Jordan Eberle & Devan Dubnyk Jersey Card

Here is a card that features two players who are no longer playing with the team they are featured in on the card, the Edmonton Oilers, Jordan Eberle and Devan Dubnyk:

It's #U-DE from Fleer's 2013-14 Showcase set and Uniformity sub-set by Upper Deck, with blue game-worn jersey swatches from each player. It's the same set as this previously-featured card of Eberle's.

Indeed, Eberle was sent to the New York Islanders for prospect Ryan Strome, in what seems to be both a reaction to Eberle failing to produce in the playoffs and a move to clear up cap space for Connor McDavid's next contract, which will definitely not be a bridge deal and should make him the league's highest-paid player.

For the record, in my opinion, McDavid should be offered a two-year deal paying somewhere in the $7-9M range (per) before surpassing the likes of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin on his next one, if only so he can have another Art Ross- and Hart-winning season to prove he is now the best forward in the league; it's not like $7-9M is bad money, either...

Eberle could very well have a 40-goal season playing alongside Isles captain John Tavares, so this move is an excellent one for GM Garth Snow, who clearly got the best player in the deal, although Strome could make Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli happy by producing alongside either McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. This move ensures Snow qualifies as one of the five best GMs in the NHL in the past five years with how he's improved his team, alongside Steve Yzerman (amazing signings thanks to Florida's tax laws, and shrewd trades), Stan Bowman (the best in the league in managing the salary cap, replacing high-paid players with fine prospects and signing returning veteran free agents to cap-friendly/low-paying deals, though I think he got hosed in the Artemi Panarin trade), Jim Rutherford (sure, he was dealt a great hand by inheriting a contender with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but his cap management and the team's development program combine to take the Pens' dynasty from a "could-have-been" to a "longer-than-it-should-have"), and Dale Tallon (who, after building the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks championship team, built a division winner with the Florida Panthers, only to have it be taken apart by his successor in a single summer, now tasked with building another one a year later).

Dubnyk leaving Edmonton has to do with the team's previous administration's inability to draft or build a defense in a decade of rebuilding, leaving half a dozen goalies helpless in trying to stop odd-man rushes and looking awful in the process, so bad that Dubnyk even spent time with the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs when the Montréal Canadiens acquired his rights from the Nashville Predators in an eventful 2013-14 campaign that saw him play for three separate organizations before signing on with a fourth one as a free agent - the Phoenix Coyotes - in the off-season.

Then, at the 2014-15 trade deadline, the Coyotes traded Dubnyk - their best goalie that year - to the Minnesota Wild, enabling them to make the playoffs and immediately turning them into a division-lead contender. In two of the last three seasons, Dubnyk was the second-best goalie in the league, which made him a finalist for the Vezina once (should have been twice, as Carey Price should not have been a finalist this year), finished fourth in Hart voting, and won the Bill Masterton Trophy.

Two award-winning Team Canada alumni that the Oilers had to get rid of to be the playoff team they are today - and the Cup contenders they hope to be for the next decade.

Devan Dubnyk Autograph Card

I couldn't think of a better card to sum up the day in the hockey world:

It's card #SOT-DD from Upper Deck's 2012-13 SP Authentic set, part of the Sign Of The Times sub-set, showing Devan Dubnyk sporting the Edmonton Oilers' white (away) uniform, signed on-card in this blue sharpie.

Dubnyk, fresh off winning this year's Bill Masterton Trophy, signed a six-year contract extension today, worth $25M in total. Not bad for a guy who was sent back to the AHL the year before, but pretty much a sign of the times (see what I did there?) that the guy who played for 5 franchises in the past two seasons now surpasses the three goalies who were already with the Minnesota Wild at the beginning of the 2014-15 season, creating the league's biggest goalie controversy at the time.

And this on the same day where the Oilers nabbed Cam Talbot in a trade with the New York Rangers, Edmonton being the team who tried the likes of Ilya Bryzgalov, Ben Scrivens, Viktor Fasth, Jason LaBarbera, Richard Bachman, Tyler Bunz and Laurent Brossoît with varying levels of small success in replacing the relatively underwhelming Dubnyk since 2013-14.

A lot of people are high on Talbot after he kept the Rangers in contention when Henrik Lundqvist went down with an injury, but they fail to keep in mind he was playing behind the best defense in the East; the same had been said of Scrivens behind the Los Angeles Kings defense, Fasth with the Anaheim Ducks, and Bryz with then-defensive powerhouse Phoenix Coyotes.

I'm not sure how much of Dubnyk's Vezina-caliber season was because of the Wild's back end and system, how much was him fulfilling his talent and expectations, or just the focus he had while fighting for the right to keep playing at any level, but we'll see soon enough. As will Darcy Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom...

Devan Dubnyk Dual Jersey Card

I know I talked about Devan Dubnyk a couple of months ago, but the Arizona Coyotes have just traded him to the goaltender-depleted Minnesota Wild for a third-round pick.

Per NHL.com:

The Wild desperately needed goaltending help. Josh Harding was playing like a Vezina Trophy candidate last season despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but he has not played since Dec. 31, 2013 because of complications with the treatment of the disease and a broken foot sustained during training camp.

Darcy Kuemper has a .902 save percentage) and Niklas Backstrom is at .887; they are 35th and 40th, respectively, out of 42 qualified goaltenders this season.

So, sure, Dubnyk might solve some of the Wild's woes short-term, but he remains a pending free agent at the end of the season, so not only is this just a stop-gap measure and borderline panic move on the part of GM Chuck Fletcher, but possibly his last hope of saving head coach Mike Yeo's job by the end of the week (and his own by the end of the season).

And while I stand by some of my message-board posts pinning 80% of the Wild's problems on their goaltending and its subsequent taking the wind out of the rest of the players' game, the team's been playing terrible defensive zone coverage of late, leaving gaping 2-on-1s and 3-on-1s too often. That will need to be addressed so that Dubnyk can perform (or at least attempt to perform) the miracle of turning this team's fortunes around.

In any event, unlike the asking price for other goalies Fletcher may have gone for, a third-round pick isn't so costly, though it's one for this year, a supposedly deep draft.

On the other hand, Coyotes GM Don Maloney also got rid of a potential problem, as Dubnyk was outplaying starter (and highly-paid) Mike Smith - and by a wide margin at that. By getting rid of the low-cost free-agent-to-be, he avoids a goaltending controversy... and enters the First Draft Pick derby almost unofficially.

But I'm happy I get to feature another card of Dubnyk's wearing the Edmonton Oilers' beautiful classic white (now-away) uniform, from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Black Diamond set (#EDM-DD of the Double Diamond Jerseys sub-set), featuring orange and blue game-worn swatches:

Devan Dubnyk Autograph Card

I had written Devan Dubnyk last March, sending him 4 cards (including two customs), and haven't heard back yet, but I still wanted to write about him and his terrific start to the 2014-15 season with the Arizona Coyotes, what with a 4-0-1 record in six games, a 2.25 GAA and .925 save percentage, slowly but surely stealing starts away from Mike Smith. He even dominated his former Edmonton Oilers this week, in a 33-save, 2-1 win.

People who don't know much past the obvious about goaltending will point to his ''lack of consistency'' as the main knock against him, but that isn't accurate at all. Before last season, his save percentages in Edmonton (apart from his rookie season) were .916 (in 35 games), .914 (47 games) and .920 (38 games). These statistics point to him being among the elite of backups, or a starter who needs a game off per 7-10 days to remain effective, capping him at perhaps 55 games per year (the way 85% of goalies should play anyway).

But it's not really inconsistent, is it, to hover between stopping 91.4% and 92% of pucks headed your way. That's actually pretty consistent, and borderline excellent. The thing with Dubnyk, in my opinion, is he has relied on his size (6'5'' or 6'6'' depending on the source, 210 pounds) and rebound control to excel in lower levels, and his actual technique doesn't rank among the 30 best in the world, and neither does his glove hand, nor his stick control.

So when a goal that he wouldn't have let in at lower levels does get past him in the NHL, he might get discouraged and let it affect him for the next few minutes, until he can redeem himself with a big save; looking for the big save, however, usually leads to losing focus and forcing the play... and ultimately to another bad goal. And that's where the public perception of ''but he played GREAT the last two games'' comes in, and the critics pounce, particularly in Canadian markets where the press is aggressive. And a bad game or two at the NHL level, where everyone has dominated at some level before, for a goalie, can mean a week or two of riding the pine instead of standing between metal posts.

Keep in mind we're talking about a guy with Spengler Cup gold and World Juniors gold, and a perfect 6-0 record for Team Canada at the World Championships where, playing against some of the best in the world, he holds a 1.27 GAA and .935 save percentage.

In a salary cap world, what would you say if I gave you this choice of two Olympian goalies:

GOALIE AA: $6.5M per year, 2.49 GAA, .917% for 65+ games
      + token goalie at $1M, 2.35 GAA, .910% for 25 games

or

GOALIE A1: $4M per year, 2.50 GAA, .917% for 55 games
   + Dubnyk, $800K per year, 2.35 GAA, .917% for 35 games

Personally, I'd go with the cheaper tandem who stop a consistent amount of pucks, and take the nearly $3M I'd save and put it on an elite defender or improve my second-line from a 15-goal to a 30-goal scorer. Particularly since the goalie I have in mind is a proven playoff performer.

I didn't believe Dubnyk would make his way onto the Montréal Canadiens' roster when they acquired him last season, and I think Arizona might actually be a perfect fit for him.

I hereby check him off my list as #40 in my Oilers Numbers Project, with this card from Panini's 2013-14 Crown Royale set, #SO-DDU of the Sovereign Sigs sub-set, showing a nice close-up of his mask:

It's signed on-sticker, in thin blue sharpie, with his uniform number (40) below it.

Devan Dubnyk: 3 Autographed Cards

Devan Dubnyk is a top goaltending prospect from the Edmonton Oilers organization; he was so promising, in fact, that they chose him over Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers. I sent him these three cards and a fan letter - care of the Oilers - on March 25th, 2011, and got them all back, signed in black sharpie, with his number (40) tagged at the end (even though he wore #30 in two of the three pictures) on October 27th, 2011.

Pictured above are two different seasons' worth of Kamloops Blazers' home jerseys. The card on the left is from In The Game's 2004-05 Heroes And Prospects set (card #71), while the one on the right is from the 2005-06 Heroes And Prospects set (card #178). I like the consistency of these sets, in that they stay similar enough to be recognized, but different enough to figure out they're from different seasons. Kind of cool that he played for the Blazers and was drafted by the Oilers, who share the same uniform colours.

The third card is from In The Game's 2007-08 Between The Pipes set, the Future Stars sub-set (card #12). Sure, it's a poorly-lit low-resolution picture as the BTP sets often have, but where else are you going to find respectable AHL cards?

Dubnyk played 35 games with the Oilers last season, going 12-13-8 with a 2.71 GAA and a .916 save %; he's set to play more games this season, having already appeared in 27 games (10-12-1), with a 3.01 GAA and .908 save %, as they finally have playoff hopes.