Mark Borowiecki Autographed Card

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the Ottawa Senators would finish eighth in the Atlantic Division in 2019-20).

Earlier today, Mark Borowiecki, Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Ron Hainsey were named the alternate captains of the Ottawa Senators, and for the second straight season, no one will get to wear the "C", as the captaincy remains vacant since the Erik Karlsson trade at last year's training camp.

My guess is Borowiecki, Pageau, Brady Tkachuk and Thomas Chabot are the front-runners to carry the torch in the future, but the Sens may feel Chabot or Tkachuk is the leading candidate at the moment but too young for the time being, as they are still on their ELC (rookie contract).

Borowiecki has never played a full 82-game season so far in the NHL; his career-best was the 70 games he suited up in in 2016-17, which enabled him to lead the league in penalty minutes with 154, which in turn led to his starring on this "Retro" variant of card #594 from Upper Deck's 2017-18 O-Pee-Chee set and League Leaders sub-set, which he signed in blue sharpie last season:

I mentioned it previously, but this bilingual card (and entire set, truth be told) is very poorly translated, because the French text, Les Dirigeants De La Ligue, does not translate to League Leaders but instead to League Managers.

Barring an extremely generous lottery win, I fail to see how a 30-year-old stay-at-home defenseman with a $1.2M cap hit playing for the Sens could also have the means and find the time to own a team and manage it.

That being said, I like the Sens and have for a long time. And while I live in the heart of Montréal, they're the most affordable local pro hockey I have, as the Habs are out of range and boring (plus I boycott them for a variety of reasons including the P.K. Subban trade and the re-hiring of Claude Julien), the Laval Rocket isn't much cheaper, and at least the Senators' players are endearing and nice, and making the trip there allows for a mini-vacation (I usually make a weekend out of it).

I'm extremely confident that the bunch of kids GM Pierre Dorion has put together will be the foundation of a very good team down the line, and I hope the young veterans who are leading them now (Borowiecki and Pageau chief among them) will be still there to watch them shine five years from now.

Gilbert Dionne: 6 Autographed Cards (Part 1)

Gilbert Dionne has always - unfairly - been compared to his older brother, Marcel Dionne. I mean, sure, they share parents, but they're 19 years apart, and the elder brother is a Hall Of Famer - that's putting undue pressure on the youngest.

Not only did they not have the same playing styles, but Marcel was short at 5'8'' and 185 pounds, while Gilbert was a tall and lanky 6'1'' and 190 pounds. And while Marcel won the Art Ross trophy, the Lester B. Pearson award, two Lady Byngs, was second of all time in goals, assists and points when he retired and holds the third-most 100-point seasons in NHL history (behind Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux), played in 8 All-Star Games and was on four end-of-season All-Star Teams, won three World Championship bronze medals (1978, 1983 and 1986) and one Canada Cup with Team Canada, one trophy he could never get his hands on was the Stanley Cup; Gilbert won it with the Montréal Canadiens in just his second season, in 1992-93.

He had also had a fine rookie season, making the All-Rookie Team and finishing second among rookies in powerplay goals despite having played less than half the season in the NHL; indeed, he had 21 goals and 34 points in just 39 games with the Habs, after spending the first half of 1991-92 with the AHL's Fredericton Canadiens.

I do have this card from his days in Fredericton, from Classic's 1992-93 Pro (Hockey) Prospects set (card #87),  wearing an identical replica of the Habs' classic red uniform:

For comparisons' sake, here he is wearing the Habs' regular uniform, with the NHL's 75th Anniversary patch thrown in for good measure, on card #92 from Pro Set's 1992-93 Pro Set collection:

Eerie, right?

Pro Set also produced these two cards of his wearing the Canadiens' white (then-home) uniform, from the 1992-93 Parkhust set (French Canadian Edition):

On the left is his regular (Rookie) card, #313 in the set; on the right is his League Leaders sub-set card as the rookie with the best shooting percentage, which is #447 in the collection.

The last three also count towards fulfilling #45 of my Habs Numbers Project.

             (continued in the following post)

Tom Draper: 4 Autographed Cards

I mentioned in a post 4 years ago how a conference from Tom Draper inspired me to move forward in my life, and inspired at least 3 NHLers and one NFL player to continue on their career paths to making a living as pro athletes, and I decided to write to him to tell him about it as well. So I sent a letter (and these 4 cards) to his home on March 11th, 2014, and got all of them back today, May 12th (2014), signed in black sharpie with his jersey number (35) tagged at the end, 62 days later. I thought he might keep the extras, but he sent them back, so I'll be able to share them with other guys he's inspired (perhaps Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, Mathieu Darche, Ben Guité, Jean-François Darche, Alexandre Burrows or even my brother).

As I was re-reading my post from 2010, though, I realized I may have sounded dismissive of his achievements, which is far from the case. Just the Hap Holmes award (the AHL's equivalent to the Jennings trophy though rarely shared because it comes with the additional condition of having played in at least 50% of the team's games) is most impressive.

Ironically, Quebecers may have won it more often than any other nationality: Connie Dion, Bob Perreault (twice), Marcel Paillé (twice), Denis DeJordy, André Gill, Gilles Villemure (twice), Daniel Bouchard, Michel Deguise, Michel ''Bunny'' Larocque, Robert Holland, Maurice Barrette, Sam St-Laurent, Vincent Riendeau (twice), Jocelyn Perreault, François Gravel, Jean-Claude Bergeron, André Racicot, Boris Rousson, Jean-François Labbé, Jean-Sébastien Giguère, Martin Biron, Simon Lajeunesse, Mathieu Chouinard, Draper and Dany Sabourin. Marc Lamothe and Steve Valiquette are from Ontario, in case you were wondering.

He was good enough to play NHL games in six different seasons for three separate teams (with two stints with the Winnipeg Jets, who had drafted him with the 165th pick in 1985). I was convinced I had a signed card depicting him with the Jets (likely from his 1997-98 season with the IHL's Québec Rafales), but I cannot find it; still, I now have cards of him wearing both of the Buffalo Sabres' 1980s classic uniforms:

They are both from Pro Set's 1992-93 Parkhurst (French Canadian Edition) set and both sport the NHL's 75th anniversary patch, with the one on the left - in their white (home) uniform being card #240 in the set (also serving as his official rookie card for the brand), and the one on the right - in the blue (away) uniform - being from the League Leaders sub-set (card #448), showing him as the rookies leader for wins, and the added bonus of being a throwback to the 1960-61 Parkhurst set.

Best of all, he has a different mask on each one.