Chandler Stephenson: Two Autographed Cards

(team and set links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

Chandler Stephenson had decent statistics in Juniors, nearly a point per game going into the 2012 draft, a point per in 2012-13 after the Washington Capitals made him their third-round pick (77th overall) and 89 points in 69 games in 2013-14, before making the leap to the AHL with the Hershey Bears, where he also improved yearly from 14 to 28 to 38 points, but it was still a toss-up whether he'd end up being a third-liner or on one of the offensive lines, and whether he'd be a winger or a center. He was a full-time NHL rookie in 2017-18 (18 points in 67 regular-season games and 7 points in 24 playoff games) when the Caps won the Stanley Cup.

The Capitals were disappointed with his next season and a half, and he was moved to the Vegas Golden Knights - ironically the team they beat in the Cup Final - midway through last season, and his performance to close out the 2019-20 campaign (8 goals, 14 assists, 22 points and a +19 rating in 41 games) was obviously part of the decision-making process when it was decided the Knights would trade Paul Stastny to the Winnipeg Jets to make room under the salary cap to sign Alex Pietrangelo. With 20 points in 32 games, he's well worth the $2.75M cap hit.

The 2012 draft featured a terrific crop of hardware collectors; among those selected before Stephenson are Tom Wilson (16th, Stanley Cup), Teuvo Teravainen (18th, Cup), Andrei Vasilevskiy (19th, Cup and Vezina Trophy), Olli Maatta (22nd, two Cups), and Tanner Pearson (30th, Cup), and among those selected after him are Oskar Sundqvist (81st, Cup), Matt Murray (83rd, two Cups), Colton Parayko (86th, Cup), Cédric Paquette (101st, Cup), Connor Hellebuyck (130th, Vezina) and Christian Djoos (195th, Cup), as well as a bunch of Cup finalists in Filip Forsberg (11th), Malcolm Subban (24th), Pontus Aberg (37th), Colton Sissons (50th), Chris Tierney (55th), Esa Lindell (74th), Matt Grzelcyk (85th) and Colin Miller (151st), and a dominant Jaccob Slavin (120th).

But the Golden Knights will have to make do without their seventh-leading scorer for the next three games after he was suspended for elbowing Los Angeles Kings defenseman Tobias Bjornfot. This punishment comes on the heels of fines to Connor McDavid (for elbowing forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi of the Montréal Canadiens) and Nathan MacKinnon (throwing a helmet at Conor Garland of the Arizona Coyotes), signaling that star players have started retaliating to the myriad of uncalled questionable shots they themselves have received for the past few years.

Here he is from his Juniors days with the WHL's Regina Pats, first with the white (home) uniform on card #236 from In The Game's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects Update boxed set:

And here he is wearing their blue (away) uniform, on card #138 from ITG's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects collection:

He signed them in black sharpie while playing with the Bears in the Capitals organization, adding his jersey number (22) and trying to blend it in with the uniforms.

Josh Holden Autograph Card

Once in a while, a player sticks with you, whether you like it or not. Josh Holden is that guy for me. I'd first heard of him from a 7th Inning Sketch CHL card from his rookie junior year (1994 or 1995) and was later shocked to see the guy on my card go on to be drafted in the first round by the Vancouver Canucks - my guy was going places!

Unfortunately, he was only to be a journeyman NHLer - and one that has only played in 60 games so far - with the Canucks (twice), Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs - scoring 5 goals and adding 9 assists for 14 points.

Since the NHL lock-out, however, he's been playing in Europe, and has developped into a point-per-game player in Switzerland, so good for him.

This card (#78, with a sweet blue sharpie signature) is from The Score Board's 1996-97 All Sport PPF set, but since it's not an officially recognized set, I don't know much more about it, other than it seems to be the CHL's mid-90s card manufacturer, like 7th Inning Sketch before it and Be A Player later. However, this card was actually in a box of Tri-Star's 2005-06 Hidden Treasures, a product you must try to avoid at almost any cost. These boxes lure you by promising rare cards and offering the possibility of getting mint-condition 1952 Parkhurst cards (i.e. a Gordie Howe or 'Rocket' Richard rookie), but all they are is a mix-and-match gathering of (extremely) common Pro Set and 1992-93 Parkhurst (manufactured by Pro Set) like Mike Hartman of the Jets and Darryl Shannon of the Leafs. And each box is guaranteed to have an autograph - usually one from this All Sport PPF set. Lured in by the possibility of saving on shipping charges with more than one purchase (the 10-pack boxes were about $5 apiece and shipping for the first box was $10 but the rest were $2 each), I bought many a box of this, most of which are still unopened - after too many Brent Gilchrist cards, I realized I had been duped. I have plenty of them left for sale should anyone be interested in tempting karma.