Anthony Mantha Jersey Card

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The comments sections of all hockey news sources (and pretend-pundits) were adamant that Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman had essentially committed highway robbery when he traded power forward Anthony Mantha to the Washintgton Capitals for - admittedly - a large haul, namely forwards Richard Panik and Jakub Vrana, plus a first-round pick in 2021 and a second-rounder in 2022. A lot of those folks were saying Vrana himself was worth Mantha because they had similar statistics this season.

Yeah... no. Sure, Mantha only has 11 goals so far, but that placed him first on the Wings, whereas Vrana's 11 put him in a three-way tie for fourth on the team, and he played in five more games than Tom Wilson, who would have jumped ahead anytime soon. Mantha's struggles this season can be attributed to how bad the roster in Detroit is, and how coach Jeff Blashill has allowed every single individual on it to regress.

Mantha is about to enter his prime as an elite-scoring power forward - think "Tom Wilson with more goals and no suspensions". He went from 24 goals and 48 points in 80 games 2017-18 to 25 goals and 48 points in just 67 games (injury) in 2018-19 to 16 goals and 38 points in 43 games in last year's Covid-reduced season. He's about to enter a sequence of four or five 30-goal seasons in a six-year span, and now that he's surrounded by elite talent in Washington, he can actualy aim for 40 once or twice. I don't know that Vrana will be a permanent fixture in Detroit, if only because their structure seems to rely so much on having three second lines and no elite talent up front, which leaves me with the impression tha the could be dealt for a few picks himself at next year's deadline.

Mantha sure started things off on the right foot with a goal and an assist in his first game as a Cap, and he's been quoted as being ecstatic about moving from a last-place team to a Stanely Cup contender. I'm not sure their defense compares to that of the Tampa Bay Lightning or Colorado Avalanche, and we have yet to see them in action against the Toronto Maple Leafs or Edmonton Oilers, and their goaltending is unproven in the postseason, but the Capitals have shown that they can dominate against the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins, at least, and having a sniper of Mantha's caliber on their second line will give them that much more of a chance.

Here he is wearing the Wings' white (away) uniform on card #GJ-AM from Upper Deck's 2018-19 Series 1 collection and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It features a matching white game-worn jersey swatch.

Wings Preview: Keith Primeau Patch Card

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This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: 2020 is a different beast and requires adaptability; in my case, it means the joint posts with my "main/personal" blog will not be in the "player here/analysis there" format but rather the entire scope of the analysis will take place here and the player will have some sort of direct connection to what's written. Caveats: at this point, despite the season being set to start in Mid-January, several impact players haven't found a team yet and quite a few teams are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.

GM Steve Yzerman was always going to come back to his Detroit Red Wings roots and try to build a contender in the city where he won three Stanley Cups as a player, and he will have to take action and make tough calls sooner or later, chief among which is when to fire head coach Jeff Blashill. There's something to be said about this roster needing to ride a few bad contracts out at the bottom of the standings and how next to no one would be able to pull off a miracle and get this team to a playoff spot, but at some point, you need an NHL-level head to make the calls and Blashill had not shown to be on that level at any time since taking over in 2015.

The problem with rebuilding teams is that they usually have a few terrific pieces they can build upon, who pour their heart and soul into bad seasons and produce some kind of result, but not enough to make a dent on their own; they need help, which is why you build around them. But sometimes, one has to realize the first-line centerpiece/possible captain (for the sake of argument, let's give that hypothetical player a name, Dylan Larkin) might actually be better suited for a second-line role on a contending team, a move that would be impossible if he's paid like a first-liner, a salary he has deserved for all the lean years in which he was clearly the best player there. But if he's the best, the team will always fall short of the ultimate goal, because other teams will have the better players. It's a Catch-22.

What makes their odds look good:
Larkin is good and is from Michigan; make him captain already. Anthony Mantha will be a perennial 30-goal scorer who might even hit 40 a couple of times. Filip Zadina (RW) will eventually develop, as will Moritz Seider (D) and Lucas Raymond (F). Joseph Veleno (C) and Jared McIsaac (D) should be able to contribute regularly in the middle of the lineup in three years as well. Robby Fabbri may have found his niche in Detroit, Tyler Bertuzzi seems to have shown some 30-goal potential as well (although diminshed ice time on a better team might keep him in the 20-goal range, which is still excellent), but the smart money remains on seeing most of these guys as projects that are still a couple of years away or currently playing one line too high.

Question marks:
Why make Larkin wait so long? Was Bobby Ryan hired to fill a middle-six role for one season or will his perennial comeback story make him an invaluable piece of the leadership group going forward? How does Thomas Greiss compare with the other #1 goalies in the NHL? Why do the Wings always go out of their way to not employ a true, in-his-prime, star goalie? What is with this defense?

Outlook:
Detroit may not be the worst team in its division - the Chicago Blackhawks will certainly give them a run for their money in that regard - and they will have the company of the New Jersey Devils as well at the bottom of the standings, but both of those teams have a true star defenseman to build around and are grooming young goalies for their rise, whereas the Wings employ soon-to-be-35-year-old Greiss and 32-year-old career backup Jonathan Bernier in net. Upgrades are needed throughout the back end.

Prediction:
Eighth in the Central Division.

Which brings me to Keith Primeau, an excellent hockey player whose career was cut short due to a lockout and post-concussion syndrome. If we had a re-do for the 1990 draft - one of the best of all-time - he likely wouldn't have been selected third overall, but he's definitely top-10 material.

Even though he was never exactly at the point-per-game mark or higher only hit the point-per-game mark once with 73 in 71 games in 2000-01, he was close pretty often, operating at above 0.75 PPG six times in 15 games, with two All-Star Games appearances and two top-10 finishes in Selke Trophy voting (1997-98 and 2003-04). He also suited up for Team Canada, falling short at the 1996 World Cup and 1998 Olympics and World Chapionships (he captained the team on the latter), and winning gold at the 1997 World Championships.

He captained two NHL teams, the Carolina Hurricanes (1998-99) and Philadelphia Flyers (2001-06), and his performance with the Flyers in the 2004 playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning - in a losing effort - had Hall Of Famer Phil Esposito saying it was the most dominating performance he'd ever seen, and inspired Bolts star Vincent Lecavalier to change his style of play from elegant (in the style of Jean Béliveau) to more of a power forward.

He officially announced his retirement on September 14th, 2006 - my 28th birthday.

Here he is wearing the alternate captain's "A" on the Red Wings' classic red (away) uniform, on card #PH-44 from In The Game's 2013-14 Motown Madness collection and Patch Of Honor sub-set:

It features "a piece of replica Steve Yzerman Retirement Night patch", so a manufactured, make-believe patch from a player who wasn't on the team when Yzerman retired after the 2005-06 season. As a matter of fact, Primeau's trade to the Hurricanes (with Paul Coffey and the first-round pick that became Nikos Tselios, Chris Chelios' nephew, for Brendan Shanahan and Bryan Glynn) helped shape Detroit into the team that won two Stanley Cups, while his trade to the Flyers (with a fifth-round pick, for Jean-Marc Pelletier, Rod Brind'Amour and a second-rounder) gave the Canes a big piece for their own run in 2006.

As excellent as his own career was, I'm sure he's just as happy these days being a spectator cheering on his son Cayden Primeau's own progression as a goalie in the Montréal Canadiens organization.

Gerard Gallant: Two Autographed Cards

Full disclosure: I wasn't entirely certain how I wanted to handle this one, and I edited it until the wee hours of January 24th, more than a week after beginning writing. Gerard Gallant is a very good coach, and I was shocked not only that he was fired earlier today, but even more so that he was replaced this quickly by someone I feel is a lesser coach - former Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils and San Jose Sharks -bench boss Peter DeBoer, whose primary trait is to get offered stacked lineups and never getting any of them to a championship title.

He's also a very good guy, was always accommodating any time I met him, once signed seven (!) cards for me by mail, and always took his time with Montréal journalists who wanted to interview him.

In terms of coaching credentials, he's definitely in the top-5 of "active" NHL coaches factoring in every head coach of the past three seasons. He started off winning a Junior "A" championship with his hometown Summerside Capitals in 1996-97, then became an assistant in the IHL (Fort Wayne Comets, 1998-99), AHL (Louisville Panthers, 1999-2000) and NHL (Columbus Blue Jackets, 2001-04) before getting handed the reigns of the team and from the middle of the 2003-04 season to a month and a half through the beginning of the 2005-06 season.

When former Detroit Red Wings teammate Steve Yzerman was named Team Canada's GM for the 2007 World Championships - essentially an audition for a future Olympic managerial role - Gallant was added to the coaching staff and helped bring home the gold medal.

After two seasons as an assistant-coach with the New York Islanders, Gallant took on the job as head coach of the LHJMQ's Saint John Sea Dogs, winning two league championships (2010 and 2011), the 2011 Memorial Cup and twice getting named the CHL's Coach Of The Year (2011 and 2012).

Like many coaches from the "Q" before him, he then "graduated" to the Montréal Canadiens organization, spending two seasons as an assistant-coach before obtaining the head coaching position with the Florida Panthers. His team missed the playoffs by 5 points in his first season despite going 38-29-15 but won the division the following season on the strength of a 47-26-9 record despite coaching a team analytics fans saw as massively flawed and way below average in shot differential. Unfortunately, in one of the weirdest moves of my lifetime, GM Dale Tallon was promoted to Team President, his analytics-based assistant Tom Rowe taking his place and getting rid of most of the team's grinders and pretty much its entire blue line. 22 games in, with a winning record of 11-10-1, Rowe dismissed Gallant, leaving him stranded on the side of the road. Rowe flubbed the season completely, the team missed the playoffs altogether and Tallon was brought back to fix things; the Panthers missed the playoffs by a few points last season and are among the better teams in the Atlantic this season.

 Meanwhile, Gallant was then hired by the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, a rag-tag team that built its first line with two Panthers outcasts - Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith - and took them to the Stanley Cup Final in his first year, then showed it wasn't a fluke by having the team make the playoffs again in Year Two last season, getting eliminated in Game 7 of the first round by perhaps the worst call in modern hockey history... by DeBoer's Sharks.

Gallant will definitely find work coaching in the NHL very soon. As the bets coach available, he can wait out the remainder of the season and see what happens with other teams in the off-season; if the Tampa Bay Lightning fail to go far in the playoffs, Jon Cooper's time there will probably come to an end and whoever inherits that roster will not only get the best line-up int he NHL - heck, with an Art Ross, a Rocket Richard, a Norris and a Vezina winner all playing on the same team, those guys would be good enough to contend for an Olympic gold medal - but will likely also have a say in tweaking it in his image for a better shot at a Cup in his first season.

He would likely also be among the top-two picks to coach Yzerman's Wings (with Cooper, whom Yzerman put behind Tampa's bench) if he wanted to go through a hard rebuild and might be the best man to take on a quick and somewhat talented roster like the Habs', if he could improve his French-speaking skills. There's also an expansion team in need of a coach (and a name...) in Seattle, but I wouldn't be interested in joining them if there were other options, myself, what with GM Ron Francis' handling of the Bill Peters/verbal and physical abuse situation when both were with the Carolina Hurricanes; Francis needs a three-year probation to show that he's learned from the situation and can make the correct adult calls in adult situations and not just sweep things under the rug like the Old Guard did for too long. (I repeat that they should have hired Sean Burke or Ron Hextall to run that team anyway).

Here's a card of his from his glory days in Detroit, wearing the Wings' beautiful white (then-home) jersey with the assistant-captain's "A", having just completed seasons of 72, 73, 93 and 80 points, on card #71 from Pro Set's inaugural 1990-91 Series 1 collection:

And here he is wearing the team's classic red (then-away) uniform, again with the "A", on card #402 from Score's 1993-94 Score set:

He signed them both in black sharpie, adding his jersey number (17) at the end. Edit: He was set to coach in the All-Star Game in late January but opted against it after being fired.

Justin Abdelkader Jersey Card

For the third time this season, the Detroit Red Wings - the worst team in the NHL - beat the Montréal Canadiens earlier tonight; newcomer Ilya Kovalchuk had two assists and now has three points in two games for the Habs, as he's seemingly taking a liking to the positive reception he's getting.

Montréal's current seven-game winless streak isn't its worst of the season: they had an eight-loss streak in November. Some fans have started chants encouraging the team to tank to increase its odds of landing local kid Alexis Lafrenière as the first-overall pick of the upcoming draft, the most inventive of them being "Finir en dernière pour Lafrenière" ("Finish last for a Lafrenière draft"), especially since this year's event is being held at the Bell Centre.

They'll have to compete with the San Jose Sharks, Ottawa Senators, Los Angeles Kings and Wings for that, however.

Detroit is saddled with seemingly untradeable contracts to aging veterans, such as 35-year-old Valtteri Filppula ($3M until the end of next year), Frans Nielsen (35, $5.25M until 2022), Darren Helm (32, $3.85M until the end of next year), Mike Green (34, $5.75M), Jonathan Ericsson (35, $4.25M), Trevor Daley (36, $3.167M), Jimmy Howard (35, $4M), Jonathan Bernier ($3M for a backup until the end of next year), and Justin Abdelkader (32, $4.25M until 2023).

Abdelkader, a Michigan native, is probably the one who gets the most flack because at his peak, he was a big-bodied (6'2", 215 pounds) winger who may have been able to post 40-point seasons on a second line, with a second-round draft pick pedigree.

He fell to 19 points last year and only has 3 so far in 27 games this season (and is injury-prone). But he's one of the last remaining Wings with Stanley Cup Finals experience, something the current crop of young prospects could use. He also scored important goals in his heyday, including the winner for Michigan State against Boston College in the Frozen Four Final, where he was named Most Outstanding Player. His first two NHL goals came in the Cup Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009.

He's been clutch.

 He would probably be a perfect bottom-six guy were it not for his cap hit, and he'll probably be an excellent development coach some day. However, paying him $4.25M isn't a problem in itself: he's a local kid, a great leader, has a wealth of experience (the Cup Final, but also a member of the bronze-winning Team USA at the 2007 World Juniors, the 2012 and 2014 World Championships and 2016 World Cup), can help other players come to grips with line-bouncing and is further proof that the Wings treat their veterans with respect and loyalty - a key point in enticing free agents to sign with the team.

Building a team isn't only about grabbing the best players available on the free market (New York Rangers), tanking (Buffalo Sabres) or playing a near-perfect defensive system (Barry Trotz' Nashville Predators, Jacques Lemaire's Minnesota Wild). After all, only X first-overall picks from the past 30 years have won Stanley Cups: Vincent Lecavalier, Marc-André Fleury, Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, and Patrick Kane - and two of them, Fleury and Crosby, won as part of the same team, with a second-overall pick (Evgeni Malkin) with them.

No, successful teams are usually built through a cohesive unit that includes veterans and young guys, stars and bruisers, leaders who inspire others to play above their heads for a limited amount of time, a good goalie, and guys who are willing to sacrifice themselves so their teammates can reap the benefits.

Adbelkader can be one of those ingredients, for sure. Here he is sporting the Wings' white (now-away) uniform on card #GJ-JA from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It features a red game-worn jersey swatch that could be from either their home or away uniform - they're exact opposites and are only made of red and white.

Jimmy Carson Autographed Card

You may recall his name from two nights ago: Jimmy Carson is the second-youngest player in NHL history to reach the 100 career goals mark, and the American player to do it the fastest. Carson already showed he was special in Juniors, playing for the LHJMQ's Verdun Junior Canadiens: in 1984-85, as a rookie, he was second in team scoring with 44 goals, 72 assists and 116 points in 68 games, second only to Claude Lemieux, and the following season he led the team with 70 goals, 83 assists and 153 points in 69 games, with second-place Everett Sanipass pretty far behind at 94 - although Sanipass' 320 penalty minutes would catch the eye of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Carson was selected second-overall at the 1986 draft, behind Joe Murphy, by the Los Angeles Kings and would finish seventh in his draft class in career points with 561, behind Vincent Damphousse (1205 points, 6th overall), Brian Leetch (1028 points, 9th overall), Scott Young (756 points, 11th overall), Craig Janney (751 points, 13th overall), Teppo Numminen (637 points from the blue line, 29th overall), and Adam Graves (616 points, 29th overall).

He finished third in Calder Trophy voting in 1986-87 behind Kings teammate Luc Robitaille, who was two years his senior and barely had a better offensive output, but had way worse defensive statistics (+/-):

Robitaille: 45 goals, 39 assists, 84 points, -19 in 79 games
Carson: 37 goals, 42 assists, 79 points, -5 in 80 games

Finishing second was Ron Hextall, winner of the Vezina and Conn Smythe that year.

Carson followed that up with a 55-goal, 52-assist, 107-point season in 1987-88, only to be traded to the Edmonton Oilers during he off-season with Martin Gélinas, round 1 pick in the 1989 draft (Jason Miller), round 1 pick in the 1991 draft (Martin Rucinsky), round 1 pick in the 1993 draft (Nick Stajduhar) and cash ($10M in 1988 dollars) to Edmonton Oilers for Wayne Gretzky, Mike Krushelnyski and Marty McSorley.

He had 49 goals, 51 assists and 100 points in his first season in Edmonton, but 4 games into the 1989-90 season (in which he had 3 points), after making a trade request, he was sent to his hometown Detroit Red Wings with Kevin McClelland and a 1991 fifth-rounder for Graves, Murphy, Petr Klima and Jeff Sharples, the kind of one-sided trade that gives a team - in this instance, the Oilers - a Stanley Cup. It is said that he couldn't handle the pressure of having been traded for Gretzky, but he told me it was more that he resented being the face of Gretzky's departure from Canada - a much different pressure than just hockey-related.

Playing second fiddle to Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov and Gerard Gallant, Carson didn't get much ice time and his statistics dipped, often falling close to the point-per-game average, but always below it. He was eventually sent back to L.A. (for Paul Coffey, no less!), where injuries and declining speed took their toll, eventually passing through the Vancouver Canucks and Hartford Whalers organizations, playing one year in Switzerland, and playing for him hometown IHL Detroit Vipers for parts of two seasons before retiring for good and entering the "normal, 9-to-5" workplace that is the world of financial planning.

Here he is wearing the Wings' red (then-away) uniform on card #398 from Topps' 1992-93 Topps set, with the NHL's 75 Anniversary patch on the chest:

He signed it in blue sharpie at a card show in Windsor in 2010 or 2011.

Johan Franzen Jersey Card

It's not getting any better for Mike Babcock's reputation, as Chris Chelios had things to say on the Spittin' Chicklets podcast, and Johan Franzen corroborated he was on the bad end of Babcock's moods, going so far as saying he was “the worst person I have ever met. A great coach, but he's a terrible person, the worst I ever met. He’s a bully who was attacking people. It could be a cleaner at the arena in Detroit or anybody. He would lay into people without any reason.”

So not just scratching Mike Modano playing for his hometown Detroit Red Wings for ten straight games so he could retire with 1500 games played, scratching Jason Spezza in what would have been his first game as a member of his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs because it was against his former team - but actual verbal abuse rough enough to launch a player suffering from a concussion into a full-blown depression.

And Franzen came to Detroit the same year Babcock started, the 2005-06 season, playing two games in 2015-16, the year after Babcock left - and had been on LTIR since.

The Mule wasn't just a bit player who won an Olympic gold medal with Team Sweden in 2006 and a Stanley Cup with the Wings in 2008; he had 18 points in 16 games during that Cup run and 23 points in 23 games the following team when the Wings lost the the Pittsburgh Penguins in 7 games. He holds the team records for most game-winning goals in a single month (6), most goals in a single playoff series (9), most game-winners in a playoff year (5), most points in a playoff game (6), shares the team record for most consecutive playoff point streak (12 games, with Gordie Howe) and the mark for most goals in a post-season (13, with Henrik Zetterberg) and the NHL record for most points in a 40-game series (9).

In my lifetime, he's probably the third-best playoff performer I've seen play for Motown, after Nicklas Lidstrom and Zetterberg, ahead of Pavel Datsyuk, Mike Vernon, Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan and Sergei Fedorov.

His regular-season numbers were nothing to sneeze at either, with four 25-goal seasons in five years - with a high of 34 in 2008-09 - and the one where he didn't put up those numbers on an even better pace, with 10 goals, 11 assists and 21 points in 23 games in 2009-10.

At 6'4" and 230 pounds, he wasn't physically weak, in case carrying the Wings on his back in the postseason didn't clue you in on that. He wasn't mentally weak either. But he still hasn't recovered from the physicality of the game coupled with the PTSD that came with Babcock piling on with his own shit.

I hope he can continue to improve as he turns 40 in 20 days, and lives a great retirement. He's more than earned it.

Here he is wearing the Red Wings' white (away) uniform on the dual jersey silver version of card #41 from Upper Deck's 2012-13 Artifacts set, numbered 80/125:

I got this one on Ebay a couple of weeks ago hoping to talk about Franzen again eventually, I just had no idea it would come so soon. It features two red game-worn jersey swatches.

Brian Lashoff Autograph Card

I have a fairly busy day today, so I can't do one of my usual weekend deep dives into someone's career, but I do have a few I'm eyeing for the future - including one in baseball. For now, however, let's talk about the Detroit Red Wings' ninth defenseman, Brian Lashoff.

Currently playing for the Grand Rapids Griffins - with whom he won the Calder Cup in 2013 (under head coach Jeff Blashill) and 2017 (under Todd Nelson) - for the 11th season, Lashoff only played one full year in the NHL, in 2013-14, under Mike Babcock, averaging 14:26 and posting six points (one goal, five assists), a -2 rating and 36 penalty minutes. The Wings made the playoffs that year.

Despite Detroit having replaced GM Ken Holland with Steve Yzerman, it seems they still value hard work, dedication and loyalty, as they rewarded the 29-year-old for his time in the organization with a two-year, two-way deal that pays him $700K in the NHL (they're tight against the cap) and $275K in the AHL but with a $325K minimum guaranteed salary, meaning even if he remains in Grand Rapids all year, he'll earn $50K extra as if he'd been called up for a month or so.

It's a fair deal, because, honestly, he doesn't look out of place on a third pairing, has experience winning - he has a gold medal from the 2010 World Juniors with Team USA in addition to his two Calder Cups - and can share his experience of bouncing around between first-class air travel and riding buses for entire nights at a time to young up-and-comers.

He's the type of guy who is good enough and has seen enough to be an AHL captain.

Here he is wearing the winged wheel red (now-home) uniform, on card #I-BLA from Panini's 2013-14 Contenders set and NHL Ink sub-set:

It features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph.

Niklas Kronwall Dual Jersey Card

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the Detroit Red Wings would finish seventh in the Atlantic Division in 2019-20).

One of the hardest hitters of all time took his final bow today, as Niklas Kronwall of the Detroit Red Wings announced his retirement.

He was only suspended once (for a single playoff game, but a Game 7, see the second hit, on the Tampa Bay Lightning's Nikita Kucherov, in the video below) in his 15-year NHL career, which means that the league deemed the rest of his crushing hits (dubbed "Getting Kronwalled") legal. Which they were. Take a look:

At 6' and 195 pounds, he was fairly small for a defenseman drafted in 2000 (29th overall), but it fit his style perfectly, as it enabled him to check opponents right in the middle of the chest - exactly where it's ok to hit, where they should see you coming - usually skating backwards toward them so as to ensure he hits them with his back or shoulder, making certain his elbow stays low and to avoid head contact.

But let's not forget he was also way more than that. He had a booming shot and was a fast and smooth skater, too.

He had a few 40-point seasons (with a high of 51 in 2008-09, leading the Wings to a second straight Stanley Cup Final, following the 2008 Cup win) and wore the "A" as the team's alternate captain. He also won Olympic gold (2006) and silver (2016) and World Championship gold (2006) and silver (2003) medals with Team Sweden. With Henrik Zetterberg and Mikael Samuelsson, he's part of the trio of special players who own the distinction of having acquired the Triple Gold title the fastest - in just over two years' time.

He will now be an assistant to the team's new GM, Steve Yzerman.

Here he is wearing the team,s white (away) uniform, on card #DET-NK from Upper Deck's 2011-12 Black Diamond set and Double Diamond Jerseys sub-set:

It features two game-worn jersey swatches that could be from either the home or away uniform, as one is white and the other is red.

Thank you for your time, sir; you will be missed, but you will also be remembered. Best of luck in your new career.

Tomas Tatar Jersey Card

Initially thought of as a throw-in in the Max Pacioretty trade (where the Montréal Canadiens also grabbed top prospect Nick Suzuki and a 2019 second-rounder - Samuel Fagemo - from the Vegas Golden Knights), Tomas Tatar outplayed the former Habs captain - on a far weaker team - in almost every statistical category, from the standard goals (25 vs 22), assists (33 vs 18), points (58 vs 40), +/- (+21 on a team that failed to make the playoffs vs -13 on a team that had gone to the Stanley Cup Final the previous season), Corsi For (59.6 vs 53.5) and Corsi For Relative (7.9 to -1.9).

And to anyone wanting to make the assessment that Pacioretty missed many games to injury, the points-per-game ratio is still very uneven at 0.73 vs 0.61 in favour of the Slovak.

They are very different players. Tatar is reserved, quiet, as most smart two-way forwards are, while Pacioretty has been nurtured like a superstar for his entire career. Over the years, Pacioretty has both become more selfish (oftentimes spending an entire penalty kill in centre ice waiting for a breakaway pass instead of helping out defensively, when he used to be very good in his own zone in the past) and shown an inability to withstand pressure - such as the captaincy and playoff expectations in Montréal), so signing a huge contract as soon as he got to Vegas was bound to choke him up.

The advantage of that came in the postseason: paired with elite two-way players like Paul Stastny and Mark Stone, his trio was seen as the "second line" behind that of Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith and William Karlsson, which eased their workload and expectations. They were able to take advantage of weaker competition and dominate the San Jose Sharks, who had to cheat their way into a series win.

Tatar is more consistent, like a left wing version of Tomas Plekanec. Except for one exceptioonally poor season in 2017-18, he'll get you at least 45 points, sometimes up to 55-60, and score 20-25 goals. He won't make many mistakes eitehr in the offensive zone or defensively, but he'll be so methodological it'll almost be boring. His goals will come via bulk - his shot % is usually along the lines of last season's 12.5% - and will rarely be "sniper"-type shots.

But boring and effective has been Montréal's motto since they failed to land Vincent Lecavalier in 2008, so it's a perfect match.

Here he is wearing another classic Original Six uniform, that of the Detroit Red Wings, on card #67 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 SP Game-Used Edition set:

While he's shown wearing Detroit's white (now-away) uniform, the game-worn jersey swatch may very well be from the red (home) jersey, although no one really knows for sure.

So far in his career, Tatar has won the Calder Cup in the AHL as well as two silver medals, one at the 2012 World Championships, representing Team Slovakia, and another at the 2016 World Cup, with Team Europe.

Yves Racine Autographed Card

Yves Racine was chosen 11th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1987 NHL Draft, ahead of Joe Sakic (15th), Andrew Cassels (17th), John LeClair (33rd), Jeff Hackett (34th), Éric Desjardins (38th), Mathieu Schneider (44th), and Theoren Fleury (166th).

He was a blue-chip prospect and proved it by posting 94- and 108-point seasons for the LHJMQ's Victoriaville Tigres after being drafted, then went on to post two 40-point seasons with the Wings before getting traded to the Philadelphia Flyers, where he had a career-high 52 points in 1993-94.

He then made his way to the Montréal Canadiens as a free agent, unfortunately landing on his hometown team the year it parted ways with legendary GM Serge Savard, Stanley Cup-winning coach Jacques Demers and the best goalie of all time, Patrick Roy. To add insult to injury, the Habs already had offensive-minded defensemen on the roster (Schneider, Patrice Brisebois, Jean-Jacques Daigneault, fellow former first-rounder Bryan Fogarty), which meant his skill-set was overly redundant, particularly on a team that lacked on-ice chemistry and defensive acumen.

He had short stints with the San Jose Sharks, Calgary Flames and Tampa Bay Lightning (in his third turn with Demers as coach, after Detroit and Montréal), but his reputation was already too tarnished to continue playing in the NHL as he turned 30, so he exiled himself to Europe, playing one season in Finland and four more in Germany before returning home to play in the LNAH for the Thetford Mines Prolab for a couple of years.

He then went into business with the Prolab's owner, Réal Breton, investing and obtaining a huge return in the building and selling of condos. Nowadays, he owns and operates a hardware and lumber company, Fixatech. He still suits up for the Habs' alumni team for charity events, a dozen or so times a year.

Here is is sporting the Wings' red (then-away) uniform, on card #287 from Fleer's 1992-93 Fleer Ultra set, which he signed in black sharpie during his time in Thetford Mines:

I should also have a few of him in Flyer orange and the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge as well, somewhere.

Jimmy Howard Dual Jersey Card

This summer, the Detroit Red Wings surprised a good number of onlookers and pundits by protecting Jimmy Howard and offering Petr Mrazek as bait for the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft; Vegas ended up plucking Tomas Nosek from the Wings instead, after the Pittsburgh Penguins added a draft pick to entice them to pick Marc-André Fleury.

We now know that it had much to do with Mrazek not being a good team player, having requested Howard be traded despite not performing well enough to be slotted as the #1 goalie himself.

But what of the merits of Howard? Hasn't be been on a straight decline ever since he signed his extension in 2013? Not exactly.

He has been injured quite a few times and hasn't suited up in 60 games or more since 2010-11, but part of that is also linked with platooning with Mrazek, who'd been groomed to be the Wings' next #1 since the day he was drafted.

Injuries notwithstanding, Howard has had a GAA below 2.50 in five of his eight full seasons in the NHL, and below 2.30 in four; his save percentage was below the .910 mark in just two of those, and he finished with GAAs of 2.79 and 2.80 those two years as well, including in 2010-11, when a .908 save percentage was near the average for an NHL starter.

Last season, before missing three months with a sprained knee, he ranked in the top-3 for wins, save percentage and GAA; he finished with a 2.10 GAA and .927 save percentage, because the Team USA alumnus's skill set has his well-equipped to deal with the current trend of players shooting from any angle to boost their Corsi rankings. He didn't finish twice in Vezina top-10 voting for naught.

Now, I'm not saying I'd pick him in the first round of my office pool, nor that he's become one of the 15 best in the world*, but if Carey Price is worth $10.5M per year, having the $5.9M Howard in net is a decent value and bang for your buck. Unless, of course, you factor in Marc-André Fleury at $5.75M, Ben Bishop at $4.917, or Braden Holtby at $6.1M...

Here he is sporting the Wings' white (now-away) uniform, on card #TS-JH from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Artifacts set and Treasured Swatches sub-set:

It features two game-worn jersey swatches.

*For the record, my top-15 this year would read: Holtby, Sergei Bobrovsky, Cam Talbot, Devan Dubnyk, Matt Murray, Jonathan Quick, Corey Crawford, Price, Pekka Rinne, Tuukka Rask, Fleury, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Robin Lehner, Martin Jones, and Henrik Lundqvist (out of respect for his past and for when he's on, such as in last year's playoffs). I think the Vezina nods will go to Bishop (winner), Dubnyk, and Talbot.

Tim Cheveldae Autograph Card

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Tim Cheveldae led the NHL for games played (72), wins (38), saves (1978) and minutes played (4236) with the Detroit Red Wings in 1991-92 on his way to a fourth-place Vezina finish. That year, however, he finished with a 3.20 GAA, outside the top-10 (Patrick Roy led the league at 2.36, Ed Belfour was a distant second at 2.70 and Chris Terreri was tenth at 3.18) and a .886 save percentage (Roy led here as well with .914, ahead of a three-way tie comprised of Bob Essensa, Curtis Joseph and John Vanbiesbrouck at .910; Tom Draper was tenth at .895).

But as goaltending improved greatly over the next half-decade, Chevealdae, who was a classic 5'10" dive-and-reflex goalie yet wasn't the most energetic or combative, failed to evolve with the times, which is likely what got goalies like Essensa a longer look while Cheveldae, for his part, was out of the NHL by the age of 28.

He took care of the interim between Essensa and Nikolai Khabibulin for the Winnipeg Jets, then played in the minors for the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins organizations, and his save percentage never reached the .900 at the NHL level.

His final season of pro hockey came in 1997-98, when he appeared in 38 games for the IHL's Las Vegas Thunder.

Here he is wearing the Wings' red uniform on card #A-TC from In The Game's 2012-13 Decades - The 1990s set and Autograph sub-set:

It's hard-signed in black sharpie, with his uniform number (32) tagged at the end.

It is said that he is now a firefighter on a military base in Saskatchewan.

Luke Glendening Jersey Card

Luke Glendening has been a winner and leader throughout his hockey career, starting with two seasons as the University of Michigan Wolverines' captain, leading them a CCHA title and NCAA Final. He then won the Calder Cup with the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins in 2012-13, following a 26-point rookie season in the pros.

After starting the 2013-14 season in the AHL, posting 12 points (5 goals and 7 assists) in 18 games, he was recalled by the Detroit Red Wings, who were facing a ton of injuries, and he hasn't looked back since. Sure, he took a personal step back with just 14 points (3 goals, 11 assists) in 74 games last year, missing the last six because of injuries as the Wings ended a 26-year consecutive playoff streak, but the 28-year-old whose cap hit is below the $2M mark should hover around 10 goals and 20 points per year, and a half-point-per-game average in the playoffs, which makes him a valuable NHLer.

He has a tremendous work ethic and has become a good two-way center who starts most of his team's penalty-killing shifts.

I was extremely happy to pull this card from a raffle/group break last month, showing him in the Wings' red 2016 Stadium Series uniform, which includes the old-school stylized "D" on the chest, although I am not fond of the football-style huge numbers on the arms:

It's card #RW-LG from Upper Deck's 2016-17 SP Game-Used Edition set and Stadium Series Fabrics sub-set, featuring a red swatch worn on February 27th, 2016, as the Wings faced long-time rivals Colorado Avalanche at Coors Field in Denver, a 5-3 Detroit win despite the Avs leading 2-1 after two periods. Glendening had an assist on Justin Abdelkader's 15th of the season, which put the Wings up 3-2.

Glendening was likely to be left available at the expansion draft in a couple of weeks, but an ankle surgery may have the Vegas Golden Knights looking to grab another Detroit player instead.

Henrik Zetterberg Jersey Card

If you know anything about me, you know I'm a romantic at heart. And not just beneath a gruff exterior - though I do have one - but I actually wear my heart on my sleeve at all times. I'm the type of guy who would drink a case of 24 beers in 24 hours at a rate of one per hour with friends in the summer, just to bask in the experience of spending an uninterrupted day of laid-back good times.

So when a scheduling quirk - a postponed game - made it so that Detroit Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg was going to play his 1000th NHL game on the final, farewell night of Joe Louis Arena, I almost cried. Then I saw a few of the tributes to the Joe and actually did:

Thanks for the memories, Joe. #Farewell2TheJoe pic.twitter.com/SikJyo60Lc

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) April 10, 2017

Henrik Zetterberg honored prior to playing in his 1,000th career game and the final game at Joe Louis Arena. #Z1000 #Farewell2TheJoe pic.twitter.com/k0RzDGpTke

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) April 10, 2017

Growing up in the 1980s, there was talk of Original Six teams and all, but most of them were a joke: the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks hadn't won a Stanley Cup since before my parents were born, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins hadn't won since my parents were kids - although the Bruins came close in 1988 and 1990, falling to my Edmonton Oilers both times - and the Wings would sometimes fail to make the playoffs altogether in a division where four teams made it and the same number of teams usually played below .500. The Montréal Canadiens were the only Original Six team that remained among the league's prestigious clubs, though 1995 was just around the corner, and with it a decade of shame.

Pre-salary cap, when owner Mike Illitch bought the Wings - and the Detroit Tigers, really - he went all-out to have his teams be as best as possible, hiring the best people to make the best decisions to best represent his beloved city. The Wings were among the league's biggest spenders - with the Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and Colorado Avalanche - and purchased themselves the last consecutive champion teams (1997 and 1998) and a 2002 championship by developping their own talent to build around, sure (Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Chris Osgood) but also signing the best available veterans who agreed to leave their egos at home and step into specific roles that went against everything individual achievement they may have accomplished in the past, including the likes of highest-scoring left winger Luc Robitaille, highest-scoring right winger Brett Hull, most over-rated right winger Brendan Shanahan, one of the best defensemen of all time in Chris Chelios, and former-star-goalies-for-hire Mike Vernon, Curtis Joseph and Dominik Hasek.

Lidstrom, Datsyuk and Zetterberg - along with a fine supporting cast - helped Detroit reach the third-longest consecutive playoff streak with 25 despite the salary cap era bringing forth unparalleled parity, a streak that ended this season. Now, Lidstrom's in the Hall Of Fame, Datsyuk is playing his final season(s) in Russia, and Zetterberg's 36 years old, which didn't stop him from leading the Wings in points with 68 in 82 games, good for 904 in 1000 games so far. He also has 120 in 137 playoff games.

Here he is wearing the Winged Wheel's white (then-home) uniform, on card #MM-HZ from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Bee Hive set and Matted Materials sub-set, which features a red game-worn jersey swatch:

Like a card I featured nearly four years ago, it shows both Zetterberg and Lidstrom (in the background), the Wings' back-to-back Swedish captains.

He's an Olympian gold (2006) and silver (2014) medalist with Team Sweden, and also holds all three medal types from the World Championships: gold (2006), silver (2003), and bronze (2001 and 2002).

Dwight Foster Autographed Card

The Detroit Red Wings will most probably miss the playoffs this year, after 25 consecutive postseason appearances. It's been so long since then that we tend to forget just how awful they were in the 1980s, despite being saddled in the weak Norris Division with the likes of the Toronto Maple Leafs and dismal St. Louis Blues teams, the cheap Chicago Blackhawks and the up-and-down Minnesota North Stars. Failing to make the playoffs back then in the weakest division in the league was like losing a one-number lottery; 16 out of 21 NHL teams made the playoffs back then. Only five were eliminated after 80 games.

Imagine what it meant when, in 1983-84, Dwight Foster's defensive play and four players hitting the point-per-game mark (Steve Yzerman with 87 in 80, Ivan Boldirev at 83 in 75, Ron Duguay with 80 in 80 and John Ogrodnick at 78 in 64) helped the Wings make the playoffs for the first time in six years, earning third-place in the division... with a 31-42-7 record. Yes, eleven games under .500.

from HockeyDB.com

Foster was a Boston Bruins fist-round pick (16th overall in 1977) who had led the OHL in scoring with 143 points in 64 games but whose scouting report claimed he was a "a strong defensive forward with marginal offensive ability"... for the record, the first round was pretty hit-and-miss, with the most impactful players being selected 6th and 15th:

In later rounds went enforcer Dave Semenko (25th), prolific point-producer John Tonelli (33rd), Hall of Fame defenseman Rod Langway (36th), long-time goalie Glen Hanlon (40th), not-that Alain Côté (43rd), 1000-game defenseman Gordie Roberts (54th), masked marvel Murray Bannerman (58th), Mario Marois (62nd), Mark Johnson (66th), Greg Millen (102nd), Bob Gould (118th), former Québec Nordiques and Montréal Canadiens wearer of #33 Richard Sévigny (124th), All-Star goalie Pete Peeters (135th), and Craig Laughlin (162nd).

All told, Foster put up 274 points (111 goals and 163 assists) in 541 NHL games split between two stints with the Bruins, a few years with the Wings and some time with the Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils franchise. Only the Bs had decent teams during his career.

Here he is sporting Detroit's classic red (the-away) uniform, on card #14 from Topps' 1985-86 Topps set:

He signed it in black sharpie at a Red Wings alumni event in Windsor, Ontario, roughly five or six years ago. He charged less for his signature than others did ($10 instead of $50-75), but I did have to purchase the card for a dollar because I didn't have one handy.

Chris Chelios Jersey Card

Here's to Day 4 of Tough Guys Month with Hall Of Famer Chris Chelios, he who could slash the back of a forward's leg better than anyone in the game.

And yet, what we remember most of him is that he played until he was 48, with an NHL-record 26 seasons and an NHL-record 24 postseason berths and having captained two Original Six teams (the Montréal Canadiens and the Chicago Blackhawks). He won Stanley Cups with two Original Six teams (the Habs in 1986, and the Detroit Red Wings in 2002 and 2008) and is currently the all-time leader for games played by a defenseman (fifth overall).

Selected to an astonishing 11 All-Star Games, the three-time Norris Trophy winner (1989, 1993 and 1996) was a mainstay on end-of-season All-Star Teams, making the All-Rookie Team in 1985, the First All-Star Team in 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 2002, and the Second All-Star Team in 1991 and 1997.

Internationally, he was on the Team USA squad that won the 1996 World Cup, and he also has a silver medal from the 2002 Olympics. His team finished second at the 1991 Canada Cup. He captained his national team at the 1998, 2002 and 2006 Olympics, as well as the 2004 World Cup. Of course, he retired having played the highest number of best-on-best games in IIHF history, with 47.

He had talent, he had drive, and he was mean. He played hard and he partied hard. He was, indeed, the total package.

Here he is with the Wings, on card #GJ-CC from Upper Deck's 2014-15 Series 2 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It depicts him wearing Detroit's white (then-away) uniform, with a matching game-worn swatch.

Fellow former Junior Hockey player and local musician Bob Bissonnette had written a song about him a few years back; I was supposed to go see him play live on September 30th, but he died in a helicopter crash just a couple of weeks prior.

Martin Lapointe Autograph Card

The Montréal Canadiens' prospects are currently practicing in a pre-rookie camp held by the team's Director of Player Personnel, Martin Lapointe.

You might remember Lapointe from his famous 2001 free agency summer, when he spurned the Habs' $25M offer to instead sign with their rival Boston Bruins, becoming the league's most overpaid player in the process.

You might not remember he got that offer because although he was not "the scoring type" (with 181 goals, 200 assists and 381 points in 991 regular-season NHL games), his leadership and consistent, physical play was considered a huge part of the Detroit Red Wings' Stanley Cup-winning teams of 1997 and 1998; his post-season play was also quite productive in those playoffs, with 12 points in 20 games in 1996-97 and 15 points (9 of them goals) in 21 games in 1997-98 on what is still the last team to date to win back-to-back championships.

He had averaged 15-17 minutes per game with the Wings and in his first season with the Bruins, but by the time 2005-06 came along and he started playing with the Chicago Blackhawks in his third Original Six team in a row, his ice time dipped below the 15-minute mark and, eventually, below the 10-minute mark, before he was sent to the Ottawa Senators (technically an actual original NHL team, as the league originally consisted of the Habs, the Montréal Wanderers, the Sens, the Québec Bulldogs - on paper only at first - and the Toronto Arenas) for his final 18 games in 2007-08.

It would have been nice for the man with 1,143 career penalty minutes to reach the 1000-game plateau, but he really was a bit out of place in the faster post-lockout NHL, and no team was willing to give up a roster spot for him to reach that milestone for the nine games that he would have required them to, especially since the "mutual breakup waivers" didn't exist back then.

Here he is in the Wings' white (then-home) jersey, on the signed insert (in thin black sharpie) of card #133 from Upper Deck's 1994-95 Be A Player set:

The 1994-95 set, because of the lockout mostly, but also because it was approved by the NHLPA but didn't have the licensing rights to NHL teams, featured either bust shots like this one, NHLPA "All-Star" union tours uniforms, or the players in casual, early-90s fluorescent "every day" clothes or playing other sports. It was ridiculous at the time, it's hilarious now!

Jimmy Howard Dual Jersey Card

Just when everyone was counting him out, when it seemed assured that Petr Mrazek had taken the #1 spot from him two years ahead of schedule, here are the Detroit Red Wings parking #34 and starting #35 to keep their playoff hopes alive.

I got to see it first-hand last Tuesday, when Mrazek got the start against my hometown Montréal Canadiens but was pulled midway through the first period, with Jimmy Howard coming close to pulling an upset after starting with a 2-0 deficit.

Is Howard a top-100 goalie in the world? Absolutely? Top-30? For sure. Top-10? Probably not.

My top-tier consists of Henrik Lundqvist and Jonathan Quick, and Pekka Rinne rounds up the top-three most years; Braden Holtby seems like he wants to be part of that group and is well deserving of Rinne's spot this year.

The rest of the "truly elite" has Roberto Luongo, Carey Price (for now), Ben Bishop and Marc-André Fleury. Perhaps also Corey Crawford.

The rest of my top-10 features guys who can, once in a while, contend for recognition (close to a Vezina, close to a Conn Smythe, All-Stars), are mostly consistent but have one caveat (injury-prone, plays on very-defensive teams, etc.): Jaroslav Halak, Brian Elliott, Craig Anderson, Cory Schneider. John Gibson with one more season under his belt will be in this conversation.

That's more than ten right there, and that's not counting Olympian and past Vezina winner Tuukka Rask and nominee Devan Dubnyk.

But take Howard now and drop him in 1999-2000 and he's among the best of the best. I really liked watching him last week, going toe-to-toe and glove save to glove save with the Habs' Mike Condon, not letting the rookie get the upper hand easily. He had some fight in him, and I appreciate that in a goalie, much more than if he had so calm a demeanor that he'd seem detached and uncaring (like, say, Price).

So here's a tip of the hat to Jimmy Howard, with card #DET-JH from Upper Deck's 2011-12 Black Diamond set and Double Diamond Jersey sub-set:

He's pictured wearing the club's classic red (now-home) uniform, with white and red game-worn jersey swatches inserted into the card and the team's winged wheel in the back; it was a design concept that four jersey cards of the same team would form the team's complete logo if placed correctly.

Pavel Datsyuk Jersey Card

If you think you've seen this picture of the best hands in the NHL before, it could be because Pavel Datsyuk is pretty much in the same position on this card as when I featured him two years ago. But that's because he always keeps his body compact so it's harder to strip the puck off him, and he lets his hands take it through as many adversaries as he needs to to reach the other end.

After sitting out the first month and a half due (another) injury - he has only suited up for more than 85% of the Detroit Red Wings' games once in the last five seasons, and that was the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign - the Russian Magic Man's return helped slot all Wings forwards in their ideal spots, namely Brad Richards who finally looks like the #2 center they'd been looking for in the past couple of years.

Despite just a goal and an assist (and a -1 rating) in six games thus far, he's looked solid if a bit rusty, and the Wings get to keep their first line intact. I think Detroit has the roster to make the playoffs even without him, but it'll be easier if he can suit up for at least 50 games.

He's signed through next season, after which I think he'll call it quits here before playing a final season in the KHL, possibly with legendary club Moscow CSKA (a.k.a. Central Red Army).

Here's a card of his I purchased on Ebay recently, from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Artifacts set (it's card #LSLR-PD of the Lord Stanley's Legacy Relics sub-set):

It shows him wearing the Red Wings' classic red (now-home) uniform, with a matching game-worn jersey swatch included. I'm usually a huge fan of Artifacts products, and I bought this one to have an idea of what they were up to this year; while I haven't seen the entirety of the set, this card looks more like a Panini product from years past (perhaps the Game-Worn Gear set more specifically), not the same level I'd been used to from this brand.

Niklas Kronwall Jersey Card

How do you replace Nicklas Lidstrom, the greatest defenseman of the past 20 years and one of the best of all time?

If you're Niklas Kronwall, you just keep doing what you do. You come in in 2003-04 alternating on the third pair as a #7 defenseman that's full of promise, then spend a year in the AHL with the Grand Rapid Griffins and win the Eddie Shore Award as best defenseman, then come back to the Detroit Red Wings and try to keep improving.

Then, as the years pass, trades and retirements make way for you to be an essential component on the second pairing, and finally you graduate to the top unit and top powerplay crew. You have fulfilled the promise of a first-round draft pick (the Wings chose him with the 29th-overall choice in 2000) with your perfect balance, strong skating, booming shot and knack for open-ice hits, which have now been named after you (search "getting Kronwalled" on YouTube, you'll squirm on your seat as if you were watching videos of baseball pitchers getting hit in the nuts with line drives).

It's easy to forget his smallish stature (in comparison to the force of the impact on the hits he delivers) because he plays like a giant, and his personae and aura reflect much larger than he actually is.

He won the Stanley Cup with the Wings in 2008 and is part of the Triple Gold club thanks to his Olympic gold (2006) and World Championship gold (2006) medals, and he also won silver at the Olympics (2014) and Worlds (2003) with Team Sweden. With Henrik Zetterberg and Mikael Samuelsson, he's part of the trio who own the distinction of having acquired the Triple Gold title the fastest - in just over two years' time.

He has played in 674 NHL regular-season games so far - all with the Wings - and stands at 339 points and 426 penalty minutes. He averages roughly the same types of statistics in the postseason, with 46 points and 81 penalty minutes in 104 playoff games.

Here he is wearing the Wings' classic red (now-home) uniform, with a matching game-used jersey swatch, from Upper Deck's 2014-15 Series 1 set:

I bought it on Ebay last year as a test, to see if I'd like the design and feel of the cards before spending money on an actual box. I did.