Jacob Markstrom Autographed Card

About a year and a half ago, I wrote that I believed Jacob Markstrom would become a very good #1 goalie in the NHL; this season, he is by far the best to have manned the Vancouver Canucks' crease, 13 goals-against average points and 8 save percentage points better than former Vezina Trophy winner Ryan Miller:

from HockeyDB.com

He has had 38- and 42-save nights against the Los Angeles Kings and Columbus Blue Jackets, respectively, and looked very solid in most games, save for one outing against the Boston Bruins on December 5th, a 4-0 loss where the whole team looked flat.

The Canucks therefore seem set in nets for when Miller's contract comes to an end, following next season. In the meantime, they'll probably have to resort to a timeshare situation, because he's just too good to leave on the bench.

I had mentioned back in April that I'd sent him four cards and he had returned the three featuring him with the Florida Panthers but not the one showing him with the Rochester Americans; that was rectified earlier last summer when I gathered extra mail from my old apartment, which had this card from In The Game's 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects set (it's card #168 in the collection, with the mention that he is a ''Rookie''):

It's signed in blue sharpie and looks really nice. I really like the fact that his mask sticks out of the frame - it's simple but effective, design-wise.

Ironically, Miller's also an Americans alumnus, as they have a long-standing relationship with the Buffalo Sabres, with whom he spent twelve years.

David Cooper Autographed Card

Ok, fine, it may be a bit of a stretch to link Team USA's defeat at the hands of Team Russia at the World Championships to this card of David Cooper using his hard slap shot with the Rochester Americans (get it?), but I'm taking it anyway (and I'm saving Mike Richter for later):

It's card #210 from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set (with the Blue Chip Prospect seal in red foil), which he signed for me in person in blue sharpie in the mid-1990s; during that time, I was playing Bantam and/or Midget and/or Juniors, played in the Ottawa region in the summer (there weren't high-level, i.e. AAA leagues, in Montréal in the summer), and was a goaltending teacher's assistant at various hockey schools in Montréal and the Outaouais region. Cooper hails from there, so chances are our paths crossed at one of these schools (I didn't just bring random cards to games I was playing in, but usually had a heads-up when pros were to be coming to the schools). That blue Americans uniform is one of my favourites in the AHL.

Drafted 11th overall in 1992 by the Buffalo Sabres - ahead of Sergei Krivovrasov (12th), Sergei Gonchar (14th), Jason Smith (18th), Martin Straka (19th), Peter Ferraro (24th), Jim Carey (32nd), Valeri Bure (33rd), Michael Peca (40th), Andrei Nikolishin (47th), Mattias Norstrom (48th), Manny Fernandez (52nd), Craig Rivet (68th), Robert Svehla (78th), Matthew Barnaby (83rd), Jere Lehtinen (88th), Marcus Ragnarsson (99th), Adrian Aucoin (117th), Joël Bouchard (129th), Ian Laprerrière (158th), Nikolai Khabibulin (204th), Anson Carter (220th), and Dan McGillis (238th) - Cooper was seen as a sure-shot NHL regular, having posting nearly point-per-game averages in his final two OHL seasons as a defenseman.

He played for parts of four seasons with the Americans, but knew his time within the Sabres organization was up when they sent him to play for the ECHL's South Carolina Stingrays to close out the 1993-94 season, after which he signed on with the Toronto Maple Leafs, with whom he would suit up for 30 games over three seasons at the NHL level, before getting traded to the Calgary Flames organization, who sent him to their AHL affiliate St. John Flames for all of 1998-99, producing 18 goals and 42 points in 65 regular-season games and another 5 points in 7 playoff games, showing he was ready to take his game to a higher level.

Finding no employment in the NHL, he set his sights to Europe, where he played for the following decade, in Germany (1999-2000, 2001-02, 2003-04), Russia (2002-03), Italy (2004-05, 2007-08) and Denmark (2005-07), save for one more try with the Leafs organization (2000-01), mostly spent in the AHL.

Marek Zagrapan Autograph Card

Slovakian prospect Marek Zagrapan was a first round pick (13th overall) of the Buffalo Sabres in 25, after his first of two 80+ -point seasons in the LHJMQ with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens. Unfortunately, he was never able to transpose his offensive prowess to the AHL, with 38-, 40- and 49-point seasons with the Rochester Americans and Portland Pirates.

He moved back to Europe prior to the 2009-10 season, knowing full well he was too far behind in the Sabres' depth chart at center: Derek Roy, Tim Connolly, Jochen Hecht, Paul Gaustad, Tyler Ennis, Adam Mair, Matt Ellis and Cody McCormick were all ahead of him!

He has since played in 3 different European leagues (the KHL, the Czech league, and the Swedish SM-liiga), never averaging more than 0.33 points per game.

This card was a signed insert found in packs of In The Game's 2007-08 Heroes And Prospects set (card #A-MZ).

Dean Melanson Autographed Card

I don't know if it's because I see AHL uniforms less often, but some of them strike me as amazingly beautiful. This one by the Rochester Americans is one of them. I prefer the blue uniform to the red one, worn here by Craig Anderson.

This is card #102 from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Prospects set, which Dean Melanson signed for me in blue sharpie (adding his jersey number, 7, at the end) after a LNAH (senior hockey, minor pro) game for which he suited up with the St. Hyacinthe Cristal in 2005-06. He is not adverse to playing in the province of Québec, and particularly the town of St. Hyacinthe where he suited up in three different leagues, the aforementioned LNAH, the LHJMQ (St. Hyacinthe Laser, with a goalie named Martin Brodeur) and the precursor to the LNAH, the QSMHL (with the St. Hyacinthe Cousin).

Drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in 1992, Melanson only played 5 games with them in 1994-95, and played his 4 other NHL games with the Washington Capitals in 2001-02. The rest of the time was spent in an astonishing 7 leagues (8 total), for which he suited for 16 teams (including the short-lived IHL team Québec Rafales).

In every league he's played in (except the NHL, of course, where he is pointless), he's managed to rack up close to half a point per game (he's a defenseman...) and rack up tons of penalty minutes (sometimes over 200 in a season). Most impressive is him 150 PIMs in merely 27 games in the DEL (German League) with the Iserlohn Roosters. His 8 NHL penalty minutes (in 9 games) seem pretty tame in comparison.

Ryan Miller Jersey Card

Ryan Miller has probably been the best goalie in the world for the past 2 years, with a Vezina trophy and a silver medal at the Olympics to show for it. And he's from the famous Michigan Miller family, which has already produced 5 NHLers.

Sure, this season hasn't exactly started off on the right track - he was even yanked last night after surrendering 5 goals on 15 shots in just less than 30 minutes - but you can count on him to bounce back in a major way. And, as long as the Buffalo Sabres make the playoffs, with the team they have, they can beat any team there.

This card is from In The Game's 2011-12 Canada Vs The World set, the Global Greats jersey sub-set (card #GG-19), featuring a dark blue swatch of Miller's former AHL team, the Rochester Americans. And, yes, I find it weird that they took an AHL jersey rather than a Team USA one, but it's a nice big swatch, so that's that. Also, I'm aware that it being a 'Silver Version' means something about the number of cards produced, but I have no idea what it is and the product's webpage doesn't say.

Craig Anderson: 4 Autographed Cards (Part 1)

Some are wondering if the Ottawa Senators were wise to sign Craig Anderson to a 4-year contract extension a few weeks ago but I, for one, think it could work out.

Sure, he and Michael Leighton spent years in the Chicago Blackhawks' system without being given a proper chance and both were pretty much thrown away like hole-filled socks, Leighton spending years on waivers and Anderson being dealt to the Florida Panthers, who already had an All Star #1 goalie in Tomas Vokoun.

Of those years in the minors, I kept this card as a memento:

It's from In the Game's 2006-07 Between The Pipes set, the Future Stars sub-set (card #10), where he's wearing the Rochester Americans' red jersey.

And as a Panther, I have this one:

It's card #126 in Upper Deck's 2008-09 Power Play Boxed Set and shows him with the same mask he wore on the AHL card. In his first season with the Panthers, he went 8-6-1 (2.24 GAA; .935 save %) in 17 games, the most impressive of which was a 1-0 win against the New York Islanders on March 2nd in which he set an NHL record for most saves in a shutout, with 53. In 2008-09, he went 15-7-5 with a 2.71 GAA and .924 save percentage, cementing his position as a goalie who could, perhaps, get the job done.

And that's what the Colorado Avalanche were banking on when they signed him to a 2-year deal, and they gave him every opportunity to shine, giving him the net for 15 straight starts to begin the season - a team record. He got a shutout in his second game and was the league's second star for two out of four weeks in October. He became only the fourth goalie in franchise history to record 30 wins in a season, and by season's end, he held team marks for games played, minutes played and saves made - beating the best goalie of all time, Patrick Roy, for all three. And as interesting as a 38-25-7 record, a 2.63 GAA and a .917 save % are in the regular season, his 2.62 GAA and .933 save % in the playoffs were even better.

                                       (to be continued in the next post)