John Gibson Autographed Picture Card

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As an Edmonton Oilers fan, I've been on John Gibson trade watch for the better part of the last three years, hoping beyond hope that a competent enough GM would be able to swing a trade with the Anaheim Ducks and make the three-time All-Star's salary work under the team's cap and propose a package that was enticing enough to Anaheim to convince them to part ways with their at-times disgruntled starter.

Earlier today at the 2025 NHL draft, the Detroit Red Wings put those dreams to rest, acquiring Gibson for a package that included an objectively less-heralded goalie in Petr Mrazek, as well as a 2027 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth-round pick. No first-rounder, no top-rated prospect, just a backup goalie, and essentially two lottery tickets, as second-rounders have a 34% of making it to the NHL, and only 7.9% of fourth-rounders end up playing in 100 NHL games.

This leads me to think it was solely the cap hit that the Oilers couldn't find their way around - or that GMs Ken Holland (2019-24) and successor Stan Bowman simply didn't like the player, because on the surface Gibson is still a top-15 or top-20 goalie in the NHL. He had a .912 save percentage in 2024-25 - albeit in only 29 games - after five straight seasons below .910, although he had started each of those seasons extremely well (twice the best goalie in the league before Christmas) before running out of steam as the Ducks accumulated the defensive zone breakdowns when the going got tougher. But we're still talking about a .910 career save percentage, two Conference Finals, gold at the World Juniors and U-18s, bronze at the World Championships for Team USA, and this stat line playing against the best available adults:

Sure, that was more than a decade ago, but he still shows flashes of that today, and at 31 years of age, he should still has three or four good years left.

I was able to grab this piece via trade a little over a year ago:

It was originally part of a larger piece (a 4x6 photo of his helmet that hadn't printed well and was pixelated), which autograph collector BG cut into a card-sized piece to facilitate moving on from it. It was signed in (fading) black sharpie.

Christian Wolanin Autographed Custom Card

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Three days after clearing waivers, Christian Wolanin was traded to the Los Angeles Kings while Michael Amadio will make his way to the Ottawa Senators.

Waivers nowadays are a bit of a crapshoot, with the majoriy of players staying put, but more and more moves occur not when someone is grabbed on the wire - which seems to be more of a goaltending thing recently - but instead a player getting traded with another contract going back the other way, which serves two purposes: the first takes into consideration the 50-contract limit, whereby NHL teams cannot have more than 50 players signed to an NHL-accessible deal at once; the second makes acquiring the player a lower-risk proposition, because having already cleared waivers once, said player can be assigned directly to the taxi squad or AHL/ECHL affiliate without needing to pass through waivers again, and the current Collective Bargaining Agreement no longer includes the provision in which players called up from the minors had to clear waivers again. In Wolanin's case, he will report to the AHL's Ontario Reign until the Kings see fit to give him a shot at a roster spot. My guess is the team wants their own staff to evaluate where he's at in his development and if he looks solid after two to five games where he accumulates a point per game or something near that, he'll be called up for regular NHL duties.

He had fallen out of favour with Sens head coach D.J. Smith, and the team's depth on the left side currently starts with Thomas Chabot logging the most minutes and Mike Reilly eating another chunk; in terms of prospects, Erik Brannstrom has also been singled out by Smith as not having a complete enough game at the moment to warrant second-pairing minutes but was still ranked ahead of Womanin, and College prospect Jake Sanderson was probably also slotted ahead of him as early as next season.

At 26, Wolanin should be entering his prime, but injuries have derailed his development a bit, having only suited up in 12 professional games during the 2019-20 season. Here he is wearing the Sens' red (home, 2007-2020) uniform on a signed custom card by BG:

Ironically (considering his defensive short-comings), he is, of course, former Québec Nordiques shutdown defenseman Craig Wolanin's son. Like Paul Stastny, Christian was born in Québec and holds dual citizenship, but considers himself American.

Mark Borowiecki Autographed Custom Card

After initially having been thought of as a two-way defenseman, Mark Borowiecki has found a niche on the Ottawa Senators' bottom-two pairs as a defensive-minded blue-liner who dishes out punishing hits, earning the nickname "BoroCop" as well as upwards of 100 penalty minutes in the past three seasons, including a career-high 154 in 2016-17.

He will not be suiting up against the physical Boston Bruins tonight, however, as he suffered a leg injury in the last game; 22-year-old rookie Ben Harpur will take his place, bringing a bit more skill to his game and having reportedly worked on adding some aggressiveness to his play with the Binghamton Senators this year.

Borowiecki, also a Sens home-grown player, won the Calder Cup with the Baby Sens in 2011. Of note that after a four-year exile, Binghamton is now coached by Kurt Kleinendorst, the same man who brought them their AHL title back when BoroCop was manning their blue line. Full Circle, I like that.

Borowiecki slots in perfectly as #74 in my Sens Numbers Project with this custom signed card from Ottawa-area collector BG's 2015-16 Custom Set:

It shows him wearing the Senators' white (away) uniform, fighting for positioning and puck control along the boards.

Jared Cowen: 2 Autographed Custom BG Cards

A few years ago, a very friendly trader/collector from Calgary with an extensive Wayne Gretzky collection, KC, sent me a hockey puck signed by Jared Cowen (I don't remember why, probably through one of our many trades), before taking some time out from blogging/posting; unfortunately, I never received it, but I don't doubt for a second that he sent it.

It was at that time that I started following Cowen's career more closely, as I'd only been aware of the giant defenseman through his suiting up for Team Canada at various minor-league competitions, such as his gold- and bronze-winning turns on the U-17 teams in 2008, and his silver medals at the 2010 and 2011 World Juniors, the latter as an alternate captain.

The Ottawa Senators' 9th-overall first round pick in 2009, Cowen now towers at 6'5'' and 230 pounds, which - in my opinion - is the main reason why he was suspended for a hit to the head of the Florida Panthers' Jussi Jokinen; he would have had to get down on his knees to hit him in the chest, the type of move that cost the Cats' Dmitri Kulikov a few games recently himself.

There's something to be said about all these giants getting drafted on defense and how they are sometimes at a disadvantage when it comes to hitting now that the NHL is cracking down on hits to the head to save face for decades of not doing enough to protect players from concussion-related issues. However, with his skill set - good foot speed, a good first pass, the ability to complete checks and extremely sound positioning, particularly at such a young age - he was a no-brainer to be chosen at his rank.

If he could only improve his stick-handling and decision-making with the puck when skating towards opponents (rather than, say, getting rid of the puck along the boards), he could actually develop into more than the #4-D he already is.

He's a nice building block for the Sens, having captained the WHL's Spokane Chiefs and having won the Calder Cup with the Binghamton Senators.

I picked up these two custom cards from Ottawa-area collector BG on Ebay a few years ago, from their 2010-11 Hot Prospects set (and Future Watch sub-set), both signed in blue sharpie and showing him having just been drafted:

The more I think about it, however, the more I think custom cards should find their own sub-set names rather than lift them from major manufacturers - particularly two different ones, as seen here.

Tyler Myers Autographed Custom Card

It's looking to be an exciting week for Tyler Myers, for whom the rumours of trade talks haven't died while he was out with an injury. He figures to get back into the Buffalo Sabres' line-up tonight, against the New Jersey Devils.

The Sabres were on a 10-3-0 roll when he was sidelined, and have gone 1-7-1 since, though they haven't been playing too badly, they just haven't had much puck luck and played far deeper teams.

The top trade contenders for Myers remain the Detroit Red Wings (always on the lookout for both a franchise defenseman, and a right-handed shot from the back end, both needs he would fill) and the Colorado Avalanche (also in need of a right-handed defender, but also a reliable shut-down tower of power, both of which he would check off their want list).

Journalists and bloggers have been going nuts for four years now, talking about how he's regressing since winning the Calder Trophy in 2009-10, yet he will turn 25 next month so he hasn't even entered his ''prime'' years yet, and has been playing in Buffalo, after all, not the ideal place to further one's career and look good in the process.

At 6'8'' and just about 230 pounds, even if he wasn't such a smooth-skating defenseman with a hard shot, there'd still be takers. The biggest knock on him is hit $5.5M cap hit, but that's more the Sabres' fault for giving it to him right away (instead of signing him to a bridge contract) than anything else. If they're willing to trade him, they should really admit their mistake and swallow some of that cap hit.

But honestly, why would they? He's a 6'8'' tower of power that shoots right-handed, plays decently in his own end, and can only improve. He's just a minus-4 this year, facing tough opposition and starting only 37% of his plays in the offensive zone. All the reasons why other teams would want him are reasons enough why the Sabres should keep him in Buffalo.

He's comfortable there, as an American-Canadian playing near the border in a small town, and he's won gold with Team Canada at the World Juniors (2009) and the U-18 (2008) tournaments. He has fallen short on the mens' teams, though, finishing 7th (2010) and 5th (2014) in two World Championships.

We'll see how it pans out, but the rumour mill has been wrong about him for three years now, so chances are he'll remain a Sabre.

That being said, here's what he looked like in the team's old Buffaslug ''futuristic'' blue uniform a few years ago:

It's a custom card I purchased a couple of years ago on Ebay from Ottawa-area collector BG, from their 2010-11 Hot Prospects set (and Future Watch sub-set), signed in blue sharpie. It's a simple design, with ample room for the signature.

Julien Demers Autograph Card

As the San Jose Sharks sent defenseman Jason Demers to the Dallas Stars for Brenden Dillon on Friday, I got to thinking about another defenseman the Sharks had in the pipeline with almost the same name, Julien Demers.

Both were drafted by the Sharks in 2008, 40 spots apart: Julien 146th, and Jason 186th. Julien, however, never played in the NHL despite a promising career in Juniors with the Ottawa 67's, whereas most people who follow hockey are aware of Jason's ability and, perhaps, failings, as the Sharks' blue-line scapegoat.

They are not related. Julien played in two OHL All-Star Games, and captained the 67's in his final year in Juniors, in 2009-10, on a team that also included forward Tyler Toffoli, defensemen Tyler Cuma and Cody Ceci, and Petr Mrazek between the pipes. He was particularly dominant in 2008-09, with 42 points and 60 penalty minutes in 61 games, and an even more impressive 11 assists in 7 playoff games.

I thought he might develop into a good, physical defensive defenseman, a 5th or 6th d-man who would excel shorthanded and might be able to lend a hand on the powerplay once in a while with decent passes, but after playing Juniors, he went by way of the University Of Ottawa, and didn't play in North American professional leagues.

This custom card by Ottawa-area collector BG for his 2010-11 Hot Prospects set / Future Watch sub-set, signed in blue sharpie, might be the last I'll hear of this former prospect:

He's seen wearing what may have been the finest Sharks uniform - apart from the jersey number on the right of the chest, the colour combination and design really is the best thing they've ever had.

Brian McGrattan Autographed Card

No one will ever confuse Brian McGrattan with Brendan Shanahan, let alone Brett Hull, but he's not as bad as his possession numbers might lead one to believe.

I'm not fond of reading things like:

He isn't an NHL player and he probably never has been one.  He remains in the league because he can fight and he is a good guy who gets along with his teammates.  (He) is a prime example of a player who shouldn't be in the NHL.  He was the worst puck possession player in the NHL last year and there is no reason to expect things to get better in the future.

It's not even that his main job is to protect his teammates and be there for them should he dress or not - like George Parros last season for the Montréal Canadiens. If he costs close to minimum wage, gets along with all of his teammates, can jump on the ice for a few seconds here and there while the star players catch their breath and not cost a goal, then he is very valuable.

Someone who doesn't see that, nor doesn't see that he isn't asked to keep the puck, or take it from one end to the other, or push the play forward, then that observer knows very little about modern-day, salary cap-era hockey.

I'd rather have one guy who is loved by all, can step on the ice at $750K for 30 seconds and enable my $7.5M player to have a few extra shifts and play more than 20 minutes a game than have a $3M troublemaker take 5 minutes from every other line and still perhaps cost more goals than he provides (no offense to players like Evander Kane).

McGrattan doesn't have good possession statistics because his job - apart from fighting, of course - is to clear the puck out of the zone via the glass, sending the opposition back 150 feet away, forcing them to waste time and energy bringing the puck back up the ice, tired, while a big gun (Jarome Iginla, Mike Cammalleri, Matt Stajan) steps on the ice, refreshed, poised to win an uneven battle against exhausted opposition.

I can't believe how some bloggers are so obsessed with ''fancy stats'' that they forget to think the game, which is what the head coach's job is. Who would think a coach would purposely dress the worst possible player in his line-up when his own job depends on winning hockey games?

Also: the worst player in the NHL, be he McGrattan or anyone else, remains an NHL player: an adult who has devoted anywhere from 75-95% of his life to his sport, and currently playing in the best league on the planet. And still, that's beside the point.

As a former goalie, I do realize the +/- statistic is flawed in its essence, because powerplay specialists are at a disadvantage, penalty-killers are protected to a certain extent, and guys playing in the final minute of a 1-goal game are either over-compensated or fucked, depending on what side of an empty-net goal they're on, which is, more often than not, purely a matter of luck.

Still, McGrattan is only a -9 in his entire 310-game career. And I'd like to remind everyone that he spent 3 of the last 4 seasons playing for the Calgary Flames, perennial bottom-feeders in this day and age - and the last two without Miikka Kiprusoff to perform miracles in net, with 3 goals (and 49 PIMs) in 19 games and a -4 in 2012-13, and 4 goals, 4 assists, 8 points, 100 penalty minutes and another -4 in 76 extremely truculent games last season. And judging from recent Flames' practices, they expect a lot more truculence in the immediate future.

Having a guy like McGrattan sacrificing his body - on the ice - also helps young kids accept their new roles within an NHL team, where they might be brought in slowly to build a team for the future when they may have been used to being superstars at lower levels; having had sacrificed his body off the ice as well with the substance abuse problems he has overcome can also help steer the same kids in the right direction. That's called leadership, and usually comes at a premium; having it be provided by a guy making less than a million per year is yet another bargain.

He holds the AHL record for most penalty minutes in a single season, with an astonishing 551 while suiting up for the Binghamton Senators; that same year, he had 2 points (assists) in 6 playoff games, where he added 28 more PIMs.

I try not to buy autographed cards because I don't want to encourage people taking advantage of hockey players' generosity, particularly as a guy who asks for some myself. But when I purchased a few from a ''trusted'' (in ''authenticity'' terms) seller who makes his own custom cards a year or two ago, I made sure I had one of McGrattan's with the Ottawa Senators:

It's from BG's 2008-09 Ottawa Senators set he made (he's from the Ottawa region), has a fun picture of McGrattan wearing the Sens' red uniform and pretending to take a picture himself, with a terrific gold signature. It's a really neat design, well rendered.

I plan on writing the Flames enforcer this season, the last one of his most recent contract.

Mark Mancari Autographed Custom Card

I'll take advantage in this break from hockey news and feature another card I purchased off Ebay from an Ottawa-area collector, this time former Ottawa 67s star and current Buffalo Sabres minor league player Mark Mancari:

It's from BG's 2010-11 model of Future Watch / Hot Prospects custom cards. Mancari started slowly in Juniors, but was a point-per-game player in his final two years, prompting the Sabres to select him with the 207th overall pick in 2004. He started off slowly in the AHL as well, but has been a point-per-game player since, earning a few call-ups with the Sabres, and culminating with a 64-point season in 56 games wit the Portland Pirates, earning an AHL First All-Star Team nod in 2010-11.

He then signed a free agent contract with the Vancouver Canucks before returning with Buffalo after just one year.

He is seen here sporting the Sabres' infamous ''buffa-slug'' logo on a white jersey that is otherwise very nice-looking.

Kevin Poulin: 2 Autographed Custom Cards

Like the Jeff Glass and Robin Lehner customs I featured recently, I purchased these BG-branded custom cards from a (mostly) Ottawa Senators collector on Ebay. They are labeled as both Future Watch (a sub-set of Upper Deck's SP Authentic series) and Hot Prospects (a Fleer staple), and show Kevin Poulin wearing his draft-day New York Islanders jersey.

They were signed in blue sharpie in the 2010-11 season, one in which he faced the Sens twice. Those with good eyes will notice they contain an error: the team's name is listed as 'Ney York', which brings me back to the first season of Pro Set cards, where nearly a third of the cards had something wrong with them - usually a spelling mistake or the wrong picture on the front of the card.

Isles fans are psyched about their future in net with Poulin. The Montrealer has a career record of 7-9-0 in 21 games in parts of three seasons in the NHL (with the Isles, mind you), to go with a 2.76 GAA and .912 save percentage. In two relief appearances in the playoffs this month, he allowed just one goal in 52 total minutes, for a 1.15 GAA and a .933 save %. His AHL numbers are astounding as well. The Isles should be very excited about the guy they picked 126th overall (5th round) in 2008.

Robin Lehner Autographed Custom Card

Not that any of it was Craig Anderson's fault, but coach Paul MacLean made a goaltending change at 3-1 that almost paid off, putting Robin Lehner in nets against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Lehner's been touted as the Ottawa Senators' goalie of the future ever since he was drafted 46th overall in 2009, but his impatience (and perhaps also ego) has made the papers as often as his play. That was likely one of the reasons why the Sens acquired Ben Bishop at last year's deadline. Still, his talent is undeniable. At 6'4'', 225lbs, with a World Juniors silver medal (on a relatively weak Team Sweden) and an AHL playoffs MVP title, he shares a minor-league resume with some goalies who get drafted in the top-5 - which is probably why the Sens felt comfortable trading Bishop at this year's deadline.

Like the Jeff Glass card from earlier this week, I purchased this piece from a Senators collector on Ebay recently:

With a white background, the design is once again pretty basic, reminiscent of Upper Deck's SP Authentic line of products, using both its Future Watch and Fleer's Hot Prospects sub-set names for BG as the ''pretend'' manufacturer. I date this card from the 2010-11 season because it features Lehner sporting the Elitserien's Frölunda Indians uniform, meaning there weren't available pictures from his days with either Ottawa or the Binghamton Senators. It's signed in blue sharpie, with his jersey number with the Sens (40) tagged at the end. The abundance of white leaves ample room for the signature, so that's good thinking on BG's part.

Jeff Glass Autographed Custom Card

I started trying my hand at custom cards this season but wasn't satisfied with the results enough to send them to any players yet. I'm still toying with designs, but I hope to be ready for the start of next season. With that in mind, though, I did jump on the occasion of grabbing a few from an Ottawa Senators collector off Ebay recently, a bit for inspiration, but also a tad because some of those players no longer play in North America and would be hard to get a hold of.

Case in point, Jeff Glass, now playing for the HC Sibir Novosibirsk of the KHL, after three seasons with the rival Astana Barys.

Glass was a star goalie in juniors who, like others I can think of, won the CHL and WHO Goalie Of The Year award and World Junior Championship after being drafted - except he did so the following season, not two years later when he was an adult playing against kids. He didn't make the World Juniors All-Star team that year, though, because Marek Schwartz earned that honour in nets, while Dion Phaneuf and Ryan Suter did so on defense; Alex Ovechkin, Patrice Bergeron and Jeff Carter were considered the best forwards, ahead of Evgeni Malkin, who still managed to gather 10 points in merely 6 games.

A year after dominating at juniors, he was sent to the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers to start the 2005-06 season, but did so well he earned a promotion to the Sens' AHL affiliate Binghamton Senators, where he would then spend the following two seasons, with fellow netminders Kelly Guard and Brian Elliott. Elliott wound up surpassing him on the Sens' depth chart, so Glass bolted to the KHL when he became a free agent.

After three very good seasons with Astana (twice a GAA under 3.00, always at least .904 in save percentage), he had a remarkable season in 2012-13 with Novosibirsk, going 16-11-8, with a 2.02 GAA, a .933 save %, and 4 shutouts... in a season where NHL players spent more than half a season playing on the old continent.

As for the card itself, the design is pretty basic, reminiscent of Upper Deck's SP Authentic line of products with the mostly-white background, even going as far as utilizing its Future Watch sub-set:

The pretend-set is called BG, which I'm guessing are its creator's initials. Most of this collector's autographs are acquired in-person; he gets most of a season's rookies at training camp, then completes the roster by hounding at practices and games, and he's collected hundreds by doing so. I took 10 or so customs off his hands last week. Printed on photo stock, many are dated on the back, which enables me to figure out that this one (printed in August 2008) was signed - in blue sharpie with his jersey number (40) tagged at the end - prior to Glass' final year in the Senators' organization.