Pierre-Marc Bouchard Dual Jersey Card

The Minnesota Wild are going through a rough patch, particularly in terms on injuries. Their 4-3-2 record (10 points in 9 games, which would mean a 91-point season over 82 games) isn't too bad, but it still puts them tied for last with the Winnipeg Jets in a strong Central Division.

However, that's 9 games in, and they've already lost 31 man-games between Marcus Foligno (1, facial fracture, returned on the 20th), Mikael Granlund (5, groin, returned last week), Zach Parise (9, no idea when he'll return), Charlie Coyle (6, operated for a right fibula fracture, out six-to-eight weeks), Nino Niederreiter (6, high left ankle sprain, expected back in mid-November), and Landon Ferraro (4, hip, day-to-day).

All of this is reminiscent of Pierre-Marc Bouchard's prime years where, as he had gone three straight seasons at or near the 60-point mark, the cheap boarding hits and elbows to the head just added to a litany of concussions, turning a once-promising career into more of a cruel joke. But unlike Parise's contract, this cruel joke made no one happy.

Bouchard did redeem his worth by the end of his career in the AHL and in Switzerland, but from age 28 onward, no one was willing to give him a true shot at the NHL level. Still, these are nice statistics to post before retiring at the age of 31:

From HockeyDB

Here he is sporting the Wild's white uniform on card #HS-PM from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Trilogy set and Honorary Swatches sub-set:

It features two matching game-worn swatches that are clearly from different parts of the jersey.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard Swatch Card

After a season where he led his team - the Swiss NLA's Zug EV - in scoring and winning the league's MVP award, former Minnesota Wild standout Pierre-Marc Bouchard has decided to retire at age 31 from post-concussion issues.

He had only just begun to fill out the promise of being an impact player (I used to compare him to Mike Ribeiro, a terrific playmaker who had decent hands enough to make nice plays and deke - not the best shot, but perfect for setting up a teammate) when he suffered his first concussion, which took him a year and a half to recover from; he had suffered it in the very first game of the 2009-10 season and came back in December of the following year, posting a decent 38 points in 59 games in 2010-11.

After two more injury-filled seasons with the team that had picked him 8th overall in 2002, he signed with the New York Islanders for the 2013-14 season, but after posting just 9 points in 28 games, he was sent to the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers, where he found his game and produced at a rate of 17 points in 20 games... before the Isles gave up on him and traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks, who also parked him in the AHL, this time with the Rockford IceHogs, with whom he had 20 points in 24 games.

That wasn't enough to convince faint-hearted NHL GMs to take a chance on him, and he signed with Zug, whom he led in scoring in both years he was there, first with 51 points in 49 games, and 67 points in the same number of games last year.

I have more cards of his to feature in the future, but I'll start with this odd one, which isn't necessarily a jersey swatch, showing him in the Wild's green uniform, on card #SS-PB from Fleer's 2006-07 Flair Showcase collection and Showcase Stitches sub-set, by Upper Deck:

It could be a piece of a jersey, or a fight strap, or part of the inner lining - or a sock. The back of the card just vaguely calls it "memorabilia", but what he know for sure is that it's got enough holes to see the glue inside the card, and that the hole it's sticking out of is shaped like an "S".

All told, Bouchard retires with 356 points (110 of them goals) in 593 NHL games (plus 4-5-9 in 21 playoff games) on a defensively-minded Wild team, mostly. He had Selke votes in 2006-07 and Lady Byng votes three times, finishing fifth in voting in 2006-07.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard Jersey Card

The curious case of Pierre-Marc Bouchard... drafted by the Minnesota Wild in the first round (8th overall) of the 2002 NHL draft (ahead of Cam Ward, Alexander Semin, Keith Ballard and Duncan Keith, among others) after winning Top Prospect honours in both the QMJHL and CHL, Bouchard was expected to be the same type of player Mike Ribeiro turned out to be: an adept playmaker with great deking hands who can lead his team in scoring once in a while.

Combined with Mikko Koivu, he was supposed to be the beginning of the Wild's change from a defense-oriented team to more of an offensive threat.

Unfortunately, it took him until the 2006-07 season to reach the 20-goal barrier, and until 2007-08 to gather more than 60 points (63, off 13 goals and 50 assists). And just when it looked like he was getting there, he had a sub-par season in 2008-09 (16 goals, 30 assists, 46 points in 71 games) before suffering a concussion in the very first game of the 2009-10 season - from which he has yet to recover. He only started skating again - lightly - this week.

Very few players come back from a year-long injury to reach elite levels; it's even rarer when it comes to concussion victims. But he claims he's 90% recovered, we'll just have to wait and see.

This beautiful card (#U-PB) is from Fleer's 2006-07 Fleer Ultra set, the Ultra Uniformity sub-set. It sports a gorgeous dark green patch, probably from the jersey's waist line. I used to not like the Wild's jersey colours, I found them ''un-hockey-like'', but I've gotten used to them and find them ok now.