Showing posts with label Darcy Tucker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Darcy Tucker. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Darcy Tucker Autograph Card

If you've been following my blog of late, you'll have noticed I crossed off #12 off my Habs Numbers Project with Yvan Cournoyer and Mike Keane; another option would have been Darcy Tucker.

Except it's hard to identify him as a member of the Montréal Canadiens even though the team drafted him in the sixth round (151st overall) in 1993. For starters, he wore #42 for his first two seasons with the team, the first of which only lasted 3 games (and a minus-1 as lone stat to show for it), while the second one saw him reach 20 points on 7 goals and 13 assist, and a whopping 110 penalty minutes in 73 games; don't let those numbers fool you, though: those were mostly harassment-type penalties that proved costly to his team, and he rarely took on the responsibility of extinguishing the fires he set.

When he did switch over to #12 in 1997-98, he played 39 games with the team, with just a goal and five assists, before getting shipped to the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he played for parts of three seasons. He had his first (of six) 20-goal seasons in Tampa, 21 in 82 games for 43 points... and a minus-34 to go with it.

The Lightning then traded him to the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team of goons that fit his style - and both protected him and allowed him to gain the courage to step up himself - with Mike Johnson going the other way. He played seven and a half years in Toronto, where he was a fan favourite, along with other hard-checking forwards Shayne Corson and Tie Domi.

The Leafs offered him a 4-year, $12M deal prior to the 2007-08 season, and bought him out after just one year; his $1M annual cap hit went off the books last June, six years later. All told, he played 947 NHL games, and contributed with 476 points and 1410 penalty minutes. He was a minus player on every team, finishing with a minus-86 in total, plus another minus-6 in the playoffs.

But I do have this card of his time in Montréal, from Pinnacle Brands' 1997-98 Be A Player set (card #119), an insert card signed in thin black sharpie:

On it, he's wearing the team's classic red (then away) uniform, hair flowing without a helmet, most likely during a pre-game warm-up.

He sells autographed items on his website: $50-75 for an 8x10 picture, and $350 for a jersey. All Leafs.