Chris Simon Autograph card

It's been four years since the last time I featured Chris Simon, so I figured I'd check in on a player I once admired and see where he was at.

After the 2007-08 season that saw him suit up with the New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild but will mostly be remembered as the one that saw him start the season finishing a 25-game suspension and receiving a 30-game one during it, Simon took his talents to the KHL, which is pretty much where I was at in the last post.

It turns out he played pretty well in his first three seasons with the Chekhov Vityaz, going 8-20-28 with 263 penalty minutes (!!!) in 40 games in his first season in Russia, then 13-12-25 and 110 in 30 games in 2009-10, and 16-12-28 and 111 in 43 games in 2010-11; he even played in the All-Star Game those last two seasons.

It went downhill from there, though, as he merely scored 4 goals and gathered 3 assists for 7 points with 71 penalty minutes in 55 games over the next two and a half seasons. He then retired, at the respectable age of 41.

I liked him the most on my favourite team, the Québec Nordiques / Colorado Avalanche, with which he won the Stanley Cup in 1996; he would also have been an ideal fit with the Philadelphia Flyers - who had originally drafted him 25th overall in 1990 - with his size, grit, hockey sense, strength, shooting accuracy and mean streak - but ended up having his best season with the Washington Capitals when he scored 29 goals with 49 points in 1999-2000.

It's fitting, then, that this 2013-14 Enforcers II card (#A-CS in the Autograph insert sub-set), signed in black sharpie, by In The Game show him with the Caps:

It may have been nice to commemorate his 250-PIM 1995-96 season with the Avs considering this is what this set wants to focus on, though; however, the black eye works very well, as does the referee right in the back, and I always liked his flowing long hair - I had the same style at the time.

Chris Simon Autographed Card

The potential was always there; he could have been among the best power-forwards of all time. So strong, he was rarely injured, physically, at least. But when you have to fight alcoholism at the tender age of 19, you know you're in for a long, hard life. Such is, indeed, the case of Chris Simon.

The son of an Ojibwa tribesman, a major component of the Anishinaabe peoples - which also includes the Algonquin - he first struggled out of the gate in Junior hockey, with only 6 points in his first season (36 games) with the Ottawa 67's, as he struggled being away from home at so young an age. But by the second season, he was on a rampage - 36 goals, 74 points in 57 games, prompting the Philadelphia Flyers to pick him with the 25th overall pik of the 1990 NHL draft. In his third season in Juniors, he was traded after a mere 20 games to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, where he continued to put up points (66 in 51 games total for the season) but, more importantly, met head coach Ted Nolan, also of the Ojibwa tribe, who led him on the road to sobriety.

Part of the Eric Lindros trade, he moved to the Québec Nordiques, although he had trouble making the team until they moved to Denver, where he won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche. He didn't have much time to celebrate, though, as he was soon sent to the Washington Capitals, who needed someone of his skill set and stature to cement their top-6 forwards; in parts of 7 seasons there, though, he only managed to score 29 goals once, only reaching the 10-goal mark two other times.

He then played for 5 other NHL teams, always closely followed by controversy, as he has been suspended no less than 8 different times in his NHL career, notably during his stint with the New York Islanders, what with the Ryan Hollweg (where he hit Hollweg in the face with his stick, resulting in a 25-game suspension) and Jarkko Ruutu (where he stomped on Ruutu's leg with his skate) incidents. He now plays in the KHL, where he still collects penalty minutes as if they were gold nuggets and he was a prospector.

Such a knack for scoring opportune goals, such an imposing physical presence, decent speed - and a tendency to go nuts that got the better of him too many times to even attempt count. I could have seen him post Theo Fleury-like statistics and, therefore, be eligible to think about the Hall Of Fame, but as far too many stories have shown us, talent and determination alone don't get you there, luck and mind state have something to do with it as well.

This card, # 473 from the 1993-94 Score set (by Pinnacle Brands) with a Top Rookie insignia, sees his wearing the Nordiques' white jersey, back to the boards with a French-language ad at Le Colisée, probably on his way to elbow someone in the face before scoring a huge goal. Notice the kid in the stands behind him, wearing glasses, looking asleep: opponents on the ice would know better than not to look when Simon's on the surface of play.

He signed it in thick black sharpie after a game at the then-Molson Centre, in the late 90s, as a member of the Capitals. In retrospect, although I did tell him I was a huge fan of his (and a huge Nordiques fan), I wish I would have given him more words of encouragement, telling him just how good I thought he was, how much of an example of determination he was, not just for aboriginal people but people from all walks of life, how when he puts his mind to one thing, he always gets it done and how focusing on trying to do the right thing can get great things done, like being a centerpiece to my favourite team winning a Cup, or beating alcoholism.