Mike Cammalleri Jersey Card

There are two former Montréal Canadiens players who are still active in the NHL that I wish were still on the team and/or I miss dearly: goalie Jaroslav Halak, of course, but also super-sniper Michael Cammalleri, who scored against his former team earlier tonight.

As I mentioned back in July, I was surprised when he signed on as a free agent with the New Jersey Devils, but he has thrived while the team has dwindled in the standings - both of which were to be expected, Cammalleri's production being a given at this point (he has 28 goals in 65 games so far this year) and the Devils lacking the depth to contend for a playoff spot.

And that's the surprising part. This is the leader who scored 13 goals in 19 playoff games to lead the Canadiens to the Conference Finals in 2010, and the fierce competitor who called out his Habs teammates for their ''losing mentality'' in 2012 (he was absolutely right, by the way, and unlike the article states, no one could be excused from his assessment at the time, in my opinion).

He made a very good case for wearing the ''C'' in Montréal, and is doing very much the same thing in Newark at this point. The only knock on him is his durability - the only time he's come close to a full season since 2008-09 was the 44 games out of 48 during the lock-out season. Regardless, though, he'll get you your 30 goals, and unlike most very good shooters and top-line left wingers, will do so in 65-70 games instead of 82.

And when it matters most, say against your biggest rival on a celebratory evening, he'll steal the show; he'll be ready for the postseason and will carry the team's entire offense on his tiny shoulders. Yes, he's small at 5'9'' and 185 pounds, but I'd take six forwards like him at any time. Even if I managed a tough team like the Calgary Flames.

I didn't purchase a lot of Upper Deck's 2009-10 SP Game-Used Edition packs of cards, and I wasn't the most pleased with the ''hits'' I did get, so at one point I traded most of them for this one, #AF-MC of the Authentic Fabrics sub-set:

It's a great design, the colours really stand out, he's shown attempting a shot during a pre-game skate (he looks relaxed and like he's aiming for a shot, while in games he can find the top corners with his eyes closed when hitting a one-timer), and it's a two-colour swatch of a game-worn jersey. It's just perfect.

2 Michael Cammalleri Authentic Fabrics Jersey Cards

As a guy who tries to write a post per day - and with an impressive backlog of cards I can feature - I usually let the ''news'' around the game dictate my subject matter, but with this year's Free Agent Frenzy and the fair amount of trades that came with it, I had an abundance of choice.

In the next few days, expect posts on Paul Stastny, Jason Spezza, Brian Gionta, Jarome Iginla and a few others, and when he signs his new deal, probably P.K. Subban as well. But for the moment, I thought I could show-and-tell two Michael Cammalleri jersey cards of the same brand:

Originally a draft pick of the Los Angeles Kings (49th overall, 2001), Cammalleri scored 93 goals in his first 283 games with L.A., with a high of 34 (and 80 points) in 81 games in 2006-07. After a contract dispute, he was sent to the Calgary Flames for the last year of his contract where he was soon paired with Iginla, scoring 39 goals with 43 assists for 82 points in 81 games leading up to free agency.

He then signed with the Montréal Canadiens in time for the team's Centennial and led them to the Conference Finals in his first season, scoring 13 goals in 19 playoff games. He scored 54 goals in 170 games in parts of three seasons with the Habs, on a defensively-minded team. From that time, I have this memento, from Upper Deck's 2010-11 SP Game-Used Edition, card #AF-MC of the Authentic Fabrics sub-set, showing him in the team's classic red uniform with the alternate captain's 'A' on his chest:

It ended on a bit of a sour note in Montréal for him, getting traded to the Calgary Flames mid-game by Pierre Gauthier in the weirdest move I've seen from the usually-classy organization. All told, in parts of four seasons over two stints with the Flames, Cammalleri scored 89 goals in 216 games, the final 50 of those goals on a team where he was the lone proven first-liner. In all but 28 games in Calgary, he wore his usual #13 jersey, as can be attested by this card from the 2013-14 SP Game-Used Edition set (card ##AF-MC of the Authentic Fabrics sub-set) by UD:

He's sporting the team's red (away) uniform with the black logo, a staple since 2006 after starting out as the team's third jersey in 2003. Cammy's also worn #93 at the end of the 2011-12 season, because Olli Jokinen wore #13 at the time of the Habs-Flames trade.

Both cards feature a big, red Cammalleri game-used jersey swatch from the home uniforms; the colour suits him, so although I'm a bit surprised that he signed with the New Jersey Devils earlier today (5 years, $25M), he'll look good for sure in red and white with hints of black. I'm not surprised by the money or term he got, but that he came to the East, and not with a straight-up contender like Montréal, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Boston Bruins, or the Philadelphia Flyers.

Michael Cammalleri Autograph Card

The question on a lot of people's minds in Canada these days is ''what does Sidney Crosby need (to get going at the Olympics... again)?'', because few people remember, but even in 2010 in Vancouver, before scoring the behind-the-goal-line overtime winner, he'd been overshadowed by Jonathan Toews and a slew of other Canadian forwards, and it's happening again.

The smart-ass answer (and a correct one if not the definitive one), of course, is: Evgeni Malkin's line taking all the pressure off by facing the opposition's best checkers - but since he's Russian, that wouldn't help Team Canada.

Crosby is without a doubt a world-class talent, and going purely on skill, he's among the top 5 forwards in the game, behind Malkin, Alexander Ovechkin, Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and on par with Toews.

As a goal-sorer, he ranks in the top-10 behind Steven Stamkos, Ovechkin, Phil Kessel, Patrick Kane and a handful of others, while he's among the best passers in the league with Mike Ribeiro, Jason Spezza and Henrik Sedin.

As far as leadership goes, though, sure, he takes over when the going gets tough, but he also whines to referees when things don't go his way and has a sore-loser mentality where he hits opponents with his stick long after plays and generally isn't the cool-headed example of sportsmanship Toews, Jarome Iginla, Sedin, Spezza, Andrew Ladd, John Tavares, Gabriel Landeskog, Mark Giordano, Malkin, Anze Kopitar and so many others are.

Short and thin, ideally he'd be paired with at least one giant, and it'd be nice if both wingers could have finishing touch on par with his passing skills - and Stamkos would have been ideal. When he fell to injury, Canada's brass could have thought outside the box for a minute and replaced him with Mike Cammalleri, one of the purest goal-scorers in the game, a perennial threat with his super-fast and deadly accurate one-timer. The very definition of ''clutch'', he scored 13 goals in 19 games when the Montréal Canadiens made their deep playoff run in 2010, and his 19 points represented 41% of the team's 46 goal total. Paired with, say, Jeff Carter (6'4'', also a 30-40 goal man), you could have a line that would rival even the Russians'.

Oh well.

But back to Cammalleri. Chosen 49th overall in the second round of the 2001 draft by the Los Angeles Kings, he gave them three solid seasons before being traded to the Calgary Flames at the 2008 draft prior to becoming a coveted free agent; he had 39 goals 82 points with the Flames, then signed with Habs just in time for their Centennial season, where he was almost named team captain. He was the player who was most interested in the team's rich history, meeting with past legends at every opportunity, trying to learn from them, totally immersing himself in the team's winning culture.

Apparently that didn't go well with some of his teammates and it reached the boiling point - and the team's management reached the point of ridiculousness - when Cammalleri was traded back to the Flames for Rene Bourque... in the middle of a game!

He's had 26 goals 53 points so far in 85 games in his second coming with Calgary - an impressive amount, considering who he is playing with. Only he Lee Stempniak had more than 30 points last season, with a team-leading 32...

I'll always be a huge fan of his and, like Jaroslav Halak, will always feel bad about the way they were treated by the Habs' previous administration.

And that's why I was particularly happy to find this card of his in a pack of Upper Deck's 2007-08 SP Authentic that I received in 2012:

It's card #ST-MC, from the Sign Of The Times sub-set, and shows him wearing the Kings' white uniform, back when purple was still in their palette. It's signed on-card in blue sharpie and, though condensed, is signed with the surname he prefers to be called by, ''Michael'', rather than ''Mike''.