the Vegas Golden Knights, while the Habs had to contend with Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, Jacob Markstrom, Thatcher Demko and Connor Hellebuyck in any given game while the rest of the league faced much easier matchups down the middle and in net.

What makes their odds look good:
The team gained a lot of experience during last season's playoff run to the Stanley Cup Final, and many of the returning faces up front (Nick Suzuki, Tyler Toffoli, Caufield, Josh Anderson, Joel Armia) have room to grow their game, the leadership rock remains stable with Brendan Gallagher despite Shea Weber's probable absence, and the defense is a brick wall only the Tampa Bay Lightning can pierce... year after year.

Question marks: Will Weber's health force him to retire? Which is the real Carey Price: the regular-season bottom-dweller of the past four seasons, or the quality playoff starter from last year's run? Will the team actually keep Jonathan Drouin, or is he off to clear his mind with former teammates in Colorado, or adding to a top-six in Edmonton?

Outlook:
The Atlantic is stacked. The Bolts remain the gold standard, the Florida Panthers finally delivered on par with their talent, the Toronto Maple Leafs can outscore their uncertainty between the pipes, the Ottawa Senators are on the rise, and the Boston Bruins, although older and stating to see core pieces retire, can still hold their own; the Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres don't matter in the playoff conversation, but finishing ahead of the fifth-place team in the Metropolitan does, as the team with the most points in slots 7 and 8 in the Conference make it to the dance, so the Bs, Sens and Habs may cancel each other out in the end.

Prediction:
Tied for 4th in the Atlantic Division, outside the playoff picture.

Going by comments on social media, Montréal fans do not seem to have a fucking clue how important Danault was to this team. His line with Tatar and Gallagher was the most potent for goals and shot differentials at five-on-five for the past three years combined, and in any given year also held their ground and were top-three, matching favourably with the likes of McDavid/Draisaitl/whoever, Brad Marchand/Patrice Bergeron/David Pastrnak and Gabriel Landeskog/Nathan MacKinnon/Mikko Rantanen. Even when they didn't score, their 60-point pace mixed with defensive acumen made them a better a more effective unit than any other unit in the league, including those with multiple 100-point players. In last year's playoffs, Danault even took most draws when his line wasn't on the ice.

Acquired in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes, Christian Dvorak is a 25-year-old centre who wins faceoffs, scores 15-20 goals a year and collects some 45-60 points (pro-rated) at $4.45M per, for four more seasons. He covers 80% of what Danault brought, with added net-front presence in the offensive zone and is the epitome of "cost certainty", which is nice to have under a salary cap. He cost more (a first-rounder and a second-rounder) than the Habs received for Kotkaniemi (a first and a third), who could hit the 50-point mark this season and be a very good player five years from now - although that is no certainty, especially to those who saw him fall to the ice five times per game for the past three years. Like Price and Alex Galchenyuk before him, "KK" was rushed to the Big Show way too soon for his own good.

The Canadiens' centre depth took a big hit this summer, and I'm afraid Dvorak has big shoes to fill, although casual fans might not realize just how clownesque they really are - it's a good thing McDavid and Draisaitl are in the Pacific Division this year. Dvorak has evolved nicely from the 2016 World Juniors' bronze-winning Team USA squad as a much more complete 200-foot player, but he is not the player who accumulated five more points than Mitch Marner (121 to 116) when both were teammates in their final year of Juniors playing for the OHL's London Knights.

This is what he looked like in recent years, wearing the Coyotes' purple and black (home) uniform on card #156 from Upper Deck's 2019-20 Series 1 set:

And here he is wearing their correspondig white (away) uniform, on card #144 from the 2018-19 O-Pee-Chee collection by UD:

He signed them in (fading) black sharpie before Covid-19 hit.

Richard Panik Autograph Card

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Once considered a reliable middle-six forward who was good for some 35-40 points per season, Richard Pánik's production has fallen off in recent years, partly because he played on bad teams like the Arizona Coyotes and Detroit Red Wings, but perhaps also because when he signed as a free agent with the Washington Capitals, he was mostly seen as depth and insurance, seeing his ice time fall from 15 minutes per game in Arizona to just a little over 12 in Washington because he didn't get to fill in for anyone injured on the second line.

At the trade deadline, he was part of a package the Caps sent to the Wings to acquire power forward Anthony Mantha, and he was flipped to the New York Islanders earlier today in return for defenseman Nick Leddy, in a move impacted by the upcoming Seattle Kraken expansion draft.

Playing away from the puck is not his strength - he's more of a Thomas Vanek-type, with decent speed, good hands and a good shot - so I'm not sure how he'll fare on a team managed by Lou Lamoriello and coached by Barry Trotz, but if anything, he can get flipped to yet another team if it doesn't work out. I have a soft spot for Leddy, so I'll say the Wings win this one.

Here is the former second-rounder (52nd overall in 2009, a Tampa Bay Lightning selection) wearing the Coyotes' burgundy and black home uniform, on card #SOTT-RP from Upper Deck's 2017-18 SP Authentic collection and Sign Of The Times sub-set:

It features a blue-sharpied on-card autograph, including his jersey number (14) tagged at the end.

Anthony DeAngelo Autograph Card

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The New York Rangers have put one of their best defensemen, Tony DeAngelo, on waivers after an altercation with goalie Alexandar Georgiev and alternate captain Chris Kreider.

As good a hockey player as DeAngelo is, his personality was always an issue. While this is the first time I have personally heard a lot of this (I knew he was a Trump supporter, but my Quebecer bias thought a hockey player might have only been a passive supporter or at worst gone "cult-light" unlike, say, the Capitol insurrectionists), it is substancially documented that he has always had issues.

There was a bout of anger after a loss as a youth, an eight-game suspension in the OHL for using racial slurs on a teammate that shed light on the fact that it was at the time his second disciplinary measure in such circumstances, and he's been suspended in the OHL and NHL for (physical) abuse of officials. And the intention to leave Twitter for Parler speaks loudly to his worldview as well.

I don't know how I missed a lot of this. I kept wondering why he wasn't mentioned by the Canadian (and Hockey) media in general, and it felt off that a top-four regular who is among the league leaders in points would be so often overlooked, but I get it now, they were just sweeping it under the rug. I have (at least) three of his cards, so one more to feature here after today's post - and I'm fairly certain no one will take them off my hands even if I don't want them in my collection anymore. I'll have to recycle them as a "teaching tool" for my kids, I guess. And I didn't mention it here today, but even in the NHL, he's been a dick to a Black teammate, K’Andre Miller, so I guess I already know what I'll write about next time.

We'll see how that all develops. Deadspin - which looks intent on calling all hockey players inherently racist while overlooking the fact that skaters from 21 countries and 30 nationalities whose homelands may be dealing with racial issues in ways that differ from the Amerian white/Black/OPOC paradigm form their "white" contingent - are on DeAngelo's case and dug out quotes from his father that show this is how he was probably raised. I'm confident they'll get at the bottom of the story.

Here is today's subject, on card #176 from Fleer's 2016-17 Fleer Showcase set and Hot Prospects Autos sub-set, manufactured by Upper Deck:

It features a blue-sharpied, on-sticker autograph and shows him as a member of the Arizona Coyotes. It is numbered #200/499.

Louis Domingue Jersey Card

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I must say I wasn't impressed at all with the way the Tampa Bay Lightning handled the Louis Domingue situation that got progressively worse from the summer until now. By all accounts, he handled it like a pro, but we're talking about a guy who did his job well enough to suit up in 26 games (a decent number for a backup, a very good one for a backup playing behind one of the five best goalies in the league in Andrei Vasilevskiy), who won ten straight games last year while Vasi dealt with small injuries, and helped propel the Bolts to one of the best regular seasons of all time.

And yet on July 1st, Tampa not only signed the best free agent backup (Curtis McElhinney) but also Mike Condon, for some reason, and Scott Wedgewood, ensuring not only a logjam at the top level but also one in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch.

To put it in real estate terms, the Lightning had a mansion (Vasilevskiy) and wanted to buy a weekend country cottage for half a million; they had a million in their pocket (Domingue), went to the bank to borrow two million (McElhinney), then went to a low-level financial institution to borrow $250K (Condon) and a shylock for another $100K (Wedgewood).

In police terms, they used excessive force.

Then they further screwed their team chemistry by signing Brayden Point to a deal that will end up paying him more than captain Steven Stamkos and Art Ross winner Nikita Kucherov when he re-ups in three years - with Kucherov having three years remaining on his deal and Stamkos two at that point.

It's no wonder they're currently sixth in the Atlantic Division with 14 points in 13 games (6-5-2 record) and look like a team waiting for a shakeup.

And it's going to take more than today's trade - Domingue to the New Jersey Devils for a conditional seventh-round pick - to accomplish that.

For his part, Domingue will start with the Devils' AHL affiliate Binghamton Devils, but with Cory Schneider (0-3-1, 4.71 GAA and .847 save percentage) and - to a lesser extent - Mackenzie Blackwood (2-2-2, 3.31 GAA and .871 save percentage) both struggling in net, Domingue might actually become the spark that ignites a decent run to inspire confidence in that locker room when given a chance.

Here he is wearing the Arizona Coyotes' white (away) uniform on card #GJ-DO from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It features a matching (white) game-worn jersey swatch.

Mike Smith: Two Autographed Cards

On November 14th, 2017, I sent the following three cards to Mike Smith of the Calgary Flames:

Possibly because his career with the Tampa Bay Lightning was mostly sub-par, he didn't sign the 2010-11 Black Diamond card I sent in:

But along with it, in an envelope received in June, were these two signed cards, in fading black sharpie:

I had told him he was now on a team that didn't need him to play like during his Vezina-nominated 2011-12 season with the Phoenix Coyotes, where his spectacular play led his team to its lone Conference Final, that all he needed to be was himself and that would already be not only good enough but the team's first quality netminder since Miikka Kiprusoff.

All told, he finished with a 25-22-6 record, 2.65 GAA, .916 save percentage (just about league average) and three shutouts (above league average) on a team that underperformed enough to see its coach get fired.

Here's a closer look at the cards he signed, first featuring him in the Arizona Coyotes' white (away) uniform, on card #38 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 MVP set (and a Puzzle Piece for Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux on the back):

And here he is wearing the home burgundy uniform, on card #63 from UD's 2017-18 Artifacts set:

He tagged his uniform number (41) at the end of each signature.

I still believe the Flames - like most teams - don't need a savior in net and that Smith, under these circumstances, can thrive in Alberta. At least one 8-year-old fan thinks the same way.

He was the third-string goalie for Team Canada as it won gold at the 2014 Olympics and the starter with the same result at the 2015 World Championships.

Christian Dvorak Jersey Card

The Arizona Coyotes have made a ton of changes this off-season that scream "we are doing everything we can to finally put an NHL team on the ice", and 20 years into the franchise having moved from its previous home as the Winnipeg Jets, and it sure is fishy considering the team is unable to sell season tickets, unable to secure an arena deal anywhere in the state, and was purchased by Andrew Barroway, a hedge fund manager who happens to have personal family ties with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

There is a clause in the Coyotes' minority owners' initial purchase deal that stated the team would be allowed to relocate if it incurred losses of $50M over five years; last year alone, the 'Yotes lost $24M... and I'm fairly certain that what hedge fund managers like to do, first and foremost, is to make money.

The Coyotes cost Barroway, essentially, $150M. The Vegas Golden Knights were one of two teams that applied to acquire a $500M expansion team (i.e. a team with no staff or players) two years ago, along with the potential next iteration of the Québéec Nordiques; no other city will be given an expansion team in the near future out of respect for the time and money Québec has already put in.

However, there is an NHL-ready arena in Kansas City, an NHL-acceptable one in Portland, Oregon that would do until a new one is constructed, two new arena projects in Seattle, and Houston has yet to be utilized properly... You'd think a fully-staffed team with a full stable of terrific young players would net at least $350-400M in this new marketplace...

So, if anything, urgency might be the reason why the team has made all these moves this summer. And they should almost pay off, as I see them finishing fourth in the Pacific Division, ahead of the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks... but right outside the playoff picture, with the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets taking the Western Conference Wild Card spots.

Speaking of the Coyotes' young guns, Christian Dvorak was one of three London Knights players drafted by Arizona, with Max Domi and Brendan Burke. He captained the team in 2015-16, leading it to its second Memorial Cup, and also won bronze with Team USA at the 2016 World Juniors.

He has a great shot and combativeness that should enable him to keep piling up numbers at the NHL level while playing in a middle-six role, although he could be teamed with Domi on the first line on occasion a few years down the line, when Derek Stepan is no longer the go-to middleman. Heck, some even see Dvrorak - not Domi - as that eventual #1C.

Here he is on the jersey insert version of card #103 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 SP Game-Used Edition set and Authentic Rookies sub-set:

It shows him wearing the Coyotes' current burgundy home uniform, with a matching jersey swatch he wore in a photo shoot. The card is numbered #67/399.