Penguins Preview: John Cullen: Two Autographed Cards

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This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: Unlike in the distant past where I would post different texts on this collectibles blog and my personal one, I've been using a new format for the past couple of years, where I'll copy the same text on each one. As a father of two young kids, I just do not have enough time to write two separate posts per day on each blog. This year again, the entire scope of the analysis will take place first and the featured player will have a direct or perhaps indirect connection to what's written, below.

Caveats: At this point, despite training camp being set to start in a little over a week, several players haven't found a team yet, (at least) three star players have active trade requests, and a few clubs are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much left to do.

Key exits: Anthony Mantha (RW), Stuart Skinner (G), Kevin Hayes (RW), Parker Wotherspoon (D), Connor Clifton (D), Noel Acciari (C), Ryan Shea (D), Jack St. Ivany (D), Joona Koppanen (LW), Bokondji Imama (LW).

Key arrivals: Kaedan Korczak (D), Nick Robertson (LW), Hendrix Lapierre (C), Andrei Kuzmenko (LW), Trevor van Riemsdyk (D), Declan Carlile (D)

Top prospects: Will Horcoff (LW, 19), Liam Ruck (RW, 20), Harrison Brunicke (D, 20), Rutger McGroarty (RW/LW, 22), Bill Zonnon (C, 19), Sergei Murashov (G, 22), Owen Pickering (D, 22).

xxx

What makes their odds look good:
The team still has its trio of three-time Stanley Cup champions in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, in addition to multiple-Norris winner Erik Karlsson, around which GM Kyle Dubas is adding youth and rebuilding its skill level.

Question marks: xxx

Outlook:
This team will battle for a wild card spot until the end on the basis of their talent level, but would require a miracle to make a deep playoff run the likes of which management expects (and top three stars want to bookend their careers with).

Prediction:
7th in the Metropolitan Division.

There is a common misconception about John Cullen's time with the Penguins, that he owes his point production to Mario Lemieux playing with him and feeding him easy points on a platter, but the truth is that Cullen was mostly active in replacing Lemieux during his stint on long-term injured reserve. In his rookie season, Cullen posted 49 points in 79 games, but as Lemieux missed 21 games the following season with a back injury, Cullen took his place on the top line with Kevin Stevens on his left and Rob Brown or Mark Recchi on his right, producing to the tune of 92 points in 72 games.

Most players on that squad, however, had terrible defensive numbers, with Hall of Famer Paul Coffey showing the worst plus/minus at -25 and Lemieux trailing him at -18 in 59 games (but 45 goals, 78 assists and 123 points as a counter-argument. Cullen himself was -13, tied with Stevens.

In 1990-91, with rookie Jaromir Jagr in tow, the Pens started having Stanley Cup aspirations and knew they had to get better defensively, but also to add an edge to their game, and they did so by sending Cullen, powerpplay quarterback Zarley Zalapski and hard-nosed grinder Jeff Parker to the Hartford Whalers for captain and unquestioned leader Ron Francis, one of the game's dirtiest players ever in Ulf Samuelsson, and Grant Jennings, changing the entire makeup of the team. For his part, Cullen's 16 points (8 goals and 8 assists) in 13 games compensated for part of Francis' contribution, and his following season's 77 points (26 goals, 51 assists) in 77 games were not to shabby either, but in making that trade, the Whalers were hoping to bring their own team up to the level of the two best teams in the division, the Boston Bruins and Montréal Canadiens, which was decidedly not the case.

On November 24th, 1992, the Whalers decided to cut their losses and dealt an injured Cullen to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a second-round pick, a month and a half into the season. He actually wore a neck brace/protector for much of his time with the Leafs, then went back to Pittsburgh for one year (37 points in 46 games playing behind Francis in the last season before the beginning of the Dead Puck Era).

With Lemieux eyeing a return for 1995-96, Francis still in town and the likes of Petr Nedved and Bryan Smolinki getting acquired via trade over the summer, Cullen's time with the Pens was coming to an end, and the Tampa Bay Lightning came calling at the right moment to offer him the 2C job behind oft-forgotten point-per-game-producer Brian Bradley. As Bradley was replaced by Chris Gratton, Cullen kept producing, with seasons of 50 and 55 points in Tampa before terrible news broke...

After two months of coughing with what he thought was an intense flu or cold, his wife convinced him to reach out to team doctors, who found a black mass in his lungs: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. During treatment, while in-hospital, he even suffered cardiac arrest, but after an 18-month fight and rehabilitation, he attempted a comeback that lasted 4 NHL games with the Lightning and 6 games with the IHL's Cleveland Lumberjacks, including a league-record seven-point game against the Chicago Wolves (a 7-3 win). His comeback attempt won him the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for the 1998-99 season. It was around that time that the NHL initiated the Hockey Fights Cancer program.

All this being said, this is how I remember him most, wearin g the Pens' black (away) uniform with the alternate captain's "A", as seen on card #232 from Pro Set's 1990-91 Series 1 collection:

He was such an important player for the Pens that he seemingly also wore the captain's "C" on at least one occasion (which could have been during training camp), as seen on card #20 from O-Pee-Chee's 1990-91 OPC Premier set:

While both cards were clearly not signed with the same sharpie (both black, but one thin and one thicker), they did come at the same session, at a card show in Georgia in the early 00s.

Ron Hextall Autographed Card

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I have to admit I was pretty shocked when the Philadelphia Flyers fired GM and former star goalie Ron Hextall in November 2018, even more so when they replaced him with former Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher. I was sad that neither Hextall nor Sean Burke had been considered as GM of the Seattle Kraken, as both, to me, seem to have the credentials needed to build a team and make trades with fellow GMs that could be mutually beneficial.

I was intrigued but not as surprised when Pittsburgh Penguins GM Jim Rutherford resigned early this season, not so much because of his age (he did admit he was willing to listen to offers to get back in the game elsewhere) but mostly because people in his position are rarely willing to let go and relinquish a position so closely removed from back-to-back championships despite the clear signs of a regression. In Rutherford's case, he churned out talent such as not one but two #1 goalies in Marc-André Fleury and Matt Murray, as well as championship veterans Patric Hornqvist, Phil Kessel, Olli Maatta, Ron Hainsey, and Ian Cole, and acquired veteras Tanner Pearson, Erik Gudbranson, Alex Galchenyuk, Nick Bjugstad, Jamie Oleksiak, Joseph Blandisi, and Ryan Reaves. Two of them - Kessel and Murray - had delivered Conn Smythe-worthy performances under his reign. I guess he had a knack for not gettting too attached, although he did keep core veterans Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang on board despite increasing rumours to the contrary.

It was a complete shocker, however, when Hextall was annointed to replace Rutherford in Pittsburgh - Philadelphia's main rival - until I remembered his father, Bryan Hextall Jr., had played for the team in the early 1970s, with the likes of Syl Apps and Jean Pronovost, during a relatively bleak period of the team's history.

It will fall on Hextall's shoulders to decide whether a full (three-to-five-year) rebuild is in the cards, or if a simple two-year retool might do the trick. One thing's for sure, he built the current-day Flyers and the Stanley Cup-winning Los Angeles Kings mostly from the ground up with a couple of savvy trades (including trading away Brayden Schenn twice) thrown in for good measure. This is perhaps this core's last chance at bringing a fourth Cup home before it gets separated.

Despite his also suiting up for my favourite team - the Québec Nordiques - and the New York Islanders, when I think "Hextall", I think "Vezina", "Conn Smythe", and "Flyers", with the arrow mask, as seen on card #41 from O-Pee-Chee's 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier set:

Although I had a few dozen copies of that card in my youth, I actually bought this signed copy on Ebay under $10; I doubt any future versions for sale online will be below $25. I'm particularly fond of the "All the best" mention prior to his signature, such warmth and class to take the time to add a polite and encouraging message, light years away from the fierce temperament he displayed on the ice and that inspired my own play and demeanor, which was modeled on him, Patrick Roy and Burke.

Evgeni Malkin Jersey Card

The next time we'll see live hockey being played is pretty much up in the air at the moment, with all Europeans leagues now shut down, the Juniors leagues on hiatus and the AHL and NHL still tentative about their own returns to play and whether they'll play full or shortened seasons.

I thought this was as good a time as any to open up about my own collecting life in the meantime.

A few months ago, I watched my internet buddy Sal Barry break open a couple of boxes of Upper Deck's 2019-20 Ice cards with Puck Junk mate Tim Parish where Tim pulled a Nick Suzuki card, saying it was chipped and offering it up for trade.

I mistakenly thought it was a jersey card, so I offered a ten-year-old Evgeni Malkin Panini jersey card for it, which was accepted. A week and ahalf later, the Suzuki card was on my desk, looking great despite not being a swatch card at all; I plan on getting it signed by the man himself eventually, though.

The only problem is, the Malkin (and additional autographed Eric Tangradi cards I had added as a bonus for the Pittsburgh Penguins fan I was trading with) never got to their destination.

It doesn't happen often, but it does sometimes.

I worked out a deal that I'd get him a new Malkin to repalce it, so I found a similar one, with a gold swatch instead of a blue one, which I bought on Ebay. Except... it never got to me, which meant I could never send it to Tim. It took nearly a month for the seller to pay me back.

So I bought him another - more expensive - one to replace that one, which replaced another one. Who knew that, technically, Nick Suzuki would be worth three Evgeni Malkins?

And so I present you with Malkin #3, card #24 from Upper Deck's 2018-19 Premier collection and Jersey sub-set:

It shows #71 wearing the Pens' current home (and classic) black jersey from my youth, with a yellow swatch that could be from either the home or away uniforms.

It will be making its way to Mr. Parish's home tomorrow morning. I didn't have it long enough for it to become "my precious", but "Geno" is in fact one of only two Penguins I actively follow and really admire, with Kris Letang. I'm gld I got to hold it in my hands once.

Taylor Hall Jersey Card

The most coveted forward in this off-season's free agency, Taylor Hall, will go through the process again next year, as he's agreed to a one-year deal worth $8M with the Buffalo Sabres.

You may recall him saying he was looking to win and that a large paycheque was not the top thing on his shopping list, that he was looking for stability...

While this move makes his previous comments seem a tad hypocritical, bear in mind that most contending teams are tight against the cap this year with a flat cap looming over GMs' heads for the next couple of seasons - and few of them were looking to make trades to make room to add salary, save perhaps for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who already have arguably three better forwards on their roster and instead need to find a way to keep pucks out of their own net at this point.

So instead, Hall is betting on himself, hoping he gets to line up with Jack Eichel, that neither of them gets injured, and that they can pad each other's statistics enough for Hall to force himself to an even greater payday next summer. If all the stars align, the Sabres can win it all in 2020-21, but that's going to take a near-miracle. Hall's semi-realistic hope is to crack the 100-point mark with Eichel to parlay his way onto a stacked team like the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, Vegas Golden Knights, St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets, Colorado Avalanche or Vancouver Canucks.

I, for one, expect the market to remain essentially the same next time around, however, with GMs going for safe, reasonable bets.

Here is Hall wearing the New Jersey Devils' red (home) uniform, on card #24 from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Premier set, which I got in a trade last summer for a card of his wearing the Edmonton Oilers' blue uniform:

It features a matching game-used piece of "memorabilia" (as per the back, the front specifies it's a jersey). The actual card has the foil at the bottom in pure silver, the scan rendered it beige.

Luc Robitaille: Two Autographed Cards

There was a reason why Luc Robitaille was selected in the ninth round, 171st overall, in 1984: scouts from all NHL teams considered him too slow to keep up with the 1980s pro game, despite having posted more than a point-per-game average in his rookie year in Juniors with the LHJMQ's Hull Olympiques; he followed that with a 55-goal, 148-point season in 64 games in 1984-85 and with 68 goals and 191 points in 63 games the following season, convincing the Los Angeles Kings to provide him with a real shot at making the team, which he did.

His 84-point rookie season earned him the Calder Trophy in 1986-87 - the first year I followed hockey full-time - and his 63-goal season in 1992-93 was the NHL record for a very long time, until Alex Ovechkin obliterated it in 2007.

Robitaille retired after the 2005-06 season, in his third stint with the Kings, as the highest-scoring left winger of all time (beaten earlier this season by Ovechkin), Los Angeles' franchise record holder for goals (577), fourth behind Marcel Dionne, Wayne Gretzky and Dave Taylor on the team's all0time assists leaders list( 726), and second to Taylor in career points with the franchise (1154).

He's the quintessential King, which is why he's currently the team's President.

He was interviewed by NBC Sports recently and had an interesting take on Ovechkin's path to beating Gretzky's all-time goals record:

It’s hard to figure out someone that would do it. I’m going to enjoy this ride because it’s special. It’s very special and this is something that’s really good for our game. I’m rooting for him that he does it because it’s going to be absolutely incredible.

Whether he truly wants him to break Gretzky's record "for the good of the game" or because he doesn't want to be alone among former 1990s Kings captains to get surpassed by Alexander The Great remains to be seen; one thing's for certain: it truly is entertaining to keep track of.

Here he is wearing the Kings' 1990s white (home) uniform on card #90 from Topps' 1992-93 Premier set and First Team All-Star sub-set:

And here he is wearing the counterpart black (away) uniform, on card #98 from Upper Deck's 1998-99 UD Choice set:

Those were, in my opinion, the very best Kings uniforms ever. I miss them dearly.

In-between stints in L.A., Robitaille also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, and Detroit Red Wings - with whom he won the 2001-02 Stanley Cup - as well as Team Canada at the 1986 World Juniors (silver), 1991 Canada Cup (won), and 1994 World Championships (gold medal).

Robert Kron: Three Autographed Cards

There was a piece of news that flew a little under the radar last summer, a few days after the Carolina Hurricanes matched the Montréal Canadiens' offer sheet to Sebastian Aho, and it involved the man who was most responsible for drafting Aho, Robert Kron, an amateur scout when the young star was drafted in the second round (35th overall) in 2015, and for the past two years "Head European Scout": he is now Director of European Scouting.

I know a lot about hockey, but the only difference I can see between "Head" and "Director" is that there is also a "Head" of North American Scouting (Mike Dawson) on the Canes' staff, but no "Director", so Kron's probably got the last word in case of a difference of opinion.

Although I mostly think of him as a member of the Vancouver Canucks, he only played 144 games in British Columbia versus 272 with the Hartford Whalers and 237 with the Hurricanes for a total of 509 with the organization; he finished his NHL career by suiting up for 118 games over two injury-filled seasons with the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets, so it's no surprise that when he looked at option after his playing career, he would revert back to Carolina.

Here he is rocking my favourite Canucks uniform, the 1985-97 black (away) one that replaced the "Flying V" of the early 1980s:

These are both considered "Rookie" cards; on the left is #52 from O-Pee-Chee's 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier collection; while the card on the right is from Upper Deck's 1990-91 Series 2 set and Young Guns sub-set.

And here he is sporting the white (home) version of that uniform on card #239 from Pro Set's 1991-92 Series 2 collection:

It's my second-favourite pale Canucks uniform, after the Markus Naslund-era ones from 1997-2007.

He signed all three cards in blue sharpie at the Bell Centre around the 2009 amateur draft, where John Tavares was selected first-overall. It was his first draft as a scout, and only two of the Canes' six picks taht summer played in the NHL: Brian Dumoulin (51st overall, second round, 81 points in 342 games) and Rasmus Rissanen (sixth round, 178th overall, 6 games). First-rounder Philippe Paradis, a bruising 6'2", 205-pound forward, mostly played in the AHL and is currently in Québec's LNAH - perhaps the most physical league in the world these days - where he has 8 goals, 5 assist, 13 points in 19 penalty minutes in 12 games with the Jonquiere Marquis so far this season.

Rick Nash, Henrik Lundqvist & Chris Kreider Jersey Card

A guy who had a good run. A Hall of Fame goaltender who for a brief period (3-5 years) was the best at his profession on the planet. A guy who has a habit of running into goalies:

That's Rick Nash, Henrik Lundqvist and Chris Kreider on an all-New York Rangers jersey card, although the Nash swatch looks like it's from his Columbus Blue Jackets days. It's #PT3-NLK from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Premier set, Premier Teammates sub-set, and is numbered 79/99.

Nash was the NHL's first-overall draft pick in 2002, and despite a slew of injuries that took him from team captain and Rocket Richard Trophy winner elite player to depth checker, he still has a good chance of finishing first in career points of his class even if he never plays another game: his 805 points are nearly 200 more than his closest pursuer, Alexander Steen, who himself has slowed down to a 35-to-40-point pace at this point. Duncan Keith is probably the only Hall Of Famer of that draft year.

Lundqvist "only" has one Vezina Trophy to his name, but his dominance and consistency is something I never witnessed from any other goalie in my lifetime - and I saw almost every game of Patrick Roy's career, most of Martin Brodeur's and possibly half of Dominik Hasek's. Like Roy, he elevated his game under pressure, but not to the point of winning a Stanley Cup by himself. He needed all the might of Team Sweden to win Olympic gold in 2006.

Kreider is an asshole. He has the size, grit and overall talent to be on the same level as Blake Wheeler or Brad Marchand, but instead seems to rest on his laurels when the situation would require him to step up. He rarely scores less than 20 goals but has never reached the 30-goal plateau; he rarely gets fewer than 40 points but has never reached 55. His first two playoff goals were game-winners, but it seems like that's where he stopped putting any effort in.

He's delivered a ton of dirty hits to opposing players (those on Scottie Upshall and Elias Petterson come to mind), but even dirtier, he specializes in dangerous contacts with #1 goaltenders, among them Jaroslav Halak, Marc-André Fleury, Craig Anderson, and Carey Price.

He's the type of player I wouldn't mind never hearing of again, like Marchand.

Kip Miller Autographed Card

If the Canadians have a few of what can be dubbed "Hockey's Royal Families", notably the Sutters from Alberta, the Millers from Michigan are without a doubt their American equivalent. At last count, ten Millers had suited up for the Michigan State University Spartans, including two Hobey Baker Award winners: goaltender Ryan Miller (also a Vezina winner and Olympic silver medalist) and Kip Miller, the Québec Nordiques' fourth-round pick (72nd overall) at the 1987 NHL draft who won a playoff MVP award in the IHL but never quite made his mark in the NHL.

He wasn't a bad player by any means - he had two consecutive 42-point seasons in 1998-99 and 1999-2000 playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and even went on to collect 50 points in 2002-03 on a Washington Capitals team where only established "name" players Jaromir Jagr (77), Robert Lang (69), Sergei Gonchar (67), Peter Bondra (56) and Michael Nylander (56) did better; Miller's major problem was that he was a smallish (5'10", 185 pounds) skilled playmaker who was just not "first-line material" and wasn't good enough defensively to play the two-way game necessary to man a second line in the clutch-and-grab Dead Puck Era of the turn of the millennium.

His AHL totals are impressive (123 goals and 204 assists for 327 points in 326 games and just 188 penalty minutes), but his IHL totals are off the charts (216 goals, 363 assists and 597 points in 468 games), denoting a high skill level and understanding of the game. He retired at age 37 following a 25-goal, 47-assist and 72-point season with the Grand Rapids Griffins, the Detroit Red Wings' development team, ending his career pretty much where it had started.

Ryan's brother Drew Miller and Kip's brother Kevin Miller are the lone members of the family to have suited up for the Wings, while Kip's other brother Kelly Miller also retired after a year with the Griffins. Kevin, Drew and Kelly captained the Spartans, while Kip wore the "A".

Kip is also the only player in NHL history to have had three separate stints with the New York Islanders.

Here's how I'll always remember him, though, as #49 in my Nordiques Numbers Project, sporting the team's amazing dark blue (away) uniform:

That's card #42 from O-Pee-Chee's 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier set, which surprisingly ended up being worth a lot of money but at the time cost relatively little to build (the link gets you a full box for $12). He signed it in blue sharpie between 2005 and 2007, so while he was an AHLer in his final seasons, either with the Chicago Wolves or the Griffins.

André Racicot Autographed Card

The struggling Montréal Canadiens were facing the mighty Ottawa Senators tonight, in a game I thought would end 3-0 for Ottawa but instead turned into an 8-3 drubbing of the Sens. The Habs were so desperate to change the tide that they'd started backup Al Montoya in lieu of $84M-man Carey Price. Then again, with a 3-6-1 record so far this season, a .883 save percentage and a 3.64 goals-against average, the main man isn't getting it done for the bleu-blanc-rouge between the pipes.

The Silver Seven blog had a pretty hilarious recap of the game, including this gem:

We got Erik Karlsson not being fully healed from his injury and kind of sucking at defense, Craig Anderson leaving his net too many times, #TheSystem totally collapsing, Jean-Gabriel Pageau not scoring a hat trick to save the day and, of course, the Sens being embarrassed on home ice by a team so utterly devoid of hope and shame that it has resorted to starting Al Montoya in net. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m pretty glad I’m no longer living in an environment which requires that I interact with Habs fans on a daily basis.

A score worthy of the early 1990s, which brings me back to this card of André Racicot wearing the Canadiens' white (then-home) uniform and signed in blue sharpie:

That's card #11 from O-Pee-Chee's 1992-93 O-Pee-Chee Premier set, a collection that became less and less "premium" as he years passed due to increasing over-production and lesser-quality rookies as time went on.

Racicot gets a bad rap. I remember telling my street hockey friends one night I wanted to call him "Red Light", because compared to Patrick Roy, the goal-scoring light would tun red far more often with the 5'11", 165-pound guy from Rouyn-Noranda than with the future Hall of Famer; it was a (mean) joke. I was a bit shocked to learn, a decade later, that the nickname had stuck. Then again, The Gazette's Red Fisher (and many others) lived in my neighbourhood, so perhaps they heard us use it on Marcil Avenue or at NDG Park...

He wasn't great, but he wasn't close to being the worst of his era either. During the Habs’ (last) Cup year in 1992-93, Racicot's statistics were actually pretty even with Roy's during the regular season: Roy went 31-25-5 with an .894 save percentage and 3.20 GAA, while Racicot went 17-5-1 with an .881 save percentage and 3.39 GAA. And, remember, Roy finished sixth in Vezina voting that year.

As a matter of fact, according to Grantline:

(Among) every goalie who played 40-plus games during Racicot’s five-year career, Racicot ranks 43rd out of 68 guys in save percentage; that isn’t great, but it certainly isn’t close to “worst ever” territory. He’s right in that dependable backup range with guys like Reggie Lemelin and Rick Wamsley, and not even all that far off from guys like Sean Burke and Mike Vernon, who were considered stars.

So it's not like he would have been in Antti Niemi/Kari Lehtonen/Ondrej Pavelec territory in current-day talk...

But there were times when scouts (Winnipeg Jets, Québec Nordiques) would come to my games and tell me that just from the fact that I wouldn't make these kinds of mistakes, I had a real shot at making the NHL one day:

Then I got to Juniors, and the Laval Titan wanted to turn me into a fighter...

But I digress.

What probably killed Racicot's chance at being a long-time NHL backup was his 1993-94 season, where he went 2-6-2 in 11 games with a 4.44 GAA and .850 save percentage with the Habs and 1-4-0 in 6 games with their AHL affiliate Fredericton Canadiens, with a 3.28 GAA and .863 save percentage.

This led to years toiling in the minors, appearing in the AHL, IHL, ECHL, WPHL, the BISL (British League), the Russian League, the WCHL and five seasons in the LHSPQ/QSCHL (now the LNAH) before he hung the pads up after the 2004-05 season.

He still plays in beer leagues, but as a skater. Mostly, though, he works for a mining company called Agnico-Eagle, operating out of the Laurentians.

Petr Klima Two Autographed Cards

I mentioned Petr Klima yesterday and how he's been a teacher at Roman Hamrlik's hockey school for the past few summers, so I thought today might be a good time to induct him as #85 in my Oilers Numbers Project with these two cards:

First, though, a bit about the man.

Klima was the Detroit Red Wings' fifth-round draft pick (86th overall) in 1983, part of an amazing draft that also brought Steve Yzerman, Bob Probert, Joey Kocur, Lane Lambert and Stu Grimson to Motor City; he eventually made his way to Detroit for the 1985-86 season, where he scored an impressive 32 goals as a rookie, then 30, then 37, before cooling down and running into some, uh, disciplinary issues with Probert. Both players had a tendency to drink heavily and snort white powder in the middle of the night...

This led the Wings to play hardball with Klima, having him spend part of the 1988-89 season with their AHL affiliate Adirondack Red Wings, where he scored 5 goals (with an assist) in 5 games, which, when added to the 25 he scored in the NHL, also adds up to 30 that year.

The following season, he had 5 goals and 5 assists (10 points) in 13 games when the Wings sent him to the Edmonton Oilers with Joe Murphy, Adam Graves and Jeff Sharples  in exchange for Detroit native Jimmy Carson and long-time Oiler Kevin McClelland, and he posted 53 points (25 goals and 28 assists) in 63 games with the Oilers to again reach the 30-goal mark that year.

He would reach the 40-goal plateau the following season before spiraling out of North American hockey radars for the next decade, unable to repeat his past success with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins, then failing in comeback attempts with the Oilers and Wings.

For many, his greatest on-ice accomplishment is his contribution to the Oilers' 1990 Stanley Cup championship, when he scored the winning goal in triple overtime against former Oiler Andy Moog, after having been benched for most of the game:

Much has been said about Klima, and a lot of it was negative: lazy, a waste of talent, addict - but it's hard to assign those adjectives to a guy who has had five 30-plus-goal seasons in the NHL, a Cup, and another 30-goal season split between two leagues.

Then again, it was the high-scoring 1980s.

Here's what I have to say, as an Oiler fan growing up in the 80s: Klima was fast, had a great shot, and a knack for putting himself in a favourable position. You could say his talent was almost as pure as Alex Kovalev's (although with a lower ceiling), and you're allowed to say he had Thomas Vanek's defensive acumen, in that it was rare that he would have both skates inside the defensive zone. All that is true. But he was an exciting hockey player for six seasons.

Nowadays, apart from co-hosting and coaching the forwards at Hamrlik's hockey school in the summer, he coaches six youth hockey teams in the Detroit area, in which he is bringing more and more young Czechs so they can get acclimated to the North American game earlier than at the Junior age, in part so they have a better shot at an international career, but also because should they end up playing in North America, they will be more used to the lifestyle and perhaps steer clear from the temptations of sin.

That's right, Petr Klima is now a role model for young kids. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Now, onto the beautiful cards, first with him wearing the Oilers' classic white (home) uniform, on card #159 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle set:

And wearing Edmonton's best blue (away) uniform, on card #62 from Topps' 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier set:

He signed both in blue sharpie last summer, tagging his classic #85 at the end. I love how all Oilers players wore those Jofa helmets, giving them a European/Scandinavian look.

Patrick Poulin Autograph Card

Once viewed as a blue-chip prospect - he was drafted ninth-overall by the Hartford Whalers in 1991 after a 32-goal and 70-point season in 56 games with the St. Hyacinthe Laser, ahead of the likes of Martin Lapointe (10th), Brian Rolston (11th), Philippe Boucher (13th), Pat Peake (14th), Alexei Kovalev (15th), Markus Naslund (16th), Glen Murray (18th), Martin Rucinsky (20th), Dean McAmmond (22nd), Ray Whitney (23rd), Zigmund Palffy (26th), Steve Staios (27th), Sandis Ozolinsh (30th), Jozef Stumpel (40th), Yanic Perreault (47th), Chris Osgood (54th), Igor Kravchuk (71st), Alexei Zhitnik (81st), Mariusz Czerkawski (106th), Dmitri Yushkevich (122nd), Brian Holzinger (124th), Oleg Petrov (127th), Dmitri Mironov (160th), Igor Ulanov (203rd), and even Brian Savage (171st) - Patrick Poulin became a reliable middle-six forward for a lot of the 1990s.

His best offensive season was his rookie year, when he posted 20 goals, 31 assists and 51 points with the Whalers, who sold high on him and traded him to the Chicago Blackhawks after just 9 games in the 1993-94 season, when he had just amassed 3 points (2 goals and an assist); he was accompanied by Eric Weinrich while Steve Larmer and Bryan Marchment went to Hartford.

For his next two trades, he was accompanied by Ulanov, first from Chicago to the Tampa Bay Lightning (for Enrico Ciccone and an exchange of draft picks), then from Tampa to the Montréal Canadiens (with enforcer Mick Vukota, for sniper Stéphane Richer, prospect David Wilkie and pest Darcy Tucker).

The late-1990s Habs were a cemetery for hockey players, particularly local boys (Patrick Traverse, Vincent Damphousse, Marc Bureau, Jocelyn Thibault, Éric Houde, François Groleau, Jonathan Delisle, Sylvain Blouin, Jean-François Jomphe, Frédéric Chabot, Alain Nasreddine, Dave Morissette, Jesse Bélanger, Christian Laflamme, and possibly the team's worst free-agent signing ever, Randy McKay), and Poulin was no exception. After posting 31 goals and 75 points in 277 games over five seasons with the Canadiens, he retired after spending the end of the 2001-02 season with their farm team, the Québec Citadelles.

Here he is in better times, wearing the Whalers' final away (dark blue) uniform, from Topps' 1992-93 O-Pee-Chee Premier set:

It's card #85 in the collection, which he signed in blue sharpie in 2002, with his then-number (24) tagged at the end.

Alex Goligoski Jersey And Autograph Card

Right before the 2016 draft, the Dallas Stars traded impending unrestricted free agent Alex Goligoski to the Arizona Coyotes for a fifth rounder; that they traded his rights meant they didn't have the impression that he would re-sign with the offensive powerhouse team, but that they couldn't get a second-rounder back means they didn't think the Coyotes had much of a shot, either.

It turns out Coyotes GM John Chayka did a hell of a job selling his team and all of Arizona (considering no one knows where the team will play past next season), because Goligoski signed a five-year deal to help Oliver Ekman-Larsson anchor the team's blue line while helping develop their young talent.

A Stanley Cup winner in his rookie season with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2008-09,Goligoski has become a dependable offensive blue liner who isn't bad in his own end; he posted 37 points in 82 games last season and another 7 points in 13 playoff games as the Stars were one win away from the Western Conference Finals, although Game 7 against the St. Louis Blues was by no means close.

The 31-year-old plays a safe game and should not regress for the duration of his contract, which makes him Chayka's first consensus good signing.

Here's an "all dressed" card of his from his days with the Pens, on card #75 from Upper Deck's 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Premier set, featuring no less than four jersey swatches (two white, two black) and an on-card autograph signed in blue sharpie:

Don't get fooled by the claim on the front of the card (Authentic Game Used), however, as the back of the card specifies the jersey was worn in a rookie photo shoot:

Oh well, mistakes happen, I guess.

Frank Pietrangelo: 6 Autographed Cards

As a goalie for the first half of my life, I modeled my playing style after those of Patrick Roy (like most Quebecers) and Sean Burke, as previously mentioned. Combining their butterfly techniques and rapid glove-side reflexes came to me naturally, but there were two others that influenced how I played: Ron Hextall, for his stick-handling and aggressiveness (I was always the most penalized goalie in the league and was the lone goalie-enforcer in the LHJMQ in 1995-96 when I quit playing), and Frank Pietrangelo, another fast glove, whose knack for appearing twice as large as he actually was always impressed me, like Bruce Banner becoming The Hulk when a shooter appeared. All four also used a Brian's glove for a fair chunk of their careers, and so did I...

Despite going the American College route, which was rare for Canadian players, Pietrangelo was drafted in the fourth round (63rd overall) by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1983, and yet he remained with the University Of Minnesota Golden Gophers (yes, the team Herb Brooks coached in the 1970s) for three more seasons before moving onto the Pens' IHL farm team, the Muskegon Lumberjacks, where he appeared in 35 regular-season games and 15 more in the playoffs in his rookie year in the pros.

The next three seasons were spent moving from the Penguins to the Lumberjacks, playing very well in the IHL (GAA around 3.00 in the high-scoring 1980s, and a spectacular 30-6-4 winning record) and playing mostly well in the NHL but with some games where he, like other goalies of that era, was put in terrible circumstances, so his GAA was around 4.00, his save percentage around .870, but his wins-losses record was okay for a back-up at 22-20-2.

He spent all of the 1990-91 season in Pittsburgh, sharing the back-up duties with Wendell Young, behind Tom Barrasso, and winning the Stanley Cup. Many hockey fans (particularly in Pittsburgh) remember him for The Save on Peter Stastny, staving off elimination while Barrasso was nursing an injury:

For my money, though, and as a fan of two Adams-division teams growing up (the Québec Nordiques and Montréal Canadiens), it was during his time with the Hartford Whalers backing up Burke that I not only got to see the most of Pietrangelo, but that I saw him at the top of his game, a steadying presence on sub-par (to say the least) teams. The team finished out of the playoffs in both of his full seasons in New England, with Paul Holmgren (a decent NHL-caliber general manager, but average coach whose record was 30-63-8 in Pietrangelo's tenure in Hartford, and 83-126-22 with the Whalers in total with no playoff participation in 4 seasons) at the helm.

He had a spectacular seven-game series against the Habs in 1991-92, stopping 95 of 99 shots in the final two games, including 53 in a double-overtime loss in the series clincher.

After playing a part of the locked-out 1994-95 season with the IHL's Minnesota Moose, Pietrangelo set his sights on Europe, first with the Bolzano-Bozen Foxes (1996-97) and HC Asiago (1997-98) in Italy, then the Kaufbeuren Eagles in Germany (1997-98), followed by three seasons in England with the Manchester Storm (1998-2001), where he was named Player Of The Month in December 1998.

Upon retiring, he moved back to his hometown of Niagara Falls, Ontario, where he is involved in local youth programs, chief among them the awesome Niagara Bauer Hockey Challenge, where 250 teams from 11 countries in 35 age and skills categories compete in a tournament attended by NHL, AHL, Junior Leagues and U.S. College scouts and coaches, providing kids with an extra (or sometimes a very first) opportunity to progress, on the ice and/or academically.

I sent him these 6 cards and a fan letter on March 13th, 2014, and got them all back, signed in black sharpie with his jersey number (40) tagged at the end, on March 21st, 2014. Though they are from just two different seasons, they show the changes in modernizing their uniforms that the Whalers went through in the early 1990s, starting with the ones they wore throughout my childhood, first with the white (home) uniform:

They are both technically variants of the same card by Pinnacle Brands, the one on the left being from the 1992-93 Score (American) set and the one on the right from the 1992-93 Score (Canadian) set; both bear #535.

The next card shows him wearing the green (away) uniform, in the same stance (ready for a face-off) as the first one, from Pro Set's 1992-93 Pro Set (card #64):

That stance is part of what I meant when I mentioned by his taking up twice as much room as he should in front of the net, with his arms forming a diamond with his body, in his half-ready mode. It's even more obvious on the next card, where he just seems to pop out of the net, looking at the puck like a bear would an oncoming salmon, shoulders perfectly aligned with the cross bar:

The card on the left is from Topps' 1993-94 Stadium Club set (card #272), the brand's highest-end set of the day, while the one on the right is from Topps' 1993-94 Premier (card #287), which was a premium brand when released under the O-Pee-Chee banner but fell a tad short when re-branded to Topps. If you're curious about his pose in the second card, it's taken during warm-ups, where he had a habit of visualizing top-corner glove saves while stretching his groin (the same pose can be seen on other cards). Both cards show the next-generation Whalers white (home) uniforms, with silver/grey added as a highlighting colour to the classic palette of white and green.

Which brings us to perhaps the prettiest Whalers uniform, where they changed the primary colour from green to navy blue, with green and silver acting as highlighters, from Upper Deck's 1993-94 Parkhurst (card #352):

It's also the one card with different masks represented, with the best one of the front (above), and the runner-up on the back:

Like Roy, he switched from Brian's to Koho in 1992-93...

6 of 6, in 8 days. I really liked him before, I think I like him even better now! By the way, if you think you recognize his name but are unfamiliar with early-1990s hockey, yes, he is related to current St. Louis Blues star defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who is his cousin's son.

Andrew Cassels: 6 Autographed Cards (Part 2)

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The Hartford Whalers, on the other hand, despite the presence of Murray Craven and John Cullen, gave Cassels a chance to blossom, pairing him with  soon-to-be All Star Game fastest man Geoff Sanderson, for a 5-year partnership during which Cassels would always lead the team in assists.

The following cards represent this part of his career:

The card on the left, seeing him sport the Whalers' white (home) jersey, is from Pro Set's flagship 1991-92 Pro Set set (card #395), while the card on the right shows him in the green (away) uniform, from Topps' 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier set (card #72), a set that for a while had a Jaromir Lagr rookie card worth upwards of $30 - and I had 15 of them. It seemed every other pack I opened contained a Jagr...

I also have two of the same uniform with the NHL's 75th anniversary patch on them:

The card on the left is from Pro Set's 1992-93 Parkhurst (French-language version) collection (card #285) of which I purchased 5 wax boxes a decade ago for $10 TOTAL at a Walmart - and the one on the right is from Score's 1992-93 Score (Canadian) set (card #323).

I also sent this one in, with the mid-90s Whalers uniform, featuring shades of grey, perhaps not 50 of them, but a few:

I like how the back of the card shows the home version (white) and a mullet, while the front shows the away (blue). It's from Fleer's 1993-94 Fleer Ultra set (card #33).

I sent these cards to Cassels' home on April 3rd, 2012 and got them all back, signed in black sharpie, on June 29th. They might be the last ones he signed with that pen, because it looks like it's fading on a few of these, and I think it gives them a certain charm.

After playing with the Whalers during their final season, Cassels played for two unsuccessful seasons with the Calgary Flames, before playing three years with the Vancouver Canucks during which he led the team in assists every year. After that, he was reunited with Sanderson with the Columbus Blue Jackets, again posting terrific stats (20-48-68 in his first 79-game season), before the lockout forced him to try out for the Washington Capitals in 2005-06, where he only played 31 games (4-8-12).

He may not have had a Hall of Fame career, but 732 points and 528 assists in 1015 NHL games is mighty fine. Like Ray Whitney though, he had to be a journeyman to amass those statistics and always be on the move. He played for a WHA remnant team (also now a defunct team!), two Canadian teams, a 70s expansion team and a Bettman-expansion team; all that was missing was an Original Six...

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.

Jamie McLennan: 4 Autographed Cards (Part 2)

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Which brings us to these two terrific cards, showing him in unusual poses:

On the left, perhaps the card with his best signature on it, is from Leaf's 1993-94 Donruss set (card #458), where he seems to be looking up at the scoreboard. On the right, mid-movement after a save - possibly the most smudged card of the four - is from Topps' 1994-95 Premier set (card #143), the first Premier set not to feature the O-Pee-Chee brand.

During the mid-90s, McLennan was proving too good for the minor leagues, but the Isles' net belonged to Ron Hextall. He split the 1995-96 season between the Isles (3-9-1 record), the IHL's Utah Grizzlies (9-2-2, 2.39 GAA and .911%) and the AHL's Worcester Ice Cats (14-7-1, 2.81 GAA and .905%) before contracting bacterial meningitis. As is often the case, the Islanders took the wrong decision and opted nt to renew McLennan's contract at season's end, prompting him to sign with the St. Louis Blues, who sent him to the AHL upon his recovery to regain his game shape. By 1997-98, he was back in the NHL, playing in 30 games (16.8-2, 2.17 GAA and .903%) on his way to earning the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

In the 2000 Expansion Draft, he was claimed by the Minnesota Wild.

He looked good in the Wild's uniform, but expansion teams are rarely where one goes to improve on his statistics, so despite a 2.64 GAA and .905% playing in Jacques Lemaire's defensive system, he still went only 5-23-9 in 38 games, which led to his demotion to the AHL the following season. This card, #206 from Topps' 2000-01 Stadium Club set - a great-looking set on ultra-thick cardboard stock - is the only one I have of him as a Wild.

From then on, it was all back-up roles for McLennan, be it for the Calgary Flames (twice), New York Rangers or Florida Panthers - and a stint in Russia, followed by another one in Japan.

Upon retiring in 2008, he went back to Calgary, this time as director of goaltending development and scout; a year later he was named assistant coach to Brent Sutter - which is where we stand currently. In other words, he's now coaching Miikka Kiprusoff, who he has backed up twice.