Zach Bogosian Jersey Card

Honestly, a week away from the trade deadline, you'd think Zach Bogosian would give the Buffalo Sabres a chance to make their sales pitch to other teams instead of seeming like an entitled, grizzled and angry veteran who refuses to be a team player.

Of course, I'm referring to his decision to not report to the AHL Rochester Americans after going unclaimed via waivers, and the Sabres' easy subsequent decision to suspend him while the two sides try to work something out.

Between hip injuries and healthy scratches, the 29-year-old has suited up in only 19 games this season, down from 65 last year but one more than the 18 from 2017-18.  He's missed more than 15 games in 11 of his 13 NHL seasons, and failed to play in more than half the games four times.

Here is the Team USA alumnus in better days, wearing the Winnipeg Jets' dark blue (home) uniform on card #AF-ZB from Upper Deck's 2013-14 SP Game-Used Edition collection and Authentic Fabrics sub-set:

It features an even darker (possibly black) game-worn jersey swatch that could be from his days with the Atlanta Thrashers before they moved to Winnipeg.

Zach Bogosian Swatch Card

I honestly didn't think I'd be writing about Zach Bogosian this soon, but he has reportedly asked for a trade from the Buffalo Sabres, as a pending unrestricted free agent, because being a healthy scratch on a middling team can sometimes be worse on a player's value than asking out of an unfavourable situation.

He's not doing too bad, with three assists in 10 games with an average ice time under of 19 minutes per game - more than two minutes short of his career average, but with the team's surplus of right-handed defensemen - Rasmus Ristolainen, Brandon Montour, Colin Miller, and Henri Jokiharju play the same position, and there's room for three of them per game - it becomes a numbers game that he is in almost no position to win: Ristolainen was dangled as trade bait all summer and there were no takers, while Montour, Miller and Jokirarju are all "new toys" the team wants to play with, having all been acquired via trade in this calendar year.

Not only has Bogosian been playing for the Sabres for six years, but he's been injured often enough that the idiom "out of sight, out of mind" may apply. But trading him won't be easy if they keep scratching him, particularly considering his cap hit that is north of $5M.The only potential destination I see at the moment would be the Winnipeg Jets - the team that signed him to his current deal in the first place - and I don't see them parting with anything more than a fifth- or sixth-rounder for his services, maybe a fourth-rounder if the Sabres agree to keep a good portion of his salary on their cap.

We're a long waya away from the day when the Atlanta Thrashers made him the third-overall pick of the 2008 draft, behind Steven Stamkos and Drew Doughty, and ahead of Alex Pietrangelo (4th), Erik Karlsson (15th), Jake Gardiner (17th), John Carlson (27th), Slava Voynov (32nd), Roman Josi (38th), Travis Hamonic (53rd), Marco Scandella (55th), and T.J. Brodie (114th).

Speaking of which, here he is wearing the Thrashers' alternate uniform from 2008-11 - one of the ugliest jerseys in NHL history, with football-style jersey numbers on the front - on card #15 from Panini's 2010-11 Pinnacle set and City Lights sub-set:

It features a matching red swatch and the following tidbit of information on the back of the card:

First-time Atlanta visitors may get lost at first, making constant turns from one Peachtree street to another and another. In all, there are enarly 60 streets in Atlanta with the word "Peachtree" in their names. A map is a definite must for anyone venturing into this Peachtree orchard.

Kind of explains why that first season of The Walking Dead is so vague in its depecition of the cityscape. Personally, I may have gone with the city's artistic achievements, what with it being the city Outkast, Tyler Perry, Arrested Development (the music act, not the TV show), Ludacris, Akon, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and the rest of TLC, Goodie Mob, Jermaine Dupri, and Bubba Sparxxx called home at the time, a list to which we can add the likes of Donald Glover/Childish Gambino, Kelly Rowland, Ying Yang Twins, Migos, Gucci Mane and 2 Chainz nowadays, not to mention Martin Luther King Jr., Hank Aaron, Ted Turner, Toni Braxton, David Cross, Jane Fonda, Jeff Foxworthy, Oliver Hardy, Ed Helms, Holly Hunter, Robert Patrick, Ryan Seacrest, Keenan Thompson, Chris Tucker, and Steven Soderbergh.

Yeah, I know Spike Lee was born there as well, but he's so New York that I couldn't fathom associating him with the city.

Zach Bogosian Autographed Card

I started following Zach Bogosian's career when the Atlanta Thrashers selected him third overall in 2008, a strong year that also featured Steven Stamkos (1st), Drew Doughty (2nd), Alex Pietrangelo (4th), Luke Schenn (5th), Colin Wilson (7th), Tyler Myers (12th), Erik Karlsson (15th), Jake Gardiner (17th), Luca Sbisa (19th), Michael Del Zotto (20th), Jordan Eberle (22nd), John Carlson (27th), Jacob Markstrom (31st), Slava Voynov (32nd), Jake Allen (34th), Roman Josi (38th), Justin Schultz (43rd), Derek Stepan (51st), Travis Hamonic (53rd), Marco Scandella (55th), Braden Holtby (93rd), T.J. Brodie (114th), Gustav Nyquist (121st), and Cam Atkinson (157th).

At 6'3", 215 pounds, decent speed, a good shot and above-average passing, I expected a Jay Bouwmeester-like career trajectory for him - 30-35 points most year, a three- or four-year run at or around 40, fewer penalty minutes than would be warranted at his size and perhaps a Stanley Cup run or two in a 15-to-18-year career. I expected that, like Bouwmeester, some folks might feel he was drafted too high, but that he would carve out an interesting career regardless.

J-Bo's career currently looks like he could perhaps even reach the 20-year plateau while Bogosian's been struggling with injuries since 2010, affecting his stats line and standing, first with the Winnipeg Jets and now with the Buffalo Sabres. I would never go as far as this "fan" did on Twitter (kudos to Bogosian for the adequate reply), but I would understand if his salary was cut in half on his next deal (his $5.142M cap hit expires in June).

Still, we're talking about a guy who is young enough to play for at least five more seasons at the level of a #4D if he wanted to; he'll just have to decide if it's worth the trouble; maybe he'd even prefer playing overseas in a less aggressive, talent-first league, such as in Switzerland, Finland or France.

Here he is on card #538 from Panini's 2013-14 Score set, showing him wearing the Jets' white (away) uniform:

He signed it with someone else's skinny blue sharpie in late 2018 after a game against the Montréal Canadiens, and the #47 he tagged it with represents the number he wore in Buffalo at the time - he's currently assigned to sweater #4 - not the #44 he wore in Winnipeg, which is where I'm slotting him in my Jets Numbers Project.