David Booth Autographed Card

After spending two seasons in the KHL, David Booth is back in North America, having secured a fourth-line spot on his hometown Detroit Red Wings, playing short of five minutes per night after making the roster from a camp invitation.

In his prime, Booth was a 20-goal, 40-point winger who peaked at 31 goals, 29 assists and 60 points in 2008-09, his third season. Unfortunately, he suffered two concussions the following season, the first of which was from a dirty Mike Richards hit. He came back to lead the Florida Panthers in goals (with 23) in 2010-11, then was traded to the Vancouver Canucks early the following season. His play declined in three seasons in Vancouver, leading to some time with the AHL's Utica Comets.

It didn't get much better in 2014-15, as he mostly played for the Toronto Maple Leafs but also played two contests (scoring a goal) with their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies.

After a decent turn with the KHL's Vladivostok Admiral in 2015-16, he scored a tryout at the Anaheim Ducks training camp prior to the 2016-17 season, but failed to make the team, leading to his signing with the powerhouse Omsk Avangard, alongside the likes of Vladimir Sobotka, Alexander Perezhogin, Evgeny Medvedev, Nikolai Lemtyugov, Ilya Zubov, Derek Roy, and Nikita Nikitin.

Prior to arriving at the Ducks' camp, however, Booth had a hell of a scare, piloting his own plane from British Columbia to California and having his engine stop working three-quarters of the way there. He was told he could attempt to glide all the way to a Nevada airstrip, which he attempted; during that time, other pilots were calling in, wishing him luck. As he got closer to the ground and the ice around the engine melted, it started working again, and he was sable to make it to Anaheim.

As a devout Christian, he's certain that scare and the couple of years playing in Russia were all just part of God's Plan.

Here he is wearing the Panthers' white (away) uniform on card #180 from Upper Deck's 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee set:

He signed it in black sharpie in early 2015, while a member of the Leafs.

David Booth Jersey Card

Earlier today, the Toronto Maple Leafs solidified their second line by signing David Booth to an affordable 1-year contract; just a couple of days ago, I had suggested they try someone else who is often asked and expected to play as a power-forward, Guillaume Latendresse, but Booth fills the same type of role (and has the same history of concussions).

David Booth's time with the Vancouver Canucks may well be considered unsuccessful to say the least, what with just 26 goals and 51 points in 164 points, but keep in mind he came in mid-season after a trade with the Florida Panthers, with whom he'd spent all of his career with until that point; the second year was the lock-out, and the third brought in a new head coach in John Tortorella, who completely changed the style and make-up of the team. That makes for a lot of change in very little time.

His career-high for goals (31) and points (60) may no longer be attainable, because I don't think he can warrant top-line minutes like he used to in Florida, if only because talented new rookies have come in each year since 2008-09, but I still stand by what I said about him last March:

(He) would be an ideal second-liner on a playoff-quality team, and a luxury third-liner with powerplay and penalty-killing time on a stacked Stanley Cup contender like the Chicago Blackhawks or Anaheim Ducks (though possibly a first-liner on the stacked-at-center Pittsburgh Penguins).

Meaning I can see him reaching the 45-50-point plateau, ideally with more than 20 goals, perhaps 25.

Here is a card that dates back to his heyday, showing him wearing the Panthers' white (away) uniform, with the aletrnate captain's 'A':

It's from Upper Deck's 2009-10 Series 1 set, and is card #GJ-DA of the UD Game Jersey sub-set, with a black game-worn jersey swatch (though the white uniform contains no black apart from the dreaded piping).

David Booth: 3 Autographed Cards

Continuing with my involuntary theme of consecutive Florida Panthers cards comes these three cards I got in the mail on Friday, March 14th 2014 from David Booth, now with the Vancouver Canucks. I had written Mr. Booth a fan letter with these three cards on January 31st, 2012, care of the Canucks, which makes this a 774-day round trip, perhaps my longest return so far (I only started counting the days between sending and receiving recently):

The Panthers' second-round pick (53rd overall) in the 2004 draft, he would have been eligible for the previous year's draft if he'd abandoned his college hockey career, but since he didn't, was allowed to play for his full 4 seasons for the Michigan State University Spartans, where he accumulated a total of 105 points in 134 games.

As a 6-foot and 212-pound left winger who isn't afraid of playing in traffic, he is considered a power forward, though he might be a tad on the small side for that (the ideal power forward stands between 6'2'' and 6'4'' to crash the net defended by a goalie who now averages 6'3'' and is protected by defensemen who weigh over 220 pounds and who are now allowed to play a rougher game than when play resumed after the 2004-05 lockout). Perhaps because of his size, he was only able to play one full 82-game season thus far, scoring 23 goals and tallying 17 assists for 40 points in 2010-11, finishing third in team scoring, 9 points behind leader Stephen Weiss.

And that's the thing when people talk about his statistics: he has over 100 NHL goals and over 200 points but has played over 400 games to get there. But 300 of those games were with the Panthers, far from an offensive powerhouse. Basement dwellers, actually, more often than not.

Fast, smart, with a decent finishing touch but also a pretty good ability to check the opposition, he is definitely a first-liner on a bad team; he would be an ideal second-liner on a playoff-quality team, and a luxury third-liner with powerplay and penalty-killing time on a stacked Stanley Cup contender like the Chicago Blackhawks or Anaheim Ducks (though possibly a first-liner on the stacked-at-center Pittsburgh Penguins). With the Canucks, he should be Ryan Kesler's shadow/pretend twin, jumping on the ice at exactly the same time; not only are their skills and playing styles compatible and complementary, they've played together on and off since they were 12 years old.

Internationally, he has represented Team USA three times, winning gold at both the 2002 U-18 World Championships and the 2004 World Juniors, and a sixth-place finish at the 2008 World Championships in Québec City (where I saw Ilya Kovalchuk and Team Russia beat Team Canada 5-4 - in overtime no less! - in the Final).

Let's now look at the cards, first featuring the Panthers' white (away) uniform:

The card on the left is from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Power Play set (card #131), the beautiful blue background providing a nice contrast with the uniform; the card on the right is from UD's 2008-09 Victory set (card #114), showing him in a game against my hometown Montréal Canadiens.

And from Panini's 2010-11 Score (card #217 in the set), one where he's wearing their black (home) uniform:

All of them are signed in (fading) black sharpie.

I would have wanted to send him at least one of him wearing the Canucks' uniform, but he had yet to have one published.