Jonathan Marchessault Autographed Card

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the Vegas Golden Knights would finish first in the Pacific Division in 2019-20).

To think Jonathan Marchessault went undrafted because of his size... he'd been a point-per-game player in Juniors, even in the playoffs, and had been named CHL Player Of The Week in the playoffs, even, but no, even in 2010, a Quebecer who stood at just 5'9" (if that...) wasn't going to be given the benefit of the doubt, despite the success of Martin St-Louis.

And so he plowed through, producing five near-point-per-game seasons in the AHL before the Tampa Bay Lightning gave him a chance to shine, and even then, as a contending team, they didn't want to "waste" a roster spot on a young player who needed some fine-tuning, so they let cross-state rivals Florida Panthers snag him up, and Gerard Gallant's coaching made him into a 30-goal player.

And after Gallant was abruptly fired by the Cats and promptly hired by the Vegas Golden Knights, the expansion team did well to secure his rights for their top line in their inaugural season, and he didn't disappoint, scoring 27 goals and posting 75 points in 77 games; and although he "just" had 25 goals and 59 points last year, his line was still considered the "top" line for Vegas, playing against the opposition's top line and freeing the just-as-potent second line to face weaker competition and bring home similar if not higher production. It should be more of the same this season.

I knew from the start that the Golden Knights selected themselves a winning, post-season ready roster, I just thought they got rid of too many excellent experienced defensemen (Alexei Emelin, Marc Methot) and kept questionable ones (Deryck Engelland), but the talent level up-front, the depth, the youth, the coaching and the fact that they had one of the ten best goalies in the league (Marc-André Fleury, who has actually been more like a top-5 in Vegas so far) made them better than half the league from the get-go.

And their uniforms are great as well, as can be attested by card #229 from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Parkhurst set:

Were the California Golden Seals ahead of their time with the white equipment, or did the Golden Knights just have much better designers? In any event, that's their away uniform, and Marchessault signed the card for me in blue sharpie early in the summer when he passed through town before going on vacation. I believe he attempted to tag his jersey number (81) at the end.

2017-18 Upper Deck Golden Knights Inaugural Season Box Break

From the minute I saw this box of cards advertised, I wanted to get my hands on Upper Deck's 2017-18 Vegas Golden Knights Inaugural Season box sets; of course, my luck being what it is, I did not get an autographed card, which usually comes once in every 20 boxes.

What I did get was a very nice-looking set of special players providing special moments in a very special season. I'd rooted all year for these guys and even though they fell short of the Stanley Cup, the mementos remain to bring back memories of an extremely exciting year of puck-watching.

Here is what the regular-issue player cards look like, front and back:

The "Gold" variants just have embossed gold foil on the front, the back is the same:

The "gold" variants also come with the Season Highlights cards (in fact, most of them are from this sub-set, a 3:2 ratio compared to the player cards in my box when the set itself is 15:35):

One of the best things of the Golden Knights' season was their success despite having to resort to five different goalies, because of injuries; all five made the cut:

As you'd imagine, Fleury also appears many times in the Season Highlights.

All told, I was a bit sad to not land an autograph card, but this set looks great and is everything it set out to be. The original price was $30 (U.S.) for the 50-card set plus five goldies, but many places now have it discounted at $15 (U.S.), including online outlets, which is where I got mine.

At that price, I'm thinking of buying two to keep one intact and use the other one to get cards signed.

This set deserves a solid 8.5/10.