Dale Hunter Autographed Card

For the first time, the head(s) of Canadian Juniors hockey's best program (apologies to Patrick Roy's Québec Remparts) will lead Team Canada at the World Juniors Championship, as London Knights co-owners Mark Hunter (GM) and Dale Hunter (head coach) try to win the country an 18th gold medal in that tournament.

Dale has coached the Knights for 18 seasons, winning nine division titles, six OHL championships and two Memorial Cups. Like Roy, he has a tendency to develop talented first-round prospects (Rick Nash, Corey Perry, Patrick Kane, John Tavares, Bo Horvat, Max Domi, Matthew Tkachuk), but also gets in trouble for icing aggressive teams (he was suspended for four games in 2005 for letting a player leave the bench to join a fight and again for two games the following year for the same reason) and abusing officials (he was suspended for two games and fined $5000 for criticizing referees), but his kids seem to think he's fair and a good teacher.

He coached one year in the NHL, leading the Washington Capitals to a second-place finishing in their division back when teams ending with 92 points was impressive and got to the second round. His defence-first system didn't suit the run-and-gun lineup as well as he'd hoped, so he declined to return for a second season and went back to the Knights instead, winning an OHL title right away.

He remains the only NHL players with more than 1000 career points and over 3000 penalty minutes, ranking second on the all-time list behind Dave "Tiger" Williams with 3565 minutes in the sin bin (plus some 30 games in suspensions, 21 of which came for a single extremely dangerous after-the-whistle hit on Pierre Turgeon) in 1407 regular-season NHL games.

He was also a very good two-way centre, often finishing his seasons with Selke Trophy votes; he was the very first player in NHL history to score two overtime series-clinching playoff goals - both during his days with the Québec Nordiques - and his heart-and-soul style had him captaining the Caps from 1994 until 1999.

Which brings me to card #383 from Upper Deck's 1998-99 Upper Deck collection:

It shows him wearing the Capitals' blue (away) uniform from the mid-to-end-90s with the captain's "C" figuring prominently on his chest. He signed it in black sharpie in 2013 or 2014; I had once again written him care of the Knights, knowing well enough to not send too many for him to sign, so it was just this one.

In a nice twist, Dale's and Mark's older brother Dave Hunter played for the Canadian team at the very first World Juniors in 1977, so this is a nice way to go full circle.

Dale Hunter: Two Autographed Cards

I sent Dale Hunter a fan letter (care of the OHL's London Knights, which he owns and coaches) along with three cards on September 21st and got two of them back signed in beautiful blue sharpie (one of them slightly smudged but awesome nonetheless) on October 12th, two days ago, the same day I got the Rick Wamsley cards I wrote about last.

Some people might be disappointed in ''only'' getting two of the cards sent back, but I keep in mind that he didn't have to sign any of these nor return them in the first place. The only reason I sent three is I was hoping to eventually get one card of him in each of the uniforms he wore autographed. The card on the left sees him wearing the Québec Nordiques' blue (away) 1980s uniform (all-white letters and numbers), from Upper Deck's 2002-03 Foundations set (card #77), while the card on the right sees him wearing the Washington Capitals' early-1990s white (home) jersey with the alternate captain's A on his chest, from Topps' 1992-93 O-Pee-Chee Premier set. A fun thing to note is that while OPC Premier's first set was considered a ''premium'' set of cards (more expensive packs, less prints than regular sets), it was such a big success that for future editions - including this one - the price per pack remained high but they were printed in astronomical numbers, hence devaluating it.

The card Hunter kept were of the Capitals' mid-1990s blue ''away'' jersey (with the ''eagle'' logo), which had the distinction of having the captain's C on its chest - I'm guessing it meant as much to him as it did to me.

You see, if the Nordiques had chosen that path, they easily could have had two captains: Hunter and Peter Stastny. If the team was a family, Stastny was the moral center, the one who made those around him better, the successful eldest son, or even the mother; however, Hunter was the hard worker, the obvious ''dad'' figure, all-construction hat and dirty work boots, willing to do what needed to be done for the unit to thrive. If Stastny was grace, Hunter was grit. A yin to the other's yang, they worked particularly well at completing one another. But as the Nordiques grew on some hard times, both were traded away, and so was perennial 50-goal man Michel Goulet. Ironically, Hunter was traded for a draft pick who would become Joe Sakic, the future cornerstone of the franchise, the captain who would bring the Colorado Avalanche 2 Stanley Cups upon leaving Québec.

But the Capitals greeted Hunter with open arms. They gave him the C, and they even retired his #32 sweater. And with Dino Ciccarelli and Scott Stevens, they weren't adverse to some hard-hitting action. And, sure, the man snapped one night and garnered the longest suspension in NHL history (21 games), but the other 1407 regular season and 185 playoff games he participated in, he was a master at walking the fine line between being in control of his emotions and being the player who gives the most out on the ice. We're not talking about a cheap-shot artist like Bryan Marchment or Ulf Samuelsson here - we're talking closer to a Mark Messier or a Gordie Howe, a leader and a gentleman off the ice who played with a fiery passion and was adored and respected for it but sometimes would go beyond what others were capable of, usually without drawing a suspension, often drawing a penalty. He is, after all, the most penalized player ever to gather 1000 points in the NHL, which also explains he's the one who achieved that feat in the most games as well.

If they do bring the Nordiques back, some numbers deserve to go up in the rafters. 26 and 19, sure, maybe even 16 - but let's not forget 32.