Patric Hornqvist Jersey Card

Patric Hornqvist tied his goals totals (22) from last season two night ago, scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 Pittsburgh Penguins shutout win against the Los Angeles Kings in 24 less games than he required a year ago; he might not tie his career-high of 30 from 2009-10 (then again, playing with Sidney Crosby can work wonders on someone's statistics), but could very well reach his second-best mark of 27, from 2011-12.

Prior to being traded for James Neal last summer, Hornqvist had played his entire NHL career with the Nashville Predators, who had chosen him with the 230th and final pick of the 2005 draft - the one where Crosby went first overall.

In his younger days, he was seen as a bit of a long shot to make it to the NHL because of his lack of speed, but he's worked on it enough that it doesn't look like much of a problem anymore. Like many other players from Sweden, his positioning and defensive play is elite-level, as is his work ethic and team spirit. He rounds those attributes with decent stick-handling and a quick and deceptive wrist shot.

I got this card of his in a re-pack I bought at a Giant Tiger last summer - it was my ''guaranteed hit''; it's originally from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Ultimate Collection (card #DT-PH of the Ultimate Debut Threads sub-set, numbered #123/200), featuring a huge white swatch from a jersey worn in a photo shoot:

It shows him wearing the Preds' blue (home) uniform from last decade.

Guillaume Latendresse (Dual) Jersey Card

Guillaume Latendresse concurred with Rick Nash in today's La Presse, in an article that essentially talked about the fear of getting back into the thick of things after a concussion when it seems opponents are deliberately trying to re-injure you - or worse.

It's rare that an active star player will be as candid as Nash was in an interview earlier this week. As a retiree, Latendresse went even further, accusing the Minnesota Wild's doctors of sending him back in a game despite his head hurting so much he would cry between periods.

Now seemed like as good a time as any to feature this 2006-07 Ultimate Collection card from Upper Deck, #DJ-GL of the Ultimate Debut Threads (numbered #99/150) sub-set that I got in a trade earlier this summer:

I like the encyclopedia feel the left side of the card has, and the fact that both swatches  - although white, i.e. ''bland'' - match the uniform he's wearing on the card. I also like the foil team logo and classy design. It's probably not worth much to the ''average collector'' anymore, but I liked Tender, and feel his statistics were fine for his playing time. I put him above the ''bust'' category, for sure.

Daniel Sedin Jersey Card

Daniel Sedin and twin brother Henrik have been the face of the Vancouver Canucks since coming back from the 2004-05 lock-out. Since then, he has been a consistent point producer (70+ each year, more than a point per game on average), usually hitting the 30-goal mark.

Of course, last year was particularly bad, but in general, the 2011 Art Ross and Ted Lindsay winner - and Hart finalist - and two-time All-Star Team nod recipient can be counted on to provide a fair chunk of the Canucks' goals, and also usually ends in the top-10 in Lady Byng voting.

Internationally, he has 72 points in 75 games for Team Sweden, with Olympic gold (2006) and silver (2014), World Championship gold (2013) and bronze (1999, 2001), U-18 gold (1998) and U-17 silver (1997).

Some of his advanced statistics look pretty good, too, if you're into that sort of thing (I'm not).

From the year after his award-winning, 41-goal and 104-point season comes this card from the 2011-12 Ultimate Collection set (#UJ-DS of the Ultimate Jerseys sub-set, numbered 53/100) by Upper Deck, featuring a dual-swatch card (they are green, while the picture shows him in the Canucks' white - away - uniform, which has very little of it):

Daniel now sports the alternate captain's 'A' more often than not, while Henrik has been the team's captain since the title was relinquished by Roberto Luongo.

Matt Duchene Jersey Card

One player that I was really happy to see leaving Sochi with a gold medal - other than P.K. Subban - was without a doubt Matt Duchene, the young Colorado Avalanche leader who filled in John Tavares' skates admirably on a defense-first Team Canada.

He has worn the maple leaf 5 times internationally, all of them resulting in gold medals; in addition to his 2014 Olympic medal, he is also golden from the 2012 Spengler Cup, the 2008 U-18 championship and 2008 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament (Junior U-18) as well as the 2008 U-17 World Hockey Challenge.

He has 50 points in 55 games so far this season with the Avs, leading the team, and his 19 goals fall only behind Nathan MacKinnon's 22 and Ryan O'Reilly's 21. His point total of 43 points (in 47 games) were also tops on the Avs last season, and his 17 goals were second only to Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau's 18.

He also had 19 points in 23 games overseas during the lock-out, so it's safe to assume his sub-par 2011-12 season (14 goals and 28 points in 58 games) was just a statistical anomaly brought on by bad luck, a string of injuries and a poor supporting cast.

Growing up a Québec Nordiques fan, my allegiances moved to Colorado with them in 1995, so I'm extremely happy with the franchise's turnaround under the watchful eye of Joe Sakic (mine and Duchene's favourite skater) and the masterful coaching of Patrick Roy.

So when a pack of Upper Deck's 2010-11 Ultimate Collection provided me with this card, I was giddy:

Like my previous jersey card of his, it bears a burgundy swatch, but this time the picture on the front of the card is from the Avs' current third jersey, mostly a beautiful shade of dark blue with burgundy shoulders and lines. It's card #UJ-MD in the set (the Ultimate Jerseys sub-set), and is numbered #80/100.

Great player, great design, great card.