Seth Jones Jersey Card

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Only weeks after Seth Jones let the Columbus Blue Jackets know that he wouldn't re-sign with them past this next season, the team found a taker for his services in the form of the Chicago Blackhawks, who are making a push for the playoffs for the 2021-22 season. The Hawks have also seemigly re-signed him for $9.5M per season (edit: confirmed, $76M over 8 seasons), hoping they get the Norris Trophy contender from 2019 instead of the sub-par performer from this past season - and I think they did.

Usually, defensemen already have hardware on their mantle before they start earning upwards of $100K per game, but this offseason is special, with the Seattle Kraken expansion draft and most GMs having prepared for it by having little over the minimum number of players to protect under contract and preferring to push their re-signings to between the amateur draft and the start of free agency; those that didn't traded away fairly big names (such as Ryan Ellis), at times for a decent return, but sometimes for literally nothing. I believe the top tier defensemen will all sign around $8-9M, one of them might fall to half that, which is where the good shut-down defenders will also range, and there will be an awful lot of $1M deals with lower-tier guys and veterans aiming for that elusive Stanley Cup betting on themselves on a short contract. That's what a flat-cap world mixed with a lot of buyouts coupled with players not getting qualified will do - it creates a perceived elite class, the middle ground disappears and those who wait too long end up on bad teams or with bad deals out of sheer lack of cap space.

Jones comes in as a household name to replace the departed Duncan Keith, who was 11 years older. The Hawks now have cost certainty for that top spot on D until he turns 35, which is when defensemen start regressing - a perfect time for a contract of this magnitude to end; perhaps the salary cap will even have increased a bit starting in the middle of the deal. Chicago will also be able to build around him, using players that will complement his skills for the duration of his prime, and their cap situation is clear (and healthy) after the Keith trade and Brent Seabrook's cap hit on Long Term Injured Reserve.

Here he is as a rookie, freshly drafted by the Nashville Predators - fourth overall, behind Nathan MacKinnon, Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Drouin - and wearing their terrible white (away) Reebok uniform on card #RM-SJ from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Series 2 collection and Rookie Materials sub-set:

It features a blue jersey swatch from a rookie photo shoot.

Duncan Keith Jersey Card

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Colour me baffled once again by Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland, who traded promising young prospect Caleb Jones and a third-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for the totality of Duncan Keith's remaining two years, $5.53M cap hit and all. Keith had shown a desire to play in Western Canada or with the Seattle Kraken, which left just the Oilers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks as possible suitors, and the Canucks and Flames were reportedly not interested. It seemed like Hawks GM Stan Bowman had his hands tied, but he may actually have been in possession of pictures of Holland in the same position that he didn't want to see released to the public.

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Duncan Keith. He's a first-ballot Hall Of Famer, a two-time Norris Trophy winner (in the Nicklas Lidstrom era no less), and a three-time Stanley Cup Champion whose Conn Smythe performance in 2015 was the most dominant performance I've ever seen by a skater during a playoff series - more so than Chris Pronger and Erik Karlsson's failed Cup runs, more than any forwards I remember (which admittedly, because I was too young and only started paying serious attention to hockey in the Spring of 1986, doesn't include Wayne Gretzky's two Smythe-worthy performances although it does include Mario Lemieux's).

But he's 37 and will turn 38 later this week, he has been trending downwards for eight seasons, with the last four being particularly painful in terms of possession statistics, though his "real" stats in 2018-19 were pretty good. Which means the Oilers should have gotten the Hawks to at least retain a couple of millions for each season, or half his salary in Year One and none for the last... anything, really.

Keith is no longer the first-pairing defenseman he used to be, he will have to get sheltered minutes with someone who can both keep up with and help him (fix his mistakes). There are rumours Ryan Suter, Keith Yandle and others might get bought out; perhaps waiting on these options to present themselves would have diminished the price paid or improved the return.

But let's harken back to when no one knew the heights he would reach after being drafted in the second round (54th overall) four years prior, on card #RT-DK from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Series 2 set and Rookies Threads sub-set:

It shows him wearing the Hawks' classic red jersey, with a matching swatch (possibly from the same photo shoot).

Samuel Morin Jersey Card

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Seven and a half years after getting drafted 11th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers (2013), Samuel Morin finally scored his first NHL goal, although to be fair it was in just his 14th NHL game, as his career had been derailed by serious injuries. He had never suited up for more than 17 games in a single season - all levels combined - since appearing in 75 (74 of them with the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms) in 2016-17.

Two consecutive ACL tears in the same knee in a 19-month span and a number of other injuries caused him to be limited to 20 games in 2017-18, 7 in 2018-19 and 4 in 2019-20, and in order to have him dress at the NHL level, Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault even tried Morin at left wing earlier this season, before the team's record and depth injury status had the organization review its plan.

Morin's goal was the game-winner, ending a four-game losing streak.

Here is the 6'6", 200-pound gentle giant wearing the Flyers' current/classic orange uniform, on card #RM-SM from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 2 collection and Rookie Materials sub-set:

It features a rather large jersey swatch that probably comes from a photo shoot, with a small black thread at the bottom.

Drake Batherson Autographed Card

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Just hours ago, Ottawa Senators right winger Drake Batherson tied a team record with a six-game goal streak, joining the likes of Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson and Bob Kudelski as one of the franchise's premier snipers.

The 22-year-old is solidifying a solid start to his professional career, having played in the 2019 and 2020 AHL All-Star Games and now posting solid numbers (17 points in 24 games on a team at the bottom of its division) in the NHL. He had previously been a point-per-game player in the LHJMQ and scored a team-leading 7 goals in 7 games in helping Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2018 World Juniors on a stacked roster that included Carter Hart, Cale Makar, Sam Steel, Jordan Kyrou, Brett Howden, Maxime Comtois and Dillon Dubé.

He's certainly silenced the voices that were calling for him to get relegated to the taxi squad after a 16-game goalless drought. I'm not certain he'll remain on the top unit when the team becomes a Stanley Cup contender, but he is definitely making a case to remain in the top-six up front for the foreseeable future.

Here is a close-up of his face on card #P-54 from Upper Deck's 2018-19 Series 2 collection and UD Rookie Portraits sub-set:

He signed it in blue sharpie and returned it by mail last year, with his jersey number (79) tagged at the end, matching that of his helmet on the card; he has switched to #19 since 2019, though, following in Spezza's footsteps with the likes of Derick Brassard and Alexei Yashin. I certainly don't mind having him represent #79 in my Sens Numbers Project!

Panthers Preview: Noah Juulsen Jersey Card

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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.

New GM Bill Zito will get a chance to put his stamp on this roster with new Scouting Director Shane Churla, but make no mistake: this roster built by Dale Tallon will the the second one after the 2009-10 Chicago Blackhawks that head coach Joel Quenneville will lead to Stanley Cup contention for another man.

What makes their odds look good:
The lineup that Tallon was able to put together that makes up this core is solid: captain Aleksander Barkov is one of the premier two-way #1 centers in the NHL and his linemate Jonathan Huberdeau is one of the most underrated forwards in the game; both have surpassed the 90-point mark in this scoring-depleted era; Aaron Ekblad is becoming the elite defender Tallon thought he would be; bad season or not (and it was bad), Sergei Bobrovsky remains the only active two-time Vezina winner and now knows what he has in front of him (and has François Allaire and Roberto Luongo to help fix his game); and there is good, young talent on the depth chart in Owen Tippett, Anton Lundell and Grigori Denisenko up-front, and Spencer Knight is one of the most highly-touted goaltending prospects in the world. All of that talent is not just "very good" but "elite".

Question marks:
Was Bob's season a one-off or the start of a decline? How quickly will Keith Yandle's own decline happen and will it force the team to buy out his contract? Who will back Bob up, Chris Driedger or Samuel Montembeault, and is either one ready to play at least once per week in this condensed schedule?

Outlook:
I've been on the Panthers train for years and like a bad gambler, I'm still looking at those pieces and feeling confident they can pull it together, and I like the gambles on young once-promising prospects Gustav Forsling (24, acquired on the waiver wire yesterday) and Noah Juulsen (23, acquired earlier today via waivers).

Prediction:
Fourth in the Central Division.

Yes, fourth, which is as much an indictment of the Nashville Predators' lack of offense and of the Minnesota Wild's unconvincing rebuild as a testament to the Panthers' (slow and) steady march towards respectability.

Which brings me to Juulsen, a late first-round pick (26th overall in 2015) by the Montréal Canadiens, following a near point-per-game season as a defenseman with the WHL's Everett Silvertips.

Juulsen is not the fastest skater by any means, but he gets where he needs to be in respectable time, is rarely out of a play or out of positiion and is willing to take a hit to make a play that he sees possible. He's very cerebral, a skill that tends to gain value for defensemen between the ages of 25 and 33 but that may show him a tenth of a second late in extreme-pressure situations before that - such as manning the point on the power play and keeping the puck in the zone against two opponents at once. His patience with the puck is appreciated, however.

For now, even though he played his first games as a 20-year-old, he's been hampered by vision and concussion issues from two seperate hits to the head (including a puck to the face) in the same game, so while he still holds first-round pedigree and youth, the focus should be in allowing him to feel comfortable enough to play in a highly-competitive environment again, something that would perhaps be better to learn in the AHL - still a development league, after all - than in the NHL, where some mercenaries play mean.

Here he is sporting the Habs' red (home) uniform on card #RM-J from Upper Deck's 2018-19 Series 2 collection and Rookie Materials sub-set:

It features a matching jersey swatch that the back of the card says "has been certified to The Upper Deck Company as having been worn by the featured player". I wonder how many lawyers were required to write and review that sentence.

Internationally, Juulsen has a silver medal with Team Canada from the World Juniors.

Isles Preview: Johnny Boychuk: Three Autographed Cards

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 New York Islanders have the best coach in the business in Barry Trotz, and they remain one of the better-balanced teams in the NHL, with one star in the making in Mathew Barzal up front and an ensemble cast of selfless players.

What makes their odds look good:
Trotz has devised a defensive plan that can shut down just about anyone that three full lines of second-liners take pride in adhering to, with an effective defense and pair of goalies that make it work every night. Add Barzal and a few prospects like Oliver Wahlstrom who may or may not end up on his level - but doesn't even need to to succeed with this team.

Question marks:
Are Jordan Eberle's days as a 20-goal, 60-point player behind him? Does anyone realize Josh Ho-Sang is still in the Isles organization?

Outlook:
Most of the team's core is under the age of 30: Barzal is 23, Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock are 26, Jean-Gabriel Pageau is 28, Brock Nelson and Nick Leddy are 29, Anthony Beauvillier is still just 23 and Anders Lee and Eberle are 30 on the dot. This team will make the playoffs for five of the next six seasons.

Prediction:
Third in the East/Metro.

One player whose run with the Isles has come to an end is Johnny Boychuk, whose eye injury against the Montréal Canadiens right before the pandemic struck last season has left him with bad peripheral vision, forcing him to retire. The dependable rearguard was a fixture on the Islanders' blue line for six seasons, after six years in the Boston Bruins organization and four in the Colorado Avalanche system. He went on two Stanley Cup runs with the Bruins, winning it in 2011 and losing the Final to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013.

Here is what he looked like wearing the Islanders' classic white (now-away) uniform, on card #657 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 MVP collection:

Here he is shooting from the point in the team's blue (home) uniform with the 2014-15 patch commemorating the move from Nassau Coliseum to Barclay's, sporting the alternate captain's "A", on card #375 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Series 2 collection:

And here he is once again in blue, this time with the NHL's 100th Anniversary patch oddly placed below the jersey number instead of on the shoulder, on card #323 fro UD's 2017-18 O-Pee-Chee set:

He signed them in black sharpie after a game in Montréal during the 2018-19 season.

Harold Snepsts: Two Autographed Cards

For all intents and purposes, the Vancouver Canucks look like they'll be eliminating the reigning Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues tonight, meaning a new champion will be crowned among the eight remaining teams.

The Boston Bruins last won it in 2010-11 but reached the Final last year; the Tampa Bay Lightning won it in 2003-04 and last reached the Final in 2014-15; the Colorado Avalanche last won it in 2000-01; the Dallas Stars last won it in 1998-99 and reached the Final the following season; the Philadelphia Flyers last won it in 1974-75 and last reached the Final in 2009-10; the New York Islanders last won it in 1982-83 and last reached the Final the following season; and the Canucks (est. 1970) and Vegas Golden Knights (est. 2017) have never won the chalice, but Vancouver has been to the Final three times (1981-82, 1993-94 and 2010-11).

The 1994 (versus the New York Rangers) and 2011 (Bruins) Finals each went the full 7 games while the 1982 one was a four-game sweep by the Isles, a series that could have dragged on longer if the usually-dependable Harold Snepsts hadn't made a crucial error in overtime, a turnover leading to Mike Bossy's game-winning goal.

Snepsts could by no means be mistaken for Denis Potvin or Ray Bourque, but defensively, he was very intimidating. He could fight, push, check (and cross-check!) with the best of them and his presence around the net meant the opposition thought twice about approaching goalie Richard Brodeur. That style of play would bring both Brodeur (1983) and Snepsts (1977 and 1982) to the All-Star Game.

He was an extremely popular figure among Canucks fans for his pleasure at just being in the NHL, his joy and his superb moustache; most were angered when GM Harry Neale sent him to the Minnesota North Stars, a mistake his successor, Pat Quinn, promptly corrected by bringing him back for leadership in 1988. By that point he was an injury-prone #6-7 D, but he helped guide young guns like Trevor Linden and Adrien Plavsic into becoming the core that would lead the team to its next Final.

He played his final 61 games with the Blues.

I mostly remember his days in Vancouver with the "Flying V" uniform, as seen on card #344 from O-Pee-Chee's 1981-82 O-Pee-Chee set:

Of course, all hockey fans my age will also remember him with St. Louis because of Pro Set's 1990-91 Series 2 card, because we all spent our entire allowances on those packs of "the coolest cards on ice":

Snepsts was part of the last six NHLers to not wear a helmet.

After retiring, he took on coaching jobs in the AHL (head), NHL (assistant), IHL (head) and WHL (head), but spent the most time as a scout, first with NHL Central Scouting and now with the Canucks.

He is a member of the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

He signed both of these cards in blue sharpie at a convention of retired athletes.

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.

Mike Condon Autographed Card

It's been a hard couple of years for Mike Condon, what with sub-.890 save percentages and over-4.00 GAA for five teams from three organizations in three separate leagues since the beginning of the 2018-19 season.

One could forget he had strong showings both as a rookie with the Montréal Canadiens - highlighted by a Winter Classic win over his hometown Boston Bruins in Boston - as well as his first season with the Ottawa Senators in 2016-17 when he had a .914 save percentage and 2.50 goals-against average in 40 games.

The common thread between the two is that both times, he came in as the unexpected saviour, filling in for the injured Carey Price and Craig Anderson staying with his wife through her fight with cancer, respectively, with no fear of getting glued to the bench after a poor performance and no real pressure.

The same can be said for his one-game stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he made 7 saves and didn't allow a single goal in an full period after being claimed off waivers from the Habs in early 2016-17, with starter Marc-André Fleury pulled, having surrendered five goals to the Nashville Predators.

It's when he's come into a season as the official backup for the Sens that things didn't end so well. Then again, Ottawa's problems are much larger than just the backup goalie, with owner Eugene Melnyk taking up more media space than his players - usually for the wrong reasons - and with bad influences in the room like Matt Duchene leading a putsch to remove demanding head coach Guy Boucher and his staff.

At 30 years of age, there is still time for Condon to pull off a Dominik Hasek/Tim Thomas and shine for a few years, but I see his future more like that of Mike Leighton: an experienced veteran who would be better served playing a 1B role and 30 games per year at the NHL level but will instead be relegated to a "silent leader" role as a #3-4 in the AHL. He even spent some time in the ECHL this year, with unconvincing results, after being sent to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Ryan Callahan's dead cap space:

from HockeyDB

I do not foresee him moving to Europe and having to adapt to different ice dimensions; he'll just need to regroup this summer and come back stronger next year, as most goalies will be affected by the Covid-19-related pause and will be rusty.

Here's a look at his Canadiens mask on card #P-85 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Series 2 collection and UD Portraits sub-set, with the team,s logo on the side - a staple since the days of Patrick Roy in the late 1980s - and a red shamrock near the neck:

The scan shows the foil well except for the word "Rookies" on the left of the card. He signed it in blue sharpie as a member of the Sens, in 2017-18.

Malcolm Subban Jersey Card

He turned 26 years old in December and yet Malcolm Subban - a 2012 first-round pick by the Boston Bruins, 24th overall - is already with his third NHL team after the Vegas Golden Knights traded him, a draft pick and a prospect to the Chicago Blackhawks for Robin Lehner.

Neither Gerard Gallant nor Peter DeBoer have been able to trust him enough to give him games unless Marc-André Fleury fell to injury, and I guess that's what you get when your career save percentage is at .899 and this season's stands at .890, but he was at .910 and still only saw 22 games in 2017-18, when the G-Knights went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season.

The Hawks' situation in net is somewhat puzzling with Corey Crawford's concussion issues these past three seasons and Subban not yet rising up to the challenge, but I'm certain GM Stan Bowman has a plan that's more fleshed out than just hoping P.K.'s younger brother reaches the same level as his draft classmates Connor Hellebuyck (130th overall, Vezina finalist), Andrei Vasilevskiy (19th, Vezina winner), Frederik Andersen (87th, fan favourite in Toronto), Matt Murray (83rd, two-time Cup winner), Joonas Korpisalo (62nd, having a breakout season with the Columbus Blue Jackets) and Linus Ullmark (163rd, doing the same in Buffalo).

Here he is wearing the Bruins' third jersey - with matching swatch from a photo shoot - on card #RM-SU from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Series 2 collection and Rookie Materials sub-set:

Internationally, Malcolm has suited up for Team Canada at the 2014 World Juniors, finishing in fourth place.

Chris Phillips Autographed Card

The Ottawa Senators retired Chris Phillips' number last night and even ended up winning the game against the Buffalo Sabres.

I wanted to write a heartfelt article detailing all the important moments of his career, why he chose that specific number, who he wanted to share the moment with, but not only did Sportsnet's Wayne Scanlan beat me to it, he did it so perfectly that there is nothing more I could add to that part of the story, so go ahead and read it, I'll wait.

It certainly brought a tear to my eye.

Some casual hockey fans might ask themselves why he deserved that honour, some even dispute his selection as the first-overall draft pick in 1996 head of heart-and-soul star captains like Zdeno Chara (56th) and Daniel Brière (24th), but in true "hockey terms", he was worth his salary in the team sport just as much as anyone on that level even if he didn't take part in any All-Star Game and didn't win a Norris Trophy.

The fact that he ended up getting votes in two years while playing alongside players like Chara, Wade Redden and Erik Karlsson shows you that his value did resonate even though he never passed the 30-point mark himself. Some sports writers actually saw the value that came with being an elite shut-down defender for a few moments.

And he was clutch, as that article mentioned, considering 13 of his 71 regular-season goals are game-winners, and one of his 6 playoff goals not only did the same but was an overtime series clincher.

He had nerves of steel that made him step up when it mattered most.

He was a very good hockey player of his ilk, but he was a great teammate.

And once in a while, once per 25 or 50 years, an organization has to recognize the best such player of its past generation or two and honour them, to show the following generations that playing in the shadows doesn't necessarily mean never getting recognition.

It was one thing for him to beat Daniel Alfredsson's franchise games played mark by one, but it's another to have his jersey hang alongside the most inspiring player to wear the uniform in the team's current iteration. And it's fully deserved.

I figured I could take this prolonged look back by featuring him on card #325 from Upper Deck's 1997-98 Series 2 collection, showing him wearing the Sens' white (then-home) uniform at the 1996 draft:

The two-time Team Canada World Juniors gold medal winner (1996 and 1997) signed it in blue sharpie during one of his two final seasons, so either in 2013-14 (most likely) or 2014-15.

During his playing days, he went by the nickname "Big Rig" because he was 6'3" and weighed 220 pounds (and defended his zone like he was 6'5" and 250); he now co-owns and operates a microbrewery of the same name in Ontario.

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.

Ken Belanger Autograph Card

248 regular-season NHL games spent with four different teams over 12 hockey seasons, including two full years outside the NHL altogether suiting up for a single game in the UHL in that period, mostly due to concussion issues. 11 goals, 12 assists and 23 points, with a peak of 5 points in 45 games with the Boston Bruins in 1998-99. 695 penalty minutes.

12 career postseason games, all with the Bruins, all in '98-99. One goal. 16 PIMs.

Yes, Ken Belanger earned his card in In The Game's 2013-14 Enforcers II set and Autograph sub-set:

He signed the Band-Aid-like sticker in black sharpie tagging it with #33 - the number he wore with the New York Islanders, his longest-tenured organization in terms of years spent, probably unaware that ITG were going to show him as a member of the Los Angeles Kings, the team with which he spent his final three seasons in the NHL, 2001-02 (43 games), 2002-03 (4 games) and 2005-06 (5 games).

He had originally been a Hartford Whalers draft pick (153rd overall, 7th round, 1992) but was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs before his Juniors career was even over, so he never got to play for them.

Nowadays, he's a full-time entrepreneur, notably with KBX, a hockey school/training facility he runs with his wife as well as partnerships and stakes in Puckcooler (a drink holder that maintains temperatures made from used hockey pucks endorsed by Grant Fuhr), Northern Digital Media (a digital advertising brand based in Sault Ste-Marie) and Shot Blockers, the skate protectors for defensemen. He also dabbles in motivational speaking.

Dave Karpa Autographed Card

I've been trying to keep up with Dave Karpa since the end of the 2016-17 season, but it seems like he's out of the hockey loop of sorts, save for his twin sons Jakob and Zakary Karpa playing in the American minor-hokey elite leagues, with Zakary having pledged to play for Princeton in the NCAA next season.

Father Dave was a fourth-round draft pick (68th overall) of the Québec Nordiques, and he played with the organization for parts of four seasons before moving on to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks (1995-98, where he wore the alternate captain's "A" for a while), Carolina Hurricanes (1998-2001), New York Rangers (2001-03), Khabarovsk Amur in Russia (half of 2003-04), and three AHL organizations to close his playing career off, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (2003-04), Syracuse Crunch (2004-05, with some time with their ECHL affiliate San Diego Gulls), and Bridgeport Sound Tigers (2005-06).

He was a tough defenseman who could reach the 100-PIM mark in fewer than 30 games, doing so six times in the NHL alone and twice more in the AHL, and even obtaining 270 (not a type), 210 and 217 in three consecutive seasons with Anaheim, from 1995-96 to 1997-98.

He then coached his kids in leagues around Chicago and Detroit before getting an assistant-coach position with the OHL's Flint Firebirds in 2015-16, where he was famously fired twice in the same season with head coach John Gruden by team owner Rolf Nilsen, whose own son didn't take his father's side after the first firing, joining a player's strike that had the coaches reinstated... for just a couple of months.

Karpa later got back on his feet, signing up as Junior Tier III team Peoria Mustangs' (NA3HL), GM and head coach for 2016-17, but getting fired from both positions after the season.

Still, he's a terrific entry for #59 in my Nordiques Numbers Project, with card #375 from Upper Deck's 1993-94 Series 2 collection:

It shows him wearing the Nordiques' white (home) uniform. He signed it in blue sharpie by mail via the Mustangs in 2017.

Braydon Coburn Jersey Card

I started this blog over a decade ago, and my 32nd post was about Braydon Coburn of the Atlanta Thrashers, so I thought it'd be nice to revisit his career.

The eighth-overall pick of the 2003 draft ranks 17th in games played for his draft class, is ninth in points by a defenseman (with 230) behind Brent Burns (20th overall, 682 points), Ryan Suter (7th overall, 575 points), Shea Weber (49th overall, 567 points), Dustin Byfuglien (245th overall, 525 points), Dion Phaneuf (9th overall, 494 points), Brent Seabrook (14th, 464), fellow Thrashers pick Tobias Enstrom (239th, 308 points) and future two-team teammate Matt Carle (47th, 283 points), and is fifth in penalty minutes at his position with 696, behind Phaneuf (1345), Byfuglien (1094), Shane O'Brien (250th overall, 916 PIMs) and Mark Stuart (21st overall, 722 penalty minutes). He's definitely had an impact, but if the draft had to be re-done, Phaneuf, Burns, Suter, Weber and Byfuglien would probably have been picked ahead of him, as would have forwards Ryan Getzlaf (19th), Patrice Bergeron (45th), Joe Pavelski (205th), Zach Parise (17th), Jeff Carter (11th) and possibly Corey Perry (28th) as well. The rest is pretty subjective.

Because whether or not one feels he was overpaid as a middle- or bottom-pairing defender with the Tampa Bay Lightning from the end of the 2014-15 season until signing a deal last summer that brings his cap hit down to a manageable $1.7M for this year and the next, he did get the job done against the middle and bottom of the line-ups of opposing teams (save for perhaps a more difficult 2016-17 season where he looked slower and over-matched), and he was without question one of the best defensemen on the Philadelphia Flyers - second only to Kimmo Timonen or Chris Pronger, depending on the season - from 2007 until 2014, save for an injury-riddled, lockout-shortened 2012-13.

That's not to say he'll join Pronger in the Hall of Fame some day, but he's far from the disaster many online commentators have made him out to be in the past five years. If the Bolts win the Cup in the next couple of seasons, he will have deserved to have his name engraved on it for all time with his colossal efforts in Philadelphia and Tampa.

Here he is wearing the Thrashers' blue (home) uniform on card #RT-BC from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Series 2 set and Rookie Threads sub-set:

It features a dark blue jersey swatch that was worn in a photo shoot. I kind of miss those jerseys now.

Robert Kron: Three Autographed Cards

There was a piece of news that flew a little under the radar last summer, a few days after the Carolina Hurricanes matched the Montréal Canadiens' offer sheet to Sebastian Aho, and it involved the man who was most responsible for drafting Aho, Robert Kron, an amateur scout when the young star was drafted in the second round (35th overall) in 2015, and for the past two years "Head European Scout": he is now Director of European Scouting.

I know a lot about hockey, but the only difference I can see between "Head" and "Director" is that there is also a "Head" of North American Scouting (Mike Dawson) on the Canes' staff, but no "Director", so Kron's probably got the last word in case of a difference of opinion.

Although I mostly think of him as a member of the Vancouver Canucks, he only played 144 games in British Columbia versus 272 with the Hartford Whalers and 237 with the Hurricanes for a total of 509 with the organization; he finished his NHL career by suiting up for 118 games over two injury-filled seasons with the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets, so it's no surprise that when he looked at option after his playing career, he would revert back to Carolina.

Here he is rocking my favourite Canucks uniform, the 1985-97 black (away) one that replaced the "Flying V" of the early 1980s:

These are both considered "Rookie" cards; on the left is #52 from O-Pee-Chee's 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier collection; while the card on the right is from Upper Deck's 1990-91 Series 2 set and Young Guns sub-set.

And here he is sporting the white (home) version of that uniform on card #239 from Pro Set's 1991-92 Series 2 collection:

It's my second-favourite pale Canucks uniform, after the Markus Naslund-era ones from 1997-2007.

He signed all three cards in blue sharpie at the Bell Centre around the 2009 amateur draft, where John Tavares was selected first-overall. It was his first draft as a scout, and only two of the Canes' six picks taht summer played in the NHL: Brian Dumoulin (51st overall, second round, 81 points in 342 games) and Rasmus Rissanen (sixth round, 178th overall, 6 games). First-rounder Philippe Paradis, a bruising 6'2", 205-pound forward, mostly played in the AHL and is currently in Québec's LNAH - perhaps the most physical league in the world these days - where he has 8 goals, 5 assist, 13 points in 19 penalty minutes in 12 games with the Jonquiere Marquis so far this season.

Nick Paul: Two Autographed Cards

First things first: Nick Paul was a power forward in Juniors who didn't quite live up to that reputation in the AHL afterwards, but with 9 points in 25 games with the Ottawa Senators so far in 2019-20, it feels like the 24-year-old, 6'3", 220-pound winger is getting a feel as how to translate that in the Big Show. However, he'd left Wednesday's game against the Edmonton Oilers in the first period with a neck contusion, so he wasn't playing at 100% against the Philadelphia Flyers this afternoon.

Second: Flyers gonna Flyer. It looks like a bench that has Alain Vigneault to lead it and Michel Therrien, Mike Yeo and Ian Laperriere wants to bring grit back after the Ron Hextall/Dave Hakstol talent-driven years, as the Flyers players took exception to many a hard, legal, quality hit by the Sens to retaliate, cheap-shot and goat Ottawa players into fighting.

Joel Farabee initiated a fight with Jean-Gabriel Pageau of all people for a clean hit Pageau had laid out on his prior - what ever happened to taking note of a guy's number and trying to get him back later? Does Farabee not trust himself enough to put himself in a position to either hit Pageau back or strip him off the puck in a manner that'll make it on a highlights reel? Pageau defended himself ok and threw a decent couple of shots, but someone should clock that rookie to teach him some respect.

Which brings me to Jakub Voracek. I like him a lot and will continue to defend his play and effort (when defensible) even as the 60-point seasons become more common than the 80-point ones, but seriously, it's not his role to pick a fight with Paul after the Sens laid big hits out on Travis Konecky (a masterclass center-ice hit by Mark Borowiecki, the guy who stopped a robbery in Vancouver earlier this week) and Farabee:

It was a case where I had to root for Paul, who dished out a couple of nice uppercuts, not just because the Sens were playing clean and didn't deserve to get called out on their hits, but also because Paul was damn close to having had a concussion just three nights ago and this dickhead chose him as the scapegoat to try to change the momentum of the game.

It did, as the Flyers ended up intimidating their way to a 4-3 win, and now head coach D.J. Smith has to convince his team that the pain they endured in a losing cause wasn't worth it, but perhaps just a tiny bit more pain - 5% more - would have resulted in a win, and that's pain that's worth the effort.

So Nick Paul and Jean-Gabriel Pageau deserve stars in their notebooks today, as does Borowiecki - and the Flyers earned a note in the teacher's binder that they are not mature enough to be patient, not smart enough to be strategic and win clean, not brave enough to fight fire with fire, and not talented enough to keep up with a team that was destined to be a bottom-two this season. They are once again bullies, but probably not tough enough to handle big boys like the Boston Bruins or St. Louis Blues.

Here is Paul wearing the Sens' best-looking jersey of all time, the "Black O", on card #299 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 MVP set:

And here's a close-up of his face, wearing Ottawa's white (away) uniform, on card #P-107 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 Series 2 collections and UD Portraits sub-set:

He signed both "Rookie" cards in blue sharpie last year, when the Sens lost 5-2 against the Montréal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

He suited up for Team Canada at the 2015 World Juniors, and one of his 3 goals (in 7 games) was scored in the final against Team Russia, helping the Canadians win gold on home soil in a 5-4 game.

Mark Borowiecki: Two Autographed Cards

They call him "Borocop" and the nickname proved to be truer than ever today, as Mark Borowiecki of the Ottawa Senators thwarted a theft in Vancouver ahead of tonight's game against the Vancouver Canucks.

Essentially, a man stole something from the back of a vehicle, tried to flee with it on a bike, BoroCop ran after him, clothes-lined him, wrested him, retrieved the bag and called the police. And this being Vancouver, the police have a word of warning:

As this did happen on Dec. 1, it’s the start of the holiday season, we are going to see more and more parcels in the back of vehicles and the front of vehicles. We’re asking people: keep your property in your car safe, keep it secure and out of sight.

I hate that we're there, in this day and age, that someone's stuff is only theirs until someone else takes it away and where folks are being spied on by the State and the police are militarized yet no one ever seems to catch petty criminals.

At least there are god people like Borowiecki, who we can watch 82 times a year perform his craft of defending his own zone and looking like a superhero on a card like #347 from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set:

It's a dark, silver foil in the same vein as Upper Deck's Black Diamond series.

Here he is on the more classic card #486 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 Compendium Series 2 (Blue parallel, which one gets for redeeming 10 "regular" base cards on E-Pack) set:

Both feature him wearing the Sens' white (now-away) uniform; he signed them during the 2017-18 season in blue sharpie.

Jonny Brodzinski Jersey Card

You may recall this Jonny Brodzinski jersey card from a box break last year:

It's #RM-JB from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 2 collection and Rookie Materials sub-set, showing him wearing the Los Angeles Kings' black (home) uniform, with a matching "player-worn memorabilia", without specification if it's at the draft, during practice, a game or a photo shoot. Or just in the press box while watching other Kings players practice.

Upon signing him to a one-year deal with the San Jose Sharks on July 2nd, GM Doug Wilson had this to say:

Brodzinski has an excellent combination of power and scoring skill-set. He had a great collegiate career at St. Cloud State and has continued that success at the professional level. We feel there’s a good opportunity for him to earn playing time and help us offensively this upcoming season.

His father Mike and uncle Steve as well as second-youngest brother Easton are all products of St. Cloud State, while his two middle brothers Michael (a Sharks draft pick) and youngest brother Bryce opted for the University of Minnesota.

I want to disagree with Wilson's rose-coloured glasses assessment of Brodzinski, however, as he was barely a point-per-game forward in College, never actually got there at the AHL level but did get close once with the Ontario Reign and has yet to translate any of that to the NHL level, although to be fair, he was mostly asked to play a fourth-line role with the Kings.

I see his upside as a third-line winger more than a centre, if he can translate some of that offensive skill by playing with more talented players than your average fourth-liner. But let's keep in mind he's a fifth-round pick who is already 26 years old. He needs to grab the bull by the horns if he doesn't want to remain a 'tweener alternating between the NHL and AHL.

I'd love to see all four brothers on the ice at once, though, so perhaps there's a chance with the San Jose Barracuda.

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).