Michel Goulet: 5 Autographed Cards (Part 1)

I'd been meaning to write to Michel Goulet for so long, first when he was an assistant general manager with the Colorado Avalanche, and more recently as a scout for the Calgary Flames. I finally did, this season, sending him a fan letter and these five cards (care of the Flames) on March 24th, 2014, and receiving them all back, signed in blue sharpie, on August 26th, 2014 - a 154-day return:

Ironically, I waited until this season to send, and I pulled a couple of inserts of him throughout the season, so you'll likely be seeing more of him before year's end.

I was happy to get two more cards of him with the Québec Nordiques, the team he helped define in the 1980s with Dale Hunter and Peter Stastny, Anton Stastny and Marian Stastny; he had eight straight 30-goal seasons, with four straight 50-goal seasons in the middle of those; his 121 points in 1983-84 was a record for a left winger at the time and was the second of four times he's surpass the 100-point mark. He was in the league's top-10 for points three times and made the end-of-the-year All-Star teams five times. He garnered top-10 Selke and Hart votes twice each.

The card on the left is from Topps' 1983-84 O-Pee-Chee set (card #292), while the one on the right is from Topps' 1988-89 Topps set, and is #7 in its NHL All-Star sticker sub-set.

                                (continued in the following post)

Niklas Backstrom: 5 Autographed Cards (Part 2)

               (continued from the previous post)

While I used to prefer their red uniform, I am now a bigger fan of the Minnesota Wild's white (away) jerseys; the colour combinations work and complement each other very well, and combined with the white Vaughn  equipment, combines to give goalies a ''totally classic'' look and feel:

  Pictured on the left is a sticker from Panini's 2008-09 Panini sticker book (#218), which shows both the team's logo and a nice angle of Niklas Backstrom's old mask, which carries the team's former shoulder logo on the forehead; on the right is card #125 from Upper Deck's 2010-11 SP Authentic set, an always a sober-looking, white-dominant design that autographs look great on. Notice the different shoulder patches on that one, and the chest patch commemorating the team's 10th anniversary.

It also has a clear view of his usual stance, very modern - the glove facing inwards and completely upwards is a pet peeve of mine, but hey, I haven't been nominated for a Vezina, so whatever works for him is fine by me.

I had sent him these 5 items and a fan letter on March 3rd, 2014, and they took 142 days to get back to me, which brings us to July 23rd, 2014. They were all signed in black sharpie, with his jersey number (32) tagged at the end. He actually re-signed with the Wild last year and has 2 more years left at a cap hit just over $3M per season, just about half of what he earned in his previous deal.

Kevin Dineen: 4 Autographed Cards

Today marks one of the longest returns I've ever had - 784 days, more than two years, and ten days longer than this trio of David Booth cards!

I had sent Kevin Dineen a fan letter and 5 cards on March 22nd, 2012, care of the Florida Panthers, and got these four back today (May 15th, 2014), signed in black sharpie, with his jersey number (11) tagged at the end.

Dineen was a heart-and-soul star player for half of the 1980s and most of the 1990s. For a long time, he and Ron Francis were the only decent players on the Hartford Whalers, and Dineen was the associate captain while Francis wore the 'C'. Dineen was a point-per-game player who also usually reached the 160 penalty-minute plateau (with a high of 217 in 1987-88).

Soon after the 1991-92 season began, he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for Murray Craven; ironically, the Flyers owned the pick that got Dineen drafted in the first place (56th overall in 1982), which they'd traded to the Whalers. And it was more than just one instance of going full circle, as the Flyers' coach at the time of his arrival was Bill Dineen - his father. Both of them were born in Québec, though Kevin's brothers - former NHLers Gord and Peter Dineen - were born in Ontario; only Gord considers himself an American.

Kevin's statistics faltered a bit in Philadelphia, possibly because of the toll he'd put his body through since the beginning of his career, but also perhaps due to the Dead Puck Era; still, the Flyers elected to make him their captain for the 1993-94 season. They stripped him of his captaincy to hand it to Eric Lindros the following season.

He was sent back to the Whalers' organization, and eventually made their captain as well. He scored the last goal of the Whalers part of the franchise and followed the team as they became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997-98. They too stripped him of the captaincy, handing it to (future Flyer) Keith Primeau for the 1998-99 season.

He closed out his career with one season as a member of the Ottawa Senators, and two seasons plus 4 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets; all told, he played in 1188 regular-season NHL games, scored 355 goals, had 760 points and 2229 penalty minutes (plus 23 goals, 41 points, and 127 penalty minutes in 59 playoff games), played for Team Canada at numerous World Championships and for the NHL at Rendez-Vous '87 in his home town.

After his playing career, he coached the AHL's Portland Pirates for 6 seasons, and the NHL's Florida Panthers for two and a quarter seasons; when he was fired from the Panthers, he was named the Canadian womens' hockey team's head coach, and promptly won the gold medal.

I thought I had sent a card of him wearing the Whalers' white (home) uniform, but that may be the one he kept. Instead, I have these two of him in the green (away) uniform, with the alternate captain's 'A':

On the left, skating into a play, is card #261 of Topps' 1990-91 Bowman set; on the right, from Topps' 1991-92 Stadium Club (card #162), he appears to have just gotten on the ice from the players' bench, and it seems he's holding his stick backwards.

And here's two of him with the Flyers, with the 1991-92 All-Star Game patch on the left shoulder and the NHL's 75th anniversary patch on the right:

On the left, wearing the white (home) uniform, card #284 of Pinnacle Brands' 1992-93 Score, in full puck possession; on the right, looking ready to enter the play or gearing up for a huge hit, we have sticker #186 of Panini's 1992-93 Panini collection to go in their sticker album.

I was done hoping this one would ever make its way back to me; I have been proven wrong.

Joel Otto: 4 Autographed Items

I got mail at my old place on Monday, one that made it there despite there not being enough postage on the envelope (thanks, Canada Post employees, some of you have a heart!) and that only took 21 total days round trip. I'd written Joel Otto a fan letter that I sent along with these 4 cards on March 24th, 2014, care of the WHL's Calgary Hitmen - where he is an assistant coach - and got them all back on April 14th (2014), signed in black sharpie, with the clearest signature I've seen in a long time:

In today's NHL game, Otto would have been a prized commodity: a 6'4'', 220-pound right-handed centerman who played tough, won face-offs and was among the top-3 of his generation in shutting down the opposition (second perhaps only to Guy Carbonneau, in my opinion, with Bobby Carpenter in third place). If neither of them rings a bell, picture Tomas Plekanec's shut-down ability, Patrice Bergeron's ability in the dot, and Ryan Getzlaf's size - in one mean player.

A two-time Selke nominee, he won the Stanley Cup in 1989 as a member of the Calgary Flames, with whom he spent the first 10 years of his career before moving on to the Philadelphia Flyers for the final three. Except for his last season, he was always good for 40-60 points, close to 20 goals and over 150 penalty minutes a year, and his playoff statistics are also impressive: 27 goals, 47 assists, 74 points, and 205 PIMs in 122 career games, and astonishing stats when his team went deep in the postseason: a 5-10-15 output in 20 games in 1985-86 as the Flames lost the Cup to the Montréal Canadiens, and 6-13-19 in 22 games in 1988-89 as the Flames took their revenge on the Habs.

A Minnesota native, he represented Team USA many times internationally, including at two World Championships, the 1987 and 1991 Canada Cups (he was team captain for the latter), the 1996 World Cup (which the U.S. won), and the 1998 Olympics.

Let's have a look at the cards, first those showing him wearing the Flames' classic red (away) uniform, starting with this 1990-91 Score (American) card (#128 in the set) by Pinnacle Brands, with the 1989 Cup Finals patch on his left shoulder, entering the offensive zone in control of the puck:

Next up is this Pro Set 1991-92 Series 1 card (#37 in the set), sporting the alternate captain's 'A', which was pretty much a fixture on his chest:

And a sticker from Panini's 1992-93 Panini set (#43 to stick in the collector's album), sporting the NHL's 75th-anniversary patch that all teams wore that year, fighting for prime in-slot real estate in front of the New York Rangers' Joe Cirella:

And finally, showing him in the Flames white (then-home) uniform, from Pro Set's 1992-93 Parkhurst set (the French Canadian Version, card #253 in the collection), sporting both the 'A' and the 75th patch in a weirdly-cropped picture that barely shows Los Angeles Kings goalie Kelly Hrudey:

Again: what a tremendous return!

I am fairly confident that he will be on the Flames' coaching staff before long, as an assistant (possibly associate) coach in charge of both the powerplay and the penalty kill - in which he both excelled.

Sylvain Lefebvre: 9 Autographed Items (Part 1: The Habs)

There haven't been many returns so far this half-season (partly because I haven't sent out all that much stuff), and a few of them have been incompletes (where I sent more than I got back), but this 9/7 return probably makes up for all of them!

I'd sent Sylvain Lefebvre these 6 cards and one sticker on my mom's birthday - January 24th - and got them back just over two months later, on April 5th, 2013, all signed in black sharpie and bearing the correct jersey numbers, with two extra signed index cards.

Lefebvre started his career with the powerhouse Montréal Canadiens of the late 1980s, arriving the season following a Stanley Cup Finals berth (and loss to the Calgary Flames). All of these cards show him wearing the Habs classic red (then-away) uniform, first these two:

On the left, card #159 in Topps' 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee set, showing him duringa  pre-game warm-up; the card on the right is from Topps' 1990-91 Bowman set (card #48 in the set that stood out because the stats on the back were broken down by opposing teams), showing Lefebvre getting ready for a face-off. Both of these sets were considered lower-end cards at the time, but are now considered 'classics'.

Next are two are from then-middle-end sets, now not even worth the paper they were printed on:

The card on the left is from Pro Set's 1992-93 Parkhurst set (card #307 in the series, with the NHL's 75th anniversary patch on the jersey), a set that was so over-glossed the cards have become sticky with age; opening a pack today requires separating groups of 2 or 3 cards that may or may not lose ink in the process. The card on the right is from Score's inaugural 1990-91 Score Canadian (Bilingual) set (card #307).

And now another piece of history, a 1.5x2 inch sticker from Panini's 1990-91 Panini Hockey sticker set (#59 in the series):

For 4 or 5 straight seasons, I managed to complete the whole sticker book. My dream was to have the books signed by all the players - an impossible task now, not just because some of the players are deceased, but also because it's nearly impossible to get a Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky or Mark Messier autograph without resorting to murder, kidnapping, running a charity, or all of the above.

(continued in the following post)