Louis Domingue Jersey Card

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I must say I wasn't impressed at all with the way the Tampa Bay Lightning handled the Louis Domingue situation that got progressively worse from the summer until now. By all accounts, he handled it like a pro, but we're talking about a guy who did his job well enough to suit up in 26 games (a decent number for a backup, a very good one for a backup playing behind one of the five best goalies in the league in Andrei Vasilevskiy), who won ten straight games last year while Vasi dealt with small injuries, and helped propel the Bolts to one of the best regular seasons of all time.

And yet on July 1st, Tampa not only signed the best free agent backup (Curtis McElhinney) but also Mike Condon, for some reason, and Scott Wedgewood, ensuring not only a logjam at the top level but also one in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch.

To put it in real estate terms, the Lightning had a mansion (Vasilevskiy) and wanted to buy a weekend country cottage for half a million; they had a million in their pocket (Domingue), went to the bank to borrow two million (McElhinney), then went to a low-level financial institution to borrow $250K (Condon) and a shylock for another $100K (Wedgewood).

In police terms, they used excessive force.

Then they further screwed their team chemistry by signing Brayden Point to a deal that will end up paying him more than captain Steven Stamkos and Art Ross winner Nikita Kucherov when he re-ups in three years - with Kucherov having three years remaining on his deal and Stamkos two at that point.

It's no wonder they're currently sixth in the Atlantic Division with 14 points in 13 games (6-5-2 record) and look like a team waiting for a shakeup.

And it's going to take more than today's trade - Domingue to the New Jersey Devils for a conditional seventh-round pick - to accomplish that.

For his part, Domingue will start with the Devils' AHL affiliate Binghamton Devils, but with Cory Schneider (0-3-1, 4.71 GAA and .847 save percentage) and - to a lesser extent - Mackenzie Blackwood (2-2-2, 3.31 GAA and .871 save percentage) both struggling in net, Domingue might actually become the spark that ignites a decent run to inspire confidence in that locker room when given a chance.

Here he is wearing the Arizona Coyotes' white (away) uniform on card #GJ-DO from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It features a matching (white) game-worn jersey swatch.

Louis Domingue Autographed Card

(team and product links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

I would like to congratulate Louis Domingue on obtaining his first NHL shutout against the New York Islanders last night, at a time when the Arizona Coyotes really needed it.

It was his first start this season. He'd also won in his first-ever start against the Montréal Canadiens, when he signed this card for me (and two others) in blue sharpie:

It's card #49 from In The Game's 2009-10 Between The Pipes set (and Future Stars sub-set), showing him wearing the Québec Remparts' classic red uniform.

Domingue plays a sound positional game that is made for his size (a smaller-than-his-contemporaries 6'2'', clocking in at 200 pounds of muscle), and he's relatively agile and has quick lateral movements from his strong legs. I foresee him being a starter some day, following in the footsteps of Jake Allen, another former LHJMQ standout currently starring for the St. Louis Blues. Allen was a 2008 draft pick, Domingue was drafted in 2010.

Louis Domingue Autographed Card

For a while there, it looked like Arizona Coyotes goalie Louis Domingue was headed to Europe next year, after GM Don Maloney signed no less than three other goalies (Anders Lindback to a one-way deal, as well as Niklas Treutle and Tyler Beskorowany to AHL deals, after both had played in Germany last year) in addition to having albatross Mike Smith already penciled in for the #1 spot.

But instead, he was released and accepted a two-way deal with the team, so he'll be staying in North America after all. I'm not sure why the Coyotes chose Lindback over him, or why they went with a two-way deal, considering Domingue had a respectable 2.73 GAA and .911 save percentage in the NHL last year, going 1-2-1 with the Coyotes, the second-worst team in the league.

His win came in his first start, too, against the Montréal Canadiens (who finished second overall, by the way), at the Bell Centre, no less. In February, not as they were shaking off some rust in early October. Alex Galchenyuk was the only player on the Habs to score on him, scoring twice in the first period.

It was at that game that I got three of his cards signed, but two are currently missing from my stash, so here's the one I could find:

It's card #56 from In The Game's 2010-11 Heroes And Prospects set, signed in blue sharpie. He's seen in the modern goaltender's stance, glove high up and little space between the blocker and pad when seen from the front, wearing the Québec Remparts' classic red uniform.

When the Phoenix Coyotes drafted him with the 138th pick of the 2010 draft, he was a typical goalie of his era, standing at 6'3'' and 191 pounds. He's almost smallish by current-day NHL standards, with the likes of giants such as Lindback and Ben Bishop.