Doug Smail: Four Autographed Cards

There was a time in the 1970s and early 80s where very good players from Saskatchewan didn't necessarily play in the WHL and instead went to American Colleges, which is what Doug Smail opted for when he signed up with the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks, posting three impressive seasons of 50 points in 38 games, 58 points in 35 games and a whopping 43 goals, 44 assists and 87 points in 40 games to finish out his WCHA/NCAA career in 1979-80.

He caught the eye of the Winnipeg Jets - not enough for them to draft him, mind you, but they did sign him as a free agent - and by the second year he was a full-time NHLer. He had a career year in 1984-85 with 31 goals, 35 assists and 66 points in 80 games, but he passed the 40-point mark four more times in the 'Peg before essentially spending his final two and a half seasons as a journeyman, spending 57 games with the Minnesota North Stars, and one season apiece with the Québec Nordiques and Ottawa Senators.

At one time, he shared the NHL record for quickest goal to begin a game at five second, tied with Merlyn Phillips, Bryan Trottier and Alexander Mogilny. It has since been broken by James Van Riemsdyk. He was extremely fast and swift, and because of the way he skated and his short size (he was 5'9" and 175 pounds and skated mostly bent forward), he looked like a bullet on the ice, as can be attested bt these two cards from Pro Set:

On the left is card #117 from the 1991-92 Series 1 set showing him wearing the North Stars' beautiful green (away) uniform; card on the right is #466 from the 1991-92 Series 2 set, where he's sporting the Nordiques' classic blue (away) uniform.

Here's another shot of the Nordiques' amazing blue uniform, showing Smail during a defensive zone face-off in front of goalie Jacques Cloutier, on card #124 from Upper Deck's 1992-93 Series 1 set:

And here he is wearing Québec's white (home) uniform - a rare sight in the early 1990s - on card #197 from Score's 1992-93 Series 1 (Low Numbers) collection:

It was thought after his lone season in La Belle Province with 28 points in 46 games and the subsequent season with the Sens where he posted 14 points in 51 games and even spent 9 games with the IHL's San Diego Gulls (3 points and 20 penalty minutes) that perhaps it was time for him to hang his skates up, but that was proven to be entirely wrong with his final three seasons, played in the British League:

From HockeyDB

Yeah. That's a 169-point season in 53 games. He was 20 points behind team leader Mark Morrison's 189 (in 57 games) for a team that went from last place to second overall on the strength of their Canadian imports that season. And two points per game the following two seasons for good measure also looks good on any resume.

Nowadays, he lives in Colorado and last I heard, he was coaching minor hockey. He's also the ideal #41 in my Nordiques Numbers Project.

Brian Bellows Autographed Card

It required a bit of digging, but I will be able to continue my narrative of the past week - after posts on Patrik Laine and Jimmy Carson - about the four youngest players in NHL history to hit the 100-career-goal mark; of course, Wayne Gretzky is first, Carson is second and Laine is now fourth, which makes Brian Bellows third.

He had a solid Juniors career with the Kitchener Rangers, prompting Sports Illustrated to name him "the hottest prospect since Gretzky" - and yet he was selected second-overall behind Gord Kluzak at the 1980 draft; it would be more honest in retrospect to place him fourth in his draft year, behind Doug Gilmour (134th overall, 450 goals and 1414 points), Kitchener teammate Scott Stevens (three Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe Trophy, 13 All-Star Game appearances in three separate decades), and Phil Housley (6th overall, 1232 career points and one of the best American defensemen of all time), ahead of the likes of Pat Verbeek (43rd, 1063 points and 2905 penalty minutes), Kevin Dineen (56th), Ron Sutter 94th), Murray Craven (17th), Ray Ferraro (88th), Dave Ellett (75th) and Dave Andreychuk (16th).

He was a power forward in the sense that he hit the 30-goal mark often and the 40-goal mark four times - with a high of 55 in 1989-90 - and didn't shy away from a physical style of play, but he didn't collect penalty minutes like many of his contemporaries, never hitting the 100-PIM mark, and only hitting 81 once, in 1987-88.

His 29 points in 23 games led the Minnesota North Stars as the team went to the Stanley Cup Final in 1990-91, alongside the greatest player in team history, Neal Broten, who had 22 points. While I've got these words in mind, I might as well say that I do not feel it's out of line to speak of Bellows in the same breath as Dino Ciccarelli, Jean-Paul Parisé, and Dave Gagner as the second line of the franchise's best forwards of all time, behind the front-line of Broten, Bobby Smith and Mike Modano.

For some reason, however, Minnesota sent him to the Montréal Canadiens for Russ Courtnall ahead of the 1992-93 season, where he posted 88 regular-season points and 15 more in the playoffs - tied for third in team scoring with Mike Keane, behind Vincent Damphousse's 23 and Kirk Muller's 17 - helping the Habs win the Stanley Cup.

His production dipped afterwards, to 33 goals and 71 points in 1993-94, then 16 points altogether in 1994-95, 49 points in 79 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1995-96, 31 points in 69 games with the Bolts and Anaheim Mighty Ducks in 1996-97 to 36 points in 76 games with the Washington Capitals in 1998-99.

Even though he won the Cup with my hometown team, I usually think of Bellows more as the dominant North Stars right winger from the 1980s, like on card #160 from Score's 1991-92 Score (Bilingual Canadian Edition) set:

He's wearing the team's classic green (away) uniform, and it's actually a tad darker and much more vivid to the naked eye than via this scan. He signed it during the Habs' Centennial celebrations nearly a decade ago already.

Paul Holmgren Three Autographed Cards

Paul Holmgren has had prominent roles with the Philadelphia Flyers for over 40 years at this point, so many always assume he's one of the all-time greats alongside Bobby Clarke, Bernard Parent, Ron Hextall and Eric Lindros.

That is absolutely not the case.

In 500 games with the Flyers, Holmgren's 309 points don't stand out as much as his 1600 penalty minutes, and he wasn't part of one of the two championship teams, having come in to play a single game in 1975-76, a full year after Philly's last Stanley Cup.

He only surpassed the 20-goal mark twice, scoring 22 in 1980-81 and 30 in 1979-80, and even that was only good for fith on the team, behind Reggie Leach (50), Bill Barber (40), Brian Propp (34) and Rick MacLeish (31). That was a weird season in Philadelphia, as captain Clarke not only posted 69 points (good for fifth on the team behind Ken Linseman, Leach, Propp and Barber) but was also in his first of three seasons as assistant-coach on the team. He played two years past his three-year stint as assistant-coach... not that's a legend.

In case you were wondering where I was going with this, Holmgren resigned as the team's President earlier today and joined the ranks of "advisor" alongside Clarke, his predecessor both as GM and President.

Unlike Clarke, however, "Homer" made a lot of questionable moves that greatly backfired, such as trading young (and heavy-partying) core players Mike Richards and Jeff Carter to make room under the salary cap to sign the second-best available free agent goalie on the market, Ilya Bryzgalov, to a nine-year, $51M contract, a deal that was bought out in the summer of 2013 after two seasons and that will be on the Flyers' cap until 2027. (For the record, I don't think Richards and Carter get the wake-up call that turns them into two-time Cup champions if they don't get traded, so at least there's that).

Oh, and to make room for him on the roster, he traded Sergei Bobrovsky to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a second-round pick and two fourth-rounders; Bob, of course, would go on to win two Vezina trophies as the league's best goalie in Columbus and is the only active goalie who can make such a claim. (And yes, Henrik Lundqvist is till playing and just has one to his name).

By the way, the best free agent goalie on the market the year Bryz was signed? That was perennial All-Star Tomas Vokoun, who signed a one-year deal worth $1.5M.

Holmgren is also the one who traded playoff best and projected 30-goal forward James van Riemsdyk (he would hit the mark twice and come close another two in the following six seasons) to the Toronto Maple Leafs for defensive defenseman on a down slide Luke Schenn.

Was he also able to trade away valuable draft picks, you ask? How about the first-rounder who became John Carlson for defenseman Steve Eminger (man, does he ever love those stay-at-home defensemen!), who played a total of 12 games in Philadelphia (0 goals, 2 assists, 8 penalty minutes) before being shipped out?

Then there was the free agent signings of Nikolay Zherdev and the trade for Andrej Meszaros which put the team over the cap, forcing them to trade away a contract - namely that of fan-favourite and playoff hero Simon Gagné, a two-time 40-*goal scorer and one opf the most prolific scorers of the Dead Puck Era - for (you guessed it!) defensive defenseman Matt Walker, who played the final 8 games of his 314-game career with the Flyers. Gagné reached the Cup Final the following season with the Tampa Bay Lightning and won the Cup with Richards and Carter on a mighty Flyer-heavy 2012 Los Angeles Kings squad.

A trade of pests? Sure! Effective checking winger and semi-power forward Scottie Upshall for dirtbag and suspension magnet Dan "Carbomb" Carcillo comes to mind...

And yet he kept failing upwards. Until as team Preseident, he hired Hextall as GM, who did an admirable job stocking up the cupboards with blue chip prospects and getting rid of Holmgren's terrible contracts. Hextall was assitant-HGM on the Cup-winning Kings of 2012 and 2014, so he was more than familiar with the Flyers' roster; it was a marriage that lasted for four seasons, until last Christmas, when Holgmren decided Hextall wasn't bold enough and took his place to finish up the season, until he found his replacement in the form of Chuck Fletcher, the man who saddled the Minnesota Wild with so many bad contracts that they were never good enough to make a dent in the post-season despite carrying not one but two (Ryan Suter and Zach Parise) players on identical 13-year, $98M contracts.

Of course, the first few things Fletcher did was get rid of a third of the defense and, most importantly, sign Kevin Hayes - a middle-six center who had only reached the 50-point plateau once, and that was last year - to an albatross seven-year, $50M contract that includes a no-movement clause that guarantees he will have to take up a protection spot for next season's expansion draft.

Bold. Extremely stupid and ill-advised, but bold.

So, yeah. Holmgren.

This is what he looked like when patrolling the ice in a Flyers uniform, collecting penalty minutes the way some folks do frequent flyer miles:

The card on the left is #105 in Topps' 1981-82 Topps set, while the one on the right is #434 from In The Game's 2004-05 Franchises: U.S. East collection. Both feature him in the classic 1970s orange (away) uniform.

A Minnesota native, Holmgren started out his professional career playing for the WHA's Minnesota Fighting Saints for most of the 1975-76 season, and he returned to his home state at the tail end of his career, suiting up with the Minnesota North Stars for 27 games spread over two seasons, as seen on card #100 from O-Pee-Chee's 1984-85 O-Pee-Chee set:

He's wearing the team's amazing 1980s green (away) uniform. I miss those so much.

All three were signed in black sharpie in February 2018 when the Flyers were in Montréal.

Neal Broten Autographed Card

Minnesota North Stars founder Walter Bush, who was also a one-time Hockey USA President, died earlier today, at 86 years old. Per AP:

The Minneapolis native was enshrined into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1980, the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000, and the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2009. Awarded the Olympic Order in 2002, he managed the 1959 U.S. national team and 1964 U.S. Olympic team, serving on the U.S. Olympic Committee in 1963.

Bush was selected the NHL's Executive of the Year in 1972 by The Hockey News, and won the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1973 for his contributions to the sport in the United States. As USA Hockey president, Bush played a large role in the addition of women's hockey to the Olympics in 1998.

As a tribute, I thought I could feature the player who, to me, best represents the North Stars, perhaps the player who had his best seasons wearing the green and yellow uniform (save perhaps for Bobby Smith): Neal Broten.

Both his brothers Paul and Aaron also played in the NHL, but Neal was the All-Star in the family.

A star with the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers (with whom he won the NCAA championship in 1979), he followed his head coach Herb Brooks to the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics and was a part of the famed "Miracle On Ice" edition of Team USA - a pretty sweet deal for a 20-year-old who would return to College Hockey and go on to win the Hobey Baker Award as its best player.

He then joined his home state North Stars - who had drafted him 42nd overall at the 1979 draft - at the end of the 1980-81 season, scoring twice in their final three games, and posting 8 points in their first of two Cinderella Stanley Cup Final runs. His actual rookie season was spectacular, scoring 38 goals (a career-high), with 60 assists and 98 points.

His career-high for points - 105, the first American-born player to surpass the 100-point mark - came in 1985-86, but he was a point-per-game player until the 1989-90 season (85 points in 80 games).

His best playoff performance was the 22 points (including 9 goals) in 23 games in the team's second Cinderella run, in 1990-91.

He followed the team to Dallas in 1993 but was traded to the New Jersey Devils early in the 1994-95 campaign, culminating in his lone Stanley Cup win, after posting an impressive 19 points (including 7 goals) in 20 games, second-best to Stéphane Richer's 21 on the defensive-minded team coached by Jacques Lemaire. He and Ken Morrow (of the powerhouse 1980s New York Islanders) are the only two members of the Miracle On Ice team t have their names on the Stanley Cup.

His final season, 1996-97, was more difficult, suiting up for the Devils just thrice and spending time with their IHL affiliate Phoenix Roadrunners before getting traded to the Los Angeles Kings for future considerations, then put on waivers and claimed by the Dallas Stars to finish his career with the franchise he'd started it with.

Here he is taking the puck to center ice in the North Stars' white (home) uniform, on card #28 from Score's 1991-92 (American Edition) flagship collection, which he signed in blue sharpie:

He retired having played 1099 regular-season games, scoring 289 goals with 634 assists for 923 points, with 35 goals and 63 assists for 98 points in 135 playoff games.

To me, he's the quintessential North Star (apologies to Smith and Mike Modano), and the best Minnesota-born player, ahead of Zach Parise.

Gilles Meloche: 2 Autographed Cards

We have all seen the San Jose Sharks make their way to this year's Stanley Cup Final, on the strength of the strong play of Logan Couture, Marc-Édouard Vlasic and the impressive leadership of Joe Pavelski (yes, I admit it).

But did you know the Sharks have roots that date all the way back to the 1960s, namely the California Seals? Indeed. Though the Seals were founded by Barry Van Gerbig and first sold to Charles O. Finley, it was the Gund Brothers (George and Gordon) who were the first to really take the team to heart.

So much so that when it became impossible to continue operating in the Bay Area, they relocated it to their hometown, forming the NHL iteration of the Cleveland Barons before merging with the Minnesota North Stars. The North Stars' minority owner Howard Baldwin threatened to move the team to California claiming poor attendance record, and in a twist that only the Bronze Era NHL could come up with, decided to mediate the ownership's power struggles by awarding the Gunds a new expansion team - the San Jose Sharks - and half the North Stars' roster as further compensation.

As a mark of respect for the organization's roots and their own history with the league, they decided to use teal as the team's main colour, just like in their days manning the Seals (under Finley's watch, the team had temporarily been renamed the Golden Seals and were mostly using an Oakland Athetics-style yellow as their main colour, matching his other team).

The Seals were god-awful; they had one good forward (Carol Vadnais) and one of the best goalies of his era in Gilles Meloche; the rest were pretty much AHLers, which explains why the team has one of the worst records in league history.

Meloche has an All-Star Game on his resume, and when sharing the net with Don Beaupre in Minnesota formed one of the best tandems in the league, reaching the Cup Final and semi-finals in a short period of time.

Here he is in two of his three most memorable uniforms (I couldn't get my hands on a card of his with the Barons), from In The Game's 2011-12 Between The Pipes set, first with the Seals on card #182 (part of the La Belle Province sub-set):

And here he is sporting his classic North Stars mask - which he had re-made for the Minnesota Wild/Stars' alumni game this winter - on card #132, from the Decades: The 1970s sub-set:

He signed both in thin black sharpie.

Upon retiring, after playing three seasons for the franchise, Meloche spent nearly 20 years as the Pittsburgh Penguins' goaltending coach, winning three Stanley Cups in the process. He's now a part-time special assignment scout for the team.

In another ironic twist, Baldwin owned the Pens as well... he was the team's chairman when it elected to go to bankruptcy in 1998.

George Gund died in January. The Sharks honored him as a builder on the night they played the Montréal Canadiens. 

Enrico Ciccone Autograph Card

Thank you Ebay for netting me this card of Enrico Ciccone's showing him wearing the Minnesota North Stars' colours (though he's listed on the back as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning):

It's the autographed insert version of card #132 from Upper Deck's 1994-95 Be A Player set, which he signed on-card in gold sharpie.

It's fitting, because the North Stars moved south just a few seasons later to become the Dallas Stars, and a decade later were replaced by the Minnesota Wild, who are currently facing off in the first round of these 2016 playoffs. (I'm predicting the Stars will win it in 5 games).

Ciccone's one of Québec's best hockey analysts and an NHL-recognized player agent (one job obviously helps with the other). The former heavyweight defenseman (6'5", 200 pounds in the 1990s) racked up 1469 penalty minutes in just 374 regular-season games while suiting up for seven teams (Minnesota and Tampa Bay, obviously, as well as the Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, Carolina Hurricanes, Vancouver Canucks and Montréal Canadiens).

Steve Christoff Autographed Card

I really started getting into card collecting in 1986-87, although I'd had a few packs of hockey and baseball cards here and there previously, but that was the year where my whole world of toys and collectibles was all about cards instead of G.I. Joe, Transformers, M.A.S.K. and Thundercats figurines; my parents were thrilled at first because they figured it'd be cheaper, but that 35-cent pack I'd get as a ''tip'' every time I'd ''volunteer'' to go get whatever we needed at the convenience store probably amounted to a lot more in the end.

That's when I got the bug, and one summer, I ''worked'' with my grandmother, helping her sell shoes and purses (I think) at a flea market, and the seller a few tables/stands over had a bunch of randomly-divided packs of 100 hockey cards from the late 1970s and early 1980s, and that's where I spent all of my allowance and whatever pay I got for the duration of July and August.

Later, as the 1990s came along and card stores started popping up everywhere, I traded a bunch of O-Pee-Chee cards for their Topps equivalent because it felt more exclusive to have the imported (American) brand than the local (Canadian) one, even though both were worth the same.

One such trade from a card I'd originally gotten at that flea market was this one, of Steve Christoff, which I got him to sign with a black eraser-board marker in the first half of the '90s, I'd say around 1993 in one of three trips my local team made to Minneapolis (we also had annual trips to Boston and New Jersey in the United States):

It's from Topps' 1981-82 Topps set (card #104, its O-Pee-Chee equivalent being #160), showing him as a member of the Minnesota North Stars, a team I didn't feel any emotion towards until I played for the NDG North Stars as a kid, at which point I started liking Neal Broten and Don Beaupre.

Christoff was one of the star forwards of the 1980 Olympics Team USA - you know, the Miracle On Ice team - along with Broten and Dave Christian. Prior to that, he'd been a star with the University of Minnesota Gophers, and like Broten and Phil Vercota, was a local boy who'd grown up and gone to school in Minnesota, played for Gophers then the national team based in Minneapolis, then was drafted by the North Stars in the second round in 1978 - the hometown hero route.

He had three decent seasons with the North Stars, starting off with 15 points in 20 games in 1979-80, 26 goals and 39 points in 56 games in 1980-81 and another 26 goals this time totaling 55 points in 69 games and another 16 points in 18 playoff games in 1981-82, losing in the Stanley Cup Final to the New York Islanders.

Unfortunately, he was traded to the Calgary Flames where he didn't quite fit in (17 points in 45 games in 1982-83), so they sent him and the draft pick that became Frantisek Musil to the Los Angeles Kings for Mike Eaves and Keith Hanson, and he only played 58 games with L.A., with 15 points and a -19 to show for it before calling it quits.

He's still a hero in Minnesota, and in every traditional hockey state; these days, he's an airplane pilot, which is fitting, considering he was among the fastest and strongest players of his era. He also had a heavy shot, if I remember correctly.

Jean-Paul Parisé Autograph Card

R.I.P.

Jean-Paul ''J.P.'' Parisé, Zach Parise's father, died last night of lung cancer. Like Pat Burns two years ago, Parisé had previously beat one form of cancer 1999, but quit his chemotherapy earlier this winter because he wanted to enjoy what time he had left without feeling so nauseous and sick all the time, knowing the difference between continuing to treat it (at Stage 4) meant at best extra weeks at this point.

It has affected Zach a lot since the beginning of the season, and the Minnesota Wild star even sat out the last game to be at his father's side.

J.P. may not have been as much of a household name as his son has become, but he was an important player in the 1970s. Undrafted, he was signed by the Boston Bruins, but didn't hold a regular roster spot until he hit his stride with the Minnesota North Stars, with whom he spent 8 and a half seasons. He represented them in two All-Star Games and captained them in his last season, his return to the team after stints with the New York Islanders and Cleveland Barons. He hit the 70-point mark twice with the North Stars, but was most efficient in the playoffs, with five near-point-per-game postseasons among the eight times his teams participated in the Spring Dance.

Canadians remember him from the 1972 Summit Series, where he represented Team Canada and played on a line with star center Phil Esposito, notching four points in six games. More than what he accumulated on the score sheet and his impressive defensive play, however, he is best remembered for his reaction following this penalty:

Islanders fans - and probably New York Rangers fans even more so - will remember this goal:

I met him when I was in high school, and I didn't know who he was because he'd retired two decades earlier and wasn't the household name Esposito, Ken Dryden, or Vladislav Tretiak were, but I loved hockey and learning about the game's history, and I was happy to talk to him and learn from him. He may still have been running Shattuck-Saint Mary's' high school hockey program at the time (say between 1993 and 1995), which is pretty much the Hogwarts of hockey, spawning 21 NHL regulars as well as three womens' Team USA Olympic medalists in the past decade.

Anyone who dresses in the NHL gets my respect, but he had that extra thing good teachers have that grabbed my attention even more. He signed a sheet of paper at the time, with a message attached to it, which I lost in a flood in 1998.

But I ended up with this card, showing him in the North Stars' classic green (away) uniform - showing him as captain - years later, as karma is wont to happen (like Zach going back to Minnesota when he became a free agent two and a half years ago):

It's from Upper Deck's 2006-07 Parkhurst set (#128, the same card as the regular version, but airbrushed white at the bottom so he can sign it in blue sharpie, and no statistics on the back, just a message from UD guaranteeing its authenticity).

Don Beaupre: 3 Autographed Cards

Statistically, Don Beaupre was always near the top of the NHL in its statistics department, usually in the top-5 for goals-against average. He played in two All Star games, once as a member of the Minnesota North Stars (1981) and once representing the Washington Capitals (1993, in Montréal). He also played in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981, a season during which he split goaltending duties with the legendary Gilles Meloche - my friend Martin Itfor, an important hockey blogger, is a huge fan.

The card below has been with me as far as I can remember, from Topps' 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee set (card #89):

It shows Beaupre as a member of the North Stars when I, myself, was playing for the NDG North Stars, with brown pads, a CCM helmet-with-a-cage and a Christian USA stick of my own (at the Atom level).

Below, two cards of Beaupre as a member of the Caps, who just clinched a playoff spot tonight:

The card on the left, showing Beaupre in the red (away) uniform, is from Pro Set's flagship 1991-92 Pro Set collection (card #601, showing him as the mid-season GAA leader - he had finished second in the entire NHL the previous season); the card on the right, showing him wearing the Caps' white (home) jersey but, more importantly, focusing on the superb DC cityscape mask I mentioned previously in this Enrico Ciccone post, is from In the Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes set (the Greats Of The Game subset, card #157).

I sent Mr. Beaupre these 3 cards and a fan letter on March 5th (2012) and got them back less than 3 weeks later, on March 26th, signed in blue sharpie. I thought about sending him cards from his days with the Ottawa Senators but didn't want to push it by sending too many - especially to his home - and stuck with the teams I identify him with the most instead.

Enrico Ciccone: 4 Autographed Items

Enrico Ciccone was a really tough guy. In his first year in juniors (for the LHJMQ's Shawinigan Cataractes), he accumulated 334 penalty minutes to go with his 2 goals and 14 points. Every year, he got better at playing the game, as can be attested by his 4 goals (28 points) in 40 games in his final junior year with the Trois-Rivières Draveurs, but didn't lose any of his mean streak, still managing to amass 227 penalty minutes. Yes, on average, that's over 5 minutes a game.

Which is precisely why the Minnesota North Stars drafted him in 1990. However, they only kept him for 42 total games split in two seasons - in which he still managed to garner 163 penalty minutes and was even (0) in plus/minus.

This card shows him wearing the soon-to-be-Dallas Stars uniform:

The card is from Topps' 1992-93 O-Pee-Che Premier set (card #122). It serves as his ''most valuable'' rookie card, but is still a ''common'' card.

The North Stars traded him to the Washington Capitals to complete a prior trade (he was the so-called ''future considerations'').

The card on the left is from the 1993-94 Parkhurst set (card #219), at this point manufactured by Upper Deck, after a few years of being Pro Set's ''high end'' product. It has a pretty good view of his goalie, Don Beaupre, and his wonderful DC cityscape mask. The card on the right is from Upper Deck's 1993-94 Series 2 collection (card #528).

I sent Ciccone these three cards and a fan letter on February 28th, 2012, and got all three signed in black sharpie, with his jersey number added (39), and the Parkhurst card even personalized ''À Sébastian''. He also included the signed index card below, which reads ''À mon ami Sébastian'' (''to my friend Sébastian''). I was able to reach him through the sports analysis show Le Match, which runs on new station TVA Sports. He also moonlights as the station's colour commentator for Ottawa Senators games while station owner and media mogul Pierre-Karl Péladeau awaits the opportunity to put the Québec Nordiques back on the air.

For the past decade or so, Ciccone has been one of the best-spoken and best-informed spots talk show panelists, a situation due in part to his being an active player agent who knows the CBA by heart, but also because he is actually one of the smartest ones out there. I may not agree with him all the time (although I do more than half the time), but even when I disagree, he is usually the most convincing on his end of the spectrum.

Ciccone also played for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks, Vancouver Canucks, and Montréal Canadiens. He played for Tampa and Washington twice each, actually. He also spent time in the AHL and IHL farm clubs for all these teams.

Bobby Smith: 5 Autographed Cards

With these 5 cards, I will finally be up to date on my December mail - it's been a good month!

Here is Bobby Smith, the smooth-skating giant (6'4'', 210 pounds) centerman the Montréal Canadiens have never replaced since trading him back to the Minnesota North Stars in 1990. With the Habs, he had six consecutive just-about point-per-game seasons during which he was also sent to take important face offs and to shut down the opposing team's best line; skating alonside Mats Naslund from 1985-86 to 1988-89, he registered seasons of 86, 75, 93 and 83 points, twice scoring more than 30 goals.

The North Stars had chosen him first overall in the 1978 draft after he posted a 192-point season in the OHL, besting Wayne Gretzky by a whole 10 points. He won the Calder trophy as the league's best rookie (a trophy neither Gretzky nor Sidney Crosby ever won) after a 74-point 1978-79 season and improved the next three years with seasons of 83, 93 and 114 points (43 goals!) before being sent to the Habs; upon his return to Minnesota in 1990, he proceeded to bring his team to the Stanley Cup finals and reach the 1000-point milestone.

He won the Cup with the Canadiens in 1986 and reached the Finals three more times in his career. He was the Phoenix Coyotes' general manager for parts of four seasons before holding the same position with the team he owns, his hometown QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads, which he now also coaches. It is tehre that I sent along these five cards and a fan letter, on November 29th, and I got them back all signed in black sharpie on December 20th. It's a tremendous record, and I'm particularly excited, as he was one of the players whose play got me interested in hockey in my youth.

The card on top left is from Score's 1990-91 Score set (card #61) and the one on top right is from the 1990-91 Pro Set set (card #160). A veteran for the Habs, he was one of several players who wore the 'A' that season, a year after Larry Robinson was traded to the Los Angeles Kings.

The card on bottom-left is from the 1992-93 Score collection (card #205), as is the one in the middle, highlighting his 1,000th point (card #446). Notice how he wore the 'A' for home games. The card on bottom-right is also a milestone-celebrating card, this time from Pro Set's 1992-93 Platinum set, the Collectibles insert sub-set (card #PC13).

Gaétan Duchesne Autographed Card

Here's another one I hunted for after a post on Sal's Hockey Autograph Blog: Gaétan Duchesne.

Born on June 11th, 1962 in Les Saules, a district of Québec City, he died minutes from there at age 44, on April 16th, 2007, from a heart attack incurred while training, despite being in exemplary physical shape.

He's a member of the 1000-game club, split between six seasons with the Washington Capitals, two with his hometown Québec Nordiques, four with the Minnesota North Stars, and two with the San Jose Sharks; he also played a little over one season with the IHL's Québec Rafales.

He is often described as being ''one of the friendliest and happiest people you'll ever meet''; the Caps even named a trophy in his honour, one they give away to the best intra-squad team in training camp scrimmages.

Statistically, his best seasons were with the Nordiques (24 goals and 47 points in 1987-88) and Capitals (35 assists and 52 points in 1986-87), but he is usually remembered mostly for a strong playoff performance leading the North Stars to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1990-91. He even hosted a sports TV show in Minnesota, The Duke Show.

Technically, the card I have is the same as the one on Sal's blog - a 1990-91 Upper Deck card (#108), except mine is from the French series Upper Deck produced for a couple of years - even though French ''accents'' are absent, notable on the words Gaétan and Québec. But it's still a great set, with the same cards as the English one, and again they put the North Stars' away colours on the back picture and the home colours in front; also, unlike Sal's card, which he signed in blue, mine is signed in thick black sharpie, the same colour as parts of his uniform; I think it fits better. Found on Ebay from a card shop in Québec who provided a certificate of authenticity.