Kyle Chipchura Jersey Card

Yes, the Arizona Coyotes are in panic mode.

After buying out their lone #1 center Mike Ribeiro last summer, then claiming to go through a youth movement before back-tracking and claiming veterans will help the team make the playoffs, the Coyotes saw their backup goalie Devan Dubnyk outplaying starter Mike Smith, the team is starting to hold post-game meetings, GM Don Maloney threatened to trade all of his players, including those with no-trade clauses - and he got on that by sending Rob Klinkhammer - a winger who had 20 points last season - to the Pittsburgh Penguins, then putting Kyle Chipchura (a shut-down, penalty-killing center who also had 20 points last season) on waivers earlier today.

At this point, I'm probably more confident to see the Edmonton Oilers bounce back before Arizona...

Getting rid of your ''sure things'' isn't the way to build a contender, it's a sure-fire way to tank. Within just a few months, Maloney got rid of his best offensive weapons (Ribeiro at center, and he let goal-scorer Radim Vrbata walk as well), and his penalty-killing center, because who need centers, passers and scorers, right?

Don't misunderstand me on the importance of Chipchura: he's slow for the NHL, and his 20 points last year were a career-high - an attainable goal, but far from a guarantee. What he can give you, though, is leadership (he captained Team Canada at the World Juniors and was drafted by the Montréal Canadiens in the first round on his leadership skills alone), ability in the face-off circle (i.e. ''initial possession''), and decent defensive play, particularly on the PK. And all teams need that, particularly teams who cannot replace that skill at a higher speed.

For my complete view and evaluation of his skill set, I'll refer you to this post I made in September, which I still stand by; the only thing that's changed since that post is I no longer keep contact with my ''new friend''.

But I thought the news of his being waived, and likely return to AHL play, warranted I talk about this terrific card, from In The Game's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects set (#M-10 of the Game-Used Jersey sub-set, the ''Black'' variant):

As you can see, it contains a rare jersey swatch with a stitch from both the red and white parts of the Hamilton Bulldogs' jersey, though it shows him wearing the Portland Pirates' red (away) uniform - and the alternate captain's ''A'' sewn on his chest. Either it was a mistake, or they used an old swatch, as Chipchura hadn't played for the Bulldogs since the 2008-09 season; then again, he hadn't played in the AHL at all between that season and 2011-12, and he was only there because of the lockout, as he played in 46 of the Phoenix Coyotes' 48 games when play resumed.

Kyle Chipchura Autograph Card

After months of looking around for other players who might fit the bill, I decided to cross off #28 of my Habs Numbers Project with this beautiful card of Kyle Chipchura, as chosen by my newest friend:

It's from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Artifacts set (#AF-CH of the Autofacts sub-set), always the best-looking set out there, year in and year out. It's a sticker autograph, signed in thin blue sharpie.

Despite having only been a point-per-game player once in four years of Juniors with the Prince Albert Raiders (the year following the draft, 32 points in 28 games) and having been slotted as a late-second or early-third round pick, the Montréal Canadiens chose Chipchura 18th overall (first round) in 2004, ahead of Travis Zajac (20th), Wojtek Wolski (21st), Andrej Meszaros (23rd), Cory Schneider (26th), Jeff Schultz (27th), Mike Green (29th), Dave Bolland (32nd), Carl Sodenberg (49th), David Booth (53rd), Brandon Dubinsky (60th), Alex Goligoski (61st), David Krejci (63rd), Brandon Prust (70th), Alexei Emelin (84th), Alexander Edler (91st), Johan Franzen (97th), Kris Versteeg (134th), Pekka Rinne (258th), and Mark Streit (262nd).

But the Habs did so not for Chipchura's limited offensive capabilities, but because he was viewed as a tremendous leader and potential future captain: he had already been slated to captain both the Raiders and Team Canada at the World Juniors the following season - which he did, winning gold.

In his first full AHL season, he helped the Hamilton Bulldogs win the Calder Cup (with such stellar players and Andrei Kostitsyn, Maxim Lapierre, André Benoit, and Ryan O'Byrne). He was a bit slow for Guy Carbonneau's all-offense style of play (and later Jacques Martin's all-checking style) on the parent Habs club, though, so the team traded him to the Anaheim Ducks for a fourth-round pick in 2009. He found a role as a bottom-six forward with the Ducks for the remainder of the season, but was forced out of the line-up the next year.

The Phoenix Coyotes liked him enough to sign him as a free agent twice, though, and he only missed a total of 4 games over the past two seasons in the desert. Ironically, he scored 5 goals in both the locked-out season (46 games) and last year (80 games); he has two more seasons left on his contract with the now-Arizona Coyotes, at $850K per.

He is a 6'2'', 210-pound center who is good at covering his man close - he's a bit too slow to cover a fast player who has more than three feet's distance to out-maneuver him; his basic defensive zone positioning makes him a fine penalty killer. With his pedigree, size and leadership skills, you'd want to slot him in the #3 role; however, in today's quicker NHL, he's better suited to the fourth line. If the rules get laxer as they seem to want to become, and the clutch-and-grab style becomes fashionable again, then he'd be ideal as a 15-minute, shut-down man.