Tyson Barrie: Two Autographed Cards

Good news for Colorado Avalanche and Tyson Barrie fans: the two sides have agreed to a four-year contract that will average $5.5M, after which the then-29-year-old will be a highly sought-after (and highly-paid) free agent.

The two sides had gone to arbitration and signed their deal while awaiting the arbiter's decision between the Avs' two-year $4M per offer and Barrie's $6M one-year rebuttal. The agreement is pretty much a down-the-middle compromise in terms of salary that goes a tad on the player's side, who in turn gives away a year of UFA status.

He will therefore make slightly less than teammate Erik Johnson for the next few seasons, but will likely make a lot more four years from now, possibly in the $8-9M range, barring a career-altering injury.

Barrie won gold with Team Canada at the 2015 World Championships with then-Avs teammates Ryan O'Reilly and Matt Duchene; O'Reilly now plays for the Buffalo Sabres, and Duchene might eventually get traded so that the Avalanche can improve their blue line, which is widely considered to be the team's Achilles heel - and the main reason why the team has failed to make the playoffs for the past two seasons after winning their division in 2013-14.

In the WHL, he had captained the Kelowna Rockets, after leading them to a Memorial Cup appearance; he set the team record for most career points, with 228 (in 256 games). Here he is wearing the Rockets' black (away) uniform, on card #128 from In The Game's 2009-10 Heroes And Prospects set:

And here is he manning the point with the Avalanche, on card #126 from Panini's 2013-14 Score set:

He signed both cards in black sharpie, adding the jersey number corresponding with each - 4 with the Rockets, 41 with the Avs, though he has switched to 4 with Colorado as well now.

Colton Sissons: 2 Signed Cards

Lost in the pre-trading deadline frenzy was the fact that Colton Sissons signed a brand-new three-year deal with the Nashville Predators in late February.

At 22 years of age, the former Kelowna Rockets captain is looking to parlay a successful stint in juniors and decent AHL run with the Milwaukee Admirals (including a captaincy there as well this season) into a permanent third-line center role in the NHL, not unlike Phillip Danault, now of the Montréal Canadiens.

I thought it was a good time to show these two cards, which are essentially different signed versions of the same card from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects set:

On the left is the regular-issue card (#124 in the series) which he signed in person in silver sharpie after a game against the Ottawa Senators in 2013-14; on the right is the signed insert version of the card (#A-CSI in the Autograph sub-set), featuring a black-sharpied on-sticker autograph. It's the same design, and the same picture of the Rockets' red uniform with the captain's "C" on his chest.

I also like that his signature is identical, down to the tagged jersey number (15) at the end, which shows that he takes even the at-times tedious obligatory card company signings as seriously as face-to-face encounters with fans. In this day and age, I find it impressive that a young sports star isn't jaded.

The backs were also different, in the same order:

Also fitting: as the go-to call-up for the Preds this year, he was brought back two days ago to fill in for the injured Paul Gaustad, who, like Sissons, is also a face-off beast.

Two Josh Gorges Autographed Cards

Unlike Maxim Lapierre, Josh Gorges signed each card by adding the correct jersey number on each, thus he wore #7 for the Kelowna Rockets, and #26 for the Montréal Canadiens.

The junior card, from his WHL days as captain of the Rockets is from In The Game's 2004-05 Heroes And Prospects series (card #82), after a WHL title, a Memorial Cup, a Western Conference First All-Star Team nod and a finalist for the league's top defenseman - as well as a participation at the World Juniors for Team Canada. He had been signed as a free agent (he had never been drafted) by the San Jose Sharks, whose uniforms were close in colours as the Rockets'.

The other card, where he is wearing the Canadiens' red jersey, is from Upper Deck's 2007-08 Series 2 collection (card #410), depicting him making a terrible butterfly pass to an unknown teammate, one of many bad plays resulting from being a part of a shocking mid-season trade to Montréal (alongside a draft pick that ended up being Max Pacioretty) for established whiner and coach-killer Craig Rivet. He has since found his game, and his niche on the team, and can be relied upon to step up and fill in at a higher level when one of the team's top three defensemen gets injured.

Both were signed at the Canadiens' jamboree prior to the 2007-08 season.