My Team Canada Numbers Project

Well, I have Numbers Projects for so many teams now (my Habs Numbers Project, my Oilers Numbers Project my Sens Numbers Project, my Canucks Numbers Project, my Nordiques Numbers Project, my Flames Numbers Project and my Expos Numbers Project), I figured why not make one for Team Canada as well?

It'll be easier in some regards with all the national teams at all the levels (including but not limited to the World Juniors, the World Championships, the Spengler Cup, the Canada/World Cup, the Summit Series, and the Men's and Women's Olympic teams), but I'm again at a loss for #99 (Wayne Gretzky) and likely will be for my entire life.

The plan is to stick to hockey, but who knows, maybe I'll get to add some from other sports as well; it might be my only shot at a #99.

So far, I have featured 35 players representing a total of 26 jersey numbers.

Here they are:

1: Braden Holtby: check!
2: Meghan Agosta: check!
3: Eric Brewer: check!
4: Thomas Hickey and Chris Phillips: check!
5: Bryan Allen, Drew Bannister and Samuel Morin: check!
8: Laura Fortino and Pierre-Luc Dubois: check!
9: Anthony Beauvillier (also wore #21) and Joe Veleno: check!
10: Dale Hawerchuk, Brayden Schenn and Charles Hudon (also wore #16): check!
11: Zachary Boychuk: check!
12: Julien Gauthier: check!
13: Caroline Ouellette: check (and check again)!
14: Thomas Hickey (also wore #4): check!
16: Kerby Rychel, Jayne Hefford and Charles Hudon (also wore #10): check!
17: Marcus Foligno: jersey card check!
18: Jean-Pierre Dumont and Pierre-Luc Dubois: check!
19: Alexandre Daigle: check!
20: Guillaume Latendresse, Jason Ward and Louis Leblanc: check!
21: Anthony Beauvillier: check!
22: Frédérik Gauthier and Owen Tippett: check!
23: Jason Botterill, Rob Niedermayer and Daniel Audette: check!
24: Patrice Brisebois and Logan Couture: check!
25: Tessa Bonhomme and Raphaël Lavoie: check!
28: Nathan Beaulieu: and Victor Mete: check!
29: Marie-Philip Poulin: check!
30: Dustin Tokarski: jersey card check!
31: Geneviève Lacasse and Olivier Roy: check!
32: Charline Labonté: check!
33: Ann-Renée Desbiens: check!
37: Patrice Bergeron: jersey card check!
51: Ryan Getzlaf: jersey card check!
97: Joe Thornton: jersey card check!

Captains: Poulin, Hickey

Joe Veleno Autographed Card

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The Montréal Canadiens signed a former first-round draft pick to a one-year, $900K contract earlier today, a left-shot centre who should see time in the bottom-six (I would guess Jake Evans is slotted as the third-line pivot which would relegate Joe Veleno to the fourth) and will essentially replace departed free agent Christian Dvorak.

He'd been practising with Habs players at the team's Brossard practice facility this summer, so GM Kent Hughes (his former agent) got to see him quite a lot before putting ink to paper.

He thus becomes the third hometown kid to get repatriated over the summer, after the free agent signing of Stanley Cup (St. Louis Blues, 2019) and Calder Cup (Abbottsford Canucks, 2025) winner Sammy Blais and trade acquisition Zachary Bolduc (from the Blues, for Logan Mailloux).

At age 25, Veleno will aim to change the perception on his career trajectory, as the second member - with Sean Day - of the five-man club of players granted "exceptional status" in Juniors, i.e. players who were allowed to make their Junior hockey debuts at age 15 (one year ahead of usual phenoms) and reached their prime age without achieving "impact player" status at the NHL level; John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, and Connor McDavid have all reached stardom, while a trio of youngsters who were also given that chance - Shane Wright, Connor Bedard, and Michael Misa - have yet to reach those peaks but get a pass due to their age.

As a 16-year-old high schooler in 2016-17, he helped his Saint John Sea Dogs win the LHJMQ's league championship, with 20-year-old Matthew Highmore, 19-year-olds Mathieu Joseph, Thomas Chabot, and Jakub Zboril, and 18-year-old Julien Gauthier.

He split the next season between the Sea Dogs (6 goals, 25 assists and 31 points in 31 games, with 26 penalty minutes and a -10 rating) and Drummondville Voltigeurs (16 goals, 32 assists and 48 points in 33 games, with 22 penalty minutes and a +14 rating, plus 11 points and 10 PIMs in 10 playof games), leading the Detroit Red Wings to pick him 30th overall at the 2018 draft, ahead of Alexander Romanov (Montréal Canadiens, 38th), Ryan McLeod (Edmonton Oilers, 40th), Jack Drury (Carolina Hurricanes, 42nd), Martin Fehervary (Washington Capitals, 46th), Kirill Marchenko (Columbus Blue Jackets, 49th), Sean Durzi (Toronto Maple Leafs, 52nd), Jack McBain (Minnesota Wild, 63rd), Lukas Dostal (Anaheim Ducks, 85th), and Philipp Kurashev (Chicago Blackhawks, 120th). With 306 NHL games played, Veleno currently ranks 15th in his draft class, while his 81 points place him 22nd for now.

He followed that up with 104 points (42 goals, 62 assists) in 59 games in 2018-19, with 19 penalty minutes and an astonishing +63 plus/minus rating for his final season in Juniors before turning pro. He then posted 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) in 54 games with the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins in 2019-20, opted to play overseas with the Malmö Redhawks (20 points and 18 penalty minutes in 46 games) before finishing the season with the Griffins (3 points and 4 PIMs in 4 games) and Red Wings (1 point and 4 PIMs in 5 games). He's mostly been an NHL regular with the underwhelming Wings and Blackhawks these past three seasons. This upcoming season may well be his first true shot at a playoff berth in the NHL as the Habs look to repeat last season's success and perhaps even go deeper in the postseason.

Here is the Player of The Day sporting Team Canada's red uniform in the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, where his team placed fifth, on card #70 from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Team Canada Juniors set, signed a couple of years ago in blue sharpie:

He captained the team to the championship the following season. As a matter of fact, his international record is pretty stellar, with gold medals at the 2020 World Juniors (6 points in 6 games as assistant-capitan) and 2023 World Championships (5 points in 5 games with current Habs teammates Blais and Samuel Montembeault), and fellow Quebecers Devon Levi and Pierre-Olivier Joseph).

Jacob Bernard-Docker: Two Autographed Cards

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The Ottawa Senators took care of a tidy bit of business to open up July 1st with the signing of defensive prospect Jacob Bernard-Docker to a two-year deal worth a total of $1.61M.

The 2018 first-round draft pick (26th overall) spent three seasons with the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks before turning pro in 2020-21. Despite a 7-goal, 25-point seasin in 32 games in 2019-20, he is projected more as a bottom-four, defensive prospect in the NHL, one who will spend time on the penalty kill. He is said to have decent skating ability and a good first pass, and is expected to make the jump to the NHL Sens team in a relatively permanent manner by the end of this two-year deal.

In the meantime, he has been selected to play for Team Canada at the 2020 World Juniors and 2021 World Championships, both times earning a gold medal.

Here he is sporting #5 on the white (home) version of his country's uniform, on card #27 from Upper Deck's 2020-21 Team Canada Juniors/Women set:

And here is a headshot of him wearing the red (away) jersey from the same collection, but the 2018 Draft Class sub-set:

He signed both in thin blue sharpie while playing with the AHL's Belleville Senators last season, adding his #5 at the end.

Jake Virtanen Autographed Card

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I wish I were writing a "Jake Virtanen scores a hat trick, cements his position on the Vancouver Canucks' second line for the next decade" type of post but, alas, the 24-year-old (who an important part of the Canucks' fanbase had already turned its back on) is in the news because of an alleged sexual assault that would have taken place in September 2017.

As of yet, there have not been any (formal) accusations although the victim has expressed themselves on Twitter and the police is seemingly aware of "a recently reported incident".

As is common in these cases, there is an important contingent that wants him cancelled, fired, hung by the balls and put on a million type of lists without any sort of trial, and a vocal group disputing the accusations as a cash grab - or worse: a disappointed fan looking to attack the slow-to-develop winger personally for his on-ice play. There are probably a few moderates of the "let's see how this plays out with more facts and perhaps a trial" school left, but I'm not holding my breath anymore.

I'm usually an "extreme moderate" myself in cases like these: I would protect the victim regardless and offer them all the help they need to get their life back on track, whether the accusation is true or not, and whether the attacker gets penalized or not. Yes, even if the accusation isn't true, I would offer the alleged victim state-provided psychological help, because they would need it, to help cure the situation that made them invent the story in the first place, and to deal with the backlash of now having this very public cloud to live with for the rest of their lives.

There is also the possibility that the person does in all truthfullness feel wronged but that a third party rules that they are incorrect in their assessment of the situation, which also deserves care and help; and this being North America, historically, the system being built on proving guilt being harder in situations where there are no witnesses, if the defendant did commit a crime but doesn't crack at the trial, he could get away with it - which also requires a host of services provided to the victim.

In Virtanen's case, however, it is too early to tell on any of this. But I would advise the victim to go through the proper channels of Justice for this one, as the system is thirsty for a public case to right past wrongs, and there has pretty much never been a better time - strategically - to bring someone to court on matters like these and hope for a win (see: Derek Chauvin, the rare police murderer who was found guilty).

For now, the young man has been put on leave by his hometown team. He was already thought by many to being on his way out of town, and this may very well seal the deal, but it also brings the team's expected return down by a lot; I'm not sure even a talented (alleged) racist like Tony DeAngelo is a fair return today.

Back in the day, Virtanen used to suit up for Team Canada often; here he is wearing the team's red (away) uniform on card #44 from Upper Deck's 2014-15 Team Canada Juniors/Women set:

It shows him wearing #19. He signed it in thin blue sharpie. I got the card by mail a couple of seasons ago.

Owen Tippett: Two Autographed Cards

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I read things online about Florida Panthers fans worrying that Owen Tippett is not yet ready to be a top-six forward when others who were selected after him in the 2017 draft are already impact players, such as Nick Suzuki (13th), Robert Thomas (20th), Filip Chytil (21st), Kailer Yamamoto (22nd), Henri Jokiharju (29th), Alexandre Texier (45th), Maxime Comtois (50th) and Drake Batherson (121st) - and those voices aren't going to quiet down now that he's been relegated to the taxi squad once more with a production of just 1 goal, 2 assists, 3 points and 4 penalty minutes in 15 games.

However, keep in mind he's still just 22, barely has 51 AHL games under his belt, that the Panthers have six players with 16 or more points (a 0.75 point-per-game clip) who all deserve their ice time and the team is tied for sixth-most wins (15) in the NHL, sitting relatively comfortably in a playoff position in the division that houses both of last season's Stanley Cup finalists.

He was a point-per-game player in the OHL, he was almost a point-per-game player as a rookie last season in the AHL (19 goals and 40 points in 46 games) and was slated to play in its All-Star Game until he got injured the game prior.

The "good" news for Florida fans is he's expansion draft protected because his Entry-Level Contract slid for two seasons and will now expire in 2021-22 (and rookie contracts are exempt from being selected by the Seattle Kraken)... unless the team comes to an agreement with Kraken GM Ron Francis to accept Tippett as payment for not selecting someone else, but I doubt it; his skating and shooting ability make him a candidate for at least a middle-six role à la Mike Hoffman.

He's suited up for Team Canada a number of times, only medaling in 2015 at the U-17s, and this is what he looks like wearing the nation's red (away) uniform, on card #64 from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Team Canada Juniors set:

And here he is wearing the white (away) #74 jersey with the Panthers, on card #642 from the 2017-18 O-Pee-Chee set (and Marquee Rookie sub-set) by Upper Deck:

He signed both cards in blue sharpie with #74 tagged at the end. I received them in the mail during the 2018-19 season.

Pierre-Luc Dubois: Two Autographed Cards

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It was barely a month ago that I mentionned Pierre-Luc Dubois asking for a trade and the Winnipeg Jets being a serious option even though they were already set at the 1C/2C positions with Mark Scheifele and Paul Stastny respecively, but the teams exchanged problems anyway, with Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic going to the Columbus Blue Jackets. It's not too often that one has the chance to acquire a young top-line centre as he's hitting his prime, and Dubois has the potential to become a Vincent Lecavalier-type of elite player.

I had previously showcased him wearing Team Canada's red (away) uniform, so card #31 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Team Canada Juniors/Women set isn't really anything "new" (except that he's seen here bracing for contact instead of making a play):

But card #H-24 from the Hydro sub-set of the same collection shows him wearing the team's white (home) uniform from the same 2015 U-18 World Juniors:

He was the youngest player on that U-18 team that captured bronze, in the same season where as a 16-year-old rookie with the LHJMQ's Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, he was already wearing the alternate captain's "A".

He signed both as a member of the Jackets after a game against the Ottawa Senators.

Blue Jackets Preview: Pierre-Luc Dubois: Two 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.

That being said, one team that benefits from the temporary realignment is without question the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are plucked from the very competitive Metropolitan Division and transferred to the Central Division with the lowly Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks.

The Jackets made cap room in the hopes of enticing a high-priced free agent or two to move to Ohio, and in the process only really lost oft-injured middle pairing defenseman Ryan Murray, while the top pair of Seth Jones and Zach Werenski remains intact, as does the goaltending duo of Elvis Merzlikins and Joonas Korpisalo, which along with John Tortorella's system and style keeps them in the mix with division leaders Tampa Bay Lightning and slightly ahead of rivals Carolina Hurricanes and Nashville Predators with the quality of goaltending.

What makes their odds look good:
Jones and Werenski are one of the best defensive pairs in the NHL, Tortorella is one of the best motivators in the game, Cam Atkinson is a goal-scoring machine, and Pierre-Luc Dubois looks poised to take on the #1 centre job with aplomb. They have no glaring weaknesses and form one of the tightest team units in the league.

Question marks:
The Blue Jackets traded away hulking presence Josh Anderson - who scored 27 goals a couple of seasons ago but just 1 in 26 games in 2019-20 after a serious injury - for Max Domi, a small agitator who had never been a centre before two seasons ago and now has it in his head that he's a star at the position; he had 17 goals and 44 points in 71 games last season while watching two rookies pass him by on the Montréal Canadiens depth chart. Free agent signing Mikko Koivu captained the Minnesota Wild for the bulk of twelve years and they still saw fit to cut ties with him instead of letting him stay there as their bottom-six center. At 37 years old, last season's 21 points in 55 regular-season games and a blank slate on 4 postseason outings may be a sign that he's reached the end of a superb career.

Outlook:
Nashville's window has closed and they're on the way down until they can add forwards who can score, Chicago and Detroit are still in the bottoming-out phase of their rebuilds, and the Wild are opting for a retool-on-the-fly which will have them oscillate between mediocre and bad for two or three years, which leaves the Bolts, Canes, and Florida Panthers as serious foes for Columbus. That's good enough for me.

Prediction:
Second in the Central Division.

Earlier today, Dubois signed a reasonable two-year bridge deal carrying a $5M cap hit that "only" takes him to a $6.65M qualifying offer to retain his services after it, when he will remain a restricted free agent. GM Jarmo Kekalainen did a good job with this one, showing his young star faith while not strapping the cap in seasons that will still be formative to the young Quebecer.

There have been rumours that he's asked for a trade, and I could see the Ottawa Senators being interested and having the assets required to make that kind of deal, but I think Dubois may have a preference for other Canadian teams - the Habs, for instance, and also the Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks - but the #1C/2C spots seem pretty set in stone for all of them at the moment.

Still, now's a good time to revisit his time with Team Canada, first with card #58 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 Team Canada Juniors/Women set, where he's seen wearing #8 at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, scoring twice in the gold medal-clinching game against Team Sweden:

He also wore #18 at the 2017 World Juniors as seen on card #8 from UD's 2017-18 Team Canada Juniors/Women set:

He posted 5 assists in 7 games to help Canada to a silver medal at that tournament. He signed both cards during the 2018-19 season.

Raphaël Lavoie Autographed Card

As the Edmonton Oilers' 2019 second-round pick (38th overall), 20-year-old Raphaël Lavoie no longer has anything to prove in Juniors after a 38-goal,  44-assist and 82-point season in 55 games in 2019-20 split between the Halifax Mooseheads (18-26-44 in 30 games) and Chicoutimi Saguenéens (20-18-38 in 25 games).

He is old enough for the AHL, but we don't know when that league will begin its season (there are no plans to do so before the end of the calendar year as long as the Covid-19 numbers remain ridiculously high in the U.S. and the passing of a second wave in Canada, so his agent had a good idea to have him sign in Sweden. He may even start a trend of high-end prospects signing overseas until the end of the European season, then finishing what is left of the North American one, which is bound to be at least two or three months later.

I do have doubts about a player who isn't a top-three NHL draft pick making the jump from the LHJMQ/CHL directly to the third-best league in the world - I'd say the pro hockey world goes: NHL, KHL, SHL, AHL, Finland, Czech League, Switzerland - but perhaps they can start him in their affiliate system ( Hockey Allsvenskan) for a month or two and bring him up to the main team later in the year.

And if it doesn't work out, he's probably good enough to make it on a top-six in France or a middle-six in the Swiss League.

A power forward with his skill set - 6'4", 200 pounds, good hands, adult-level-impressive strength, puck protection ability and offensive flair and positioning - will eventually become a 30-goal scorer in the NHL, but he's not there yet; he has not yet learned the ropes, learned to use his body against men night in and night out and consistently put up points whether the games are easy or hard, so he would be able to rely on just his skill in roughly a third of the games in a lower-tiered league and play the rest by ear, but doing so in a competitive, veteran-heavy league whose country wins Olympic and World Championship gold medals, with or without NHL players, seems like a bit of a stretch.

Time will tell how he fares in Europe this year, but I can't wait until he makes the NHL in wo or three years and when he reaches his prime in five or six, while Connor McDavid and Leon Draisailt are still elite players; maybe he'll be able to sprinkle a couple of 40-goal seasons in there and earn one huge contract.

In the meantime, here he is wearing Team Canada's red (away) uniform on card #35 from Upper Deck's 2018-19 Team Canada Juniors/Women set, wearing #25 at the 2018 U18 Championships, where he scored 5 goals in 5 games:

He signed it in thick blue sharpie while still with the Mooseheads early last season.

Anthony Beauvillier: Two Autographed Cards

The New York Islanders did what they do tonight, shutting down the Washington Capitals to win their first-round series in 5 games, two fewer than I had thought it would take, on the strength of two goals from 22-year-old Anthony Beauvillier, who now leads his team with 6 goals and 9 points in 9 postseason games.

It'll be hard to keep that pace up on a team coached by defensive mastermind Barry Trotz, but "Bovril" was still sixth in team scoring in the regular season with 39 points and fourth in goals, as his 18 in 68 games matched his previous season's mark that was attained in 81 contests.

He hasn't yet reached teammate Mathew Barzal's level of productivity, but he will definitely be part of the Isles' core group going forward and will be a great pair with trade deadline acquisition and clutch performer Jean-Gabriel Pageau in the middle-six group.

Internationally, he has represented Team Québec in the 2014 U-17s (fourth-place finish) and Team Canada at the 2014 Hlinka-Gretzky U-18s Cup (gold), the 2015 U-18 World Juniors (silver), the 2016 World Juniors (sixth place) and the 2017 World Championships (fourth place), a team that was led by Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Colton Parkayko and Pierre-Luc Dubois and that also included current Islanders Pageau, Barzal, Jordan Eberle, Josh Bailey, and Ryan Pulock, as well as Ryan O'Reilly, Jaden Schwartz, Brayden Schenn, Darnell Nurse, Thomas Chabot and Ryan Murray.

This card shows him wearing Canada's white ("home") uniform during the 2015 U-18s, where he was teammates with Barzal, Chabot and Dubois as well as Nicolas Roy, Mitchell Stephens, Brett Howden, Ethan Bear, Matthew Spencer and Guillaume Dubois:

That's card #H-7 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Team Canada Juniors set and Hydro sub-set that is a lot more silver to the naked eye than this dark scan, although the scan might look a tad cooler. It enables me to add him as #9 in my Team Canada Numbers Project, where he also occupied the #21 spot for now.

Tonight, however, he goes down as the Capital Eliminator in the Islanders' white (away) uniform, as seen on card #231 from UD's 2018-19 O-Pee-Chee set:

I got these returns in the mail around this time last year, signed in blue sharpie, the Team Canada card tagged with his jersey number (9) at the end.

Jean-Pierre Dumont Autographed Team Canada Card

Jean-Pierre Dumont was drafted third-overall by the New York Islanders in 1996 following a 105-point season (48 goals and 57 assists in 66 games) with the LHJMQ's Val d'Or Foreurs. He was part of a stable of high-end talent that was traded away by "Mad" Mike Milbury, then team's GM. Imagine this roster from 1996 to 2001 (assuming All-Star Zigmund Palffy would still get traded because of his contract demands):

Todd Bertuzzi - Jason Spezza (2nd-overall draft pick) - J.P. Dumont

Derek King - Olli Jokinen - Tim Connolly / Robert Reichel

Jan Hlavac - Mike Rupp - Bryan Smolinski

Taylor Pyatt - Claude Lapointe - Raffi Torres

Zdeno Chara - Bryan McCabe

Wade Redden - Darius Kasparaitis

Bryan Berard - Eric Brewer / Kenny Jonsson

Radek Martinek - Scott Lachance

Olympians Roberto Luongo and Tommy Salo in nets

With eventual turnover (2001-2006, when he was fired) from the likes of: Sean Bergenheim (grinder), Frans Nielsen (middle-six forward), Robert Nilsson (middle-six forward), Bruno Gervais (third-pair D), Petteri Nokelainen (middle-six forward), Blake Comeau (sandpaper second-liner), Chris Campoli (third-paid D), Kyle Okposo (first-line forward), Andrew MacDonald (third-pair D), Mariusz Czerkawski (top-sic forward), Rick DiPietro (goalie) and three dozen prospects who could have panned out in a better environment.

That has the makings of a consistent playoff team, and one can argue that different draft choices (Zach Parise, Brent Burns, Ryan Kesler, Mike Richards, Corey Perry, Patrice Bergeron, Corey Crawford, Shea Weber, and Joe Pavelski were still available when Nilsson was chosen 15th overall in 2003, for instance) would also have made a huge difference as well.

Instead, the Isles were perpetually in the bottom of the NHL standings while Dumont carved himself a nice NHL career, ending with over 500 points on the strength of 214 goals, 309 assists and 364 penalty minutes in 822 regular-season games and another 34 points (17 goals and 17 assists) in 51 playoff games, including a deep run to the Eastern Conference Final in 2005-06 with the Buffalo Sabres (14 points in 18 games).

He was bought out by the Nashville Predators following the 2010-11 season and played the 2011-12 season overseas with SC Bern in Switzerland, finishing his playing career with solid numbers: 8 goals, 23 assists and 31 points (with 26 penalty minutes and a +6 rating) in 31 regular-season games - good for fourth on the team despite playing 16 to 19 games fewer than those ahead of him, none of whom had more than 10 points more tahn he did - and another (team-leading) 5 goals, 8 assists and 13 points in 12 playoff games as the team made its way to the league final, losing to Bob Hartley's Zurich Lions.

In honour of Canada Day, I wanted to include Dumont as #18 in my Team Canada Numbers Project, with card #271 from Upper Deck's 1998-99 Collector's Choice set and World Junior Showcase sub-set, where he is shown battling for the puck with a Finnish player:

He actually went pointless in 7 games with Team Canada at the World Juniors in 1998, as the team finished eighth in the standings - Finland won gold, ahead of Russia and Switzerland - under disgraced head coach Réal Paiement (now a Toronto Maple Leafs scout). The team's leading scorers were Josh Holden (4 points), Alex Tanguay, Daniel Tkaczuk and Daniel Corso (3 apiece), and the top defensemen were Brewer, Sean Blanchard, Brad Ference and Corey Sarich. Other notable forwards were Vincent Lecavalier, Matt Cooke, Jason Ward, Manny Malhotra and Steve Bégin, while goaltending duties were handled by the Québec duo of Mathieu Garon (1.91 GAA in 5 games) and Luongo (2.89 in 3 games).

Dumont signed this card for me roughly five years ago, at a Foreurs event; the team had retired his #96 nearly a decade earlier.

Jared Cowen Autograph Card

Two-time World Juniors silver medalist, Memorial Cup champion, Calder Cup champion.

Then an up-and-down six seasons in the Ottawa Senators organization, the way most young defensemen spend their time learning their craft.

That was the career trajectory of Jared Cowen, the ninth-overall draft pick of 2009, until February 9th, 2016, when he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, with Colin Greening, Milan Michalek, Tobias Lindberg and a second-round draft pick, for Dion Phaneuf, Matt Frattin, Ryan Rupert, Casey Bailey and Cody Donahey.

Cowen hasn't played since that season - heck, he never even played a game for the Leafs. Instead, they realized he was playing through an injury and bought him out, a move that is against the rules of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement that the NHL let slide because it's the Leafs and their GM at the time was Lou Lamoriello, and the Leafs need to be good for Canadian ratings to be good, revenue to flow in, and Lamoriello was supposed to bring them a much-needed Stanley Cup, like Dave Nonis before him, and Brian Burke before him, and John Ferguson Jr. before him, and Pat Quinn before him, and Ken Dryden before him, and Cliff Fletcher before that.

Wow, that's a lot of GMs since the 1990s. I wonder how long they've been without a Cup for, must be a while. I guess that's what you get when you're better at managing "assets" than "players".

That being said, Cowen did get a look at the Colorado Avalanche's camp the following pre-season, but he didn't make it very far. My guess is he's still suffering from all the injuries he fought through.

Here he is from better days, sporting Team Canada's white (home) uniform, on card #108 from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Team Canada collection:

He signed it in blue sharpie in 2014-15, adding his number (2) at the end.

Drew Bannister Autographed Card

Drew Bannister was a second-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning (26th overall in 1992) who ended up playing 164 NHL games with the Bolts (two stints), Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Mighty Ducks (two stints) and New York Rangers, plus nine seasons in Europe, including the final two where he was a player and a coach at the same time.

He had previously won two OHL titles, a Memorial Cup and a gold medal at the 1994 World Juniors with Team Canada, contributing 4 assists in 7 games, which is where card #460 from Pinnacle Brands' 1993-94 Pinnacle set and World Junior Championship sub-set comes in:

As previously mentioned, he spent the 2011-12 season as player-coach of the British League's Braehead Clan, posting 42 points in 51 games but, more importantly, taking the second-year club to 6th place, ahead of established teams like the Hull Stingrays and Edinburgh Capitals, as well as the Dundee Stars and Fife Flyers.

This led to an offer to be assistant coach with the OHL's Owen Sound Attack for thee seasons (2012-15), which was followed by a three-year stint as head coach of the Soo Greyhounds (2015-18), highlighted by an OHL Final loss in 2018. The team's 55-7-3-3 record was a franchise best, paving the way for OHL and CHL Coach Of The Year honours.

It was once again time to graduate to the AHL, and he was named the San Antonio Rampage's first bench boss with their new NHL affiliation to the St. Louis Blues. Despite not making the playoffs last year in his first season with the Rampage and looking like he'll repeat this year, he did oversea pasrts of the season with players such as Samuel Blais, Jordan Schmaltz, Robby Fabbri, Carl Gunnarson and goalie Jordan Binnington, who all had their names engraved on Lord Stanley's salad bowl at season's end.

It's good to remember that the AHL is mostly a Prep League for the NHL, and that while winning a Calder Cup may help teach young players how to win and the pleasure of winning, it should be a place where they finish their development and learn how to be adults living on their own in new cities. Sometimes even AHL coaches seem to forget that winning shouldn't be the end-all of their job descriptions, as Bill Peters can now probably attest to.

That being said, I think Bannister's next step up the ladder would be as an assistant at the NHL level rather than directly being the man in charge.

Ann-Renée Desbiens: Two Autographed Cards

The NHL All-Star Weekend is underway, and as I mentioned last week, it featured a 3-on-3 two-period game pitting ten players each from the women's Team Canada and Team USA squads going head-to-head, with the Canadians coming out victorious 2-1 on the strong goaltending of La Malbaie's Ann-Renée Desbiens.

At 25 years old, Desbiens is just coming into her own at her position under the most pressure anyone's possibly ever felt before, as she's had to follow in the footsteps and fill the shoes of legendary trailblazers Kim St-Pierre (2002, 2006 and 2010 Olympic gold medalist) and Charline Labonté (also a three-time winner, in 2006, 2010 and 2014) while sharing duties with a 30-year-old Geneviève Lacasse (2014 gold medalist) who is playing like she's still in her prime, as well as 33-year-old (and 2010 and 2014 gold medalist) Shannon Szabados.

The standard for Canada is nothing short of gold, so Desbiens' trio of silver medals (2011 U-18s, 2015 World Championships and 2018 Olympics) may make it seem like she's underachieving, but all signs point to the contrary: she's actually been improving from year to year ever since starring in nets for the University of Wisconsin Badgers (save percentages of .941, .960 and .963 in her three seasons as starter, pitching 56 shutouts in the process - 13 more than the previous record - and going from Top Female Collegiate Player Of The Year finalist to winner) to earning more and more games with the national team to today's impressive showing on the sport's biggest stage of the women's season.

She is definitely starting to look worthy of her (and my) childhood idol Patrick Roy's #33 jersey at exactly the right age for it: old enough to know what to expect from the game, and young enough for the body to execute what the mind tells it to - all without playing actual pro hockey this season.

I can't wait for the women to have another professional league playing in Canada again so I can see her play in person in more than just scrimmages.

Here she is wearing Canada's 2014-15 pseudo-vintage white ("home") uniform with "CANADA" written diagonally, New York Rangers-style, on card #64 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Team Canada Juniors/Women set:

 And here she is wearing the traditional (away) uniform with the "Hockey Canada" logo, on card #99 from UD's 2015-16 Team Canada Juniors/Women set:

She signed both in blue sharpie with her number (33) tagged at the end during the 2018 Olympic cycle, which is why she's my entry for that number in my Team Canada Numbers Project.

You can see in both pictures that she holds her catching glove fairly high and straight up, which is something I advise against for the pro men, but because she's only 5'9", it helps her cover the top and middle of the left side. It leaves her vulnerable under the elbow, and she has to make up for it by swatting down more often than she pulls her arm up to compensate, a move that is a split-second slower than the opposite. She handles it quite well, though, but it might hinder her if she were to sign in a men's league that has hard shots going over 90 mph - think the NHL, AHL, KHL or the Swedish League. She could probably try playing in a systems-based finesse league like they have in Switzerland or France... or someone could come up with a viable way for the women to play 40 to 55 games per season in their own league as their full-time job.

Laura Fortino: Three Autographed Cards

The NHL announced it will hold a Women's 3-on-3 tournament during the All-Star Weekend, featuring an American and a Canadian team facing off, with 10 players suiting up for each. Of course, that means 13 players from World Championship and/or Olympic rosters didn't make the cut for reasons ranging from unavailability to marketability to the NHL not having French-speaking decision-makers and the PWHPA choosing to play its run of exhibition games in places like Hartford, Etobicoke, Hudson (New Hampshire), and Buffalo instead of, say, Montréal, where half the Canadian Olympic team played for the CWHL's Montréal Canadiennes, the team that has won most of the league's championships in ended up as finalists almost every other time.

All of this to say that the only three Quebecers who made Team Canada were Marie-Philip Poulin (the current best player in the world), Mélodie Daoust and goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens, leaving out Lauriane Rougeau, Annie Bélanger, Catherine Daoust, Tracy-Ann Lavigne, Geneviève Lacasse, Mélanie Desrochers, Sarah Lefort, Ann-Sophie Bettez, Sophie Brault, Kim Deschenes, Maude Gélinas, Karell Emard, Marie-Soleil Deschenes, Genevieve Bannon, other francophones such as Ontario's Carolyne Prevost and Marlene Boissonnault from New Brunswick and current Québec residents Emma Martin, Hilary Knight, Jill Saulnier and Erin Ambrose.

That being said, the 20 players who will be there are, indeed, among the 50 best players in the world - roughly the same percentage as the"real" All-Star Game, which will be played without the likes of Alex Ovechkin (declined invitation), Marc-André Fleury (declined), Darcy Kuemper (injury), Jake Guentzel (injury), Johnny Gaudreau (not invited), and Nikita Kucherov (not invited) and Sidney Crosby (missed nearly the entire first half of the season to injury).

Among those who made the cut is defender Laura Fortino, the CWHL's first-overall pick in 2014 who assisted on the gold-winning goal by Poulin at the 2014 Sochi Games in her first Olympic experience and helped Canada capture silver at the 2018 games in Peyongchang. She also has World Championship gold (2012), silver (2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017) and bronze (2019) medalsas well as two U-18 silvers (2008 and 2009).

Professionally, she wore the assistant-captain's "A" for the Brampton Thunder and Markham Thunder. She was mostly a point-per-game player when the team was in Brampton, finishing close to forward Jamie-Lee Rattray for the team's scoring crown. She rarely gets called for penalties, is a quick skater and controls the play very well.

Here she is wearing Canada's 2014-15 pseudo-vintage white ("home") uniform with "CANADA" written diagonally, New York Rangers-style, on card #55 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Team Canada Juniors/Women set:

And here she is wearing the 2015-16 uniform with the "Hockey Canada" logo (first worn 2008-13), from UD's 2016-17 Team Canada Juniors/Women set:

On the left is the base card (#22 in the collection), while the card on the right is #POE-42 from the Program Of Excellence sub-set.

The Cornell University graduate, College All-Star and 2015-16 CWHL Defenceman (sic) of the Year signed all three in blue sharpie after a game against the Canadiennes in 2017or 2018. She fits perfectly as #8 in my Team Canada Numbers Project.

Zach Fucale Autographed Team Canada Card

For the 16th time, Team Canada has won the Spengler Cup, now in its 93rd iteration. Originally created in 1923 by Dr. Carl Spengler as a means to promote teams from German-speaking countries in the aftermath of World War I, it is hosted each year by the HC Davos team, who have won it 15 times themselves and ended as runner-up another 25 times, by far the most of any participating club.

This year's Canadian team was a little too strong for its competitors, however, as GM Sean Burke, assistant-HM Shane Doan, head coach Craig MacTavish and assistant-coach Paul Coffey put together a roster comprised of former NHLers Kris Versteeg, Zach Boychuk, David Desharnais, Paul Postma, Josh Jooris, Dustin Jeffrey, Eric Fehr, Scottie Upshall, Daniel Winnik, Ben Maxwell,Chris DiDomenico, Alex Grant, Patrick Wiercioch and Andrew MacDonald, AHLers Adam Tambellini, Justin Danforth (alternate captain and point-per-game player on his current Finnish team), Blair Riley, (former LHJMQ captain) Éric Faille, Kevin Clark, squad captain Maxim Noreau and Nick Ross, NCAA alumni Dion Knelsen, Ian Mitchell and former ECHLer Mathew Maione.

They faced off against teams that had at most one or two former NHLers, including runner-up HC Oceláři Třinec (4th in the Czech Extraliga), hosts HC Davos (4th in Swiss National League standings), HC TPS Turku (11th in Finnish League standings), Salavat Yulaev Ufa (6th in their Conference in the KHL) and HC Ambrì-Piotta (10th in Switzerland).

It's no wonder the tournament's All-Star Team was comprised of three members of the winning team as well as Matt D'Agostini, the Canadian star forward of Ambri-Piotta, but it was a surprise that the team's biggest star ended up being - for the second straight year and third time in four years - goalie Zach Fucale, who signed an AHL deal with the Syracuse Crunch last summer and has spent moft of the season keeping the Orlando Solar Bears afloat in the ECHL - he has an 8-8-2 record and 2.60 GAA, but his 4 shutouts and .920 save percentage give a pretty clear idea of how much they need him. He's top-3 in save percentage and top-10 in goals-against average.

He had originally been drafted by his hometown Montréal Canadiens in the second round (36th overall) in 2013, but with Carey Price firmly in place but mostly struggling to save face for the 2014-15 season, the team didn't give the youngster the necessary attention to have him progress to an NHL-level netminder, so the Vegas Golden Knights were able to pry him away from the organization in 2018.

He allowed only a single goal in three total starts, including shutouts in the semi-final and the final, showing once more he loves the pressure of "money" games. He had also won a title in 2016 on the strength of a 4-0-0 record in four games with a 2.00 goals-against average and a save percentage of .934. Last season, he appeared in four games and riding a 3-0-1 record to a second-place finish, with a 1.47 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage in the tournament, stopping 80 of 86 shots. He is now 10-0-1 in three appearances at the Spengler Cup.

He had also backstopped the Canadian team at the 2015 World Juniors, helping his country win its first gold medal in five years when he went 5-0-0 in five appearances with two shutouts, a 1.20 GAA and a .939 save percentage. The team had finished fourth the previous year, which is where card #139 from Upper Deck's 2014-15 Team Canada Juniors comes in:

It shows him wearing Team Canada's red (away) uniform with the Hockey Canada logo in front, which is technically barred from Olympic status because it represents a National Federation, and not a country. Zachary signed it in blue sharpie, adding #33 at the end instead of the #31 he's wearing int he picture, which makes me think he signed it while in the minors in the Habs' organization, so I want to say between 2016 and 2018.

I want to wish him continued success.

Dale Hawerchuk Autographed Card

When Dale Hawerchuk took a leave of absence from coaching the OHL's Barrie Colts, they only said it was for "health reasons". But by leaving the door upon for a return, I thought it was something that impedes your day-to-day, but not this: it has now come out that he is undergoing treatment for stomach cancer.

Although his prime extended to 1994, I would say he's one of the ten best forwards of the 1980s; I'll go even as far as saying he ranks #4 in my book:

1. Wayne Gretzky
2. Mario Lemieux
3. Peter Stastny
4. Dale Hawerchuk
5. Mike Bossy
6. Denis Savard
7. Jari Kurri
8. Steve Yzerman
9. Mark Messier
10. Marcel Dionne

You have the best player of all time at #1, and the most talented of all time at #2. That they played in the same generation boggles the mind. Then you have Stastny, the decade's second-highest scoring NHLer despite playing on a team that was never a powerhouse - and the most complete player of his era, offensively and defensively, the Patrice Bergeron of his time, essentially, but better.

Bossy's one of the three best and purest shooters of all time - with Brett Hull and Alex Ovechkin. Savard was the most electrifying and spectacular player of the era. Jari Kurri was on the level of a Marian Hossa or Mark Stone if those guys had Steven Stamkos' shot.

Yzerman was elite, just below the level of a Joe Sakic - a top-10 of his era whether I like it or not. I was also looking for ways to leave Messier out of this list, but I couldn't. And Dionne - possibly the best player to never win a Stanley Cup - was elite in the 1970s and into the first half of the 80s as well, so he makes the cut too.

That means the likes of Michel Goulet, Bryan Trottier, Mike Gartner, Dino Ciccarelli, Bobby Smith, Ron Francis, Rick Vaive, Mats Naslund, Neal Broten, Joe Mullen, Brian Bellows, Charlie Simmer, Bernie Federko, and Pat Lafontaine didn't make the cut, and the same can be said of players who came into the decade late, like Luc Robitaille, Theo Fleury, Sakic, Hull (his impact came into the 1990s), and Joe Nieuwendyk.

As for slotting him ahead of Bossy and Yzerman? Well, he was that good and a more complete player earlier than Stevie Y., as can be attested by Hawerchuk's presence as a "third-line grinder" on Team Canada at the 1987 and 1991 Canada Cups; not only that, but in the '87 edition, when the score was tied 5-5 in the third and final game against the Soviet Union with just over a minute left and a face-off in the defensive zone, it was he that coach Mike Keenan trusted to face the powerful Russian top line, flanked by Gretzky and Lemieux. He won it, Lemieux chipped it, and they scored one of the most famous goals of all-time on a three-on-one with defenseman Larry Murphy crashing the Soviet net. None of that happens without #10.

Speaking of which, this is what he looked like at the 1987 and 1991 Canada Cups wearing Canada's home (white) uniform, on card #88 from Upper Deck's 2018-19 Team Canada Juniors set and Alumni sub-set:

To this day, I still haven't actually purchased a pack or box from that set, but I do buy unsigned cards and send them by mail, which is how I got this one back after sending Hawerchuk a letter care of the Colts last season.

Victor Mete Autographed Card

Let's get a few things out of the way: Victor Mete is a good, young defenseman. The fourth-round pick from 2016 is in his third NHL season at just 21 years of age, playing a position where skaters hit their prime the latest - usually around the ages of 25-26 years old - and has been good enough to suit up for 127 games thus far, usually on the first pairing with Montréal Canadiens captain Shea Weber, facing the opposition's top six forwards.

He is a very good and pretty quick skater who makes a great first pass, and his shot is hard enough to make it to the net but usually better for deflections than an actual scoring threat, at least for now; he's been working at improving it all summer and will likely continue to do so for the next few years at least.

Defensively, although still learning the ropes at the second-hardest position a skater can have (centre being the first), he is good enough to make up for Weber's more-obvious-by-the-game lack of speed, and his skill and agility complement his partner's grit and toughness superbly in their own zone on most nights - they just have a hard time against teams that are all-skill-and-speed like the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It was a statistical anomaly that Mete hadn't scored a single goal in his first 126 NHL games, beating Mike Komisarek's old mark by four games. Komisarek may have been an All-Star, but he was a stay-at-home defenseman's stay-at-home defenseman; Mete is not of that ilk; in time, he will be a fixture on the Habs' powerplay.

So, yeah, Mete scored tonight, a nice goal from the slot that opened the scoring:

Since the Habs won 4-0, it was also the game-winning goal. It was the first time this season that Carey Price surrendered fewer than three goals, so he'll be glad the Western Conference's worst team, the Minnesota Wild, were in town to help him beat a shameful streak of his own, shooting a measly 17 times on the net-minder.

Mete's so good that he has suited up for Team Canada twice internationally, winning gold at both the 2015 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament and the 2018 World Juniors, where he was named alternate captain; card #53 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 Team Canada Juniors/Women set shows him wearing #28 at the former:

He signed it in black sharpie - tagging his jersey number (28) at the end - this summer at the Habs' practice facility in Brossard, on Montréal's South Shore. I told him that not only was he due to score early in the season, but Murphy's Law would probably make it that he'd get a hat trick while he was at it. Maybe he'll just net game-winners, the same way the Buffalo Sabres' Victor Olofsson is only getting powerplay markers.