Mikael Backlund Cloth Card

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The World Cup might have an impact on the NHL's standings this coming season; the Dallas Stars are hardest-hit, what with Tyler Seguin, Radek Farsa and Ales Hemsky suffering injuries and Valeri Nichushkin signing in the KHL, and the Florida Panthers have lost Aaron Ekblad just weeks after granting him a new $60M contract.

The Calgary Flames have also lost a big piece of their offense when Mikael Backlund suffered a concussion after a crushing Sami Lepisto hit. He'd just had his best season in the NHL thus far, breaking the 20-goal and 40-point marks for the first time. He had been called upon by Team Sweden to replace none other than captain Henrik Zetterberg...

Here he is on card #CL-MBA from Panini's 2013-14 Totally Certified set and Clear Cloth sub-set:

It features a decent-sized game-worn jersey swatch, guaranteed by Panini.

Tyler Seguin Swatch Card

Bad boys, bad boys, what'cha gonna do / what'cha gonna do when they come for you?

It's been the summer of suspected repeat offenders in the NHL, what with alleged sexual assault cases (Mike Ribeiro settled out of court with his nanny, Patrick Kane is facing a grand jury next week), Mike Richards getting caught "smuggling" prescription medication across the Canada/U.S. border, and Tyler Seguin "partying too loudly" in Toronto.

And that's in addition to first-time offenders Jarred Stoll (ecstasy and cocaine possession) and Slava Voynov (domestic abuse).

For many of these cases, little is known about the actual facts, and the internet is filled with suppositions, particularly in the case of the harsher allegations (Ribeiro, Voynov, Kane), the notion of "innocent until proven guilty" usually thrown out the window on the sole basis of the players' reputations.

Which brings us to Seguin, whom the Boston Bruins traded to the Dallas Stars mostly because, at age 21, he didn't fit into head coach Claude Julien's defense-first system and would party into the late/early hours while the rest of the team was leading mostly disciplined lives.

Stars' GM Jim Nill was adamant that his budding scoring superstar would have learned from this, yet former Toronto Maple Leafs president Richard Peddie claims Seguin parties late, disturbs his neighbours and leaves his trash on his lawn, among other things. In the off-season. In the summer. Around Canada Day.

Perhaps one guy has to grow up, and it's Peddie. Except that because of Seguin's reputation, he's the target of the media's attention, despite the fact that he stayed home, didn't go to a bar, didn't get into trouble, and from my knowledge, didn't get into legal troubles either. So, essentially, he did nothing terribly wrong.

Now let's talk about what he does right. Such as playing hockey, enabling teammate Jamie Benn to win the Art Ross Trophy last season, edging out Sidney Crosby and John Tavares. He finished sixth in Hart voting the season before that, and both of his seasons with the Stars had him at a more than a point-per-game pace, both times scoring 37 goals with 40 or more assists. He's also played for Team Canada at the World Championships, winning the gold medal and leading the tournament in scoring with 9 goals in 10 games.

He's on his way up, and will be a star for the next decade. Here he is on card #CL-TS from Panini's 2013-14 Totally Certified set (and Clear Cloth sub-set), featuring a black game-worn jersey swatch from the Stars' former garbs but showing him with the team's new green (home) jersey and new logo:

I really love the clear plastic where his head shot is; this one and that of Henrik Zetterberg are the only two I have of this sub-set, and I wish I had more; I'm willing to trade this one for two of "lesser-valued" players I collect (Alex Galchenyuk, Max Pacioretty, Alexandre Burrows, Blake Wheeler, Roberto Luongo), but would also be content starting a Seguin collection. This one is numbered 86/100.

Henrik Zetterberg Swatch Card

You may recall from my post two years ago that I'm a pretty big Henrik Zetterberg fan. The Detroit Red Wings captain, winner of the 2015 King Clancy Trophy for his humanitarian work, a perennial Selke, Hart and Lady Byng candidate, is still producing at nearly a point-per-game pace (786 points in 836 regular-season games so far, 296 of them goals) and at age 34, still has a few good years left in him, despite pundits claiming he and teammate Pavel Datsyuk are nearing an age of steep decline which will bring the Wings closer to the depths of the NHL's standings.

Not only do I not share that opinion of Zetterberg, but Wings GM Ken Holland has a knack for having his next generation of players graduate from the AHL at exactly the right moment to take over from the previous generation's stars; after all, Datsyuk and Zetterberg took over from Steve Yzerman, Tomas Holmstrom and Brendan Shanahan. They're going for their 25th straight playoff appearance, with no wane in sight. They are the perfect example of consistency, always remaining relevant with a three-to-five year window of actual Stanley Cup contention every decade.

Zetterberg was actually a key member of Detroit's last Cup team, as he won the Conn Smythe Trophy along the way as the playoff MVP in 2008 and led the Wings to the Final the following season against the Pittsburgh Penguins as well.

And though they lost to the eventual Cup finalists Tampa Bay Lightning in a hard-fought seven-game series last year, Zetterberg shouldered the blame for his team's lack of offense, despite the fact that a lot of that had to do with Ben Bishop playing like the second coming of Patrick Roy late in the series as the pressure mounted.

I foresee another 20-goal, 70-point season for the Wings' captain this year, with the addition of a true second-line center in two-time Cup winner Brad Richards providing more stability in managing line combinations.

Here's a really neat card of his, from Panini's 2013-14 Totally Certified set (it's number CL-HZ of the Clear Cloth sub-set, featuring a game-worn red jersey swatch, but more impressively, with his picture being part of a see-through plastic sheet inserted mid-card):

It's numbered 52/100, and shows him wearing the Red Wings' classic white (now-away) uniform. It's a beautiful insert (I really miss Panini at times like these).