Blues Preview: Vladimir Tarasenko Jersey Card

This will likely be the preface to all of this year's Season Preview posts: 2020 is a different beast and requires adaptability; in my case, it means the joint posts with my "main/personal" blog will not be in the "player here/analysis there" format but rather the entire scope of the analysis will take place here and the player will have some sort of direct connection to what's written. Caveats: at this point, despite the season being set to start in Mid-January, several impact players haven't found a team yet and quite a few teams are currently above the salary cap, which means there is much maneuvering left to do.

The St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019 and had only lost a handful of support players to defend their title prior to last season - Joel Edmundson and hometown hero Patrick Maroon - but this time around, losing captain Alex Pietrangelo, retiree Jay Bouwmeester, free agent Troy Brouwer and goalie Jake Allen makes for a greater impact on paper, even though the team remains solid and among the best in a top-heavy but shallow West division. Nearly as significant is the loss of Vladimir Tarasenko to a long-term injury, although he could be back in time for the playoffs, which would be a huge boost.

What makes their odds look good:
They still have 15 players who won a Cup just 18 months ago, including Jaden Schwartz, Ryan O'Reilly, David Perron, Brayden Schenn, Samuel Blais, Colton Parayko and Jordan Binnington. They also replaced Pietrangelo with Torey Krug, who was on the Boston Bruins team the Blues faced in that Final, with a four-point game to show for it.

Question marks:
Is Justin Faulk a fit on this team, or will he get traded before the end of the season? Which is the real Binnington - the one from the 2019 or the 2020 playoffs?

Outlook:
There is no need to worry about missing the playoffs, but playing in the same division as the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights means that making it past the second round is going to be extremely difficult and exhausting.

Prediction:
Third in the West Division.

Back to Tarasenko, who underwent his third shoulder surgery in three years last September and will be out until the end of March. He had 10 points in 10 games in 2019-20, which is a better scoring rate than he's ever achieved over a full season, so at age 29, he really is in his prime, but despite having posted five straight 30-goal seasons (with a high of 40 in 2015-16), he still falls short of what was expected of him: 50-goal seasons and chanllenging Alex Ovechkin for the scoring crown; part of that can be attributed to Tarasenko also developing as a passer (he is usually at no more than a 10 goals-to-assists ratio difference at the end of any given season), whereas Ovie is definitely a shoot-only type of player, but it also has to do with the Blues' historically defensive style of play. Tarasenko will likely never win a Selke Trophy, but he has less leeway than his Team Russia teammate in his own zone. We'll see if there are any long-term consequences to his surgery in the next couple of years.

Here he is sporting the Blues' white (away) uniform on the jersey insert version of card #11 from Upper Deck's 2017-18 SPX set:

It features a game-worn dark blue jersey swatch that is probably from the Blues' blue (home) jersey. I got it in a trade for a few in-person autograph cards before realizing it could be purchased for $5-10 on Ebay. Internationally, Tarasenko has a gold medal from the 2011 World Juniors and silver from the 2008 U18s, 2009 Hlinka Cup, and 2015 World Championships.

Yann Sauvé Jersey Card

Tired of getting loaned left and right to all corners of the AHL and ECHL, Yann Sauvé set his sights towards Europe in 2016-17 and has almost never looked back.

The former Vancouver Canucks draft pick (41st overall in 2008) to be a middle-pairing defenseman, as he was already a hulking shut-down blue-liner in the LHJMQ at 6'3" and 209 pounds, but with players his age or slightly younger, he could also contribute offensively. In the professional ranks however, as is often the case with defensemen - particularly those built rugged - it was a slow process made even slower by a concussion suffered when he was hit by a car in training camp in 2010. It took him two months to recover and he was relegated to the AHL instantly and also playing a bit in the ECHL, which prepared him for the following five seasons, during which he suited up for 13 teams in three different leagues:

from HockeyDB

That's a lot of travel.

When the offer to play for the Croatian KHL team KHL Zagreb Medvescak came (the "KHL" in the team name does not refer to the league they played in but to the Croatian initials for "Ice Hockey Club"), he jumped on it, but when the team failed to make the playoffs in February, he felt it was too early to pack it in until the Fall, so he went back to the ECHL's Manchester Monarchs until German team Munich Red Bulls Ice Hockey Club (or as they're called in he DEL, EHC Red Bull München) requested his services for a playoff run. He had one final regular-season game to play before that, and he decided to make his mark by amassing no fewer than 25 penalty minutes and a game rejection as he got acquainted with his teammates. The team won the league championship.

He spent the 2017-18 season in the U.K., scoring 10 goals with 27 assists for 37 points (sixth in team scoring, first for defensemen) and 96 penalty minutes (second only to fellow Montréaler Mathieu Gagnon's 106) in 54 games with the Nottingham Panthers.

He gave Austria a chance for 2018-19, splitting the season between KHL Zagreb Medveščak (which had jumped leagues for financial reasons that were never resolved) and EC Panaceo VSV after the Zagreb team folded, with similar statistics; he had 6 goals and 8 assists for 14 points with 12 penalty minutes and a -11 rating in 24 games in Zagreb and 2 goals, 10 assists and 12 points with 16 penalty minutes and a -12 rating for for Villach.

He spent the 2019-20 season playing for France's Grenoble Brûleurs de Loups (literally: Wolf Burners), scoring 6 goals with 15 assists for 21 points ion the highly-offensive Ligue Magnus He also had 57 penalty minutes and - more importantly - a +26 defensive rating.

Grenoble seems like a perfect fit for him, and I hope he finds some stability there. As a French Canadian, I believe he's relatively exempt from the "Imported Players" quota when in France, so that's a plus.

This is what he looked like in the Canucks' white (away) uniform, on card #165 from Upper Deck's 2011-12 SPX set and Rookie Jersey sub-set:

It features a karge blue "event.worn" jersey - a rookie photo shoot - and is numbered #318/799. While the foil looks silver in the scan, it's actually gold to the naked eye.

Jonathan Bernier Autographed Card

I really wasn't sure which story-line I wanted to purse tonight, with most recent results going the way I had hoped. After seriously considering featuring someone from the Columbus Blue Jackets (winners), Washington Capitals (winners), Boston Bruins (losers), Dallas Stars (winners) or St. Louis Blues (losers), I opted with a former member of the Toronto Maple Leafs (losers, eliminated), Jonathan Bernier.

A first-round draft pick (11th overall in 2006, Los Angeles Kings), he sat on the sidelines and watched Jonathan Quick win a Conn Smythe Trophy from the sidelines, awaiting his turn like he had in Juniors when he was slotted behind Jaroslav Halak only to take over upon the Slovak goalie's move to the professional ranks and lead the Lewiston MAINEiacs to a LHJMQ championship and Memorial Cup berth.

Except his turn would never come in L.A., so he asked for a trade anywhere to have a shot at a #1 spot, and the Leafs came calling, offering the Kings Matt Frattin, Ben Scrivens and a second-round pick for Bernier's services. The Toronto media wrote flattering pieces on him at first, but turned on him within three years despite very good statistics with the team:

from HockeyDB

I mean: a .922 save percentage over 55 games in 2013-14, with a 26-19-7 record while his backup James Reimer went 12-16-1 under Randy Carlyle; a 2.87 GAA, .912 save percentage and 21-28-7 record while Reimer was at 3.16, .907 and 9-16-1 in 2014-15, as the media got the 21-16-3 Carlyle fired and his replacement, Peter Horacek, went a lowly 9-28-5 to close out the year in agony; and get this, 3 shutouts in 38 games in 2015-16, Mike Babcock's first season with the team, which finished with a 29-42-11 record (Reimer and Garret Sparks combined for a single shutout in 49 combined appearances).

The leading scorer for Babcock's Leafs? Nazem Kadri, with 45 points.

Bernier was made one of the scapegoats, but he was put in an impossible position, that of holding down the fort while the team was failing on purpose (i.e. "tanking") to put itself in position to draft high-level prospects and move on from the failed Phil Kessel era.

Carlyle took him on with the Anaheim Ducks for the 2016-17 season, and he was terrific, going 21-7-4 with a 2.51 GAA, a .915 save percentage and 2 shutouts in 38 games to restore his reputation as a dependable netminder, and the following season with the Colorado Avalanche was more of the same (19-13-3, 2.85, .913, 2 shutouts in 37 games).

Unfortunately, the starting jobs are pretty much taken everywhere, and with the salary cap, teams stick with their #1 guy even through bad seasons because they're stuck with the cap hit and term, so they brace themselves for a year and hope for the best the following season, a recipe that works (Craig Anderson) as often as it doesn't (Quick).

So, for the last couple of seasons, Bernier has been eating a ton of rubber in front of the Detroit Red Wings' net, staying in shape in case a contending team comes calling, making acrobatic saves to impress the few people left in the stands before GM Steve Yzerman turns things around.

Who knows, maybe a former employer like current Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland (who hired him with the Wings) will give him a call for next season?

Because no matter what the Toronto media says, he has yet to cost his team a season and is a fine stop-gap solution in front of the net. Furthermore, he's still just 32 and has two or three more good years in him.

Here he is in Leafs white (the "away" uniform), on card #76 from Upper Deck's 2013-14 SPX set:

It's a great-looking set, with enough foil to look classy and complementary colours to keep the theme running while keeping a classic "card feel". He signed it in blue sharpie after a 4-2 loss to the Habs while with the Avalanche, in January 2018.

After this season's failure to qualify for the "real" playoffs, my guess is the Toronto media will turn on goalie Freddie Andersen this summer, GM Kyle Dubas the next and team President Brendan Shanahan the one after that, forcing yet another rebuild on a team that hasn't won a Stanley Cup since 1967 (or a playoff series in 15 years).

Ryan Strome Jersey Card

Earlier tonight, New York Rangers forward Ryan Strome shot a puck directly into Montréal Canadiens captain Shea Weber's face, leaving the Norris Trophy candidate bloodied - although Weber wouldn't even miss a shift and would go on to play a game-high 24 minutes.

Strome's been finding more net than face this year, with 6 goals, 18 assists and 24 points in 28 games, with 22 penalty minutes and a +7 rating. He is second only to Artemi Panarin (13 goals, 21 assists, 34 points) in team scoring, playing upwards of 19 minutes per game. All this is factoring in the fact that he only had two assists in his previous five games, he's had a tremendous bounce-back season.

He's 11 points from last year's total of 35, which he had to dress in 81 games to get; his career-high of 17 goals and 50 points (2014-15, New York Islanders) not only seem attainable but well within reach.

It's the type of comeback story that wins a Bill Masterton Trophy if no one has a deadly affliction during the season.

We've been hearing the word "flop" associated with Strome for at least three years now, but the fifth-overall pick of the 2011 draft has climbed up the production chart to 16th of his class, which makes him worthy of a first-round spot, especially considering Nikita Kucherov (58th overall, second round, 1st in points), Johnny Gaudreau 104th overall, fourth round, 3rd in points), Brandon Saad (43rd, second round, 7th), Ondrej Palat (208th, seventh round, 10th), Vincent Trocheck (64th, third round, 13th), and Andrew Shaw (139th, fifth round, 15th) are ahead of him.

It's a safe bet that Kucherov, Gabriel Landeskog (second overall, 2nd in scoring), Gaudreau, Mark Scheifele (seventh-overall, 4th in scoring), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (first-overall, 5th in scoring), Jonathan Huberdeau (third-overall, 6th in scoring), Sean Couturier (eighth-overall, 7th in scoring), defenseman Dougie Hamilton (ninth-overall, 8th in scoring) and Trocheck continue hitting the same type of production for the remainder of their careers with similar aging curves, and it's expected that Saad, Palat and Shaw may regress due to playing more a physical style that lends itself to injuries as times piles on, and I'm betting on Mika Zibanejad (sixth-overall, 9th in points) to hit higher peaks than he had in past years for the next five, so my expectation of their points totals once they've all retired would have them finish in the following order:

1. Kucherov
2. Gaudreau
3. Huberdeau
4. Scheifele
5. Couturier
6. Zibanejad
7. Nugent-Hopkins
8. Landeskog
9. Trocheck
10. Strome
11. Hamilton
12. Rickard Rackell
13. J.T. Miller
14. William Karlsson
15. Jean-Gabriel Pageau
16. Phillip Danault
17. Palat
18. Saad
19. Shaw
20.  Vladislav Namestnikov

Or maybe Palat finishes 13th, but I'm fairly confident about the final positionning for the rest of the guys, with a two-rank buffer at most.

Which is to say that Strome, in less than a full calendar year with the Blueshirts, has even gone up five to eight spots in my own opinion of him. All credit goes to the way he's handling himself in a hard situation, with the pressures of a first-rounder, the near-kiss of death of serving as one of the Edmonton Oilers' worst transactions in recent memory - a one-for-one trade for Jordan Eberle, who it has to be said has been trending downwards in the goal-scoring department - to finding his game as a young veteran on a Rangers team that is going through a complete rebuild and where he was only expected to fill a roster spot, not earn top-six minutes and a new deal.

Which brings me to card #M-RS from Upper Deck's 2015-16 SPX set and Monochromatics sub-set, showing him and the rest of the picture in black-and-white save for the blue on Islanders' home jersey:

It features a matching game-used jersey swatch. Although it's impossible to tell via the scan, the "Monochromatics" text, the swatch's contour, his name and the SPX and Isles' logos are all actually in silver foil. It's a beautiful card and a great sub-set idea.

Buster Davis Autograph Card

Buster Davis was a star linebacker from his high school days at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach (Florida) all the way through his All-American residency with the Florida State University Seminoles.

He was drafted in the third round by the Arizona Cardinals, but was released just months later, only to be picked up by the Detroit Lions. He spent the 2007 season in Detroit, before hitting the waiver wire in August of 2008 and getting claimed by the Indianapolis Colts, even getting re-signed at the end of the 2008 campaign... only to get waived by them in March.

In 2009, the Houston Texans decided to play around with his psyche, signing him to a one-year deal on April 3rd, waiving him on September 5th, re-signing him to the practice squad on October 8th and releasing him again on October 13th.

After that, he toiled around in minor leagues with the Hartford Colonials (2010, UFL), Las Vegas Locomotives (2010, UFL) and Jacksonville Sharks (2011-2012, AFL), before calling it quits.

In 2012, he wa named head coach at Duval Charter of Jacksonville, but was let go after 7 games; in 2013, he took on the same job at St. Petersburg Admiral Farragut prior to spring practice but left that job four months later. 

In 2014, he was named head coach at McArthur High School, saying:

Some people only look to tomorrow. But some people like myself need to have a vision that goes past tomorrow, past two weeks from now. We really feel that in the next two to three years that our program is going to be one everyone talks about and players at other schools will want to come play for.

He resigned after going 0-10.

In 2015, he took on the head coaching position at Port Orange Atlantic... resigning in August, two days after the beginning of Fall training, without ever coaching a single game with the team.

I wouldn't hire him to renovate my home... or probably anything else, for that matter.

Here he is wearing the Cardinals' red (home) uniform, on card #X-BD from Upper Deck's 2009 SPX set and X Factor Signatures sub-set:

It features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph.

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Matt Duchene Jersey Card

Joe Sakic pulled it off and essentially traded both Matt Duchene and Kyle Turris for terrific pulls in one swift move, sending Duchene to the Ottawa Senators (for Turris, former first-rounder Shane Bowers, goalie Andrew Hammond, and the Sens' 2018 first-round pick and 2019 third-rounder), then flipping Turris to the Nashville Predators for quality defensive prospect Samuel Girard, young point-per-game AHLer Vladislav Kamenev and their 2018 second-round draft pick.

That's right - the GM who was so inept that his head coach left two weeks before training camp last season, whose players abandoned before Christmas last year, who opted to protect an injury-prone $6M goalie instead of a sure-fire starter in one or two years, and who had only three NHL defensemen under contract 48 hours before handing in his start-of-the-season 23-player list just a month ago - essentially got three quality prospects, a body in net and three high draft picks for a guy who's known he was going to be traded for the better part of the last 15 months and was straddling the line between not wanting to play and no one wanting to play with him.

In doing so, he may have accelerated his rebuild by two entire seasons and may yet have a decent team when his true current star, Nathan MacKinnon, enters his prime.

There's something to be said about being able to learn on the job, especially if you're allowed to make mistakes.

And that's something that can also apply to Duchene, too. He hasn't been the best teammate in the past couple of years, with many veterans (Jean-Sébastien Giguère, Paul Stastny, Patrick Roy, Jarome Iginla) turning their backs on him and what seemed like selfish actions. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding, perhaps a lack of maturity, or perhaps they were just mistakes.

He has a chance to start anew now, on a team that clearly thinks it can contend in the near future, seeing as his contract will expire at the end of next season.

Here he is wearing the Avs' burgundy (now-home) uniform, on card #WM-DU from Upper Deck's 2013-14 SPx collection and Winning Materials sub-set:

It features two matching game-worn jersey swatches.

Cam Neely Jersey Card

It had been years in the making, but Boston Bruins President Cam Neely has finally okayed the firing of head coach Claude Julien, whom he inherited from previous regimes; indeed, Julien had been head coach of the Bruins since June 2007, whereas Hall Of Famer and former star power forward Neely returned to the organization in a front office capacity first as VP in September 2007, then as President in 2010.

In the meantime, Julien had coached the team to a Stanley Cup (2011), another Final (2013) and a Presidents Trophy (2013-14), earning the Jack Adams Trophy (2008-09) in his tenure as well, which he concluded as the franchise's winningest head coach. He had missed the postseason these past two years and was outside the playoff picture as of his firing as well.

Neely, on the other hand, has fired GM Peter Chiarelli and hired Don Sweeney to replace him; the next coaching nomination could spell the end for either or both of these Bruins alumni.

Neely had also been a contested inclusion in the Hall Of Fame, having never won a major award - the only hardware he owns from his playing days is a Masterton for his comeback season in 1993-94 - nor participated in noteworthy international competitions.

He had three 50-goal seasons in the high-scoring 1980s, and retired short of the point-per-game mark (395 goals, 299 assists and 694 points in 726 games, plus another 57-32-89 in 92 playoff games, reaching the Final twice and losing to the Edmonton Oilers both times).

Was he good? Undoubtedly. Great? That's debatable. In an era that featured most of the record-setting seasons of all time, he stands behind contemporaries Brett Hull, Jari Kurri, Mike Bossy, Pavel Bure, Jaromir Jagr, Teemu Selanne and Sergei Makarov for sure. Alex Kovalev - a 1000-point man and Stanley Cup winner of whom Mario Lemieux once said had the "greatest hands (he'd) ever seen" - as well.

At best, he's equal to Dino Ciccarelli, Alexander Mogilny, Steve Larmer, Owen Nolan and Theo Fleury, which means slightly superior to Claude Lemieux, Mike Gartner, Brian Bellows, Glenn Anderson and Brendan Shanahan (in that order, probably).

Because he came before the likes of Keith Tkachuk, Éric Dazé, Tony Amonte and Todd Bertuzzi, I will gladly slot him ahead of them. Later, however, Jarome Iginla, was much more dominating at his position (right wing), as was Daniel Alfredsson.

Here he is wearing the Bs' classic 1980s black (away) uniform with the alternate captain's "A" on card #WM-CN from Upper Deck's 2010-11 SPX set and Winning Materials sub-set:

It features black and yellow game-worn jersey swatches. I got it in a trade a couple of years ago, I forgot what I sent in exchange.

Henrik Karlsson Jersey And Autograph Card

It's time to get cracking on #35 in my Flames Numbers Project, Henrik Karlsson.

Back when Miikka Kiprusoff was the best goalie in the world, the Calgary Flames had two youngsters they thought would one day be able to relieve him when he retired, Leland Irving and Karlsson.

Considering Irving is currently playing in Finland (for the Kouvola KooKoo) and Karlsson is with the KHL's Astana Barys this year (2.64 GAA and .918 save percentage with 6 shutouts in 39 games so far with former NHLers such as Kevin Poulin, Nigel Dawes, Dustin Boyd, Brandon Bochenski, Martin St-Pierre, Kevin Dallman, Cam Barker, and Vitaly Kolesnik), one can assume they were wrong.

However, since leaving for Europe, Karlsson has posted elite-level numbers:

From HockeyDB

Goalies usually take longest to develop (compared to forwards, who may be NHL-ready by 18-22, and defensemen, who usually enter their prime around 24-26), and large-sized players as well; Karlsson was both, standing at 6'5" and weighing 215 pounds, though he moves quickly and has a good glove hand.

He's now 33; I'd give him a shot as an NHL backup, for two or three years. A couple of teams are either thin at the position or have poor luck with their goaltending this year; it wouldn't hurt to look at other options for next season...

Here he is wearing the Flames' current red (home) uniform:

That's the "all dressed version" of card #185 from Upper Deck's 2010-11 SPX set - his rookie card - which includes both an on-sticker blue-sharpied autograph and a big, black, event-worn (rookie photo shoot) jersey swatch. And not a cheap jersey; the card specifies: "Authentic Jersey". Thanks, UD. The card is numbered 521/799 and was pulled from a multi-sport repack box.

Ryan Smyth: 4 Autographed Cards

I wrote to Ryan Smyth when he announced his retirement during the 2013-14 season, adding four cards I'd hoped he'd sign for me to the package; I received all of them back today, signed in black sharpie, with his usual unique handwriting on them.

Smyth may be nicknamed Captain Canada for having, well, captained Team Canada a record six times at World Championships and for being the only player ever to lead the team to gold at all major events - Olympics (2002), World Championships (2003 and 2004), World Cup (2004), World Juniors (1995) and Spengler Cup (2012) - but he is also recognized as one of the three penultimate Edmonton Oilers, with Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.

He finished his storied NHL career with 386 goals, 456 assists and 842 total points in 1270 regular-season NHL games, and another 28 goals, 31 assists and 59 points in 93 playoff games, but his contributions were always about more than mere numbers anyway. He was often the hardest-working man on the ice - nay, in the league.

His leading by example and leaving everything on the ice at every game led to his wearing an "A" on his jersey for most of his career, as can be attested on the following three cards of him with the Oilers, all from Upper Deck and all showing him wearing he team's white (home) uniform from the turn of the millennium:

On top is card #82 from Fleer's 2005-06 Fleer Ultra set, where he is fighting for position with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks' Niclas Havelid; the card in the middle sees him forechecking, with Ales Hemsky holding the middle behind him, on card #319 from UD's 2005-06 Series 2 collection; and the card at the bottom is from the beautiful 2006-07 SPX set.

I also included a card of his with the Colorado Avalanche, #70 in the 2007-08 SP Authentic set, showing him wearing the team's pretty awful burgundy Reebok Edge jersey:

I did so to commemorate that magical week he had upon signing with the Avs as a free agent where he put together a string of three consecutive three-point games between December 1st and 9th, 2007.

He had just come off of two straight 36-goal seasons, and the Avs were hoping he could delay the mid-thirties decline most power forwards go through, and he almost did, flirting with the point-per-game average in Denver but with injuries starting to take their toll.

The Avs traded him to the Los Angeles Kings after he posted 26 goals and 59 points in 2008-09, numbers that declined to 22 and 53 (in 67 games, mind you) to 23 and 47 (in 82 games), prompting L.A. to send him back to Edmonton, where he finished fifth in team scoring with 46 points in 2011-12, then 13 in 47 games, then 10 goals and 23 points in 72 games in his final season, in 2013-14.

Better numbers than many other players but, then again, Ryan Smyth was a better player than most. He certainly had a lot of heart. And he can't get hockey out of his mind, as can be attested by the fact that he half-ended his retirement to play in the Chinook senior league last year...

Erik Gudbranson Jersey Card

Honestly, I don't know what the hell is wrong with the Florida Panthers. Now that GM Dale Tallon has built a successful team, he's promoted so that someone else can either reap the spoils or rip the team to shreds... which is seemingly what is happening, particularly in light of how they traded dependable defenseman Erik Gudbranson to the Vancouver Canucks for an underachieving rookie (Jarred McCann) and an exchange of draft picks... just days after firing their scouting director - you know, the one guy who's seen all the prospects play in their draft year.

And the shake-up continued as some trainers left, and assistant coach - and former Stanley Cup-winning NHLer - John Madden and director of hockey operations Mike Dixon were also shown the door.

And they've now unveiled new uniforms - the home one looking like a Stadium Series jersey, the away (white) one just looking ridiculous and unprofessional. I wanted to say KHL-like, but no, the KHL has some really nice ones (start from the middle of the page for the nicer ones).

I was really getting into them, and now they're seemingly tearing it all apart.

The Gudbranson trade really baffles me, especially after they'd just signed him to a one-year deal and called him "captain material".

Here he is on card #RM-EG from Upper Deck's 2011-12 SPX set (and Rookie Materials sub-set), featuring a black photo shoot-worn jersey swatch:

It shows him wearing the Cats' former (and better) white (away) uniform.

Daniil Markov Autographed Card

Daniil Markov was a steal by the Toronto Maple Leafs when they drafted him 223rd overall at the 1995 draft after the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season in which he had played alongside Pavel Bure and Alexander Selivanov on the famed Moscow Spartak team.

He was an okay point producer - 147 points in 538 regular-season NHL games, 14 more in 81 postseason games, and 36 points in 208 regular-season games in Russia, 8 more points in 34 playoff games in the old country - but his main strength was his defensive play and the fact that he was a total team player, willing to drop the gloves against much bigger and stronger opponents and blocking shots in an era where it wasn't a wide-spread practice.

But like many of Pat Quinn's Leafs (I'm thinking of Shayne Corson, Darcy Tucker, Dave Andreychuk, Ed Belfour and Gary Roberts in particular), he had a pack mentality where he felt much tougher than he was because he knew that any of the other 20 brutes playing on his team could step up if he ever got in trouble.

Which is why many mostly remember his time in Toronto for this move:

Sure, it's hard to imagine these days when he's the affable Father Time and the feel-good story of the post-Teemu Selanne years, but Jaromir Jagr was once considered a bit of an egotistical brat, a show-boater, and a bit of a dick; his post-goal salute enraged many, and Markov was one of them. What happened in the video above was that Jagr had tied the game - the series clencher - at the end of the third period and did his salute; the Leafs wanted to make him pay, and Markov made sure the move didn't go unnoticed. (Note to "Danny": if you have to repeat the move three times, the main effect has been lost).

What had to happen next did: the Leafs were eliminated in the next round by the Buffalo Sabres, a sight their fans may get more and more familiar with in the next few years. As we all know, Toronto has a knack for beating the Ottawa Senators up in the postseason and, well, little else. They haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1967 - the final season of the Original Six era, and the NHL's 50th anniversary; the league's gearing up for its 100th, next year.

Markov played with the Leafs for four seasons and did well there, as I've mentioned, but it was in his next two seasons, with the Phoenix Coyotes, that he was a force, one of the best shut-down defenders in the West. He could not repeat the recipe for the rest of his time in North America, suiting up for the Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators and Detroit Red Wings in the next three seasons before returning to Russia, where he would play until 2013-14.

Here he is, wearing the Leafs' late 1990s blue (away) uniform with the 1998-99 patch commemorating the closing of Maple Leaf Gardens (the team moved to the Air Canada Centre mid-season), in a game against the Edmonton Oilers at what was then known as the Skyreach Center:

It's card #148 from Upper Deck's 1999-2000 SPX set, one which I hadn't purchased a pack of but fell upon some cards in repacks in 2002 or 2003.

Markov has won Olympic bronze (2002) and World Championship gold (2008) medals; it was at the 2008 Worlds in Québec that I would have had him sign it in blue sharpie, with his uniform number (55) tagged at the end. It's a beautiful all-foil card, save for the fact that it's a Leafs card.

Corban Knight Jersey Card

Corban Knight was drafted by the Florida Panthers with the 135th pick of the 2009 session, but didn't sign with the team, eventually signing with his hometown Calgary Flames, who employ his father as chaplain, as do the CFL's Calgary Stampeders. (Officially, it was a trade, but that's the gist of it anyway, everyone knew he wanted to play in Calgary and the Panthers recouped a fourth-rounder for their troubles).

Except Knight was mostly an AHLer in his time in Calgary, only appearing in 9 games at the NHL level, with a single goal to show for it; however, Panthers GM Dale Tallon wanted him enough to offer Calgary Drew Shore (the 44th overall pick of 2009) in exchange for the young Knight, who dressed for the team's record 12 straight wins earlier this year.

It sure seems like he's got a future in Florida.

He had a terrific season in the AHL last year, with 8 goals and 12 points in 22 games with the Abbotsford Heat and another 8 goals and 24 points in 36 games with the San Antonio Rampage; this season, he had 7 points in 30 games with the Panthers, and 3 points in 15 games with the Portland Pirates, but that's factoring in a serious injury.

At 25, he looks like he can be a full-time NHLer for the near future.

This is what he looked like wearing the Flames' current alternate uniform:

It's card #RPM-CK from Upper Deck's 2014-15 SPX set and Rookie Inaugural Materials sub-set, which includes an enclosed rookie photo shoot-worn piece of red jersey.