Dustin Tokarski Swatch Card

It's that time of year where we think of goalies that are not currently playing in the NHL and wonder where they've been...

Today's subject is Dustin Tokarski, who can be so hot he looks like Tim Thomas or so cold that he looks like Scott Darling; there is seemingly no middle ground in his case; one need only look at his stats from last season alone in the AHL to see the disparity:

from HockeyDB

His statistics were the best on the Charlotte Checkers - the best team in the league - for whom he played 7 games, so roughly 10% of the season. In 21 games with the Hartford Wolf Pack, his numbers were dangerously close to starting a conversation about a demotion to the ECHL.

At 30 years of age, his window for NHL call-ups is getting smaller, but goalies get injured more and more often now, so he'll at least get to suit up in games, if not actually play in any. This season, he's signed on to play with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the Pittsburgh Penguins' affiliate, meaning he has Matt Murray, Tristan Jarry and last year's NHL backup, 28-year-old Casey DeSmith, ahead of him on the depth chart. It's a harder path than that of the, say, Carolina Hurricanes.

I'll always remember his fierce battle with Henrik Lundqvist in the 2014 Easter Conference Final, as he single-handedly forced the New York Rangers to play two more games than they had to, seemingly by sheer will.

Here he is wearing the Bolts' worst-ever white (then-away) uniform on card #60 from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set and Threads sub-set:

It features a black game-worn jersey swatch that is probably from the darker home uniform.

Dustin Tokarski: 5 Autographed Cards (Part 2)

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I also sent Dustin Tokarski two regular-issue cards from earlier in his career, first in the AHL with the Norfolk Admirals, from In The Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes set (card #57, part of the Future Stars sub-set):

And his Rookie card, from Panini's 2010-11 Score set (#514, part of the Hot Rookies sub-set), showing him wearing jersey #40 from Tampa Bay Lightning's former white (away) uniform:

I like his style and demeanor, and I think once he starts seeing more consistent minutes, it'll get even better. I'm of the school of thought that thinks starters shouldn't play over 60 games anyway, and that a healthy and good enough backup should be able to play at least 25 if not 30 games, both for reasons of rest-versus-reflexes and to keep a healthy competition and relationship going. Come playoff time, the starter will be less worn out, and should an injury or a bad streak occur, the backup will be ready, not rusty - and the team will be able to adjust more easily should a switch be required.

Dustin Tokarski: 5 Autographed Cards (Part 1)

Man, this is by far the best return so far this year - and perhaps even for my 2013-14 mailings:

That's right, 319 days in the making, seeing as I sent Dustin Tokarski these 5 card (two regular-issue and 3 customs) on March 24th, 2014 (care of the Hamilton Bulldogs, his team at the time) along with a fan letter, and got them all back, signed in blue sharpie with his uniform number tagged at the end, on February 6th, 2015.

If there was ever a doubt that Tokarski was going to succeed at the NHL level, the knock would always be his size, which at 5'11'' and 185 pounds seems more fitted for the 1990s than the current-day monsters that man the cages, but really, how many goalies are named top goalie at the World Juniors (winning gold with Team Canada), and top goalie and MVP at the Memorial Cup?

And how many couple that with a league-leading 1.97 GAA in 54 games the WHL? How about following that with a Calder Cup win that sees the goalie not just go 12-2 in 14 games (which could be a reflection of the team's play more than anything) but also a 1.46 GAA and .944 save percentage?

Those are looking a lot like ''elite'' numbers, right there. And he did nothing to dismiss his case last season, either, whenever the Montréal Canadiens required his services, posting a 2-0 record with a 1.84 GAA and .946 save percentage in three regular season games, with a spectacular four-start stint in the playoffs in a heartbreaking loss to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Finals where he was everything he could have been: his first game was a home-ice loss in which he was getting warmed up and improved every minute, then in Game 3 he stopped 35 of 37 shots for a tight win, then won a 7-4 affair showing he can battle all types of adversity and luck and still come out a winner, finishing with the final game, where he stopped 31 of 32 Rangers shots but still came up short of mounting a historic comeback for the ages. Which will just have to wait until next time.

Even this year, his win-lose record may only stand at 4-2-1, but his .924 save percentage speaks pretty loudly, and in just about every game, he was the better goalie, including an impressive 2-1 shootout win against the Florida Panthers.

He's 25, and in my opinion, perhaps a couple of seasons away from being the type of guy opponents' fans will be talking about on a regular basis, but he's taking it one step at a time, learning, improving, working hard. He will be a starter in the NHL, and a good one at that. The one thing that may stop him from doing so in Montréal is current incumbent Carey Price's status and the fact that hometown youngster Zachary Fucale is in the pipeline, perhaps three years away from backup status and five from being a full-time starter himself. The thing about the future is it's hard to predict, though, so we'll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, I tried sending him cards that represented the various steps of his career, first from his WHL days with the Spokane Chiefs, from my own custom Hell's Kitchen 2013-14 Series 2 set (this is variant C of card #4 in the series):

Doesn't he look awesome in the bleu-blanc-rouge? He might be small by today's standards, but he suits the suit and wears it well.

While we're talking about the Habs, here are variants A and B from the same set, showing him with the AHL's Bulldogs:

I really like his stance here, the glove isn't as high as a lot of his contemporaries, though on the card on the left, I'd like to see it extended outwards (sideways, not front-wise) a bit more; the reason why, as a former goalie, I prefer it held sticking out to the side and just slightly going up rather than full-vertical like most goalies do nowadays is because it's a quicker and more natural movement to go up than down - as goalies, we've been making those spectacular (''hot dog'') saves our entire lives, and our muscle memory points that way anyway, and in modern life, unless our hands are pushing on something (a table, a keyboard, armrests), we rarely bring and keep our arms down without setting them on something solid, with some weight. The shots at most levels are also more likely to be lower than high (though at elite levels like the NHL or World Championships, 25% of the players can put the puck anywhere they want more than half the time, which is where speed and muscle memory come into play).

        (continued in the following post)

Dustin Tokarski Swatch Card

After trading away two of his rookie cards early in the season, and sending him some to sign near the end of it (late March, no reply yet), I was glad to get my hands on this Dustin Tokarski swatch card via Ebay a couple of weeks ago for less than $4:

It's card #09TC-DT from Upper Deck's 2011-12 Black Diamond set and features not one but two swatches of Team Canada game-worn memorabilia - of two different colours, no less!

I particularly love that it shows him wearing the Canadian uniform from the 2009 World Juniors, where he backstopped his country to its fifth-straight gold medal, a tournament in which he showed that unlike many of his contemporaries (Jonathan Quick, Carey Price) who are either on top of their game or playing very poorly with very little middle ground, he can not just win a 2-1 (or 5-1) game, but also 7-4 and 6-5 edge-of-your-seat thrillers while battling everything - his opponents, the puck, even himself - and come out on top.

I was at the Bell Centre for his first playoff game and, though he lost, he got better as the game went on and had won the crowd over midway through the third period after having cast doubts in the first (I, for one, was happy he was in nets):

After all, we're talking about a guy who impressed so much when he won the Telus Cup in Midget AAA that the WHL's Spokane Chiefs reserved his rights, then, in his rookie season in Juniors, split regular-season games with the incumbent starter but played every playoff game; in his second year, not only was his regular season fantastic (30-10-3, 6 shutouts, a 2.05 GAA and .922 save %), but he was the WHL's playoff MVP en route to a Memorial Cup, and Memorial Cup MVP to boot. His final year in Juniors - the year he won World Juniors gold - he went 34-18-2 with 7 shutouts, a 1.97 GAA and .937 save percentage.

His first year with the AHL's Norfolk Admirals was ok (the team failed to make the playoffs though), but he did get two call-ups with the parent Tampa Bay Lightning club; in his second season in Norfolk, he ran away with the starting goalie position, and posted decent playoff numbers (a 2.19 GAA, a.924 save % and a shutout in a 6-game first-round elimination), but it was his third year in the pros that had heads reeling, with his first NHL win (a 3-2, 29-save affair) but also the Calder Cup (AHL championship), with a playoff run that had him post a 1.94 GAA, .944 save % and 3 shutouts in 14 games, going 12-2.

He was traded to the Montréal Canadiens for Cédrick Desjardins in February 2013.

In 2013-14, he played 3 regular-season games with the Habs, registering two wins, a shutout, a 1.84 GAA and stopping 94.6% of the shots he faced, but it was his play in the Conference Finals against the New York Rangers that cemented his fate as the next big-name goaltending prospect not named John Gibson, winning 2 of 5, with a 2.60 GAA and .916 save percentage playing in a high-pressure situation against the Stanley Cup finalists.

More importantly, he hasn't taken himself out of a game at the NHL level yet, despite critics pointing to his lack of size (he's 5'11'' and 185 pounds) and facing sharp-shooters such as Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Brad Richards and Martin St-Louis.

With Carey Price comfortably in place and Montréal kid Zachary Fucale in the pipeline, though, I see Tokarski hitting the trade market in the relatively near future, unfortunately. You can easily make an All-Star team out of players the Habs have let go for close to nothing (not counting free agency) who still play in the NHL; I fear Tokarski may yet just be another link in that chain.