Nikolai Khabibulin Autograph Card

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The Phoenix Coyotes are no more, and perhaps soon neither will the Arizona Coyotes...

Honestly, that saga has been a shit show for the better part of a decade now, and it's time to put it to rest. To help put the final nail in its coffin, I've decided to make a list of the best players at each position for the franchise.

On defense, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Teppo Numminen are pretty much no-brainers. At forward, Jeremy Roenick is the clear choice at center, and Shane Doan is the obvious captain and right winger. I'd want to add Keith Tkachuk at left wing - the position he's played most in the NHL - but the team records have him listed as a center... He's a winger. Done.

Keith Yandle could have also made the cut on defense.

In nets, there is only one choice: Nikolai Khabibulin.

The Hall Of Fame is much stricter for goalies, with many of the deserving ones only getting in decades after they should have been (Rogatien Vachon), while forwards (Eric Lindros, Mats Sundin) and defensemen (Larry Murphy) get in as semi-stars.

Khabibulin may not have had the most consistent career, with three seasons with save percentages below .900 and four with a GAA above 3.00, but he has a Stanley Cup on his resume that the Tampa Bay Lightning would not have won without him, particularly in the Final against the Calgary Flames. He also has two Olympic medals (gold in 1992, bronze in 2002) and was named the tournament's top goalie in 2002; he also won gold at the 1992 World Juniors.

He has appeared in four All-Star Games, twice representing the Yotes and twice as well for the Bolts. He was also the IHL MVP in 1999-2000. He even somewhat revived his career with the Edmonton Oilers after his stint with the Chicago Blackhawks didn't end on the best note.

My rules for Greatness being stricter then the Hall's, he wouldn't make the cut in my book; but any organization that includes Murphy and Mike Gartner definitely should have room for the likes of Khabibulin and José Theodore.

Here he is wearing the Coyotes' "peyote" white (home) uniform, on the gold variant of the signed insert version of card #108 from In The Game's 1998-99 Be A Player set:

He signed it in thin black sharpie. That may have been my favourite uniform of theirs, with the current one a distant second.

Nikolai Khabibulin Jersey Card

The Edmonton Oilers have put Martin Gerber on waivers, meaning they're ready to go with Nikolai Khabibulin again this season - a good move if they think they have a shot at making the playoffs. And, barring injuries, maybe they can, but logic would dictate they'd be a season or two away.

Then again, maybe Khabibulin will end up getting jail time for his DUI late last season, so that could derail those plans - and bring Gerber back in the picture. But Gerber is far from a safe bet; after all, his recent past NHL experience involves getting taken out of the playoffs by the Montréal Canadiens, and failing to land the #1 job with the Ottawa Senators. Meanwhile, the last time The Bulin Wall was healthy, when all the thinking heads in hockey expected him to get traded, he stole the #1 goalie job for the Hawks and took them to the Conference Finals, effectively bringing coach Joel Quenneville's confidence in Cristobal Huet down to pretty much 0 - just one of the reasons why he'll be spending the season in Switzerland.

This card (#AF-NK) is from Upper Deck's 2005-06 SP Game Used edition, the Authentic Fabrics Jersey sub-set, and harbors a white piece of the Chicago Blackhawks' away jersey. I have already posted on 4 of those before (follow the links in the keywords below), but they're relatively easy to find on Ebay, at a much lower cost than you'd find them at collectors' shops. This one should retail around $10-15, but I've often seen it online at $5 or less.

Nikolai Khabibulin Autographed Card

Although he certainly could have been an Olympian had he not been injured, Nikolai Khabibulin made the news this week for completely different reasons: he was arrested near Phoenix for speeding and drunk driving.

For those wondering what he was doing riding his black Ferrari at double the speed limit in the middle of the Arizona desert while on leave from the Edmonton Oilers after an operation for a herniated disc that could sideline him until the end of the regular season, it is important to note that he had kept his residence in North Scottsdale even after leaving the Phoenix Coyotes for the IHL Long Beach Ice Dogs, the Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks, and Oilers. And if you had the liberty to recover from an operation at home, would you prefer doing so in frigid Edmonton, or in the dead heat of the Arizona desert? I'd pick Arizona, myself.

I mentioned something about the Olympics to start this post, saying he could have made the team, but that remains to be proven; Khabibulin, even though he has proven himself to be able to do the job time and time again, has often been shunned by the Russian Federation. It started at the 1992 Olympics, when he was named the team's third-string goalie despite still being of age to play in junior hockey; the Commonwealth Of Independent States, as it was known at the time, under the rigid reign of Viktok Tikhonov, actually won the gold medal. Tikhonov elected to keep Khabibulin's medal, however, claiming Khabibulin wasn't a 'real' member of the team, seeing as he hadn't appeared in a single game (coaches and managers aren't given medals at the Olympics).

For ten years, Khabibulin had refused to represent Russia in World Championships and the 1998 Olympics because of the injustice he figured he'd been a victim of (he did make an exception for the 1996 World Cup, when Tikhonov chose not to coach the national team). By 2002, the International Ice Hockey Federation awarded him a gold medal for his services in the 1992 games, and he accepted to represent Russia in the tournament, winning the bronze medal. He also wore Russia's jersey at the 2006 games, but didn't play a single minute, as the country elected to go with Evgeni Nabokov, who is their top choice again this year, with Ilya Bryzgalov of the Coyotes backing him up.

It's true that Khabibulin is already 37 years old, much older than the other top Russian goalies, but he has proven time and time again to be able to withstand the pressure of important games: while playing in the IHL in a bitter contract dispute with the Coyotes, he was named league MVP when he wasn't allowed to fail; he won the Stanley Cup representing the Lightning; as a Blackhawk, when everyone thought he'd be traded since the team had signed sought-after free agent Cristobal Huet to a hefty starting-goalie contract, he stole the #1 goalie job and led them to a decent position in the regular season and a Conference Final in the playoffs.

In fact, the only thing you might be able to hold against him is that he is a mercenary in the most obvious definition of the term: he will only go to the highest bidder regardless of what their prospects for victory are, and will only bring his A game when there is something on the line. But that's exactly why you'd want him on your Olympic team - he'll get the job done if it kills him.

This beautiful card (#271) is from the 1999-2000 Upper Deck set, and sees him wearing the Coyotes' white home jersey. I think Upper Deck, by extending the picture right to be border of the card, and by making their logo and the writing a bronze foil coating, made this a very classy set.

Also, while I'm not a fan of the Coyotes, their jersey, or their colours, I am a fan of goalies and goalie equipment, and the pads and especially the catching glove look great with the uniform.

This was sent to me by a friend from Toronto who got it in person while attending a Lightning practice when they came to town during their championship run, his final year with that team. He signed it in sharp blue sharpie and added his jersey number (35) at the tail end. The signature complements the equipment, and overall colours, very well.

Get well soon, Nikolai.