Antoine Vermette Autographed Card

Just a few hours ago, Antoine Vermette announced his retirement from the NHL, having been unable to find a suitor, as he was looking for a job as a checking center on a contending team.

Having already had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup thanks to a short stint with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2014-15 (19 regular-season games, 20 playoff games); his postseason run was memorable, as he tallied 4 goals, 3 assists and seven points, with three of his goals being game-winners, two of them coming in the Cup Final. His 58.9% playoff faceoff wins percentage was also dominant, although it may have ironically cemented his transition from the top-line center he was with the Arizona Coyotes to the defensive specialist he ended his career as.

I mention the Coyotes because he was often among the team leader in points in the parts of five seasons he spent in the desert, but statistically speaking, his best seasons came with the Columbus Blue Jackets (27 goals and 65 points in 2009-10) and Ottawa Senators (24 goals and 53 points in 2007-08), but those teams had better rosters than the Yotes.

At his best, he was one of the very good #2Cs in the NHL, but he didn't necessarily have the #1C prerequisite star power. He was instead better left in the shadows, accumulating Selke Trophy votes in four separate seasons and Lady Byng consideration in 2009-10. He was dependable on both sides of the puck and finished with the ninth-highest career faceoff percentage since the league started keeping tack of such things in 1997.

His worth can certainly be felt in the returns teams got for him in trades: the Sens got a #1 goalie (Pascal Leclaire) and second-round pick from the Jackets for his services in 2009; the Jackets got Curtis McElhinney, a second-rounder and a fourth-round pick from the Coyotes for him in 2012; and the Hawks gave away a defensive prospect and a first-rounder to secure his services for that Cup run in 2015.

I actually met him earlier this winter, and he signed a couple of cards for me, but today, I wanted to showcase an old card that reminds me of when it all started to come together for him, on card #83 from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Upper Deck Prospects set, which he signed in blue sharpie in 2013-14:

It shows him wearing the Victoriaville Tigres' white (home) uniform, sporting the alternate captain's "A" that he would also inherit in Columbus and Arizona. He'd scored 30 goals with 41 assists for 71 points in 71 games the previous season and had just been drafted 55th overall (second round) by the Sens, making the LHJMQ's Mike Bossy Trophy as best prospect.

Jason LaBarbera Autographed Card

Former journeyman goaltender Jason LaBarbera is currently in his third season as the WHL Calgary Hitmen's goaltending coach. My first reflex would be to say that that's the type of consistency that has eluded him in his professional career, considering he played for 13 teams in three leagues in 16 seasons (plus three teams in four WHL seasons in Juniors), but the truth of the matter is he had two relatively solid residencies, the first with the New York Rangers organization (though mostly with their AHL affiliate Hartford Wolf Pack), which was a five-year relationship from 2001 until 2005, and the second with the Phoenix Coyotes where he was the main NHL backup for four straight seasons under the tutelage of Sean Burke, yielding three fairly good seasons:

from HockeyDB

That's twice with save percentages above .920, three times with a GAA under 3.00, with 2009-10 being particularly spectacular at 2.13 and .928.

As a matter of fact, his AHL statistics are pretty impressive overall, with a 162-121 record, a 2.33 GAA and .922 save percentage. These two seasons are impressive regardless of caliber:

That is dominance right there, which is why I mostly have memories of him playing for the Wolf Pack, like on this card, which he signed in blue sharpie in 2013-14:

That's card #33 from Pacific's 2003-04 Pacific Prospects - AHL Edition set, showing him wearing Hartford's beautiful blue (away) uniform, based on the Rangers' "Liberty" jersey.

He won the AHL awards for best goalie twice (2004 and 2007) - earning First Team All-Star nods both times - as well as the league MVP award in 2004, and the trophy for lowest goals-against average in 2004 and 2007.

Time will tell if he'll be successful following in Burke's footsteps - so far, eight goalies have crossed his path with only one signing with an NHL team - but these young men will have a wealth of experience to learn from, including how to handle the long bus rides and earning your way to the NHL.

Bryan Allen: Two Autographed Cards

Here's a cool return I wasn't expecting when I got home (late) yesterday, over two years in the making, as I'd sent Bryan Allen these two cards when the Montréal Canadiens assigned him to the Hamilton Bulldogs in January 2015:

He signed them in blue sharpie and sent them from (presumably) his home in California.

While he hasn't officially retired yet, he did not play during the 2015-16 season. The former fourth-overall pick of the 1998 draft - behind Vincent Lecavalier, David Legwand and Brad Stuart and ahead of the likes of Vitali Vishnevski (5th), Rico Fata (6th), Manny Malhotra (7th), Nikolai Antropov (10th), Alex Tanguay (12th), Martin Skoula (17th), Dmitri Kalinin (18th), Robyn Regehr (19th), Simon Gagné (22nd), Jiri Fischer (25th), Scott Gomez (27th), Ramzi Abid (28th), Jonathan Cheechoo (29th), Andrew Peters (34th), Mike Fisher (44th), Mike Ribeiro (45th), Brad Richards (64th), Jason LaBarbera (66th), Erik Cole (71st), François Beauchemin (75th), Brian Gionta (82nd), Josef Vasicek (91st), Shawn Horcoff (99th), Jaroslav Spacek (117th), Andrew Raycroft (135th), Chris Neil (161st), Andrei Markov (162nd), Pavel Datsyuk (171st), Michael Ryder (216th), and Karlis Skrastins (230th) - played for parts of five seasons with the Vancouver Canucks before being part of the first Roberto Luongo trade, sending Allen, Alex Auld, and Todd Bertuzzi to the Florida Panthers for Luongo, the draft pick that became Sergei Shirokov and Lukas Krajicek.

It was with the Panthers that he would crack the 20-point barrier (25, in 2006-07), but the 6'5", 220-pound defender was mostly known as a stay-at-home defenseman, often cracking or nearing the 100-PIM mark.

After most of five seasons with the Panthers, he spent a year and a half with the Carolina Hurricanes before signing his final contract, a three-season deal with the Anaheim Ducks, who sent him to the Habs in his last year for oft-maligned forward Rene Bourque.

It therefore made sense to send him cards of his first and almost-last teams; here he is in the Canucks' 1990s dark (away) orca logo uniform, on card #298 from Topps' 2002-03 O-Pee-Chee set and Prospects sub-set, allowing me to use him as #5 in my Canucks Numbers Project:

And here he is wearing what was then the Ducks' alternate uniform and is now their home garbs, on card #15 from Panini's 2013-14 Score set:

Because it's the lone return I'm missing from my 2015-16 mailings, I thought this might be from Torrey Mitchell; the fact that it wasn't keeps me hopeful that that one may yet be coming.

Alex Auld: Two Autographed Cards

When people think of Alex Auld, it's usually as a journeyman goaltender who has played for 8 NHL and 2 AHL teams in the past 6 seasons alone, but they forget he is an established and decorated veteran.

Like most NHLers, he was a star in juniors, making the OHL'S Second All-Rookie team in 1998-99 and its Third All-Star Team two years later, to go with his World Juniors bronze medal. Drafted 40th overall in the second round of the 1999 Draft by the Florida Panthers - a high pick for a goalie at the time - he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks for two draft picks.

He was long considered the Canucks' top goaltending prospect, much like Cory Schneider right now, and eventually landed the starting job in the 2005-06 season, playing in 67 games with a 2.94 goals-against average and .902 save percentage, winning both the Molson Cup as the player with the most Three Stars selections and the Cyclone Taylor trophy as the team's MVP. When the Canucks didn't make the playoffs, he was invited to play with Team Canada at the World Championships, splitting duties with Marc Denis for a 4th-place finish. Things were looking up.

But the Canucks traded him back to the Panthers, this time for established -and perennial Vezina trophy nominee Roberto Luongo, in a trade that also involved Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen, Lukas Krajicek and a draft pick that became Peter Aston. To make matters worse, the Panthers hired bad boy goalie Ed Belfour on the free agent market, and he doesn't take competition too well. One incident in particular left Auld hospitalized.

The next summer, Auld thought the Phoenix Coyotes could be a place where he'd have a place to shine, but with the Anaheim Ducks putting Ilya Bryzgalov on waivers, the offer was too good for the Coyotes to pass up, and Auld was let go in December, traded to the Boston Bruins.

Once again, free agency came along and he signed with the Ottawa Senators, where he beat out Martin Gerber for the starting job. Unfortunately, the trade winds came along again, bringing Pascal Leclaire from the Columbus Blue Jackets, and to the Dallas Stars Auld went, before concluding the 2009-10 season with the New York Rangers.

All in all, before signing with the Montréal Canadiens this summer, Auld had been the #1 goalie on three different teams and played for Team Canada three times, which is more than most journeymen goalies can say, apart perhaps from HVC darling Fred Brathwaite.

And in addition to having had an interesting career path, Auld also brings a team-first attitude and quite a distinctive signature, as can be attested on these two autographed cards. Love it!

Speaking of ''these cards'', the one on the left is from Topps' 2002-03 O-Pee-Chee set (card #271, labeled Prospects as it was his rookie card) and sees him sporting my second-favourite Canucks jersey (the top being the 80s all-black with the skate logo). The card on the right sees him wearing the Senators' current red jersey, although the angle of the picture makes the Reebok jersey look like a pajama, as of them many do; this one is from the 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee set, this time manufactured by Upper Deck. It's card #653 in the set of 660, and I think the gold border means it's an insert.

I sent Auld a fan letter on September 28th, care of the Habs' practice facility, and got both cards back signed in black sharpie on November 18th - a mere month and a half later.