Stéphane Quintal Autographed Card

The Winnipeg Jets are experimenting with their forward depth these days and possibly eyeing the future as they are turning first-line winger and captain Blake Wheeler into the second-line centre they've been looking for for the past three years and slotting Patrik Laine in his spot alongside Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor.

The thinking is if Wheeler can remain effective as a centre playing behind Scheifele, both will see advantageous match-ups - perhaps even more so Wheeler - as opponents will now have two lines with the potential to take over a game and pay attention to.

With goalie Connor Hellebuyck back to his Vezina-level ways, that just leaves the defence as a point of concern, particularly the right side, which reminds me that Stéphane Quintal has once held that position as a 25/26-year-old, as can be attested by card #245 from Fleer's 1994-95 Fleer Ultra set, which he signed in black sharpie at his induction into the LHJMQ Hall Of Fame last year:

You tend to forget how simple and beautiful their white (home garbs were at the time, because you mostly see the dark jersey nowadays, but "WOW". The veteran of 1037 NHL games is still the Assistant-Director and Senior VP of Player Safety for the NHL but would listen if an NHL team came calling with an offer for a front-office job.

Stéphane Quintal Autograph Card

I wanted to take a post to congratulate Stéphane Quintal, who was officially appointed as the NHL's new discipline czar earlier this week. He was originally an assistant to Brendan Shanahan when he held the position, and had replaced him for the playoffs in an interim role.

As chief disciplinarian, Quintal will oversee all actions that, in his playing days, would have resulted in his dropping the gloves to defend his teammates - only this time, he will punish culprits with suspensions and fines.

The 14th-overall pick of the 1987 draft (one spot ahead of Joe Sakic) had a decent career as a stay-at-home defender, spanning 16 seasons and 1037 regular-season games in which he scored 63 goals, was credited with 180 assists (good for 243 points) and totaled an impressive 1320 penalty minutes; he also played in 52 playoff games, in which he 'only' spent 51 minutes in the sin bin with two goals and 12 points in total.

Seven of his 16 seasons (and 507 games) were spent with the Montréal Canadiens, including his 1000th NHL game. He also played with the Boston Bruins (who had drafted him), St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks; he played on two-thirds of the Original Six teams.

Here is a card showing him with the Habs' classic red (then-away) uniform, from Pinnacle's 1997-98 Be A Player set (card #94), an autographed insert signed in black sharpie:

I had originally featured him in the Habs' white (then-home) uniform five years ago, in the second-ever post on this blog. Back then, I wasn't trying to tie my show-and-tells with the news...

Stéphane Quintal Autographed Card

This one's good on so many levels. First off, we're talking about a decent hockey player, but a common one nonetheless, from a brand whose cards aren't worth much either. So, on the regular market, this regular card is not only not worth much to any collector, but some might actually get frustrated to have so many copies of it.

The card is #257 from the 1995-96 Fleer Ultra Extra series, made by Fleer/Skybox at the time, who were more known for their baseball (under the Fleer mokiner) and basketball cards (Skybox).

The player is stay-at-home defenseman Stéphane Quintal, a steady blueline presence who once in a while took the gloves off to protect his teammates. He is seen here taking a slap shoot, something he didn't do a lot of. So you have a rare pose by a local player in the local team's uniform; it may not be of much value to others, but to me it does.

The autograph was taken by someone trustworthy at a team function.