Tim Cheveldae Autographed Card

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

This series was over the moment Mark Scheifele decided venting his frustration was more important than attemptiong a comeback, some time around midway in the first game of the series, way before he actually crossed the line and deliberately injured Montréal Canadiens rookie Jake Evans. He left the Winnipag Jets - already without second-line center Paul Stastny, on the cusp of losing #2 defenseman Dylan DeMelo for a long time - without their top playmaker, a point-per-game player who had helped shut Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers down in the first round.

As his eyes got more and more filled with rage from being stifled by Phillip Danault and clobbered by Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Joel Edmundson and Ben Chiarot, you could almost read the prediction of how the series would go by the expression on his face, from "Jets in 6" at the opening faceoff to "Jets in 7" in the middle of the second period to "Habs in 7" to start the third, "Habs in 6" five minutes later, and "Habs in 4" when it became clear Scheifele would get a lengthy suspension.

The referees did a good job of not letting any part of this series get out of hand, even calling out Stastny for a penalty for a cross-check after a goal in Game 3, making sure the last ten minutes of play wasn't just scrum-after-scrum of frustration masquerading as "message sending" with the potential for more useless injuries.

I love a tough game; I would love for every team to have a Blake Wheeler on one wing and a Josh Anderson on the other to bang and bruise their way to the opposition's net, but dirty plays at the speed of this sport cannot be tolerated, and as much as I really love the Jets, that the series was decided on a bonehead play after an empty-net goal is well-deserved. Wheeler seemed to agree that the suspension changed the course of the series:

You can't describe the impact of losing him. He's a top-10 player in the NHL. I'm not saying that we would win the series in five games because he was in the lineup. But it just changes our team. He makes me better, he makes Kyle Connor better. It just makes our team look a lot different, so it's a damn shame.

I don't believe Scheifele gets the Nazem Kadri treatment and gets shipped out of town, and hopefully he learneds his lesson from this unfortunate situation.

Still, these are good times for Jets fans. They have had a very good team for the better part of a decade now, have the best goalie in the game (Connor Hellebuyck), are exciting to watch, have a good tactician in coach Paul Maurice (although at this point perhaps a motivator might be what they should be looking for)... they did not sweep the Oilers by accident.

They are missing two key elements for me: a top-four defenseman and a return to one of their old uniforms, such as the mid-1990s oen as sported by Tim Cheveldae on card #212 from Pinnacle Brands' 1995-96 Score set:

The Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames and Arizona Coyotes have recently all embraced the retro trand, as has Adidas with their "Reverse Retro" series, I think the Jetsshould also embrace the pre-rebirth history of the NHL in their town.

Cheveldae was a typical Detroit Red Wings goalie: a workhorse for a small number of seasons (three), not quite an established #1 that gets you palyoff success, a scapegoat for postseason failures, and not a Vezina-caliber game-changer, although he did garner some votes in two of his seasons in recognition for games played (72 in 1991-92, for a total of 4236 minutes, and 67 games/3880 minutes the following year, but he had no chance of actually winning with Patrick Roy and Ed Belfour in their prime).

He was replaced in Detroit by Chris Osgood before moving to Winnpeg where he shared the net with Bob Essensa and Nikolai Khabibulin before phasing out of the NHL and into the IHL (Fort Wayne Komets in 1996-97, Las Vegas Thunder in 1997-98, both with a .878 save percentage and nearly identical 3.96 and 3.95 goals-against averages). He rocked the Heaton equipment well in Winnipeg, but my best memories of him are donning the Vaughn pads in Detroit.

Sharks Preview: Dalton Prout Autographed 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.

One team that could use a little maneuvering is the San Jose Sharks (team links may earn me referral money if you buy from Amazon, player links lead to other posts on my blog): they are $4M under the salary cap with a near-empty prospect pool; their captain Logan Couture is 31, a Donald Trump fan, and signed for six years after this one at $8M per; star winger and scandal magnet Evander Kane is 29, signed until 2025 at $7M per year and just filed for bakruptcy; oft-injured defenseman Erik Karlsson, 30, will make $11.5M per season with a no-movement clause until 2027; 35-year-old Brent Burns will still carry a $9.8M cap hit for four more seasons after this one; Marc-Édouard Vlasic, 33, has a no-move as well and will pocket $7M until 2026; somehow, the team has nearly $8M between the pipes, just over $2M of Devan Dubnyk's final year and Martin Jones at $5.75M per, for three more years after the upcoming season. Most teams have one or two headaches, the Sharks seem intent on obtaining the most shots at a #1 draft pick for the next half-decade.

What makes their odds look good:
If Karlsson ever hits his peak level again, he's a definite game-changer, one of the best defensemen in the NHL and one of the best skaters in the world.

Question marks:
What was the point in Patrick Marleau returning? Can Dubnyk regain the form that should have gotten him a Hart or a Vezina Trophy in 2015? How low can they go?

Outlook:
There's a case to be made for nearly every NHL team that either the present can be hopeful or the future looks bright to some extent... I can't say that about San Jose, but I can remain optimistic becasue I just do not know them as well. I really haven't seen many of their games and their prospect pool is loaded with players I have never heard of, but upon a bit of research have been among the best at what they do, from John Leonard (22, LW, 37 points in 33 games at U-Mass) to Ryan Merkley (20, D, second-straight 70-point season in the OHL) to Brinson Pasichnuk (23, D, second-straight point-per-game season as Arizona State's captain). Still, that's just stuff I read, I don't recall seeing any of them play.

Prediction:
Eighth in the West Division.

You know who didn't deserve to get shelled by the Sharks after the 2019-20 season? Dalton Prout, who was concussed for most of the season after sacrificing himself for the team, like in this fight against Nicolas Deslauriers: Here he is as a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets, on card #530 from Panini's 2012-13 Score collection and Hot Rookies sub-set:

Not only does he also have a terrific "hockey name" in English (his native language), but it's also one of the best names in the league to French-speaking NHL fans, as the Daltons are a very famous fictitious criminal gang (very loosely based on historical characters) in the legendary Lucky Luke series of graphic novels and films, and "prout" is a funny word that can mean just about any "fun sound" from a car engine (struggling or not) to a honk to passing loud gas.

He sigend the card in blue sharpie in 2014-15 or 2015-16.

Kirk Muller: Two Autographed Cards

Montréal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien was admitted to the hospital for chest pains last night and will miss the remainder of the first round against the Philadelphia Flyers; associate coach Kirk Muller will officially take over in the interim, but in reality he and assistant-coaches Domninic Ducharme and Luke Richardson will each take on some of Julien's duties.

Muller has won the Stanley Cup as a player with the Canadiens, in 1993. In those playoffs, head coach Jacques Demers also missed time after going to the hospital with chest pains (he actually suffered a heart attack); Demers' replacement was Jacques Lemaire, also a former Cup winner with Montréal.

The player who scored the 1993 Cup-winning goal on the Los Angeles Kings' Kelly Hrudey was... Muller.

Having served as the New Jersey Devils' captain before getting traded to Montréal, Captain Kirk also served in that capacity with the Habs during the 1994-95 season, despite that role usually falling to a French-speaker; he'll now assume a role - interim head coach - that also usually goes to members of the clan who invented poutine. If the team wins the Cup this season, he'll forever be in contention for the sought-after position that gets more media coverage than both the Canadian and Québec Premiers, despite his linguistic limitations.

Here he is wearing the team,s white (then-home) uniform, on card #614 from Score's 1991-92 Bilingual Canadian Edition High Numbers (Series 2) set, featuring rookies and players who were traded between when the first series was printed and late January, right before the trade deadline:

And here he is wearing the Habs' retro uniform with the team's logo on the right arm where modern jersey numbers can be found, for the NHL's 75 anniversary (the commemorative patch is visible on his chest):

That's card #3 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle set, a crudely designed collection with the advantage of featuring many pictures: two on the front (a headshot and an action pic), but also a different one on the back, in the team's current red (then-away) uniform, with Muller's #11 clearly visible on the arm:

That's a perk a card nerd like myself can get behind that makes it worth the extra costs of a "premium" set like Pinnacle was... when "premium" meant $4 a pack instead of 79 cents, way off from the $100 for 3-6 cards we have nowadays.

I had tried to write Muller a couple of times without replies when I bumped into him after a Habs game and he signed these for me in blue sharpie, with his #11 tagged at the end.

Doug Smail: Four Autographed Cards

There was a time in the 1970s and early 80s where very good players from Saskatchewan didn't necessarily play in the WHL and instead went to American Colleges, which is what Doug Smail opted for when he signed up with the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks, posting three impressive seasons of 50 points in 38 games, 58 points in 35 games and a whopping 43 goals, 44 assists and 87 points in 40 games to finish out his WCHA/NCAA career in 1979-80.

He caught the eye of the Winnipeg Jets - not enough for them to draft him, mind you, but they did sign him as a free agent - and by the second year he was a full-time NHLer. He had a career year in 1984-85 with 31 goals, 35 assists and 66 points in 80 games, but he passed the 40-point mark four more times in the 'Peg before essentially spending his final two and a half seasons as a journeyman, spending 57 games with the Minnesota North Stars, and one season apiece with the Québec Nordiques and Ottawa Senators.

At one time, he shared the NHL record for quickest goal to begin a game at five second, tied with Merlyn Phillips, Bryan Trottier and Alexander Mogilny. It has since been broken by James Van Riemsdyk. He was extremely fast and swift, and because of the way he skated and his short size (he was 5'9" and 175 pounds and skated mostly bent forward), he looked like a bullet on the ice, as can be attested bt these two cards from Pro Set:

On the left is card #117 from the 1991-92 Series 1 set showing him wearing the North Stars' beautiful green (away) uniform; card on the right is #466 from the 1991-92 Series 2 set, where he's sporting the Nordiques' classic blue (away) uniform.

Here's another shot of the Nordiques' amazing blue uniform, showing Smail during a defensive zone face-off in front of goalie Jacques Cloutier, on card #124 from Upper Deck's 1992-93 Series 1 set:

And here he is wearing Québec's white (home) uniform - a rare sight in the early 1990s - on card #197 from Score's 1992-93 Series 1 (Low Numbers) collection:

It was thought after his lone season in La Belle Province with 28 points in 46 games and the subsequent season with the Sens where he posted 14 points in 51 games and even spent 9 games with the IHL's San Diego Gulls (3 points and 20 penalty minutes) that perhaps it was time for him to hang his skates up, but that was proven to be entirely wrong with his final three seasons, played in the British League:

From HockeyDB

Yeah. That's a 169-point season in 53 games. He was 20 points behind team leader Mark Morrison's 189 (in 57 games) for a team that went from last place to second overall on the strength of their Canadian imports that season. And two points per game the following two seasons for good measure also looks good on any resume.

Nowadays, he lives in Colorado and last I heard, he was coaching minor hockey. He's also the ideal #41 in my Nordiques Numbers Project.

Gerard Gallant: Two Autographed Cards

Full disclosure: I wasn't entirely certain how I wanted to handle this one, and I edited it until the wee hours of January 24th, more than a week after beginning writing. Gerard Gallant is a very good coach, and I was shocked not only that he was fired earlier today, but even more so that he was replaced this quickly by someone I feel is a lesser coach - former Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils and San Jose Sharks -bench boss Peter DeBoer, whose primary trait is to get offered stacked lineups and never getting any of them to a championship title.

He's also a very good guy, was always accommodating any time I met him, once signed seven (!) cards for me by mail, and always took his time with Montréal journalists who wanted to interview him.

In terms of coaching credentials, he's definitely in the top-5 of "active" NHL coaches factoring in every head coach of the past three seasons. He started off winning a Junior "A" championship with his hometown Summerside Capitals in 1996-97, then became an assistant in the IHL (Fort Wayne Comets, 1998-99), AHL (Louisville Panthers, 1999-2000) and NHL (Columbus Blue Jackets, 2001-04) before getting handed the reigns of the team and from the middle of the 2003-04 season to a month and a half through the beginning of the 2005-06 season.

When former Detroit Red Wings teammate Steve Yzerman was named Team Canada's GM for the 2007 World Championships - essentially an audition for a future Olympic managerial role - Gallant was added to the coaching staff and helped bring home the gold medal.

After two seasons as an assistant-coach with the New York Islanders, Gallant took on the job as head coach of the LHJMQ's Saint John Sea Dogs, winning two league championships (2010 and 2011), the 2011 Memorial Cup and twice getting named the CHL's Coach Of The Year (2011 and 2012).

Like many coaches from the "Q" before him, he then "graduated" to the Montréal Canadiens organization, spending two seasons as an assistant-coach before obtaining the head coaching position with the Florida Panthers. His team missed the playoffs by 5 points in his first season despite going 38-29-15 but won the division the following season on the strength of a 47-26-9 record despite coaching a team analytics fans saw as massively flawed and way below average in shot differential. Unfortunately, in one of the weirdest moves of my lifetime, GM Dale Tallon was promoted to Team President, his analytics-based assistant Tom Rowe taking his place and getting rid of most of the team's grinders and pretty much its entire blue line. 22 games in, with a winning record of 11-10-1, Rowe dismissed Gallant, leaving him stranded on the side of the road. Rowe flubbed the season completely, the team missed the playoffs altogether and Tallon was brought back to fix things; the Panthers missed the playoffs by a few points last season and are among the better teams in the Atlantic this season.

 Meanwhile, Gallant was then hired by the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, a rag-tag team that built its first line with two Panthers outcasts - Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith - and took them to the Stanley Cup Final in his first year, then showed it wasn't a fluke by having the team make the playoffs again in Year Two last season, getting eliminated in Game 7 of the first round by perhaps the worst call in modern hockey history... by DeBoer's Sharks.

Gallant will definitely find work coaching in the NHL very soon. As the bets coach available, he can wait out the remainder of the season and see what happens with other teams in the off-season; if the Tampa Bay Lightning fail to go far in the playoffs, Jon Cooper's time there will probably come to an end and whoever inherits that roster will not only get the best line-up int he NHL - heck, with an Art Ross, a Rocket Richard, a Norris and a Vezina winner all playing on the same team, those guys would be good enough to contend for an Olympic gold medal - but will likely also have a say in tweaking it in his image for a better shot at a Cup in his first season.

He would likely also be among the top-two picks to coach Yzerman's Wings (with Cooper, whom Yzerman put behind Tampa's bench) if he wanted to go through a hard rebuild and might be the best man to take on a quick and somewhat talented roster like the Habs', if he could improve his French-speaking skills. There's also an expansion team in need of a coach (and a name...) in Seattle, but I wouldn't be interested in joining them if there were other options, myself, what with GM Ron Francis' handling of the Bill Peters/verbal and physical abuse situation when both were with the Carolina Hurricanes; Francis needs a three-year probation to show that he's learned from the situation and can make the correct adult calls in adult situations and not just sweep things under the rug like the Old Guard did for too long. (I repeat that they should have hired Sean Burke or Ron Hextall to run that team anyway).

Here's a card of his from his glory days in Detroit, wearing the Wings' beautiful white (then-home) jersey with the assistant-captain's "A", having just completed seasons of 72, 73, 93 and 80 points, on card #71 from Pro Set's inaugural 1990-91 Series 1 collection:

And here he is wearing the team's classic red (then-away) uniform, again with the "A", on card #402 from Score's 1993-94 Score set:

He signed them both in black sharpie, adding his jersey number (17) at the end. Edit: He was set to coach in the All-Star Game in late January but opted against it after being fired.

Brian Bellows Autographed Card

It required a bit of digging, but I will be able to continue my narrative of the past week - after posts on Patrik Laine and Jimmy Carson - about the four youngest players in NHL history to hit the 100-career-goal mark; of course, Wayne Gretzky is first, Carson is second and Laine is now fourth, which makes Brian Bellows third.

He had a solid Juniors career with the Kitchener Rangers, prompting Sports Illustrated to name him "the hottest prospect since Gretzky" - and yet he was selected second-overall behind Gord Kluzak at the 1980 draft; it would be more honest in retrospect to place him fourth in his draft year, behind Doug Gilmour (134th overall, 450 goals and 1414 points), Kitchener teammate Scott Stevens (three Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe Trophy, 13 All-Star Game appearances in three separate decades), and Phil Housley (6th overall, 1232 career points and one of the best American defensemen of all time), ahead of the likes of Pat Verbeek (43rd, 1063 points and 2905 penalty minutes), Kevin Dineen (56th), Ron Sutter 94th), Murray Craven (17th), Ray Ferraro (88th), Dave Ellett (75th) and Dave Andreychuk (16th).

He was a power forward in the sense that he hit the 30-goal mark often and the 40-goal mark four times - with a high of 55 in 1989-90 - and didn't shy away from a physical style of play, but he didn't collect penalty minutes like many of his contemporaries, never hitting the 100-PIM mark, and only hitting 81 once, in 1987-88.

His 29 points in 23 games led the Minnesota North Stars as the team went to the Stanley Cup Final in 1990-91, alongside the greatest player in team history, Neal Broten, who had 22 points. While I've got these words in mind, I might as well say that I do not feel it's out of line to speak of Bellows in the same breath as Dino Ciccarelli, Jean-Paul Parisé, and Dave Gagner as the second line of the franchise's best forwards of all time, behind the front-line of Broten, Bobby Smith and Mike Modano.

For some reason, however, Minnesota sent him to the Montréal Canadiens for Russ Courtnall ahead of the 1992-93 season, where he posted 88 regular-season points and 15 more in the playoffs - tied for third in team scoring with Mike Keane, behind Vincent Damphousse's 23 and Kirk Muller's 17 - helping the Habs win the Stanley Cup.

His production dipped afterwards, to 33 goals and 71 points in 1993-94, then 16 points altogether in 1994-95, 49 points in 79 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1995-96, 31 points in 69 games with the Bolts and Anaheim Mighty Ducks in 1996-97 to 36 points in 76 games with the Washington Capitals in 1998-99.

Even though he won the Cup with my hometown team, I usually think of Bellows more as the dominant North Stars right winger from the 1980s, like on card #160 from Score's 1991-92 Score (Bilingual Canadian Edition) set:

He's wearing the team's classic green (away) uniform, and it's actually a tad darker and much more vivid to the naked eye than via this scan. He signed it during the Habs' Centennial celebrations nearly a decade ago already.

Craig Wolanin: Three Autographed Cards

NHL scouts were adamant: "Craig Wolanin is a blue chip prospect. He may need a bit more time than a Craig Simpson (2nd pick of the 1985 draft) or a Wendel Clark (1st overall) but he'll be worth the wait." The thought at the time was that the 6'3", 215-pound defenseman would carve out a career that at worst would look like Dave Manson's (11th in the same draft) and at best be a positionally-strong, elite hard-hitting defenseman who makes the best use of a relatively limited offensive skill-set, like Scott Stevens (5th overall pick of the 1982 draft).

Ironically, the 1985 draft produced a single 1000-point producer, second-rounder (27th overall) Joe Nieuwendyk, and four defensemen who hit the 1000-game mark (Manson, 14th pick Calle Johansson, 32nd pick Eric Weinrich and 81st pick Fredrik Olausson).

Obviously, Wolanin was none of those. He showed glimpses of a Stevens-like path in his third season, when he scored six goals with 25 assists for 31 points - the only time he would hit that mark - and a whopping 170 penalty minutes, 61 more than his second-highest total, the 109 from his previous season, and more than double his usual career fare, which usually hovered around the 80-mark.

Part of the deal that sent Hall Of Famer Peter Stastny from the Québec Nordiques to the New Jersey Devils, Wolanin was a second-unit, 15-point defenseman in his time in Québec and won the Stanley Cup when the franchise became the Colorado Avalanche for the 1995-96 season, although he was scratched for the final 13 games of the playoffs after losing a puck that led to a goal against.

He was then sent to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a second-round pick, and they eventually flipped him to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a third-rounder. After injuries started taking their toll, the Michigan native moved back to Detroit to work in construction. His son Christian Wolanin is now an Ottawa Senators prospect.

Here he is wearing the Nordiques' classic blue uniform:

The card on the left is #40 from Topps' 1990-91 Topps set while the one on the right is from Pro Set's inaugural 1990-91 Series 2 collection. They are considered his "rookie" cards, because even though he'd been in the league for six years at the time, these were the first time he was included in official card sets.

He was also shown wearing Québec's home (white) uniform on card #217 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle (French Canadian Edition) set:

He signed all three in black sharpie a couple of years ago. They fit in nicely as the entry for #6 in my Nordiques Numbers Project.

Internationally, he's suited up for Team USA four times, finishing fourth at the 1987 World Juniors and 1991 and 1994 World Championships and second at the 1991 Canada Cup. Ironically, his point production playing for the American team (4 goals, 5 assists and 9 points in 25 games, for 0.36 points per game) are even better than his NHL average (0.2489), even his average during his prime, at ages 23-28 (0.25).

Stan Smyl: Two Autographed Cards

Last month, the Vancouver Canucks introduced their new captain, Bo Horvat, and while I do not currently have any of his memorabilia, I did have a couple of signed Stan Smyl cards I could feature, so here we are.

By the time I got really interested and invested in following hockey - and I dove right in, learning the current and career statistics of every player in that era as well as those of a select few Hall Of Famers by reading the daily stats before going to school from 1987 until 1995 - Smyl was past is 60-, 70- and 80-point seasons and settling into the role of a checking elder statesman who ran into injury trouble, prompting three consecutive nominations for the Masterton Trophy, but also bringing his points-per-game average from the 0.85-0.90 range to a still-respectable 0.75.

He's the one from whom Trevor Linden learned to supplement his talent with the will and ability to also take on a leadership role, a skill set that enabled him to be the team's President of Hockey Operations for a little over four years.

"Steamer" also embodies the "classic Canucks" look, in my opinion, with the black "skate" logo uniform, pretty much with this pose and picture, on card #283 from O-Pee-Chee's 1989-90 O-Pee-Chee set:

And what about this picture, taken 20 years ago (notice the team's 20th Anniversary patch on the left shoulder), still playing close to the net in the danger zone at age 32, a year before retiring, on card #374 from Score's 1990-91 Score Canadian (Bilingual Edition) collection:

That's a young Mark Fitzpatrick he's about to come into contact with.

He sent me these two cards at an old address I forwarded my mail from about a year ago, and I just fell upon them last weekend.

Doug Wilson: Two Autographed Cards

Doug Wilson was one of the better defensemen of the 1980s, winning the Norris Trophy for the 1981-82 season in the era of Denis Potvin, Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey, Larry Robinson, Rod Langway, Borje Salming and Mark Howe, and earning top-five votes until 1989-90 in the era of Bourque, Al MacInnis, Coffey, Phil Housley, Brian Leetch, Chris Chelios and Al Iafrate.

And yet, no Hall of Fame nod on his resume so far, and no Stanley Cup.

Both may change eventually, as he's a better HoF candidate than many recent additions (Eric Lindros in general, Larry Murphy in particular at the same position), and he has been one of the NHL's best General Managers for the past 10-15 years, keeping the San Jose Sharks into contention year in and year out, rotating veterans out and bringing new blood in, usually all on affordable contracts that fit well under the cap.

And yet, this season seems like he's suddenly realizing Peter DeBoer doesn't have what it takes o coach this team over the hump and all of his moves seem panic-based, from re-signing Erik Karlsson to a maximum-term deal near the maximum salary (on a team that was already dangerously close to the cap if it wanted to keep everyone) to specifically saying he wouldn't sign former captain/current free agent and career leader in most offensive categories Patrick Marleau on September 4th to, well, signing him on October 8th when the team was 0-4 to start the season.

He could have easily saved face and said nothing in September, or even just take a "let's wait and see" approach. As someone who really doesn't like the team in teal, I was glad this blew up in their face, I'm just sad that it comes at the expense of a player I respected in his time - and the team's very first captain, to boot, which is ironic considering the Sharks' captain history since Wilson's been in the GM chair:

2003-04: Mike Ricci
2005-09: Marleau
2009-10: Rob Blake, playing on a one-year deal (Marleau still on the team)
2010-14: Joe Thornton (Marleau still on the team)
2015-19: Joe Pavelski (Thornton still on the team, Marleau leaves as UFA in 2017-18)
2019-20: Logan Couture (Thornton still on the team, Marleau back) 

It's like he gives his coaches too much leeway - or doesn't give the title the decorum it deserves.

Here he is the way most fans my age will always remember him, wearing the Chicago Blackhawks' classic red (then-away) uniform, on card #52 from Pro Set's 1991-92 Series 1 set:

And here he is wearing the Sharks' best white (then-home) uniform, their first, on card #551 from Score's 1991-92 Series 2 (High Numbers) collection:

He signed both in blue sharpie last year.

Zach Bogosian Autographed Card

I started following Zach Bogosian's career when the Atlanta Thrashers selected him third overall in 2008, a strong year that also featured Steven Stamkos (1st), Drew Doughty (2nd), Alex Pietrangelo (4th), Luke Schenn (5th), Colin Wilson (7th), Tyler Myers (12th), Erik Karlsson (15th), Jake Gardiner (17th), Luca Sbisa (19th), Michael Del Zotto (20th), Jordan Eberle (22nd), John Carlson (27th), Jacob Markstrom (31st), Slava Voynov (32nd), Jake Allen (34th), Roman Josi (38th), Justin Schultz (43rd), Derek Stepan (51st), Travis Hamonic (53rd), Marco Scandella (55th), Braden Holtby (93rd), T.J. Brodie (114th), Gustav Nyquist (121st), and Cam Atkinson (157th).

At 6'3", 215 pounds, decent speed, a good shot and above-average passing, I expected a Jay Bouwmeester-like career trajectory for him - 30-35 points most year, a three- or four-year run at or around 40, fewer penalty minutes than would be warranted at his size and perhaps a Stanley Cup run or two in a 15-to-18-year career. I expected that, like Bouwmeester, some folks might feel he was drafted too high, but that he would carve out an interesting career regardless.

J-Bo's career currently looks like he could perhaps even reach the 20-year plateau while Bogosian's been struggling with injuries since 2010, affecting his stats line and standing, first with the Winnipeg Jets and now with the Buffalo Sabres. I would never go as far as this "fan" did on Twitter (kudos to Bogosian for the adequate reply), but I would understand if his salary was cut in half on his next deal (his $5.142M cap hit expires in June).

Still, we're talking about a guy who is young enough to play for at least five more seasons at the level of a #4D if he wanted to; he'll just have to decide if it's worth the trouble; maybe he'd even prefer playing overseas in a less aggressive, talent-first league, such as in Switzerland, Finland or France.

Here he is on card #538 from Panini's 2013-14 Score set, showing him wearing the Jets' white (away) uniform:

He signed it with someone else's skinny blue sharpie in late 2018 after a game against the Montréal Canadiens, and the #47 he tagged it with represents the number he wore in Buffalo at the time - he's currently assigned to sweater #4 - not the #44 he wore in Winnipeg, which is where I'm slotting him in my Jets Numbers Project.

Paul MacDermid Autographed Card

Paul MacDermid was a tough customer, a seven-time member of the 100-PIM club (with a high of 202 in 1986-87) who seemingly could have had a "better" career offensively, having scored a total of 116 goals in 690 regular-season games on just 755 shots - an elite sniper's shooting percentage of 15.4%; of course, that number has to be taken with a bit more than a grain of salt, because as a fourth-liner, he didn't actually get that many chances to shoot, and most of his shot attempts would be of the "easy goal" variety for an upper echelon player.

And this is by no means a slight on his talent, but at just 43 playoff games in 14 NHL seasons, he didn't actually make any of his teammates better nor carry them to the promised land.

What he was was a Don Cherry favourite, a "Mac", an Ontarian honest worker who always gave his all and provided leadership and protection.

Here he is on card #219 from Score's 1991-92 Score (Bilingual Canadian Edition) set:

It shows him wearing the Winnipeg Jets' #23 jersey, which slots him perfectly in my Jets Numbers Project. He signed it in black sharpie by mail; I had written him in 2009 or 2010 via the Owen Sound Attack, the OHL team he co-owns, and got the card back maybe two or three years later.

Evgenii Dadonov: Two Autographed Cards

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the Florida Panthers would finish third in the Atlantic Division in 2019-20).

The most complicated thing about Yevengy/Evgeny/Evgenii Dadonov is the correct spelling of his name; everything else is either straight to the point or so well-executed it looks effortless. One thing's for certain, he's not just a third wheel going forward on the strength of linemates Alexander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau, he has earned his spot on the Panthers' top line with his steady play and elite-level zone entries.

He's a right winger who plays like a centre, looking for opportunities to give his linemates the puck but totally able to control it at will as well. And he has a heck of a shot from the slot, which explains his two straight 28-goal seasons since making it back on this side of the Atlantic. He's improved his point production, too, going from 65 to 70 points, and an 80-point 2019-20 is not out of the question if he can stay healthy, particularly if the team isn't stuck in its own zone for long periods of time in a system created by Joel Quenneville and backed by Sergei Bobrovsky.

Of course, it will take time for the team to gel, but once they get rolling around the Holidays, there won't be much to stop them.

I like that I was able to have him sign his rookie card last year, #509 from Panini's 2010-11 Score collection and Hot Rookies sub-set, showing him wearing the team's then-home black uniform:

The Cats would switch the red and black and remove the piping for the 2011-12 season, so this was one of its last instances.

He also signed a card with the Panthers' current away (white) uniform, #185 from Upper Deck's 2018-19 O-Pee-Chee set:

I don't hate it, it's possibly their best white uniform yet, but I still haven't fully gotten used to football-styled numbering on the shoulders.

I don't like the current home (red) uniform, though, that is basically this one with the red and white reversed. It's too "College Hockey", too "KHL" and too "Detroit Red Wings", it doesn't feel unique nor on brand.

Mark Hunter Two Autographed Cards

Mark Hunter was mostly known during his playing days as a journeyman checking line winger, save for the three season she spent with the St. Louis Blues (1985-88), where he made the most of his accrued playing time on the first line with Bernie Federko to post career highs in points (74, 69 and 63 points, respectively, good for second, this and fourth on the team).

He also had a more famous older brother, Dale Hunter, who captained the Washington Capitals. The pair purchased the OHL's London Knights in 2001 and instantly turned the team into one of Canada's best hockey programs, producing an unparalleled number of NHL first-rounders - among them Patrick Kane, Sam Gagner, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, Evan Bouchard, Max Domi, Bo Horvat, Michael McCarron, Jarred Tinordi, Matthew Tkachuk, Nazem Kadri, and Nikita Zadorov.

Mark's been in the Toronto-centric news more often of late as the Toronto Maple Leafs' co-interim GM then assistant-GM, until he left the team when his partner Kyle Dubas was chosen to replace Lou Lamoriello.

He's since been named as Team Canada's GM for 2019-20, which includes the World Juniors and National Junior programs. He hired Dale to join him, which will surprisingly be the first time he's gotten the nod despite two Memorial Cup championships as head coach.

Despite Mark's career not having the individual highs of Dale's, he was drafted and spent his first few seasons in the Mecca of hockey, playing for the Montréal Canadiens for four seasons. Then came the St. Louis stint, followed by two and a half seasons with the Calgary Flames (including the 1989 Stanley Cup win against the Habs), a year and a half with the Hartford Whalers, and a short seven-game trial with the Washington Capitals in 1992-93.

The Whalers weren't a very good team, usually contending for the last position in the Adams Division, but they were a staple of my youth, and their uniforms are classic.

Here is Mark wearing their white (home) uniform, on card #156 from Score's 1991-92 Score (Canadian Edition) set:

And here he is wearing the green (away) uniform, which is still one of the NHL's five best-selling jerseys today, on card #253 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle (French Canadian Edition) set, complete with head shot:

He signed both in blue sharpie as a member of the Leafs organization, likely in 2016 or 2017 after a game in Montréal.

Brent Ashton: Two Autographed Cards

Three weeks ago, the NHL trade deadline saw nearly 50 trades happen with a total of 83 actual players switching teams (one of them, Derick Brassard, moving twice) with just about the same number of draft picks switching owners.

No stranger to moving, Brent Ashton was the NHL's record-holder in that category for more than a decade, having been traded eight times in his 14-season career, a feat that was tied by Mike Sillinger in 2004 and surpassed two years later.

Fun fact: both Ashton and Sillinger hail from Saskatchewan, and both returned to their respective hometowns of Saskatoon and Regina upon retiring from the NHL. Fittingly, Ashton owns a sportswear business and is a licensed... real estate agent. He does know a thing or two about purchasing and moving into and out of homes, after all.

His wife Susan, however, may have had the most experience in that matter according to a 2009 interview with the NHL's website:

"There was no help," she says.

Susan was the one who said goodbye to her friends, sold the home, found a moving company, had the mail redirected, found a new place to live, got the phone hooked up and set up shop in a new city, where she started all over again. She didn't have a dressing room to offer shelter from the storm.

"It wasn't easy," says Brent about what his wife had to juggle.  "As players, we have the dressing room. What do the wives have? They were left on their own."

Of all the moves she's been through, Susan says the one time she was close to the edge emotionally was in 1991. She recalls being at the Winnipeg airport on her way to Boston with a lot on her plate.

"I had a 6-month-old, a 2 1/2-year-old and I had a dog, which was running around the airport, and I had our luggage," she says. "It was left up to me to move. But what could I do? What was the alternative? But I didn't cry. We were fortunate because our kids were not in school."

Their son, Carter Ashton, was a Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick (29th overall, first round, 2009) who now plays in the KHL after a few years in the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.

Brent's prime took place between the 1984-85 and 1989-90 seasons, where he had six consecutive 50-plus-point seasons (all of them with more than 20 goals), with a high of 40 goals and 75 points in 1986-87, which was split almost evenly between the Québec Nordiques and Detroit Red Wings.

He finished his career two games shy of the 1000 mark, with 284 goals and 345 assists for 629 points. He also had three solid postseason runs (one in Québec and two in Detroit) in which he amassed 35 of his career 49 playoff points (in 85 games).

His time in Québec occurring just before I started really paying attention to the sport, I mostly remember him with the Winnipeg Jets, which is why that's the team I had him sign cards from.

First, here he is wearing the team's initial purple (away) uniform on card #130 from Topps' 1990-91 Bowman collection:

Those long white sleeves are a look then-GM John Ferguson had previously tried to impose when with the New York Rangers (to vitriolic reviews) and brought over to the Jets when they made the switch from the WHA to the NHL.

They then modernized their look for the 1990s, as can be attested from card #78 from Score's 1991-92 Score (Canadian Edition) set:

He signed both in black sharpie. These cards allow me to induct him beside Keith Tkachuk as wearers of #7 in my Jets Numbers Project.

Jamie Macoun: Two Autographed Cards

It feels good to finally see the Calgary Flames near the top the NHL standings, 30 years after their last Presidents Trophy (and Stanley Cup) in my youth.

One of the important members of those strong 1980s Flames was Jamie Macoun, who could have had a stellar career as a point-collecting defenseman due to his size, speed and strength, but instead forged himself a reputation as one of the best shut-down defensemen in the league on the team's second pairing, with Ric Nattress. Between 1986-87 and 1990-91, his plus-minus read as follows: +33, +40, +34, and +29.

He missed the entire 1987-88 season after a car accident that first responders initially thought had been fatal, as he lost control of his vehicle, swerved into oncoming traffic on the other side of the highway, initiated a head-on collision, turned upside-down and skidded the length of a hockey rink (some 200 feet) on its roof; it took 45 minutes to get Macoun out of the vehicle because his arm was pinned underneath it, and the nerve damage was so bad that doctors gave him a 50-50 chance of ever being able to use it again - playing hockey was pretty much out of the question at that point, yet he returned. He pleaded guilty to charges of reckless driving and was fined.

The 1989-90 Flames team was probably the best team the franchise ever iced, although it finished second overall, a year after finishing first and winning the Cup. Its top two centers each passed the 90-point mark (Joe Nieuwendyk had 95, Doug Gilmour was a close second with 91); one of the greatest Russian forwards of all time (Sergei Makarov) won the Calder Trophy as Rookie Of The Year with 86 points after crossing the Atlantic Ocean; Gary Roberts (39), Joe Mullen (36) and Theoren Fleury (31) each passed the 30-goal mark; Paul Ranheim (26) and Brian MacLennan (20) each reached the 20-goal plateau; Joel Otto and Jan Hrdina's two-way play were both Selke-worthy; Al MacInnis (90) and Gary Suter (76) both posted point-per-game performances from the blue line; Macoun (+34), Dana Murzyn (+19) and Brad McCrimmon (+18) were all tremendous on the penalty kill; and Mike Vernon and Rick Wamsley were both dependable between the pipes, with Vernon coming off a Conn Smythe-worthy performance in the previous playoffs.

His career took a turn when he was part of one of the biggest (and lopsided) trades of my lifetime, as he was sent to the Toronto Maple Leafs with Gilmour, Nattress, Wamsley and prospect Kent Manderville for Craig Berube, Alexander Godynyuk, Gary Leeman, Michel Petit and backup goalie Jeff Reese. He helped the Leafs (along with Gilmour and a young Félix Potvin) reach the 1993 Conference Finals, falling to Wayne Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings, who themselves ultimately lost to the Montréal Canadiens.

He ended his career by playing just over a season for the Detroit Red Wings, who won the Cup in his first quarter-season with the team and finished first overall for his final season.

He returned to Calgary after retiring, running and co-owning a real estate firm; he also owned a stuffed toy store with his wife early in his career, and a Ford dealership in Ontario in his Leaf days. He is smart and business-savvy, but also affable, a quality that comes in handy as the head of the Flames' Alumni Association.

He was also an unquestioned leader, and was part of a rotation of team captains in 1990-91, as can be attested by the two cards below, starting with #38 from Pro Set's 1991-92 Series 1 set:

And there is also card #504 from Score's 1991-92 Score (Canadian Edition) set:

Both show him wearing the team's classic red (then-away) uniform and sporting the captain's "C". He signed them in blue sharpie at an NHL Alumni game.

He also suited up for Team Canada four times, winning silver medals at the 1985 and 1991 World Championships.

Jason Botterill Autographed Card

To 1990s card collectors, Jason Botterill, 20th overall pick of the 1994 draft (Dallas Stars), was a prospect whose ceiling would have been as a checking specialist and eventual leader, possibly even a captain - somewhere along the lines of a Dave Scatchard (42nd overall).

So many players from that draft class ended up with better career stats than Botterill's 5 goals, 9 assists and 14 points in 88 games spread over eight seasons that, in retrospect, it seems more than risky of the Stars to have gambled so much on the 6'4" two-way forward, even in the Dead Puck Era: Dan Cloutier (26th overall, #1 goalie), Rhett Warrener (27th, 714 games on defense), Scatchard (42nd, 269 points in 659 games), Curtis Brown (43rd, 300 points in 736 games), José Theodore (44th, Hart and Vezina trophies as a #1 goalie, Team Canada Olympian), Mathieu Dandenault (49th, 203 points in 868 games on the blue line), Patrik Elias (51st, 1025 points in 1240 games and two Stanley Cups in four Cup Finals), Fredrik Modin (64th, 462 points in 898 games), Sheldon Souray (71st, 300 points in 758 games, three-time All-Star and NHL record-holder for powerplay goals in a single season by a defenseman), Chris Drury (72nd, 615 points in 892 games, captain of two teams), Milan Hejduk (87th, 805 points in 1020 games, Stanley Cup champion and Olympic gold and bronze medalist), Marty Turco (124th, #1 goalie), Daniel Alfredsson (133rd, 1157 points in 12546 games, Olympic gold and silver medalist, NHL captain), Bryce Salvador (138th, 110 points in 786 games as a defenseman and NHL captain), Tim Thomas (217th, #1 goalie, Conn Smythe and Vezina winner), Johan Hedberg (218th, quality backup and at times starting goalie), Evgeni Nabokov (219th, All-Star goalie), Tomas Vokoun (226th, All-Star goalie), Steve Sullivan (233rd, 747 points in 1011 games), Richard Zednik (379 points in 745 games and Olympian), Tomas Holmstrom (530 points in 1026 games, Stanley Cup champion), and Kim Johnsson (286th, 284 points in 739 games from the blue line).

But Botterill proved to be a good learner and teammate, so he made good enough contacts to climb through the ranks on teams' staffs after retiring:

from EliteProspects

Being a long-time assistant on a team that wins three Stanley Cups with two separate GMs rightfully gives a guy like Botterill a shot at running a show himself, which is what he got when he was named GM of the Buffalo Sabres in May of 2017, inheriting a roster that already included "generational" player Jack Eichel and a stacked prospect cupboard.

He was also savvy enough to trade away bad leaders like Evander Kane and Ryan O'Reilly, bringing in Marco Scandella and bringing back former captain Jason Pominville.

Here he is in his first of three appearances at the World Juniors, wearing Canada's red (away) uniform, on card #202 from Pinnacle Brands' 1994-95 Score set and World Juniors sub-set:

On it, he's sporting #23, making him a welcome addition to my Team Canada Numbers Project. When he signed it in black sharpie, however, he tagged it with #19, which is the number he wore with the St. John's Flames (1999-2002, it was most likely the latter, the year I got back into watching hockey regaularly).