Darryl Sydor Autograph Card

In an effort to keep poaching all the available talent in the Central Division in the hopes of repeating last season's pre-playoff choke/terrific regular season, the St. Louis Blues have hired Darryl Sydor to be one of two assistant coaches (with Daniel Tkaczuk) with their AHL affiliate Chicago Wolves.

Sydor had been an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild for the past four seasons, before a DUI event forced him to step down and enter rehab.

As a player, he'd been in five Stanley Cup Finals - including two Cup wins - to go with a Memorial Cup, two All-Star Games, over 500 regular-season points and over 50 more in the playoffs. He wasn't a Hall of Famer, but he was certainly a star and a good team player.

Here he is wearing the Dallas Stars' original (notwithstanding the Minnesota part of the franchise, anyway) green - away - uniform, showing him taking a slap shot from inside the offensive zone:

It's card #96 from Panini's 2012-13 Classics Signatures set (the signed insert version, signed on-card in blue sharpie - you can tell because the spot where the signature is was airbrushed white to show him where to sign). I'm not sure whether I'd classify that set as higher-mid-range or lower-premium, but boxes are still available for around $60 for 30 cards, with 5 or 6 autographs per.

Darryl Sydor Swatch Card

I have featured Darryl Sydor twice already, including once with the Dallas Stars' best white (then-home) uniform, but the news today that he'd been charged with DUI and aggravated counts of endangering a child (his 12-year-old son) and blood alcohol levels over 0.16 (actually at 0.30) dampened my spirit a bit today.

You can never take away his two Stanley Cups nor his other three Cup Final appearances, nor his 1992 Memorial Cup with the Kamloops Blazers (which he now partly owns), but his relapse a year after checking into rehab and tattooing his index and thumbs to remind himself never to drink again is a sad day for his fans, and more so for his friends and family.

It may also mean the end of his tenure as the Minnesota Wild's assistant coach in charge of defensemen and penalty kill. Great mugshot, though.

I sincerely hope he beats his demons.

Here he is wearing the Stars' awful post-lockout white (now-away) uniform, the one that just says DALLAS with the jersey number in front, football-style:

It's card #GG-DSY from Panini's 2013-14 Titanium set and Game-Worn Gear sub-set, featuring a green game-worn jersey swatch.

Darryl Sydor Autograph Card

How lucky are the young studs on the Minnesota Wild's defense corps to have as accomplished an NHL defenseman as Darryl Sydor to coach them?

5 Stanley Cup Finals - 2 Cup wins - to go with a Memorial Cup, two All-Star Games, over 500 regular-season points and over 50 in the playoffs. Both team and individual success which, for team players, usually go hand-in-hand.

While I already had an in-person auto of him, finding this card in a pack of Pinnacle's 1996-97 Be A Player last summer convinced me to consider collecting him as a player more thoroughly. I'll now be accepting trades involving him (going my way).

I like that he's wearing the Dallas Stars' ''original'' (for that part of the franchise's history, at least) white (home) uniform, which may be the best they've had... until this year. I'm so glad they got rid of the generic city name and put a logo back on the front of their jerseys; plus, the new colours are reminiscent of the Hartford Whalers, and an Irish jersey I own - two definite plusses.

Darryl Sydor Autographed Card

In the early 1990s, the Los Angeles Kings had a pair of defensemen they thought would share the first pairing for a long time and would bring them playoff success, perhaps even a Stanley Cup. On the right side, drafted 70th overall in 1988, Rob Blake, who would go on to captain the team for 12 seasons, participate in 6 All Star games and 3 winter Olympics (one gold medal in 2002), earn a Norris trophy (1998), and eventually win the Cup with the Colorado Avalanche. On the left side, chosen 7th overall in 1990, winner of two Stanley Cups (with the Dallas Stars in 1999 and the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004), Darryl Sydor.

One of them was a star player for most of his career, while the other accepted to be relegated to 'role player' status for the better good of the team. Thusly, only Blake choked in the playoffs with a star-studded San Jose Sharks team for the past two seasons, and this year while captaining the team.

Sydor had a promising junior career, winning the Memorial Cup with the Kamloops Blazers, registering 95 and 105 points, respectively, in his final two complete seasons with the team. As a defenseman.

This is one of Sydor's rookie cards, from the 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier set (card #90), by Topps. It's sort of an action shot, taken during a pre-game skate (you can see another King doing nothing at the blue line behind him) in which he's wearing my favourite Kings' home jersey of all time, and #40 - numbers in the 40s were usually reserved for rookies or players not expected to make the team; he would settle on #25 for the rest of his tenure with the Kings, starting in 1992-93. I got him to sign it in black sharpie during the Lightning's 2004 Cup run, when they sweeped the Montréal Canadiens in the second round.