Zachary Fucale Autographed Card

Who knows best how to build a team, a GM who takes over a team two years removed from a Conference Final and manages to miss the playoffs three times in five years and mortgages 15% of his salary cap on a goalie three years removed from his lone good season, or a GM who builds a Stanley Cup Finalist out of rejects from the other 30 teams in his first year on the job?

GM #2 in this story, the Vegas Golden Knights' George McPhee, just signed former second-round pick, 23-year-old Zachary Fucale, to a one-year, two-way deal, banking on his youth, his pedigree as a three-time Team Canada gold medalist and the fact that despite posting a career-low in save percentage with the AHL's Laval Rocket last year, was the team's best goalie - both from an eye test and statistically. It was just an awful, awful team that was terribly outcoached every single game.

GM #1 truly believes Carey Price is the only player he needs to have that is an NHL-level talent (although, considering last season, even that last bit of sentence is up for debate).

We'll see who's right in due time, but I'd like to say to those who think Fucale is overrated that at the same stage of his career, Price had been supplanted at the Montréal Canadiens' #1 goalie by Jaroslav Halak for three years straight despite the job being Price's every training camp, and Price finished with pedestrian numbers every year:

From HockeyReference

And, of course, it was much worse come playoff time:

ditto

Fucale, despite playing on the worst AHL team of the past decade, displayed some fine control when facing NHL-level talent:

Zach Fucale makes an incredible pad save on Anthony DeAngelo. pic.twitter.com/PUR3N9KfWp

— Scott Matla (@scottmatla) January 13, 2018

So, yeah, I still believe Fucale can develop into a fine NHL backup before the age of 25 and a starter before he reaches 28, following the career trajectories of Carter Hutton, Cam Talbot, Antti Raanta, Scott Darling (well, he might not be the best example) and Craig Anderson.

Here he is sporting the Halifax Mooseheads' beautiful white uniform, on card #244 from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects set and CHL Rookie sub-set:

He signed it for me in blue sharpie last season, when the Habs called him up without playing him a single second.

Curtis Lazar Autographed Card

After trading for him earlier this spring and protecting him in the expansion draft, the Calgary Flames followed the expected route with prospect Curtis Lazar by signing him to a two-year "show me" contract whose cap hit is just below the $1M mark.

For a while there, we were using his achievements in the minors as promises that he'd likely be able to produce at the NHL level as well (with feats such as breaking Steven Stamkos' and Sidney Crosby's Canada Winter Games points records, winning a 2012 Ivan Hlinka tournament gold medal with Team Canada and captaining the Canadian team to gold again at the 2015 World Juniors on home soil in Montréal and Toronto), but after the trade, he did accumulate three points (a goal and two assists) in four games with the Flames, as well as suit up for one game in the playoffs.

It can be hard for youngsters to come in and learn a new system and get acquainted to new teammates in just a few weeks and make their mark enough to dress over guys who've been there all year.

He'll be a regular next season, in a line-up that will include such high-profile young forwards as Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau, Mikael Backlund, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Spencer Foo, Micheal Ferland and Freddie Hamilton, as well as veterans Troy Brouwer, Matt Stajan and Kris Versteeg.

He'll be 24 by the time his contract expires, about to enter his prime, and considering he was drafted to be a cross between Milan Lucic and Mike Fisher by the Ottawa Senators (17th overall in 2013) following a fine WHL career with the Edmonton Oil Kings, that could be a huge deal for the newly-rebuilt Flames.

Speaking of the Oil Kings, here is what their white uniform looks like, on card #92 from In The Game's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects set and CHL Rookie sub-set:

He signed it in blue sharpie during the 2014-15 playoffs.

Laurent Dauphin: Two Autographed Cards

Needless to say, the Chicago Blackhawks have become masters at dealing with the salary cap after championship runs, but that fact also means losing players fans had been attached to. Many times, those players have come back years later, either to finish their careers with the team on low-paying salaries (Brian Campbell, Johnny Oduya, Patrick Sharp) or in trades that raise more questions than they answer.

One trade that may eventually make sense from a hockey standpoint was the one that sent Niklas Hjalmarsson to the Arizona Coyotes for defenseman Connor Murphy and forward Laurent Dauphin. As it stands, casual hockey fans see this as a salary dump mixed with a D-for-D trade, noting that Murphy had become a staple of the Coyotes' blue line last year, posting career-highs in assists and points at the age of 24.

However, the hidden chip in that trade - and the reason why I would have also done it in GM Stan Bowman's shoes - is the 22-year-old Dauphin.

You see, a couple of years ago, when the Hawks were winning championships every other season, their depth was as much of a reason they won as their offensive star power (Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane), stellar goaltending, except when facing the Nashville Predators (Corey Crawford) and, of course, elite play by defensemen Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Hjalmarsson.

But the third-line center spot was held down in recent years by the dependable Marcus Kruger, who had a heir apparent in Phillip Danault. The problem with Kruger was that he came with a $3M cap hit; the problem with Danault, whom the Hawks rightfully knew was going to come into his own and be able to produce at the NHL level, was Kruger was ahead of him, so he was traded to the Montréal Canadiens at the 2015-16 trade deadline. Danault posted 40 points with the Habs in 2016-17, playing in a first-line role he isn't suited for; Kruger was traded twice this summer.

Which leaves an open spot at the 3C position, one that was destined for Danault for years. Dauphin's statistics with the LHJMQ's Chicoutimi Saguenéens (186 points in 170 games) mirror those of Danault with the Victoriaville Tigres (251 points in 243 games), and his progression in the AHL (going from 0.25 points per game to 0.36 to 0.74) is even sharper than Danault's (from 0.36 to 0.54 to 0.33).

At 6'2" and 185 pounds, he just needs to add some 10 pounds of muscle to his frame to be a dominant third-liner like Jordan Staal and Nick Bonino have been in recent years. He isn't lights-out in any skill set, but he has no weaknesses either. He's a workhorse with good speed, good hands, terrific hockey IQ, good vision, and is already an above-average setup man. And he's sound defensively.

Here he is wearing one of the prettiest hockey uniforms of all time, the Sags' white (home) garbs, first with card #38 from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects set and CHL Rookie sub-set:

And here's an even better view of it, on the all-foil variant of card #58 from ITG's 2012-13 Draft Prospect set:

He signed both cards for me in blue sharpie in early May when he was in Montréal, tagging his jersey number (27) at the end.

Sean Day Autographed Card

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John Tavares, first overall, 2009 (New York Islanders). Aaron Ekblad, first overall, 2014 (Florida Panthers). Connor McDavid, first overall, 2015 Edmonton Oilers). Sean Day, 81st overall, 2016 (New York Rangers). These are the only four players to have been granted "exceptional" status by the OHL, meaning they could compete against players aged 16-20 when they, themselves, were only 15 years old.

Two of them - Tavares and McDavid - are centermen, and both are NHL All-Stars, so it's easy to see why that happened there. The other two are defensemen, and Ekblad is, indeed, such an exception that he already has NHL hardware (Calder Trophy, 2014-15) on his mantle. Day's development has not been going so smoothly...

I can't speak to his play as a child, because I didn't witness it - although some websites have his statistics from his days at the bantam and midget levels available for all to see - but here's a look at the rough numbers:

From HockeyDB

The good: his +/- ratings have improved every year, from -35 to -27 to -13 to a +24 split between two teams; let's not count the statistics with the Memorial Cup-winning Windsor Spitfires just yet, though, to keep this in the perspective of his playing for a non-contender for four years. It's still a definite improvement every year.

The bad: His offensive development took a major step back in 2015-16, prompting him to fall in his draft year, from a projected late first-rounder/early second-rounder to 81st, near the end of the third. Sure, he went back to a half-point/game rate in 2016-17 with a championship team, but keep in mind he's now an adult facing some teenagers and players who are at most two years older than he is, not four five like when he started out.

By the time he started playing in the OHL, he was already 6'2" and 220 pounds with tremendous speed, which had scouts salivating at the prospect of his further developing; that was forgetting that he still was just a kid, and one who had had fun playing hockey until then. Now came pressure, and accusations of laziness when he failed to meet expectations. Before he was drafted, he took his body fat down from 19% to 12%, which still had him at 228 pounds.

He's now a Memorial Cup champion. Maybe we can take a breath or two and wait until he's 24 or 25 to judge who he becomes as a hockey player and, more importantly, as a human being.

Here he is as a rookie, on card #101 from In The Game's 2013-14 Heroes And Prospects set and CHL Rookie sub-set, wearing the Mississauga Steelheads' white uniform, which he signed in blue sharpie:

I'm not worried about his becoming an NHLer, because by the time guys get to be his size, they'll be older than he is, which means he has that long to round his game and training regimen out. Essentially, he's learning the pro game backwards. As long as the Rangers' staffers know that, he'll be fine. He just might not be a first-unit defender, but there's nothing wrong with playing 1000 NHL games as a #4 or 5 defenseman - it's still living the dream.

Sergei Boikov Autographed Card

Currently in his first pro season with the AHL's San Antonio Rampage after signing his entry-level deal with the Colorado Avalanche last summer, Sergei Boikov is living up to the promise he had shown in Juniors, where he was known as "The Corporal" and helped Team Russia bring home the silver medal at the 2016 World Juniors with his swift skating and board-shaking hits.

There used to be a thought that his ceiling would be as high as Niklas Kronwall's - and he was a man among children with the LHJMQ's Drummondville Voltigeurs - but I've always seen his NHL potential as that of an Alexei Emelin, which in and of itself is not bad at all.

The hits may not show up as often in his rookie season - be that next season or the following one - but they will in time; it did take him a good month to stop being shy about physical contact on adults in the AHL this year, after all. His positioning is also almost NHL-ready, which means on a team like the Avs, where talent is thin on the blue line, he may get his chance at a roster spot earlier than later.

In due time (within the next five years), he should be a regular top-4 defender, one possibly looking at a shut-down role in the final minutes, with ample penalty-killing time. Some of the smaller forwards will even go out of their way to avoid facing him, opting to enter the zone on the other defenseman's side instead.

Unfortunately for him, he won't get to see his dream come true - playing against Pavel Datsyuk seems improbable now that The Magician is playing in the KHL - but perhaps he can play with him if the NHL decides not to send its players to the 2018 Olympics...

In any event, here's Boikov wearing the Voltigeurs' white (home) uniform from In The Game's 2013-14 Heroes And Prospects set and CHL Rookie sub-set:

He signed it in thin blue sharpie and tagged his uniform number (55) at the end. He was even one of the team's alternate captains in his final two seasons in the "Q".

Josh Ho-Sang Autographed Card

A little bit of weirdness yesterday, as the New York Islanders called up then re-demoted prospect Josh Ho-Sang in a matter of hours, without having played a single game.

Ho-Sang is a polarizing player, very skilled but with a debatable/questionable work ethic. He's been late to practice with every team he's been on, including on the very first day of his very first Islanders training camp after being drafted. He also has a temper, as signified by the fact that he's been suspended in Juniors for breaking an opponent's leg with a check from behind.

On the other hand, his skill level has been compared to that of a Johnny Gaudreau or a Mitch Marner, with a somewhat diminutive physique, standing at just 5'11" and 160 pounds. His self-confidence is akin to a P.K. Subban's, which is perhaps why he's letting a lot of it get to his head.

Of note that while he did dominate in the OHL, he is not yet a point-per-game player in the AHL, with 10 goals and 26 assists for 36 points in 48 games with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers so far. If there is a GM who will give him as many chances as possible, however, it's Garth Snow, who has been quoted saying: "He'll fit right in. They shit on me too. We get the players that we feel can help us win. And we don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks."

Let's just hope he matures into something closer to his childhood idol, Mario Lemieux. Here he is sporting the Windsor Spitfires' red uniform, donning #66 in honor of Lemieux, on card #36 from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects set and CHL Rookie sub-set:

He signed it in blue sharpie.

Adam Erne Autographed Card

In the next few hours, many free-agents-to-be will switch teams, going from pretenders to contenders as teams try to stack up to face the top teams in their divisions. With Kevin Shattenkirk off to the Washington Capitals and Ben Bishop now with the Los Angeles Kings, the top two available players are currently off the market, but many more are left.

Speaking of Bishop, the Tampa Bay Lightning have also sent Brian Boyle to the Toronto Maple Leafs, meaning they may have decided to forget about their dwindling playoff hopes and instead focus on next season, meaning they will either make room for their prospects right away or use one of them to acquire players who have some term remaining on their contracts, such as the Colorado Avalanche's Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog. Should they go that route, power forward Adam Erne might be one player who'd go the other way, seeing as he has yet to make a dent on the score sheet in 5 NHL games this season, but has 14 goals and 13 assists for 27 points in 39 AHL games with the Syracuse Crunch so far.

The American youngster was an alternate captain with the Québec Remparts team that lost in the 2015 Memorial Cup Final against the Kelowna Rockets, winning the LHJMQ's playoff MVP award in the process.

He reminds me of Keith Tkachuk, a speedy, super-strong winger with a knack for finding the hole to score through. I expect him to be a force within three years.

Here he is wearing the Remparts' white uniform on card #246 from In The Game's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects set and CHL Rookie sub-set:

He signed it in thin blue sharpie in 2015; the signature has since faded a bit.

Jordan Subban: Two Autographed Cards

P.K. Subban is set to return to game action soon after missing some time with a herniated disc, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention his brother Jordan Subban was finally called up by the Vancouver Canucks earlier today.

Like his siblings P.K. and Malcolm Subban, Jordan spent his Juniors career with the OHL's Belleville Bulls, where he was a near point-per-game defenseman every year, one who scored 25 goals with a hard and heavy shot from the point in 2015-16. However, he was only selected in the fourth round (115th overall in 2013) because of his diminutive stature, as he stands at just 5'9" although he weighs 185 pounds of muscle.

In his first season with the AHL's Utica Comets last year, he posted a respectable 11 goals, 25 assists and 36 points in 67 games - best on the team at his position, 3 points better than 27-year-old Taylor Fedun - and had improved his per-game average this year with 22 points (9 goals, 13 assists) in 34 games with the Comets at the time of his recall, which came two weeks after he'd been named an AHL All-Star.

Like P.K., he relies on his superior shot and doesn't shy away from physical play, but his lack of size betrays the fact that his skill-set is not in the same category as his older brother's; he will need to make up for his not-quite-elite talent level by playing a dependable, sound defensive game and wait to accumulate points on the powerplay.

Here he is wearing the Bulls' black (home) uniform, on card #98 from In The Game's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects set and CHL Rookie sub-set:

And here he is in white, on card #3 from ITG's 2013-14 Heroes And Prospects set:

He signed both cards in blue sharpie during the 2013-14 season.

Mikhail Grigorenko: Two Autographed Cards

Mikhail Grigorenko signed a one-year "show-me" contract with the Colorado Avalanche yesterday, after a season that Buffalo Sabres fans will call disappointing ("27 points in 74 games, unfit for a 12th overall pick, what a bust! Glad we got Ryan O'Reilly!"), whereas Avs fans, while unsure at the beginning of the season with the healthy scratches, under 10 minutes of ice time and looking out of shape, are happy with how he progressed throughout the year and looked worthy of a top-6 role on a very skilled team offensively.

What happened was the Sabres stalled his development, first by keeping him in the NHL but sitting him in half the games in 2012-13, then by sending him to Juniors midway through his sophomore season whist burning a year on his entry-level deal, and finally by demoting the disgruntled forward to the AHL and never really giving him a shot at showing what he can do.

This is, after all, a guy who had 70 goals and 139 points in 92 regular-season games with the LHJMQ's Québec Remparts (plus another 24 points in 22 post-season games) before even being drafted. And that time the Sabres sent him back against his will? He still put up 15 goals and 39 points in 23 games, plus 9 more in 5 playoff games.

The game that brought him to life last year - the first time he played over 15 minutes in a game in 2015-16 - was at the Bell Centre, against the Montréal Canadiens, in November, where he had a goal and two assists, which also sparked the Habs' downfall.

It was after that game that he signed these two cards in blue sharpie, first the one showing him with the Remparts, on card #100 from In The Game's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects card (and CHL Rookie sub-set):

And a card from the dark days of the Sabres not knowing what to do with him, on card #213 from Panini's 2013-14 Prizm set and Dual Rookie Class sub-set (the regular silver version):

His second half was terrific; it was where he posted 15 of his 27 points and became a fixture on the ice, more often than not hitting the 15-minute mark, including seven games at or near the 20-minute mark.

Essentially, he should be getting second-line minutes and second-unit powerplay time next season, which should at worst get him in line to sign a long-term deal (five or six years) at $4-5M per; at best, he could become the team's second-line center if Matt Duchene becomes expendable and gets traded for a good defenseman, which the team sorely lacks behind Tyson Barrie and Erik Johnson.

Anthony DeLuca: Two Autographed Cards

Anthony DeLuca is exactly the type of player lower-level leagues chew up and spit out on a yearly basis. He played three seasons for the Rimouski Océanic in the LHJMQ, improving his regular-season points totals from 40 (on 22 goals) to 78 (35 goals) to 91 (44 goals) and was a point-per-game player in the postseason for his final two seasons as well, but remained undrafted because he's small at 5'9", though bulky at 205 pounds.

Last summer, his rights in the "Q" were traded to the Drummondville Voltigeurs, but he wanted to try his trade in the ECHL, playing 46 games with the Alaska Aces (and obtaining 20 points in the process); the Voltigeurs had told him they'd kept a roster spot open for him in case he didn't like his professional experience, and around the Holiday break, he signified his intention of returning home... but Drummondville reneged on their promise.

He ended up playing another 16 games in the ECHL, with the Wichita Thunder, with a single goal and 6 points to show for it as he felt homesick and betrayed.

I met him last summer, a 20-year-old who'd been told time and time again that his efforts would be rewarded, that he was good enough to make it, that he was one-of-a-kind, that hockey was his calling...

I saw him suit up against grown men, NHLers and AHLers alike, for unofficial shinny games, and he looked like a kid who knows how to play the game; who, given time, could compete with them. But I did not think he was AHL-ready. And the "A" is a good league, he might never reach that level and might need to consider playing in the LNAH for most of his thirties.

Still, he signed two copies of this card, #41 in In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects collection (and CHL Rookie sub-set) in blue sharpie:

It features him in the Océanic's white (home) uniform.

Anthony Duclair Autographed Card

Sure, Oliver Ekman-Larsson was a huge piece of the Arizona Coyotes thumping the Montréal Canadiens tonight, but Anthony Duclair's goal and assist in the first period really set the tone for an offense that would plow through goalie Mike Condon, with captain Max Pacioretty doing nothing but watching idly, managing a mere shot on goal and a -3 rating in the process.

This is the game that finally got the first Canadian sports news outlet (in this case, Sportsnet) to call out for head coach Michel Therrien's head, though I don't agree with some of their points, namely that Andrei Markov, P.K. Subban and Tomas Plekanec had abandoned because they combined for a -1 rating; I mean, come on, minus-one playing over 20 minutes (i.e. a combined 60-plus minutes...) in a 6-2 thumping? That's practically a miracle, right there.

With GM Marc Bergevin already stating Therrien's job was secure until the summer, it falls on him to either provide the coach with players who can reinvigorate this team, or to go in full tank mode; unfortunately, both he and the coach subscribe to the generally-accepted notion that this team is centered around goalie Carey Price and that all hope is lost when he's out, a dubious claim at best.

For starters, he has yet to score an NHL goal, meaning if it was all up to him, the best the Habs could hope for would be 0-0 ties going into the shootout. Also, as a starting netminder, he's set to appear in some 60-to-65 games, leaving 20-25 to someone else in the best-case scenario, which means you need to give that time to someone capable, lest you deliberately choose to forego a quarter of your season.

And preparing for injuries to your starting goalie goes two ways: first, your defensive system must allow for some protection that suits your backup (see: the Los Angeles Kings, who made Ben Scrivens look like Jonathan Quick), and secondly, the backup must be ready to take on a larger workload on a whim (case in point: Cam Talbot posting better numbers than Henrik Lundqvist - the actual best goalie in the world, by the way - when The King went down last season with the New York Rangers).

But the Habs' defeat to the Coyotes wasn't just about their own failings; Arizona's young stars played a terrific game, though I see Max Domi inherited his father's dislike of Montréal and temper, which might be costly later in his career (see Milan Lucic somehow always costing his teams games against the Canadiens).

So here's a card featuring speedster and scorer extraordinaire Duclair, who will definitely be an All-Star someday, from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects collection (card #245, part of the CHL Rookie sub-set):

It shows The Duke wearing the Québec Remparts' classic red uniform, and he signed it in (fading) blue sharpie last Spring, making sure to add his jersey number (10) at the end.

Jake Virtanen Autographed Card

I couldn't attend the Montréal Canadiens game against the Vancouver Canucks on November 16th because I was in Las Vegas with my brother and mother, so I gave my ticket to a friend of mine who was tasked to do one thing: get this 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects card of Jake Virtanen with the Calgary Hitmen (#45 of the set from manufacturer In The Game, part of the CHL Rookie sub-set) signed in blue sharpie, which she did:

He was a -1 in the game, and he stands at one goal and 3 assists (4 total points) in 19 games at the NHL level in his rookie season but is fourth among rookies with 53 hits; he was loaned to Team Canada for the World Juniors in an attempt to win back-to-back gold medals for his home country, this time in Finland, where his father and grandfather were born.

The sixth-overall pick of the 2014 draft will thus have a chance to gain some confidence as the Canucks enter the stretch run to try to make the playoffs in what is so far considered to be the ''worst'' division in the NHL, where only three teams may make the final cut.