Luc Robitaille: Two Autographed Cards

There was a reason why Luc Robitaille was selected in the ninth round, 171st overall, in 1984: scouts from all NHL teams considered him too slow to keep up with the 1980s pro game, despite having posted more than a point-per-game average in his rookie year in Juniors with the LHJMQ's Hull Olympiques; he followed that with a 55-goal, 148-point season in 64 games in 1984-85 and with 68 goals and 191 points in 63 games the following season, convincing the Los Angeles Kings to provide him with a real shot at making the team, which he did.

His 84-point rookie season earned him the Calder Trophy in 1986-87 - the first year I followed hockey full-time - and his 63-goal season in 1992-93 was the NHL record for a very long time, until Alex Ovechkin obliterated it in 2007.

Robitaille retired after the 2005-06 season, in his third stint with the Kings, as the highest-scoring left winger of all time (beaten earlier this season by Ovechkin), Los Angeles' franchise record holder for goals (577), fourth behind Marcel Dionne, Wayne Gretzky and Dave Taylor on the team's all0time assists leaders list( 726), and second to Taylor in career points with the franchise (1154).

He's the quintessential King, which is why he's currently the team's President.

He was interviewed by NBC Sports recently and had an interesting take on Ovechkin's path to beating Gretzky's all-time goals record:

It’s hard to figure out someone that would do it. I’m going to enjoy this ride because it’s special. It’s very special and this is something that’s really good for our game. I’m rooting for him that he does it because it’s going to be absolutely incredible.

Whether he truly wants him to break Gretzky's record "for the good of the game" or because he doesn't want to be alone among former 1990s Kings captains to get surpassed by Alexander The Great remains to be seen; one thing's for certain: it truly is entertaining to keep track of.

Here he is wearing the Kings' 1990s white (home) uniform on card #90 from Topps' 1992-93 Premier set and First Team All-Star sub-set:

And here he is wearing the counterpart black (away) uniform, on card #98 from Upper Deck's 1998-99 UD Choice set:

Those were, in my opinion, the very best Kings uniforms ever. I miss them dearly.

In-between stints in L.A., Robitaille also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, and Detroit Red Wings - with whom he won the 2001-02 Stanley Cup - as well as Team Canada at the 1986 World Juniors (silver), 1991 Canada Cup (won), and 1994 World Championships (gold medal).

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.

Jason Ward Autographed Card

In minor hockey and Juniors, Jason Ward was a gritty forward who willed himself to goals and points; the 1990s and turn-of-the-millennium Montréal Canadiens were always told by so-called experts they needed a power forward to compete with teams from the Western Conference. The Habs picking Ward at the 1997 draft seemed like a match made in Hockey Heaven, but being picked in the first round is probably what kept him from playing more than 336 NHL games in his career, what with the weight of expectations and all.

Also the fact that he wasn't a true power forward, one with a terrific shot and decent speed like Keith Tkachuk or Doug Weight. No, instead, Ward was a tireless worker who compensated his lack of offensive hockey instincts with a growing concern with overall play and defensive acumen, although he never could persuade his NHL employers to embrace his change of job description the way guys like Radek Bonk and Bryan Smolinski did.

That's not to say he wasn't a decent hockey player - he won the 2002-03 Les Cunningham Award as AHL MVP, after all, one that has gone equally to players who had NHL success (Jason Spezza, Stéphan Lebeau, Tyler Johnson) as career minor-leaguers (Jason Labarbera, Corey Locke, Martin Brochu) - but he just never put the pieces together in the best league in the world. Furthermore, from Juniors onward, he had never won a team championship - not the Memorial Cup, not World Juniors nor World Championship gold, not the Calder Cup and especially not the Stanley Cup. It took until three years after he retired from pro hockey following a season in Austria (posting 19 points in 35 games) that he won the Allan Cup (Canadian minor-league amateur championship) with the Dundas Real McCoys.

Considering he suited up for Team Canada at two World Juniors competitions (1998, eighth-place and 1999, silver), that's a rare feat. Speaking of which, here he is sporting his national team's white (home) uniform on card #272 from Upper Deck's 1998-99 UD Choice set, which he signed in blue sharpie while playing either for the New York Rangers or Tampa Bay Lightning:

Between his retirement and his Allan Cup-winning comeback, he was an assistant coach with the OHL's Brampton Battalion, which operated near where he now lives and coaches his sons' teams; he didn't follow the team when it moved to North Bay.

Eric Brewer Autographed Card

The Olympics are upon us, so what better time to add to my Team Canada Numbers Project! with #3, Eric Brewer , wearing Team Canada's white (home) uniform, on card #256 from Upper Deck's 1998-99 Choice set and World Junior Showcase sub-set:

Brewer was one of the better defensemen to come out of the 1997 draft, as can be attested by both his being taken 5th overall, his 271 career points and 792 penalty minutes in 1009 regular-season games, and his being captain of the St. Louis Blues for parts of three seasons. He's also won Olympic gold (2002), World Championship gold (2003, 2004 and 2007), a World Cup title (2004) and World Juniors silver (1998).

Other notable defensemen selected in 1997 include Paul Mara (7th overall, 253 points and 776 PIMs in 734 games), Nick Boynton (9th, 144 points and 862 PIMs in 605 games), Scott Hannan (23rd, 217 points and 625 PIMs in 1055 games), Henrik Tallinder (48th, 142 points and 378 PIMs in 678 games), Joe Corvo (83rd, 310 points and 241 PIMs in 708 game), Brian Campbell (156th, 504 points and 277 penalty minutes in 1082 games), and Andrew Ference (208th, 225 points and 753 PIMs in 905 games with one Stanley Cup).

All told, yeah, despite finishing with a career -99 and only appearing in the playoffs four times in a 16-year career, Brewer was arguably and objectively in the top-3 at his position in his draft class.

He signed that card for me in blue sharpie whist with the Tampa Bay Lightning, probably during their long post-season run in 2011.

Eric Tangradi: 3 Autographed Cards

With my PC down, I can't tell exactly when I had sent Eric Tangradi these three cards, nor if I'd sent more; all I remember is I sent them early last season, care of the Hamilton Bulldogs, fully confident he'd play around 20 games for the Montréal Canadiens, who had picked him up at the end of training camp from the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for Peter Budaj.

It turns out he played in 7 NHL games with the Habs, with 17 penalty minutes to show for it; he did have 14 goals and 31 points in 47 games with the AHL's offensively-challenged Bulldogs, though, so when the Canadiens didn't re-sign him in the summer, the Detroit Red Wings took on The Big Dog, giving him a one-year contract. He has 2 points in 4 games with their AHL affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins so far, and with the Wings' luck when it comes to injuries, could be called up to fill in in a middle-six role some time this season.

I remain confident that he can have a decent impact in today's NHL, where the middle-six is counted upon to play a stable and methodical brand of hockey and support the first unit's point production; scoring has remained stable in the past five years, but the Art Ross winners went from having 100-point seasons to being under the 90-point mark, with the runner-up at 80, meaning the secondary scoring units have stabilized and can all be counted upon for 45-60 points apiece.

A 6'4'', 220-pound, 26-year-old speedster can be one of those players, not unlike the New York Rangers' Chris Kreider or the Jets' Blake Wheeler, even if at a lower threshold.

Here he is from when he was a promising prospect, first with a card showing him with the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, from Choice's 2011-12 AHL Top Prospects set (card $49):

Next up are his two most common NHL rookie cards:

On the left, showing him with the Pittsburgh Penguins' white (away) uniform, is card #538 from Panini's 2010-11 Score set (and Hot Rookies sub-set); the card on the right is #244 from Upper Deck's 2010-11 Victory set (and Rookie sub-set).

All three cards were signed in (fading) black sharpie and received on October 20th, 2015.

Louis Leblanc: 5 Autographed Items

Seemingly forgotten about amid all the top-tier prospects gracing the Montréal Canadiens lineup and AHL affiliate is 2009 first-round pick (18th overall) Louis Leblanc, who did suit up for 42 NHL games last season, but who was slowed down by a high ankle sprain for the 2012-13 season, ion which he amassed a mere 18 points in 62 games with the Hamilton Bulldogs when he'd put up 22 in 31 games the previous season in the AHL to go with his 10 in 42 games with the Habs.

Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin said it best when he mentioned that had it might have been better had he broken the ankle, since there is a clear timetable when that happens, and the player is out of the lineup completely, not trying to play despite the pain.

That's all fine and well, but it doesn't explain why Bulldogs head coach Sylvain Lefebvre had him skating on the third line all year, especially since he'd shown some fine playmaking, skating and shooting skills last season, one of the few positives for a team that finished last in its conference. He was rookie of the year in the USHL in 2008-09, again the next year when suiting up for the Harvard Crimson, and could have earned nods for that honour last year had he remained in the AHL the whole time. In his one season with the LHJMQ's Montréal Junior, he collected 58 points and 100 penalty minutes in 51 games in the pressure cooker that is not only his hometown, but also the city his NHL team called home.

Maybe they just want to break him, like they did with Mike Ribeiro; if so, maybe he'll just blossom wearing another uniform...

I wrote Leblanc a fan letter on January 24, 2013, with these 3 cards and got them all abck today, signed in blue sharpie, along with this scary note from Canada Post:

Still, most of the cards are unscathed, save for a corner here and there, which doesn't bother me for signed cards.

First up is this 2011-12 AHL Top Prospects card (15 in the set) from Choice Sportscards - your AHL card leader:

Next up is a completely different card, from a whole other brand - from In The Game's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects (card #205, AHL Rookie sub-set):

Reminds me of past Alain Chevrier cards...

And finally, an NHL card, from Panini's 2012-13 Score set (card #280), taking a shot under the watchful eye of Tomas Plekanec:

The note from Canada Post was a good reminder why I put index cards in the first place: for protection. It doesn't show so much in these scans, but both took a beating and are folded and creased left of his signature:

I'm very happy with this return. I wish Leblanc the best for next season, hopefully at the NHL level.

David Aebischer: 5 Autographed Cards (Part 2)

(continued from the previous post)

I had sent Aebischer these 4 cards on April 11th, 2012, with a fan letter telling him how we might have needed his services this season, and he got them all back on May 31st (2012), signed in black sharpie - the white Avs one didn't ''stick'' so well to the card - and he included a fifth card:

It's from the 2011-12 IceCaps Team Set (#1), manufactured by Choice Sportscards, which is fast becoming the leader in AHL team sets.

It is rumoured Aebischer will move back to Switzerland next season, so I was quite happy to get this amazing return.