Denis Metlyuk Autograph Card

Denis Metlyuk was a Russian hockey player who was active from the early 1990s until the mid-oughts. He was drafted in the second round (31st overall) by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1992 and thus came to North America to try his luck, suiting up for 81 games over two seasons with the AHL's Hershey Bears.

Which is where this signed insert card from Classic's 1993-94 4 Sport set, showing him wearing the Bears' classic burgundy uniform, albeit with the team's logo airbrushed out and a HERSHEY wordmark taking its place:

It's signed in blue sharpie and numbered 2087/2960, an incredibly specific run.

Metlyuk spent most of his career in the Russian Superliga playing for Tolyatti Lada HC, a team so poor the KHL expelled it because its arena wasn't up to league standards.

Chris Longo Autographed Card

Chris Longo won Rookie Of The Year honors in the OHL in 1989-90, leading to his selection in the NHL draft by the Washington Capitals (third round 51st overall in 1990).

He would never play in the NHL but spent 11 seasons in pro hockey, with stints in the AHL (Baltimore Skipjacks, Portland Pirates, Springfield Falcons, Cleveland Barons), ECHL (Jackson Bandits and Toledo Storm), IHL (Cleveland Lumberjacks) and in Italy (Asiago HC, a common destination for former NHLers, as players such as Stéphane Quintal, Ken Linseman, Blaine Stoughton, Mario Brunetta, Greg Hawgood, Doug Wickenheiser, John Tucker, Frank Pietrangelo, Mike Torchia, Christian Proulx, Michel Mongeau, Martin Gendron, Éric Houde, Matthieu Descoteaux, Mathieu Dandenault, Rico Fata, David Cooper, Fernando Pisani, Ralph Intranuovo, Adam Henrich, Drew Fata, Chris DiDomenico, Tyler Plante, and Alexander Galchenyuk - Alex's father - have also suited up for the team).

Nowadays, he is a Development Coach with the OHL's Kingston Frontenacs, a position he previously also held with his alma mater, the Peterborough Petes. He also works for a hockey school in the summer.

Here he is sporting the Pirates' white (home) 1990s uniform on card #89 from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set:

He signed it in blue sharpie for me a couple of summers ago, when I was still teaching goaltending in the Ottawa region and could trek down to other schools on Sundays.

Mark DeSantis Autograph Card

Mark DeSantis was a career minor-leaguer who was never drafted and spent the bulk of his playing time in the South, in such leagues as the original IHL (San Diego Gulls, San Antonio Dragons, Grand Rapids Griffins), ECHL (Greensboro Monarchs, Jacksonville Lizard Kings, Louisiana IceGators, Augusta Lynx (get it?), Toledo Storm), AHL (Baltimore Bandits, Providence Bruins), the short-lived (1996-2001) WPHL (New Mexico Scorpions), CHL (San Antonio Iguanas, Amarillo Gorillas, Rapid City Rush), the recent-times (2007-10) IHL (Port Huron IceHawks) and the British Elite League (Basingstoke Bison).

With the Gorillas (2002-04), he was a player-coach, which prepared him for his later career behind the bench, first as an assistant with the Rush (2009-10), then head coach with the SPHL's Fayetteville FireAntz and CHL's Brampton Beast (2013-14), before returning with the Rush in their ECHL iteration, first as associate coach (2014-16), and as head coach this past season (2016-17).

He also played roller-hockey with the Anaheim Bullfrogs in the defunct 1996 league.

He must love to travel.

Here he is in the signed insert version of card #150 from Classic's 1993-94 4-Sport set, numbered 2562/3000:

On it, he's wearing the San Diego Gulls' "classic" white (home) uniform.

The Gulls, of course, were revived in last year's AHL realignment as the Anaheim Ducks' main affiliate. I'll probably dive deeper into the city's hockey-related history later this summer.

Jason Dawe Autograph Card

With the NHL draft coming in just a few weeks, I'm reminded of the story of Jason Dawe, who was chosen 35th overall in 1991 by the Buffalo Sabres, after a 43-goal and 70-point season with the Peterborough Petes as a 17-year-old.

He reached the 100-point plateau the following season (108) and was even better in 1992-93, becoming the Petes' all-time leading scorer and the first player in franchise history to score 50 goals in less than 50 games (48), en route to 58 goals, 68 assists and 126 total points in just 59 games as a 20-year-old. Keep in mind, Petes alumni include Steve Yzerman, Dawe teammates Chris Longo and Chris Pronger, Bog Gainey, Larry Murphy, Mike Ricci, Jordan Staal, André Lacroix, Cameron Mann, Terry Carkner, Keith Acton, Bob Errey, Jody Hull, Tom Fergus, Jamie Langenbrunner, Steve Larmer, Claude Larose, and Dave Reid.

Dawe's career highlights, however, came more on the international stage - gold at the 1993 World Juniors and silver at the 1996 World Championships playing for Team Canada - because his NHL career was spent moving around between four teams (Sabres, New York Islanders, Montréal Canadiens and New York Rangers) in eight seasons over nine years, while dressing for just 366 regular-season games (86 goals, 90 assists, 176 points and 162 penalty minutes).

He played in 22 playoff games, half of them coming in 1996-97, for 4 goals, 3 assists and 7 points. Oh, and 18 penalty minutes. Somehow, as play got tougher and more physical, and as the referees stopped calling penalties, he would get punished more often.

Here he is wearing the Petes' classic blue (away) uniform, on the signed insert version (on-card, blue sharpie) of card #31 from Classic's 1991-92 Draft Picks set:

It's numbered #44/950 in the "extremely Limited" sub-set.

Steffon Walby Autographed Card

Steffon Walby was a minor-league player for 11 seasons, which included decent AHL seasons with the St. John's Maple Leafs (1993-96), Hershey Bears (1996-97, 1999-2001), Rochester Americans (1998-99) and Kentucky Thoroughblades (1998-99), a fine, quick turn with the IHL's Fort Wayne Komets (1997-98) and a dominating turn in the ECHL with the Mississippi Sea Wolves (2001-04), earning First Team All-Star honors each year:

Courtesy of Hockeydb.com

Following his retirement, he turned to coaching, becoming the first head coach of the Mississippi Surge of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL), winning the 2009-10 Coach of the Year trophy in his inaugural season and the 2010-11 SPHL championship before losing his job over internal politics related to new ownership.

After serving as interim head coach for his son's prep school's team for the 2013-14 season, he was named full-time head coach in April 2014 when he righted the ship at the end of the year.

He had also served as an amateur scout for the Calgary Flames and Tampa Bay Lightning.

He never played an NHL game but had initially been signed as a free agent by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Here he is on card #97 from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set, showing him in AHL's St. John's Maple Leafs' blue (away) uniform:

He signed it in large blue sharpie, which leads me to think he signed it around the 2004-05, where he was an associate coach with the Sea Wolves.

René Corbet Autograph Card

René Corbet had the pedigree the Québec Nordiques had always made work when the team selected him 24th overall in the 1991 NHL draft: he was a French-speaking Quebecer who had been an offensive dynamo at the Midget and Junior levels.

Réal Cloutier, Michel Goulet, Marc Tardif, Wilfrid Paiement, Jacques Richard, Jean-François Sauvé... the Nordiques had a knack for putting local boys in positions to succeed. Corbet was going to be part of that history, but as the team moved to Denver to become the Stanley Cup-winning  Colorado Avalanche, developing Quebecers to stick it in the face of highway rivals Montréal Canadiens was no longer an issue the team had to deal with; they could just aim at icing the best team possible in the hopes of beating the Detroit Red Wings in the Conference Finals to advance to the Cup Final, which meant it was easy to send Corbet - an AHL Rookie Of The Year recipient - packing (along with Wade Belak and Robyn Regehr) and have the Calgary Flames send Theo Fleury and Chris Dingman the other way.

He spent a total of 68 games spread over parts of two seasons with the Flames before they sent him to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who also used him sparingly. He then spent eight seasons in Germany, playing for the Mannheim Eagles, producing at nearly a point-per-game pace, save for a disappointing 2002-03 season (4 goals and 12 points in 29 games).

He retired following the 2010-11 season, following two years in Norway, playing for the Frisk Tigers, where he was again fairly productive: 41 goals, 42 assists, 83 points and 148 penalty minutes in 72 regular-season games, and another 5 points and 8 penalty minutes in 5 playoff games.

Here he is wearing the Drummondville Voltigeurs' white (home) uniform on a signed insert card from Classic's 1991-92 Draft Picks set:

It's signed in blue sharpie, and numbered 124/950, which to some qualifies as "Extremely Limited".

Dan Kesa Autographed Card

In keeping with my month of tough guys or tough teams, I thought I'd go with the local player the Vancouver Canucks chose 95th overall in 1991, Dragan "Dan" Kesa.

Though his NHL stats line doesn't read like an enforcer's at 66 PIMs in 139 games with four teams over four seasons in a seven-year span, his statistics in Juniors tell another story:

From Hockeydb.com

Yes, those are Milan Lucic-like numbers, which is fitting considering he's Lucic's uncle.

After mostly toiling in the minor leagues for over a decade - including a 77-point season with the IHL's Detroit Vipers in 1997-98 - he took his talents to Russia (Avantgard Omsk, one assist in 9 games in2001-02) and Austria (Vienna Capitals, 20 points in 27 games in 2002-03).

Here's a card he signed in blue sharpie:

That's card #116 from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set, showing him wearing the Hamilton Canucks' black (away) uniform.

Marcel Cousineau Autograph Card

Sometimes, time plays tricks on you and you forget things; case in point: I would have bet all my earnings that Marcel Cousineau had been a Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick, but they merely signed him as a free agent when the Boston Bruins - who had chosen him with the 62nd-overall pick in 1991 - opted not to have him sign a contract after two losing seasons in the LHJMQ with the Beauport Harfangs and a losing post-season with the Drummondville Voltigeurs.

He posted losing season after losing season with the AHL's St. John's Maple Leafs, who were terrible, and the team had Félix Potvin in the NHL anyway, so they let him go, paving the way to his signing with the New York Islanders, although he mostly played with the Lowell Lock Monsters. They then traded him to the Los Angeles Kings (with Zigmund Palffy and Bryan Smolinski, for Olli Jokinen, Josh Green, and Mathieu Biron - and swap of draft picks).

Of course, he mostly played for the IHL's Long Beach Ice Dogs in his first year with the organization, then the Lock Monsters again and the Manchester Monarchs as the Kings switched their minor-league affiliates three times in a row. The end of the 1990s were good for him, statistically, as he proved he could stop 91% of shots in the minors but couldn't win a permanent job in the NHL, despite a 2.11 average with the Kings in 1999-2000. They did already have Stéphane Fiset and Jamie Storr, however.

He had a tremendous 2002-03 in Russia, playing for the Cherepovets Severstal and posting a 1.81 GAA, but he decided to come back home and play in Québec's LNAH for his final two seasons, first with the Verdun Dragons (2003-04, on a team that featured such forwards as Éric Lavigne, Éric Houde, and former Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick Marc Tardif, but whose games were mostly attended by people who wanted to see the two players who had more than 500 PIMs apiece, Jason Clarke and Joël Thériault), then with the Sorel-Tracy Mission (2004-05, sharing the net with Sébastien Caron).

Here he is wearing the Harfangs' black (away) Pittsburgh Penguins-influenced uniform on a signed insert card from Classic's 1991-92 Draft Picks set:

It's signed in blue sharpie, and numbered 1083/1100, which to some is "Extremely Limited".

Mike Dunham Autograph Card

Mike Dunham was a winner for pretty much his entire life.

Sharing goaltending duties with Garth Snow for the University of Maine Black Bears, Dunham went 6-0-0 in his second season in 1991-92, and an incredible 21-1-1 the next as the team won the NCAA championship, justifying the New Jersey Devils selecting him 53rd overall at the 1990 draft, the same year they chose Martin Brodeur with the 20th pick; the pair would share the William Jennings Trophy as the tandem with the league's lowest goals-against average in 1996-97.

As the 1993-94 came to a close, he suited up for the Devils' AHL farm team, the Albany River Rats, following a Team USA eighth-place finish at the 1994 Winter Games in which he shared the net with Snow again.

He won the 1995 Calder Cup with the River Rats and sharing the Playoff MVP award (the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy) with Corey Schwabb, forcing the parent team to give him a legitimate shot at making the NHL. He was left unprotected at the 1998 Expansion Draft, however, and the Nashville Predators made him one of the five (!!!) goalies they selected, along with Frédéric Chabot (Los Angeles Kings), Mike Richter (New York Rangers, although he was on the verge of becoming a free agent and chose to re-sign with NY), Tomas Vokoun (Montréal Canadiens) and Mikhail Shtalenkov (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim).

He would share the net with All-Star Vokoun for four solid seasons before an injury to Richter forced the Rangers to acquire his services in exchange for third-line forward Rem Murray.

Snow, who had just been named the New York Islanders' GM, signed Dunham to his final NHL contract, a one-year pact with the Isles for the 2006-07 season, to help guide (and in case of injuries to) Rick DiPietro.

Internationally, Dunham won silver with the American team at the 2002 Olympics and bronze at the 1992 World Juniors and the 2004 World Championships.

Here he is with the River Rats, on a card from Classic's 1993-94 4 Sport set, signed in thin blue sharpie, that is numbered #1449/2960:

Yes, he should have used Brian's gear instead of the brand's second-tier Heaton equipment, but he enjoyed a decent career regardless.

He has been the Isles' goaltending coach since 2008-09, adding the same duties to their AHL counterpart Bridgeport Sound Tigers for the past two seasons as well.

Ed Jovanovski Autograph Card

Somewhere, I have a signed card of Ed Jovanovski's with the Vancouver Canucks, which to me is as representative of his time in the NHL as the Florida Panthers, whom he captained in his last NHL season (and is the team that drafted him first overall in 1994).

I also have this card that lists him with the Panthers but shows him wearing his Junior team Windsor Spitfires (OHL) uniform, strongly inspired by that of the late-1970s New York Rangers and 1980s Winnipeg Jets:

It's an autographed insert card from Classic's 1994-95 5 Sport set, which he signed on-card in blue sharpie.

While he was very good with the Spitfires, he was never actually ranked first of his draft class, an honor that #3 pick Radek Bonk actually got, but Panthers president Bill Torrey was adamant the team pick a defenseman, and Jovo and Oleg Tverdovsky were ranked top of their class. Little did Florida know the towering Jovanovski would get into legal troubles later that year, as he and two teammates were charged with sexually assaulting a 24-year-old woman, who withdrew her charges after the Panthers' lawyers threatened to sue her.

By all accounts, though, he seemed to get over that mess, and the 6'3", 220-pounder went on to have a successful NHL career, playing seven seasons apiece with the Canucks and Panthers, and five with the Phoenix Coyotes. He cracked the Norris top-10 twice and finished fifteenth two other times when things went his way (read: 40-some points and over 100 PIMs), but he was mostly known as a high-risk defenseman at both ends of the ice: he was eager to join the rush on offense and in his own zone was more focused on delivering huge highlight-reel checks than intercepting the puck of perfect positioning.

As age caught up to him and he got slower, the risks became that much higher, injuries took their toll, and his point production was no longer high enough to excuse his shortcomings. He was bought out of his final season by the Panthers, sitting out the 2014-15 season altogether before announcing his retirement in December 2015.

Still, although he never won a Stanley Cup, he did suit up for Team Canada on a number of occasions, winning the 2004 World Cup, gold at the 2002 Olympics and 1995 World Juniors, and silver at the 2005 and 2008 World Championships.

Jamie Linden Autographed Card

Jamie Linden is the tough younger brother of Vancouver Canucks legend Trevor Linden. He was signed as a free agent after his time in Juniors by the expansion Florida Panthers in 1993, despite having never been drafted - he was of the 20-point, 200-PIMs right winger variety.

He did end up appearing in 4 games for the Panthers in 1994-95, registering 17 penalty minutes and a -1, but mostly spent his time in the minors, in the AHL for a bit but mostly in the IHL. Here he is with the Cincinnati Cyclones, a Panthers affiliate at the time, from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set (card #134), which he signed in blue sharpie, probably around 1997:

The Cyclones have existed in name since 1990, as an IHL team (1992-2001) and an ECHL team (1990-92, 2001-04, 2006-present), as two separate entities. The first ECHL team existed, then its owner (Doug Kirchhofer) was awarded an IHL team, which he also named the Cyclones, but sent his ECHL team to Alabama where they became known as the Birmingham Bulls; they eventually moved to New Jersey where they became the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies, winning the Kelly Cup in 2002-03, but eventually moved to California, becoming the Stockton Thunder, then to New York State to become the Adirondack Thunder, where they are now affiliated to the Calgary Flames and Stockton Heat.

The other franchise lasted until the IHL folded in 2001, after which they sold their name to a new ECHL franchise that had previously been named the Louisville RiverFrogs and the Miami Matadors, before laying dormant as a non-existent entity owned by a group in... Birmingham, Alabama. It lay dormant again during the NHL lock-out (2004) but came back in 2006 to much success after securing an affiliation deal with the Montréal Canadiens and Hamilton Bulldogs, winning the Kelly Cup in 2008 with star player David Desharnais, and again in 2010.

Their current NHL affiliation is with the Nashville Predators.

As for Linden, he suffered a pretty awful injury in 1995 that necessitated going to court to obtain worker's compensation, and from the 1995-96 season onward, he would split his time between the AHL (Carolina Monarchs) and IHL (Grand Rapids Griffins and Las Vegas Thunder), retiring before the millennium kicked in.

Nowadays, he dabbles in real estate, an adventure he got into with his brother but now carries out mainly with other partners, because the elder Linden is now the Canucks' president (and kind of has a lot on his plate as is).

Mark Visheau Autographed Card

I mentioned in the past having participated in two Winnipeg Jets summer "coaching camps" that doubled as rookie camps and pre-scouting camps for midget-aged players in the summers of 1994 and 1995.

One actual Jets prospect who was there was Mark Visheau, a 6'5'', 220-pound tower of power (who would play at 235 pounds with the Los Angeles Kings later in the decade), who was clearly being groomed to be a Lyle Odelein-type of stay-at-home defenseman who would fight, despite having posted 60 points in 62 games as a defenseman in his final season with the OHL's London Knights.

He only played one game with the Jets before toiling in the minors for a few years, until the Kings signed him as a free agent mostly as a negotiation tactic to bring Aki-Petteri Berg back in the fold, putting pressure on the Swede to accept a smaller salary (it didn't work).

During his lone season in Los Angeles, Visheau fought 13 times in 28 games (plus another 5 times in 5 pre-season games), and other health issues (an apparent urinary tract infection) resulting in complications led him to sue the Kings' medical staff, bringing an end to his hockey career - and bringing Berg back into the fold the following season; from afar, it really looks like he was used and thrown away.

He had signed an index card for me in Winnipeg, but I no longer have that; however, I do have this card, which he signed for me in blue sharpie during his season with the Québec Rafales in 1996-97:

It's card #101 from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set, showing him wearing the Moncton Hawks' white (home) uniform, matching the Jets' design. Pardon the scan's crop...

Brandon Convery Autographed Card

Brandon Convery was the Toronto Maple Leafs' first-round pick (8th overall) in 1992, ahead of such players as Sergei Gonchar (14th), Martin Straka (19th), Peter Ferraro (24th), Jim Carey (32nd), Valeri Bure (33rd), Mike Peca (40th), Brent Gretzky (49th), Patrick Traverse (50th), Manny Fernandez (52nd), Sergei Zholtok (55th), Craig Rivet (68th), Matthew Barnaby (83rd), Adrian Aucoin (117th), Joël Bouchard (129th), Ian Laperrière (158th), Christian Proulx (64th), Anson Carter (220th), and Dan McGillis (238th).

Toronto fans and media types are usually quick to label him a ''bust'', but honestly, the two times he did get a fair shake, he produced at the NHL level: in 1995-96, with the Leafs, he had 5 goals and 7 total points when he was recalled in the last 11 games of the season, and in 1998-99 with the Vancouver Canucks, he got 9 points in 12 games.

But injuries took their toll, including a broken leg that took a year off his development, a shoulder injury that got him off the Leafs' opening roster, and a history of concussions that forced him to retire at a young age. Nowadays, the well-spoken redhead uses his past experience as a consultant and motivational speaker.

I played against him in the mid-1990s (my guess is 1995 or 1996) at a summer hockey school - I was a teacher's assistant/student at the Jacques St-Jean school but it may have been when we'd take off and ''tour'' on weekends and play other programs in the Ottawa or Toronto areas. It was customary to have players from the Midget and Juniors levels such as myself get demolished by young pros, and he was one of them. I think his team won by more than 10 goals, and he must have scored two hat tricks on us, likely one on each of myself and Jean-François Labbé.

That would have been when he signed this card for me in black sharpie:

It's card #59 from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set, showing him in AHL's St. John's Maple Leafs' white (home) uniform. Notice behind Convery, Kevin Kaminski of the Halifax Citadelles getting roughed up by Ted Crowley.

David Cooper Autographed Card

Ok, fine, it may be a bit of a stretch to link Team USA's defeat at the hands of Team Russia at the World Championships to this card of David Cooper using his hard slap shot with the Rochester Americans (get it?), but I'm taking it anyway (and I'm saving Mike Richter for later):

It's card #210 from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set (with the Blue Chip Prospect seal in red foil), which he signed for me in person in blue sharpie in the mid-1990s; during that time, I was playing Bantam and/or Midget and/or Juniors, played in the Ottawa region in the summer (there weren't high-level, i.e. AAA leagues, in Montréal in the summer), and was a goaltending teacher's assistant at various hockey schools in Montréal and the Outaouais region. Cooper hails from there, so chances are our paths crossed at one of these schools (I didn't just bring random cards to games I was playing in, but usually had a heads-up when pros were to be coming to the schools). That blue Americans uniform is one of my favourites in the AHL.

Drafted 11th overall in 1992 by the Buffalo Sabres - ahead of Sergei Krivovrasov (12th), Sergei Gonchar (14th), Jason Smith (18th), Martin Straka (19th), Peter Ferraro (24th), Jim Carey (32nd), Valeri Bure (33rd), Michael Peca (40th), Andrei Nikolishin (47th), Mattias Norstrom (48th), Manny Fernandez (52nd), Craig Rivet (68th), Robert Svehla (78th), Matthew Barnaby (83rd), Jere Lehtinen (88th), Marcus Ragnarsson (99th), Adrian Aucoin (117th), Joël Bouchard (129th), Ian Laprerrière (158th), Nikolai Khabibulin (204th), Anson Carter (220th), and Dan McGillis (238th) - Cooper was seen as a sure-shot NHL regular, having posting nearly point-per-game averages in his final two OHL seasons as a defenseman.

He played for parts of four seasons with the Americans, but knew his time within the Sabres organization was up when they sent him to play for the ECHL's South Carolina Stingrays to close out the 1993-94 season, after which he signed on with the Toronto Maple Leafs, with whom he would suit up for 30 games over three seasons at the NHL level, before getting traded to the Calgary Flames organization, who sent him to their AHL affiliate St. John Flames for all of 1998-99, producing 18 goals and 42 points in 65 regular-season games and another 5 points in 7 playoff games, showing he was ready to take his game to a higher level.

Finding no employment in the NHL, he set his sights to Europe, where he played for the following decade, in Germany (1999-2000, 2001-02, 2003-04), Russia (2002-03), Italy (2004-05, 2007-08) and Denmark (2005-07), save for one more try with the Leafs organization (2000-01), mostly spent in the AHL.

Chris Marinucci Autograph Card

With the slew of undrafted U.S. College hockey players signed to NHL deals in the past couple of weeks, I was wondering how many of them would eventually become full-time players, and how many were little more than lottery picks.

I was also telling myself it'd be nice to have a game of, say, the 30 best of these undrafted players in their early 20s facing off against kids aged 18 and 19 from Canadian Juniors teams who were drafted outside the top 10 picks and devoid of any professional experience, just to see if these educated promising young men actually did have what it takes to further their development. I mean, if they were all NHL-bound, surely they'd have been drafted by now, and it's a recipe more teams than just the Boston Bruins and Minnesota Wild would be trying out on a consistent basis.

It's looking more like an ''impending salary cap crunch'' kind of situation than a ''stocking up on great talent'' run. Not that these guys are awful, in any way, it's just that the NHL is supposed to be the best league in the world, where the elite play - not a development program for late bloomers. There are but 660 jobs for skaters, 65 for goalies, and each team is only allowed to have 50 NHL contracts at any given time; somewhere, somehow, something,s going to crack.

And my reflection was started by the fact that not even all Hobey Baker winners (i.e. the trophy for ''Best College Player'') ''make it''; case in point: Chris Marinucci, winner of the 1993-94 award, preceded by Paul Kariya (''The Next One''), ahead of Brian Holzinger (a dependable defensive forward who put up 20-35 points per season, mostly with the Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning).

Marinucci was drated by the New York Islanders out of high school (90th overall in 1990), then proceeded to play for four seasons for the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, his local team considering he hails from Grand Rapids. His NCAA stats read like this:

 1990-91: 6 goals, 10 assists, 16 points and 20 PIMs in 36 games
 1991-92: 6 goals, 13 assists, 19 points and 41 PIMs in 37 games
 1992-93: 35 goals, 42 assists, 77 points and 52 PIMs in 40 games
 1993-94: 30 goals, 31 assists, 61 points and 65 PIMs in 38 games

He got better as he got older, except that last season where he was probably subjected to better opposition, which might explain why his penalty minutes got higher, although that increase is consistent throughout the years.

He ended up playing 12 games with the Islanders in 1994-95 before getting traded to the Los Angeles Kings and playing one game with them, but spent the bulk of his career in the IHL, with notable stints with the Denver/Utah Grizzlies and Chicago Wolves, before moving to European leagues at the turn of the millennium, winning a Norwegian championship with the Storhamar Dragons in 2003-04 - his last season of record.

He won the Ken McKenzie Trophy as the IHL's best American-born rookie in 1994-95 as well as their Man Of The Year award in 1998-99 for his community work and charitable efforts. He did put up 365 points (on 157 goals) in 405 IHL games, so it's not like he wasn't any good. However, knowing as a kid that he and Kip Miller were Hobey Baker winners did teach me a thing about minor-league stars not always turning into elite professionals.

Here he is showing off his trophy while wearing the Bulldogs' white (home) uniform, from Classic's 1994-95 Classic set - the signed insert version of card #100:

Steve Larouche Autographed Card

Steve Larouche was a scoring sensation in Juniors, and a 153-point season with the Trois-Rivières Draveurs prompted the Montréal Canadiens to select him 41st overall in 1989; he proceeded to follow that with a 145-point season and a game with the Canadian National Team in which he scored a goal. He capped his time in Juniors with a 33-point postseason in 1990-91 in just 17 games with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, leading them to a participation in the Memorial Cup tournament won by the Spokane Chiefs.

He was just as prolific in the AHL, posting 56 points in his rookie season, followed by a 27-goal, 65-assist and 92-point season with the Fredericton Canadiens in 1992-93; unfortunately, that was the year the Habs won the Stanley Cup, so there wasn't really room on their team for a top-line center, what with Vincent Damphousse, Kirk Muller and Stéphan Lebeau already in place and Guy Carbonneau as the league's best defensive forward and face-off leader also in the mix, which led Larouche to the IHL, and the Atlanta Knights, as featured on this card from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set (card #160 in the collection, with the Blue Chip Prospect mention), which he signed for me in blue sharpie in 2010-11:

That year, he went on to produce 96 points (on 43 goals) in 80 regular-season games, plus 26 more points (16 of them goals) in 14 playoff games, impressing the Ottawa Senators enough to sign him as a free agent. The following season, he played 18 games in the Canadian capital, and gave them 15 points, but he spent the bulk of his time with their AHL affiliate Prince Edward Island Senators, where he was good for 53 goals and 101 points in 70 games.

The next season would be the last in which he spent time in the NHL, but it seems he wasn't given the same chances as before because unlike his nearly point-per-game pace with the Sens, he was pointless in his lone game with the New York Rangers, and was limited to 3 points in 7 games with the Los Angeles Kings.

He spent the next six seasons in the IHL, always finishing among the league leaders in points, both with the Québec Rafales and Chicago Wolves and winning three Turner Cups in the process, but no NHL team was willing to even invite him to a training camp, so he moved to Europe, playing in Germany, Finland, and Switzerland before moving back to his home province of Québec and playing for the semi-pro, goon-friendly LNAH, which is where I met him, as he played for the Trois-Rivières Caron Et Guay in 2010-11.

Nowadays, he's an assistant coach with the Shawinigan Cataractes in the LHJMQ, winning the Memorial Cup in 2011-12.

He's won three IHL championships, scoring titles in both the AHL and IHL, was a First Team All-Star in each (1995 for the AHL, and 1997, 2000, and 2001 in the IHL), and has MVP titles in each league in addition to ''heart and soul'' awards such as the Fred T. Hunt Memorial Award (AHL: sportsmanship, determination and dedication to hockey) and the John Cullen Award (IHL, formerly the Comeback Player Of The Year, for being  a key contributor to his team while overcoming injury, illness, or other personal setbacks); I strongly believe that if there were a minor-hockey Hall Of Fame, he'd be in it.

He averaged nearly two points per game in the 'Q' (both during the season and in the playoffs), had 315 points in 260 AHL games, and 529 points in 416 IHL games (plus 92 more in 80 IHL playoff games), so he was consistently a factor in his team putting pucks in the opposition's net. Which also raises the question as to why a talent-starved expansion team didn't peg him as their second-line center at the turn of the millennium, particularly the Atlanta Thrashers, seeing as he'd starred in the area just a few years prior with the Knights.

Gilbert Dionne: 6 Autographed Cards (Part 1)

Gilbert Dionne has always - unfairly - been compared to his older brother, Marcel Dionne. I mean, sure, they share parents, but they're 19 years apart, and the elder brother is a Hall Of Famer - that's putting undue pressure on the youngest.

Not only did they not have the same playing styles, but Marcel was short at 5'8'' and 185 pounds, while Gilbert was a tall and lanky 6'1'' and 190 pounds. And while Marcel won the Art Ross trophy, the Lester B. Pearson award, two Lady Byngs, was second of all time in goals, assists and points when he retired and holds the third-most 100-point seasons in NHL history (behind Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux), played in 8 All-Star Games and was on four end-of-season All-Star Teams, won three World Championship bronze medals (1978, 1983 and 1986) and one Canada Cup with Team Canada, one trophy he could never get his hands on was the Stanley Cup; Gilbert won it with the Montréal Canadiens in just his second season, in 1992-93.

He had also had a fine rookie season, making the All-Rookie Team and finishing second among rookies in powerplay goals despite having played less than half the season in the NHL; indeed, he had 21 goals and 34 points in just 39 games with the Habs, after spending the first half of 1991-92 with the AHL's Fredericton Canadiens.

I do have this card from his days in Fredericton, from Classic's 1992-93 Pro (Hockey) Prospects set (card #87),  wearing an identical replica of the Habs' classic red uniform:

For comparisons' sake, here he is wearing the Habs' regular uniform, with the NHL's 75th Anniversary patch thrown in for good measure, on card #92 from Pro Set's 1992-93 Pro Set collection:

Eerie, right?

Pro Set also produced these two cards of his wearing the Canadiens' white (then-home) uniform, from the 1992-93 Parkhust set (French Canadian Edition):

On the left is his regular (Rookie) card, #313 in the set; on the right is his League Leaders sub-set card as the rookie with the best shooting percentage, which is #447 in the collection.

The last three also count towards fulfilling #45 of my Habs Numbers Project.

             (continued in the following post)

Vlastimil Kroupa Autographed Card

Ironically, what had NHL teams salivating at the prospect of drafting Vlastimil Kroupa was ultimately what ended up costing him his job in North America: the fact that he was huge, standing at 6'5'', but weighing ''only'' 200 pounds by the end of his career, 175 in the mid-1990s.

Teams who had only seen him play with kids his age couldn't know he'd rather play a skilled game than a robust one, and at the dawn of the clutch-and-grab era, the San Jose Sharks thought they had the rare beast that could mix grit with good vision and puck-carrying abilities when they chose him 45th overall (second round) in 1993.

Playing against character, he nonetheless ended up with 23 career points and 66 penalty minutes in 105 NHL games over the course of 5 seasons (the first four in the Sharks' organization, the final one in the New Jersey Devils system).

The bruises from the North American rugged style of play and the tedious 8-month, 80-some-game schedule eventually took their toll on him, and he moved back to Europe at the turn of the millennium, first in Germany to finish off the 1999-2000 season, then back to his native Czech Republic until he retired in 2011. He did play for the Czech Team and earned a bronze medal at the 1997 World Championships.

I do believe, with his skill set, that he could have been a 25-35-point defenseman in the NHL - a top-4 on most teams - had they let him play his own game.

This card, from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Prospects set (card #4), shows him wearing the then-Sharks' IHL affiliate Kansas City Blades' red (away) uniform:

He signed it in blue sharpie with his jersey number (28) tagged at the end, after a Kentucky Thoroughblades (when the Sharks moved their minor-league affiliation from the IHL to the AHL) game against the Fredericton Canadiens - my hometown team's own farm club - in 1996-97.

Cory Stillman Autograph Card

I last featured Cory Stillman months before he retired to become a member of the Carolina Hurricanes' player development staff, in 2011. He still holds that position to this day.

This card, though, featuring him wearing the St. John Flames' red (away) uniform - at the time the Calgary Flames' AHL affiliate - is from Classic's 1993-94 4 Sport set, signed in thin blue sharpie, and is numbered #322/3000:

The fact that it's a side-angle picture and shows no reference to the team he plays for is, indeed, a deliberate attempt to trick collectors into thinking this is an NHL card, but the back clearly shows it only has AHL clearance. Which is fine by me. The re-pack box I got it from just specified I was guaranteed an autograph, not what level the player was from; I'm glad I got an actual pro, and getting a guy who played 1025 regular-season NHL games, scored 278 goals for 727 points, and went 19-32-51 in 82 playoff games to go with his two Stanley Cups was a definite win in my books.

His two best seasons were, in fact, his two Cup seasons, as he scored 25 goals and gathered 80 points in 81 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2003-04 and, following the season-long lock-out, got 76 points in 72 for the Hurricanes. He also scored 27 goals twice for the Flames, and was a consistent 50-point producer.

Ladislav Karabin Autographed Card

I guess the theme this week is players with 9 games of NHL experience...

Born in Czechoslovakia, Ladislav Karabin was a 9th-round pick (173rd overall) in the 1990 draft of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the same one they drafted Jaromir Jagr (5th overall), Chris Tamer (68th) and Ian Moran (107th) in, so it was a pretty good year for them in that respect.

Karabin has one of the coolest names in hockey - not just because it's got the rare combination of Ks with Rs and Bs, but also because in French, ''carabine'' (pronounced the same way) means ''shotgun'', which would make for an original nickname.

He mostly played in minor leagues in North America - more often than not in the defunct IHL - before moving to Germany, where he played from 1999 to 2006. He then moved to Florida with his wife and kids to, apparently, become a financial advisor.

I got him to sign this card for me after a pre-season game, probably in 1996, maybe in 1995:

It's from Classic's 1993-94 Pro (Hockey) Prospects set (card #108), signed in (fading) black sharpie, apparently last name first. It shows him wearing the Pens' then-IHL affiliate Cleveland Lumberjacks white (home) uniform.