Sharks Preview: Kelly Hrudey Autographed Card

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This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: Unlike in the distant past where I would post different texts on this collectibles blog and my personal one, I've been using a new format for the past couple of years, where I'll copy the same text on each one. As a father of two young kids, I just do not have enough time to write two separate posts per day on each blog. This year again, the entire scope of the analysis will take place first and the featured player will have a direct or perhaps indirect connection to what's written, below.

Caveats: At this point, despite training camp being set to start in less than a week, several players haven't found a team yet, (at least) three star players have active trade requests, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much left to do.

Key Exits: William Eklund (LW), John Klingberg (D), Nick Leddy (D), Mario Ferraro (D), Ryan Reaves (RW), Vincent Desharnais (D), Philipp Kurashev (C), Shakir Mukhamadullin (D), Pavol Regenda (LW), Laurent Brossoit (G)

Key Arrivals: Michael Kesselring (D), Jacob Trouba (D), Darnell Nurse (D), Mason Marchment (LW), Eric Comrie (G), Alex Barré-Boulet (C), Brett Leason (RW)

Top prospects: Ivar Stenberg (LW, 18), Michael Misa (C, 19), Keaton Verhoeff (D, 18), Quentin Musty (LW, 21), Joshua Ravensbergen (G, 19), Igor Chernyshov (LW, 20), Filip Bystedt (C, 22)

That is a lot of turnover on the blue line, and they will be much harder to play against with this d-corps, although Ferraro's offense and overall quality will be missed.

What makes their odds look good:
The San Jose Sharks took a huge step on Macklin Celebrini's back and will do so again this season; the revamped defense and internal improvement will propel the team into the playoffs, and their elite prospects will ensure the Stanley Cup contention window will last for a long time. And should they get to an iffy start, it seems like GM Mike Grier will make moves to correct course.

Question marks:
Is Yaroslav Askarov ready to take the pole position in net? Can Misa and Will Smith play at least 70 games to give Celebrini help up front?

Outlook:
Development is not linear, but a weak Pacific division should have the Sharks behind the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers, above the rebuilding Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks, with more hopeful upside than the veteran Los Angeles Kings and Seattle Kraken, and thus fighting the Anaheim Ducks for a playoff spot - and Anaheim didn't exactly get better during the offseason, as the Philadelphia Flyers' offer sheet to Leo Carlsson disrupted their salary structure and forced them to sacrifice key contributors, while San Jose made significant upgrades to their blue line.

Prediction:
3rd in the Pacific Division.

Kelly Hrudey is an accomplished retired NHL goaltender and broadcaster who appeared in 677 regular-season and 85 playoff games over 15 seasons with the New York Islanders, Kings and Sharks (reaching the Cup Final with both the Isles and Kings).

More recently, he had been a colour commentator for the Flames as well as part of the regular national commentators team for Rogers / Sportsnet's broadcast of Hockey Night In Canada, but his contract was not renewed for the upcoming season. He is now a free agent.

Sometimes cards are great because they have a unique design, great pictures, weird angles... and sometimes it's just the opposite. This is the latter:

That is card #60 from Donruss' 1996-97 Elite set, which doesn't scan well - the background is aluminium foil, mostly silver, with teal up top behind his name, but it's the picture that gets me every time: we're so used to seeing goalies facing forward, either in their waiting stance or making a save, with either a very clear view of their face or mask. This one shows him in his base position, facing the shot, but sideways from the camera with his catching glove hiding his mask. It is the worst possible angle of him except if he'd been from behind, from behind the net. He signed it in black sharpie 15 years ago or so, when he was in town for a HNIC broadcast.

Kelly Hrudey: Two Autographed Cards

I was about a month old when Kelly Hrudey started playing as a rookie for the WHL's Medecine Hat Tigers, a season in which he'd appear in 57 games for the team that went 15-50-7, which explains why his goals-against average was 6.17; he brought it down to 4.17 the following season, posting a winning record (25-23-4) and convincing the New York Islanders to select him in the second round (38th overall) at the 1980 draft.

The following season, he was named to the WHL's Second All-Star Team after bring his GAA down to 3.97 and keeping an .895 save percentage, on his way to the professional ranks; he spent four seasons with the Central Hockey League's Indianapolis Checkers where he would hone his game to besome an eventual NHL starter in lieu of Isles star Billy Smith, winning the league's Best Goalie ("Terry Sawchuk") trophy twice, earning First Team All-Star status twice, winning the playoff MVP for the 1981-82 season and regular-season MVP the next year.

He split the 1983-84 season between the CHL and NHL and got to the Big Show full time in 1984-85, playing 41 games to Smith's 37 and Roland Melanson's 8, on an Isles team that iced no fewer than three 100-point players: Mike Bossy (58 goals, 117 points), Brent Sutter (42 goals, 102 points) and John Tonelli (42 goals, 100 points).

He would appear in more and more games each year, cementing his position as the #1 goalie up until and including the 1988-89 season, where he was a trade deadline after appearing in 50 games to the Isles, and sent to the Los Angeles Kings where he would appear in another 19 and be a fixture for eight years, culminating in a 1993 Stanley Cup Final appearance.

He would finish his career by spending two seasons with the San Jose Sharks alongside two other veterans - Ed Belfour and Mike Vernon - before retiring to Calgary and joining the Hockey Night In Canada/Sportsnet analysis teams for Calgary Flames games but also the national telecasts.

But today I want to focus on the earlier part of his career. This is an artist's rendering of what he looked like wearing the Tigers' Philadelphia Flyers-inspired uniform, on card #138 from In The Game's 2013-14 Heroes And Prospects set and Hockey Hero sub-set:

And this is him wearing his classic Jofa helmet-and-grid with the Islanders' blue (then-away) uniform, on card #123 from ITG's 2013-14 Between The Pipes set and Greats Of The Game sub-set:

That was his look when he set a record that would last 33 years, that of making 73 saves in a single playoff game - the seven-period "1987 Easter Epic", which stood until hours ago when Joonas Korpisalo of the Columbus Blue Jackets stopped 85 Tampa Bay Lightning shots in a bitter eight-period Game 1 loss.

And Hrudey took it well, as you can see here:

He seems humble, genuine and nice, which is the same feeling I had when I received those cards from him in the mail a few years back. I had written him a fan letter and joined those cards care of HNIC and they came back in roughly eight months. He signed them in black sharpie.

He's also been an advocate for mental health for a few years now, and even more so during the pandemic.

Kelly Hrudey Autograph Card

Don't let his career GAA of 3.43 and .893 save percentage fool you, Kelly Hrudey played in the 1980s and early 1990s, which has a tendency to skew with perceptions.

I'm not saying Hrudey was on a Grant Fuhr or Bill Ranford in their prime level, let alone that of a Patrick Roy, but he was a top-10 goalie for a lot of his career. As a matter of fact, he finished top-5 in Vezina Trophy voting three times: fifth in 1985-86 and third in 1987-88 (with the New York Islanders, who had selected him 38th overall at the 1980 draft), as well as fourth in 1990-91 while with the Los Angeles Kings.

He played his final two seasons (1996-98) as the veteran backup to Chris Terreri/Ed Belfour and similarly-on-a-down-slope Mike Vernon with the San Jose Sharks.

Though many recall his bandana-wearing days with the Isles the most - particularly the 72-save, seven-period Easter Epic  - I, as a local to the Montréal Canadiens and Wayne Gretzky super-fan - tend to think of him as a King first and foremost; it was with L.A. that he got his final Vezina-conversation-worthy season(s), and his play leading to the Stanley Cup Final in 1992-93 was stellar... he just got exposed against the Habs, who had Roy to practice on during their off days.

Hrudey liked being an original, and that was reflected on his Kings helmet, which he had painted as others did their masks, despite being a regular Jofa cage, which I also wore at the time:

That's card #A-KH from In The Game's 2012-13 Decades - The 1990s set (and Autograph sub-set, signed in black sharpie), showing him in the Kings' (best) black (away) uniform.

Hrudey has been one of Canada's best hockey analysts since moving onto Hockey Night In Canada following his retirement. For a while, there, he was probably even the best, although the competition has stiffened in the past decade; he remains the best example of a former player who fully understood the game being able to simplify it and explain it to the masses. In that regard, he was indeed a game changer.