Hannu Toivonen 8X10 Autograph Card

Ah ha! I knew I had my own copy of this Hannu Toivonen signed 8x10 card! I finally got a hold of it while searching for this Jhonas Enroth card I've now traded away... but more on that when I talk about what I'm getting in return!

For now, let's focus on my second #SP-HT 8x10 picture/card from Upper Deck's 2006-07 Be A Player Portraits (the Signature Portraits sub-set:

Since my last post in 2013, Toivonen's been plying his trade in Finland, notably for the Tampere Ilves, the most decorated team in Finnish hockey, Finland's Montréal Canadiens, if you will. And, like the Habs, they haven't won a championship in a long time, in their case, since 1985.

He's had a losing record for the last three years, but his individual statistics are pretty decent:

From HockeyDB

I also found two of Nikolai Zherdev's of the same set, so look for that eventually as well.

Ryan Suter 8x10 Autograph Card

I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of an important American hockey player, Bob Suter, a member of the 1980 Miracle On Ice team, brother to Gary Suter, and father of star defenseman Ryan Suter and up-and-comer Garrett Suter.

He had won an NCAA championship with the Wisconsin Badgers, and was one of the rare players on the 1980 Team USA who didn't go to University of Minnesota or Boston University.

He was a scout for the Minnesota Wild at the time of his death, with whom his son Ryan now plays. I didn't have a card of Bob's, nor one of Ryan with the Wild, but I have this 8x10 insert, signed in black sharpie on a sticker, from Upper Deck's 2006-07 Be A Player Portraits set (#SP-RS of the Signature Portraits sub-set):

It is from the same set from whence the jersey card of his I featured in May came; it also shows him in the Nashville Predators' former blue uniform which, all things considered, may have been their best-looking by a fair margin.

Hannu Toivonen 8X10 Autograph Card

A former first-round pick of the Boston Bruins (29th overall in 2002), Hannu Toivonen was chosen ahead of Duncan Keith (53rd), Johnny Boychuk (61st), Matthew Lombardi (90th), Valtteri Filppula (95th), Maxime Talbot (234th), Dennis Wideman (241st) and Jonathan Ericsson (291st).

He played 61 games over the course of 3 seasons in the NHL, with a 18-24-10 record, a 3.37 GAA and a .890 save percentage. After years in the AHL farm teams of the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks, Toivonen returned to Europe in 2011, only to come back in North America (in the ECHL) because his team ran into some financial problems.

He can be seen here in the Bruins' white uniform:

It's an 8x10 picture/card from Upper Deck's 2006-07 Be A Player Portraits (the Signature Portraits sub-set, #SP-HT). I had initially found a copy in a pack, but as I was sorting through my things, I seemed to have lost it; to replace it, I purchased this one off Ebay for... $1.25.

Tomas Vokoun Autograph 8 X 10 Card

Tomas Vokoun went under the radar in the news when, as a free agent, he chose to leave the Washington Capitals where he was #1A to be the backup goalie with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

I, for one, would have loved to see him sign with the Montréal Canadiens, in part to see him finish with the team that drafted him, in part to relieve Carey Price who plays way too much, and finally, to put pressure on Price to accept a lower salary than his ridiculous $6.5M per for 6 seasons. I have a feeling GM Marc Bergevin will come to regret listening to the media on this one...

But back to Vokoun, the two-time All-Star, two-time World Championship gold medalist and Olympian (bronze medal in 2006). Chosen by the Nashville Predators in the 1998 Expansion Draft (from the Habs), he went on to star in nets for the Preds for their first 8 NHL seasons.

After consecutive freak injuries, the Predators traded his rights to the Florida Panthers for a first-round pick and two second- rounders, and he manned the nets well enough in Florida to play in the 2008 All-Star game, but suffered another freak injury in 2009 when teammate Keith Ballard hit him in the head with his stick (he was aiming at the crossbar in frustration...) and missed a long time.

The following summer he signed a low-paying contract to play with the powerhouse Capitals, gambling that winning a Cup would result in a better contract this summer, but once again, the Caps failed to reach post-season success.

This autographed 8 X 10 (signature on a sticker) features the Preds' old jersey - before they decided to go with vomit-enducing colours - is from Upper Deck's 2006-07 Be A Player Portraits set (card #SP-VO). Each pack came with an oversized signed card, so for the price ($30 or so), to be assured a hit of such magnitude was pretty good.