Mathias Niederberger Autograph Card

After three seasons on this side of the pond, goalie Mathias Niederberger went back home to Germany, playing for his hometown Duesseldorf Eislauf-Gemeinschaft (EG) for the last three years to boot.

He had been named the OHL's Goalie Of The Week in 2012 when he posted two consecutive shutouts for the Barrie Colts, then was given an AHL contract with the Manchester Monarchs, but opted to move back to Germany after playing in the ECHL more often (9 games) than the AHL (6 games) in an injury-plagued 2013-14 season.

He was named the DEL's Goaltender of the Year in 2015-16. Chances are he'll represent Team Germany at the 2018 Olympics, like his father has done four times.

Here he is wearing the Colts' white (home) uniform, on card #A-MN from In The Game's 2012-13 Between The Pipes set and Authentic Goaliegraph sub-set:

It features a black-sharpied on-sticker autograph with his uniform number (35) tagged underneath.

Philippe Cadorette Autograph Card

It's been a roller-coaster 15 months for goaltender Philippe Cadorette, who went from leading the Baie-Comeau Drakkar to the LHJMQ Final to signing a contract with the Norfolk Admirals - the Edmonton Oilers' ECHL team - to going back to Juniors as a 20-year-old after four sub-par games to setting the Q's career regular-season (17) and total shutouts (22) records to getting traded for the first time (to the Shawinigan Cataractes).

He got his chance at Norfolk on a Quebecer-heavy roster because the head coach there was Éric Veilleux, who was the held the same position with Baie-Comeau during much of Cadorette's tenure.

Not feeling ready to try his hand in the lower-tiered pro leagues as of yet and wanting to pursue his education, he has enrolled in university in Montréal for the next year and will be suiting up for the Concordia Stingers in 2016-17.

The Stingers usually pale in comparison to their natural rival McGill Redmen (the oldest organized hockey team in the world, having been founded in 1877 - a whole 31 years prior to the Montréal Canadiens, the oldest/longest-standing professional team); however, having an established goalie with a pedigree like Cadorette's should give them a fighting chance, at least.

Here he is wearing the Drakkar's white (home) uniform, which would be fine if it was devoid of the Reebok Rbk Edge stripes and piping on the chest:

That's card #A-PC from In The Game's 2012-13 Between The Pipes collection and CHL Prospects and Authentic GoalieGraph sub-sets, and features an on-sticker signature, in black sharpie.

Doug Soetaert Autograph Card

Honestly, I didn't know much about Doug Soetaert until I landed this card a few years ago.

He was the goalie wearing #1 on Montréal Canadiens team pictures in 1984-85 and 1985-86 - I know that because I'm a Montrealer, because I have a thing for goalies, and because I've been looking at those pictures pretty much my entire life, as they are the first ones of Patrick Roy.

I knew he'd signed with the New York Rangers afterwards, having a sub-par outing for them going 2-7-2 with 14 penalty minutes in 13 games - yes, that's more than a minute per - and a whopping 5.16 GAA and dismal .842 save percentage, after which he retired.

What I didn't know was that he spent the second half of the 1970s with the Blueshirts, followed by three seasons with the Winnipeg Jets. You can find a profile of his career here.

Post-retirement, he was VP and GM of the WHL's Everett Silvertips, then assistant GM with the Calgary Flames, scout with European teams falling under the Red Bull (you read that correctly) banner in Austria and Germany, and has been on the Arizona Coyotes' scouting staff since last summer.

He had a pretty cool mask whilst with the Rangers, too, as can be attested on card #A-DS from In The Game's 2011-12 Between The Pipes 10 Anniversary set (part of the Decades - The 1970s and GoalieGraphs sub-set):

It features a black-sharpied on-sticker autograph that is extremely subtle, as is was often the case with ITG. I speak in the past tense, of course, because ITG will cease to exist once it releases its Final Vault product in a few weeks, after an unsuccessful merger with Leaf.

Rollie Melanson Autograph Card

Roland ''Rollie'' Melanson's life reads like hockey's version of a Mark Twain book, a plain-spoken Acadian man from small-town New Brunswick, who lives through great highs, some lows, but tries to keep an even keel all the time, despite not always being completely understood anywhere he went.

You want highs? CHL rookie of the year (Ken McKenzie Trophy, with the Indianapolis Checkers in 1980-81), for starters, then a Jennings Trophy, a Second-Team All-Star nod and a second-place finish among Vezina voting in the NHL (1982-83, with the New York Islanders), followed by a 10th-place finish in the Vezina race the following season. Oh, and three Stanley Cups as part of their dynasty.

You want lows? He spent parts of 5 seasons with 4 different AHL teams in the decade following that, finishing his career with a 1992-93 stint in the then-Colonial Hockey League (ColHL), which folded in 2006-07 after a decade of being called the United Hockey League (UHL), and 7 games in the AHL with the Saint John Flames in 1993-94. Granted, he was named the ColHL's playoff MVP as his Brantford Smokes won the championship, but still.

Which is an odd turn of events in and of itself, considering he stole the show at the 1991-92 Montréal Canadiens' training camp, posting two shutouts and two one-goal games in four starts, essentially blocking the Habs' try at a youth movement and stalling four kids in the AHL (André Racicot, Frédéric Chabot, Jean-Claude Bergeron and Les Kuntar). The regular season, however, only allowed him to go 5-3-0 in 9 games, with a good 2.68 GAA and a .887 save percentage.

After retiring, he became a goaltending coach with the Habs, turning Jeff Hackett into a top-10 goalie, helping José Theodore become a Hart and Vezina winner, making Cristobal Huet a Crozier Award contender, and starting Jaroslav Halak and Carey Price on their merry ways.

He then moved onto the Vancouver Canucks, where former Vezina finalist Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider had some good seasons, and Ryan Miller is shining anew this year.

Again, highs (great individual seasons) and lows (getting fired from one spot, two huge goaltending controversies - arguably the two biggest of the last two decades - and some fall-from-grace seasons as well). And weirdness, such as when he gave an interview to a small paper in his hometown and claimed Price had lost his game when he left, rightfully so to some extent, if you forget that the slide had actually started under Melanson's reign. What was weirdest wasn't the candor with which he talked about a former student of his, but the fact that he's under contract from one organization talking about a player under contract with another.

But that's Rollie The Goalie for you: a whole mess of Frenglish, highs and lows, and a gift for hyperbole. He didn't revolutionize the art of goaltending as François Allaire has, but he can be credited with perfecting one move most NHL goalies started doing after Hackett/Theodore did, and that's putting the opposite pad down along the ice when the puck's in the corner, protecting the bottom of the net from oddball deflections, also known as Dead-Arm + One Knee Down, which from the angle below also covers the five-hole area and barely leaves the CPSG (top-corner on the blocker side) open:

And so it is a pleasure to share this beautiful 2011-12 Between The Pipes (10th Anniversary) card (#A-RM of the Authentic GoalieGraphs and Decades - The 1980s subsets) from In The Game, showing him in the Islanders' classic blue (away) uniform:

It's signed on-sticker in black sharpie, and you can decipher almost every letter except the last three. As a kid, I started out wearing one of those Cooper helmets with the cage.

Michel Dion Autograph Card

Michel Dion was a well-rounded athlete in every sense of the word. At one point, he was part of the Montréal Expos' system on his way to become a major league baseball player, but chose to concentrate on being a professional hockey goalie instead (it should be pointed out that he was a catcher, and Hall Of Famer Gary Carter was ahead of him in their depth chart). Now, 30 years after retiring from the NHL, he's a golf coach and teacher in North Carolina.

But let's go back to his hockey career, which started gaining momentum when he was in in the OHA and LHJMQ with the Montréal Junior Canadiens, leading to his being drafted by the WHA's Indianapolis Racers in 1974 (121st overall), ahead of fellow goalies Eddie Mio (138th), and Réjean Lemelin (209th).

In 1975-96, playing in just 31 games, he won the Ben Hatskin Trophy (the WHA's equivalent of the Vezina) as the top goalie, on the strength of a league-leading 2.74 GAA (yes, those were different times!) and a .910 save percentage.

When the WHA folded in 1979, he was picked up by the Québec Nordiques, appearing in 50 games with the injury-depleted team and yet posting two shutouts with a 3.70 GAA. The Nordiques would trade him to the Winnipeg Jets upon acquiring superstar Dan Bouchard, and the Jets elected not to re-sign him when his contract was up.

The Pittsburgh Penguins jumped at the opportunity, and it was with them that he would enter into NHL mythology, with an All-Star Game appearance in 1982, and finishing third in Vezina voting in 1981-82 - but mostly for his timeless duck-shaped scary mask:

He was forced out of Pittsburgh (and got tired of hockey in general) after the 1984-85 season, as the Pens decided to continue forward with a rotation consisting of fellow Montrealers Denis Herron and Roberto Romano, a 5'6'' athletic journeyman.

Even recently, current Pens goalie Marc-André Fleury immortalized Dion (and Tom Barrasso) on his own mask:

It's fitting that Fleury's depiction of Dion comes from a hockey card from In The Game, such as the one I'm featuring today from their 2011-12 Between The Pipes (10th Anniversary) set (card #A-MD of the GoalieGraphs and Decades - The 1980s sub-sets):

It's signed in black sharpie and shows him wearing the Nordiques' white (home) uniform. In his time playing with Québec, Dion wore both #30 and #19.

Seth Martin Autograph Card

Ask anyone who has played with him, against him, or even just watched him play: Seth Martin was among the best of all time. Vladislav Tretiak credits him as ''hid idol'' and the one whose style he emulated; Hall Of Famer Glenn Hall, who just played one season with him with the St. Louis Blues marvels at his skills, and even asked his teammate to build him a mask; Ken Dryden says ''everyone knew about Martin'', though he kind of had to, because the two questions the Russians had for Team Canada during the 1972 Summit Series were ''Why is Seth Martin not on the team?'', and ''Is Dryden as good as Martin?'', which might be hard to fathom for folks born after 1980.

Martin played amateur hockey with the Trail Smoke Eaters, and helped them reach the actual IIHF World Championships four times, winning gold once and bronze twice, and three times being named best goalie and to the All-Star team. Back then, professionals weren't allowed at the Worlds nor the Olympics, so Canada was represented by the best amateur club that year, usually the same one that won the Allan Cup (best Senior-level team in Canada). Except the Russians were considered amateurs, so they had an unfair advantage.

The Smoke Eaters also represented Canada at the 1964 Olympics, finishing 4th. During those five times representing his country abroad, Martin made a huge impression on Europeans, the Russians and Czechs especially.

He made it to the NHL with the Blues, in their inaugural 1967-1968 season that finished in their being swept by the Montréal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals. After the season, at 35 years of age, a backup with perhaps few good years left ahead of him, he was faced with the dilemma of re-signing or moving back to British Columbia, and playing amateur hockey while going back to his career as a firefighter.

It came down to dollars and sense, in the pre-millionnaire days: the NHL pension kicked in at 210 games played, and he'd played 30; he needed six more seasons at the same level just to qualify. He already had 12 years invested in his fireman pension, and would end up with triple that.

Thirthy games isn't enough to qualify for the Hockey Hall Of Fame in Toronto (a.k.a. the NHL Hall Of Fame, a.k.a. The Old Boys' Club), but his success on the international stage did get him elected to the IIHF Hall in 1997. Journalists from Trail also say he was a terrific person.

He died two months ago. He had colon cancer, but it was a heart attack that got the best of him while he was in intensive care. He was 81 years old.

Since then, this card has meant even more to me:

It's card #A-SM from In The Game's 2011-12 Between The Pipes set (the 10th Anniversary of the brand), from the Authentic GoalieGraphs and International Pioneers sub-sets. ITG are generally very good at making their on-sticker autographs fit with the design of their cards, and this one here is no exception; they could, however, have used a picture of his from any other season he played than his lone NHL one, considering they are celebrating his ''international'' feats. Here is a crop from the classic, original picture:

Still a great card of a great goalie, signed clearly in black sharpie.

Ramis Sadikov Autograph Card

An undrafted goalie listed at 6'4'' and 230 pounds and whose AHL player page is suspiciously blank, Ramis Sadikov did get a few Detroit Red Wings pre-season games under his belt at some point, and even HockeyDB lost his trace after the 2011-12 season.

That did not stop In The Game from featuring him in this GoalieGraphs card from their 2010-11 Between The Pipes set (card #A-RS of the Future Stars sub-set), in his OHL Erie Otters uniform:

A tall hulking Russian, Sadikov liked to mix it up, trying to combine his idol Patrick Roy's butterfly style (notice how the black sharpie signature has the number 33 at the end), Martin Brodeur's stand-up style and Dominik Hasek's... whatever that was. With 13 Vezina trophies among them, I guess they're fine examples to follow, if you can make it.

I was more of a Roy-meets-Ron Hextall guy myself, with some Sean Burke in there as well. I didn't reach the NHL either.

Timo Pielmeier Autograph Card

Always a fan of journeyman goaltenders, I was more than happy to find this card in a pack of In the Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes back in the day:

It's card #A-TP of the Future Stars and GoalieGraphs sub-sets, signed in black sharpie on a sticker. It shows German goalie Timo Pielmeier, a former San Jose Sharks third-round pick in 2007, seen here wearing the Syracuse Crunch uniform, at the time the Anaheim Ducks' AHL affiliate.

He played his only NHL game with the Ducks in 2010-11, letting in 5 goals in two periods for a 7.50 GAA, and played his Junior hockey in Québec's LHJMQ.

The Ducks sent him to the New Jersey Devils in 2011, who pretty much buried him in the ECHL, so last season he went back to Germany, played for the tier-two team Landshut Cannibals (yes, you read that right!), where he posted his best stats ever (including Juniors), playing in all 48 games, posting a 2.27 GAA with 4 shutouts and two assists, which earned him a promotion in the form of a contract offer for the top-tier team ERC Ingolstadt for the upcoming season.

His two assists aren't his best offensive feat, as he's actually scored a goal in the ECHL in 2009-2010, whilst playing for the Bakersfield Condors, the 10th-ever goalie to do so in league history.

Leland Irving Autograph Card

For six years, Leland Irving has been considered the Calgary Flames' top goaltending prospect, the one who will take over for Miikka Kiprusoff when he decides he's had enough. He even played 7 games last season, keeping a decent .912 save percentage (with a 1-3-3 record and 3.19 GAA, but still...) in the NHL.

This season, however, the Abbotsford Heat are leading the AHL, and with Danny Taylor and his 3-1-1 record and 1.97 GAA in 5 games, and Barry Brust's 1.00 GAA and .962 %, Irving has only seen action in one game so far.

Still, he's only 24, and he's paying his dues in the AHL. And he doesn't have to live with the burden of being The Next One and yet failing time and time again, for five years, to win a playoff series. Then again, the Flames boast one of the five best goalies in the world and haven't even made the playoffs since the 2008-09 season. But as a first-round pick (26th overall in 2006). he'll get all the chances he needs to make a lasting impression.

This card is from In The Game's 2011-12 Between The Pipes set (card #A-LI in the GoalieGraphs insert sub-set), and boasts a sticker autograph (in black sharpie) next to Irving in the Heat's white jersey.

Tomi Karhunen Autograph Card

I went to WalMart today for pants and found none. But it's not situated anywhere near downtown, and I didn't want to leave without actually purchasing anything for my troubles, so I grabbed a box of In The Game's 2007-08 Between The Pipes cards - $15, 12 packs, 60 cards - and pulled out one autograph, this one: Tomi Karhunen.

I'm a big fan of goalies, but I must admit I had absolutely no idea who this kid was, so I did a bit of research, and here's what I came up with: almost nothing.

The only Wikipedia entry he has is in Finnish, his official OHL page has no picture, no text, and only one season's worth of statistics, and his hockeydb card checklist page doesn't even name his being on any In The Game cards...

Luckily, the EuroHockey site can tell me that he went back to Finland after one year in Ontario junior hockey, and that he is still of age to play in the U-20 team, i.e. World Juniors age. And the Puck Agency blog mentions he was named the OHL player of the week for the week ending November 18th, 2007, after winning three road games while posting a 1.33 goals against average and .953 save percentage.

That's it. Sorry!

His card looks good, though, but I would have preferred seeing him in the dark, away Sarnia Sting colours than the white one. But it's a nice signature, in black sharpie, on a sticker that was later apposed o card #A-TK.