Shawn Horcoff didn't remain out of work for too long after the Dallas Stars chose not to re-sign him. In the third day of free agency, he was already a member of the Anaheim Ducks, who needed to add some playoff experience to a relatively young core, and the former Edmonton Oilers captain was a key member of a team who got to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final with their back-up goalie in 2006.
He has a career winning record in the playoffs, and provides the Ducks with a third-line center who can produce offensively and fill in on the wing on a second line once in a while as well. He had 11 goals and 29 points in Dallas last year, playing behind Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza, with little powerplay time and not playing with elite talent, though he did have former Oilers linemate Ales Hemsky at his side for a few games. In 2013-14, he had 6 points in 6 postseason games with the Stars.
In addition to captaining the Oilers, he did so with the NCAA's Michigan State Spartans as well, and was an alternate in Dallas. He has also has played for Team Canada at the World Championships three times, winning gold twice (2003 and 2004) and silver (2009).
Here he is in the Stars' current beautiful green (home) uniform, from Panini's 2013-14 Titanium set (#GG-SH of the Game-Worn Gear sub-set), featuring a dark blue Oilers patch:
In my opinion, he's shown enough to be used as a #6 defenseman while he rounds his game and learns the ropes, and has the potential of being a #4 for a long time, with the added bonus of first-unit powerplay specialist. I see the 6'1'', 185-pound point man developing into a Jeff Petry type, or a better-defensively Ron Hainsey type.
Every team needs those, and with Niklas Kronwall entering his mid-30s, so will the Wings.
He was drafted in the second round (48th overall) in 2011, ahead of Scott Harrington (54th), Keegan Lowe (73rd), Jonathan Racine (87th), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (96th), Reid Boucher (99th), Johnny Gaudreau (104th), Andrew Shaw (139th), Frank Corrado (150th), Alexei Marchenko (205th), and Ondrej Palat (208th), and proceeded to be named to two consecutive First All-Star Team selections in the LHJMQ for the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, who named him an alternate captain.
He had been drafted out of the same franchise, but before it moved to the suburbs, as can be attested by this 2011-12 Heroes And Prospects card (#183 in the set) from In The Game, showing him in the Montréal Junior's burgundy (a bit of a tribute to former NHL team the Montreal Maroons) away uniform:
He signed it in thin blue sharpie when he came back to town a couple of weeks ago, through a contact with the Armada as he went home to Terrebonne, on Montréal's North Shore. I thought I'd also brought one of him with the Armada, but I'd forgotten it, so I guess I'll have to try it through the mail (TTM) this winter instead.
Once regarded as the most skilled player outside the NHL with his shootout moves, Paajarvi has yet to translate his talent to the best league on earth, his six-goal, seven-assist, 13-point production in 65 games over parts of two seasons with the Blues resulting in the following career NHL numbers: 32 goals, 39 assists and 71 points in 228 games.
He did manage to put up 11 goals and 18 assists (29 points) in 36 games playing for St. Louis' AHL affiliate Chicago Wolves, so the 24-year-old's almost there. Maybe.
Originally the Edmonton Oilers' first-round pick (10th overall) in 2009, he was acquired by the Blues in the trade that sent David Perron to play in the tundra.
Speaking of the Oilers, here he is wearing their awful Reebok Edge post-lockout white (away) pajama/practice-like uniforms, from Panini's 2010-11 Zenith set (card #MP of the Winter Warriors sub-set):
It features an orange swatch of game-worn ''material''.
He's the one most responsible for the young players called up by the Ottawa Senatorsbeing NHL-ready and having a tremendous immediate impact, including Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone.
Himself a veteran of 1417 regular-season games (201 points, 2055 penalty minutes) and 69
playoff games (8 assists, 130 PIMs), he reached the
Stanley Cup Final in 1999-2000 with the Philadelphia Flyers, and this card is a tribute to that achievement:
It's the signed insert (on-card in thin black sharpie) version of card #103 from In The Game's 1998-99 Be A Player set, showing him in the Flyers' white 1980s and 1990s home uniform.
He was tough as nails, but clean. I'm guessing as a coach he's tough and fair. One thing's for sure, he knows how to get to young adults and teach them the foundations of the game, because all of the Sens' young kids come in as effective two-way players who contribute right away.
Come to think of it, I probably should have featured this card two days ago, on July 4th. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
Unless you're Norm Ullman, then you win, mostly, as if Life were a lottery.
Growing up in Edmonton, Ullman played his midget years with Johnny Bucyk, then moved to the WCJHL's Edmonton Oil Kings and led the league in scoring two years in a row, prompting the Detroit Red Wings - who owned the team - to officially sign him to a contract. They first sent him to their AHL affiliate, the - as luck would have it - Edmonton Flyers, before giving him a chance in Detroit.
After an 18-point rookie season, the Wings were impressed enough to slot him on the first line alongside Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay in 1956-57. Playing with those superstars (though Lindsay would get traded soon after for attempting to start a players' union, Howe remained a long-time linemate as would be Alex Delvecchio), Ullman may well have invented the type of forecheck that is prevalent in today's game: relentless, close enough to the opponent to have them thinking about a check but a few feet away to intercept attempted passes.
By 1960, he was playing in his first All-Star Game (part of a streak of 9 in 10 seasons, and 11 overall), and he led the Wings in goals in 1960-61, 1964-65 and 1965-66. In 1964-65, he actually led the league (with 42), and his 83 points were second only to Stan Mikita's 87 in the Art Ross race. He even surpassed Mikita for the end-of-season First All-Star Team, the Chicago Blackhawks' legend being relegated to the Second All-Star Team.
Post-season success would not come to him, however, as he was on the Wings during the Montréal Canadiens' dynasty (1956-60, 65-66) as well as the Toronto Maple Leafs' (1962-64, 1967), but he did lead the league in playoff scoring twice.
But as the 1960s were winding down, so were the Wings, who were closing in on the New York Rangers at the bottom of the standings and felt they needed to shake their roster up, prompting a blockbuster trade with the Leafs that sent Ullman, Paul Henderson (yes, that Henderson, who scored the most famous goal in Canadian hockey history), Floyd Smith and Doug Barrie to Toronto for Frank Mahovlich, Carl Brewer, Garry Unger and Pete Stemkowski.
In Toronto, he once again arrived post-championship, as he had in Detroit. Still, George ''Punch'' Imlach, who didn't earn his nickname by handing out compliments, said of Ullman he was the best center he'd ever had. Ullman enjoyed an 85-point season in 1970-71 playing with Henderson (60 points) and Ron Ellis (53), which made it all the more puzzling when head coach John McLellan started slotting him on the wing or benching him altogether, making for a frustrating final two seasons with the Leafs, until Ullman bolted to the WHA to play with his hometown Edmonton Oilers, with whom he scored 47 goals and registered 83 assists for a total of 130 points in 144 games over two seasons to end his career on a high note following the 1976-77 season.
He was elected to the Hockey Hall Of Fame in 1982, after a prolific career which saw him post sixteen 20-goal seasons in 20 years, finishing with 490 goals and 739 assists for 1229 points in 1410 NHL games, which is where this card comes in:
It's card #78 from the Ultimate Trading Card Company's (no idea who they are, I got this card - unsigned - in repackaged packs of different brands) 1992-93 Ultimate set (part of the Detroit Red Wings Ultimate Hall Of Fame sub-set), which the legend signed for me in blue sharpie during the Habs' centennial celebrations in 2008-09. I'm particularly fond of the Wings' retro uniform, which the team wore for 10 games during the NHL's 75th Anniversary season in 1991-92.
Whether you see it as one franchise or separate theAtlanta Flamesfrom the Calgary Flames, the greatest goalie to have ever worn a flaming letter on the front of his jersey is undoubtedly Miikka Kiprusoff. He had the best glove hand of his era (post-Patrick Roy), the best reflexes and agility after Dominik Hasek in his prime, and may have made the most ''paddle saves'' in the history of the NHL, as can be attested by this highlight reel:
That last sequence in the video is part of a three-minute ovation Flames fans gave him during his final game in Calgary, a 3-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks in which he stopped 32 of 33 shots, as usual. Kipper managed to win a well-deserved Vezina but also a Jennings trophy on what was arguably one of the worst teams in the league during his 10-year, 9-season tenure as a starting goalie.
He was my favourite goalie post-Roy, a position now held by Jaroslav Halak. Both also care about their fans enough to send them autographed cards, which has been my case.
Here he is in the Flames' red (home) uniform, in two cards from Panini's 2013-14 Titanium set (card #GG-MK of the Game-Worn Gear sub-set), with different-coloured swatches:
I could have easily ended this post here, but that would have been too easy. For too long, Kiprusoff's gone underrated, and I felt I needed to set the record straight about just how good he was, so I decided to analyse every goalie since the year I was born 1981-82 (when the Vezina stopped being awarded to the lowest GAA), and compare three things: who actually won the Vezina (and the runners-up), who I felt deserved to be named the best goalie, and the three best in the playoffs. If all goes well, I'll be able to separate the goalies as ''best of their eras'' afterwards:
1981-82: Vezina: Billy Smith; ahead of Grant Fuhr and Michel Dion.
Best: Smith; ahead of Fuhr and Dan Bouchard.
Playoffs: Smith; ahead of Richard Brodeur and Tony Esposito.
1982-83: Vezina: Pete Peeters; ahead of Roland Melanson and Murray Bannerman.
Best: Peeters; ahead of Andy Moog and Billy Smith.
Playoffs: Smith (Conn Smythe); ahead of Moog and Peeters.
1983-84: Vezina: Tom Barrasso; ahead of Réjean Lemelin and Pat Riggin.
Best: Barrasso; ahead of Lemelin and Bouchard.
Playoffs: Fuhr; ahead of Steve Penney and Smith.
1984-85: Vezina: Pelle Lindbergh; ahead of Barrasso and Lemelin.
Best: Lindbergh; ahead of Barrasso and Riggin.
Playoffs: Fuhr; ahead of Lindbergh and Smith.
1985-86: Vezina: John Vanbiesbrouck; ahead of Bob Froese and Fuhr.
Best: Clint Malachuk; ahead of Froese and Vanbiesbrouck.
Playoffs: Patrick Roy (Conn Smythe); ahead of Mike Vernon and Greg Millen.
1986-87: Vezina: Ron Hextall; ahead of Mike Liut and Fuhr.
Best: Hextall; ahead of Liut and Eldon ''Pokey'' Reddick.
Playoffs: Hextall (Conn Smythe); ahead of Brian Hayward and Fuhr.
1987-88: Vezina: Fuhr; ahead of Barrasso and Kelly Hrudey.
Best: Fuhr; ahead of Vernon and Roy.
Playoffs: Fuhr; ahead of Lemelin and Sean Burke.
1988-89: Vezina: Roy; ahead of Vernon and Kirk McLean.
Best: Roy; ahead of Vernon and Peeters.
Playoffs: Vernon; ahead of Roy and Hextall.
1989-90: Vezina: Roy; ahead of Daren Puppa and Moog.
Best: Roy; ahead of Liut and Lemelin.
Playoffs: Moog; ahead of Bill Ranford (Conn Smythe) and Don Beaupre.
1990-91: Vezina: Ed Belfour; ahead of Roy and Mike Richter.
Best: Roy; ahead of Belfour and Beaupre.
Playoffs: Barrasso; ahead of Jon Casey and Moog.
1991-92: Vezina: Roy; ahead of McLean and Bob Essensa.
Best: Roy; ahead of Vanbiesbrouck and McLean.
Playoffs: Barrasso; ahead of Belfour and Ranford.
1992-93: Vezina: Belfour; ahead of Barrasso and Curtis Joseph.
Best: Félix Potvin; ahead of Belfour and Joseph.
Playoffs: Roy (Conn Smythe); ahead of Potvin and Joseph.
1993-94: Vezina: Dominik Hasek; ahead of Vanbiesbrouck and Roy.
Best: Roy; ahead of Hasek and Vanbiesbrouck.
Playoffs: Richter; ahead of McLean and Martin Brodeur.
1994-95: Vezina: Hasek; ahead of Belfour and Jim Carey.
Best: Hasek; ahead of Vanbiesbrouck and Carey.
Playoffs: Brodeur; ahead of Vernon and Hextall.
1995-96: Vezina: Carey; ahead of Chris Osgood and Puppa.
Best: Hextall; ahead of Guy Hebert and Carey.
Playoffs: Roy; ahead of Vanbiesbrouck and Barrasso.
1996-97: Vezina: Hasek; ahead of Brodeur and Roy.
Best: Roy; ahead of Hasek and Moog.
Playoffs: Vernon (Conn Smythe); ahead of Roy and Garth Snow.
1997-98: Vezina: Hasek; ahead of Brodeur and Barrasso.
Best: Hasek; ahead of Barrasso and Belfour.
Playoffs: Olaf Kolzig; ahead of Osgood and Joseph.
1998-99: Vezina: Hasek; ahead of Joseph and Byron Dafoe.
Best: Ron Tugnutt; ahead of Hebert and Arturs Irbe.
Playoffs: Roy; ahead of Hasek and Belfour.
1999-00: Vezina: Kolzig; ahead of Roman Turek and Joseph.
Best: Roy; ahead of Jeff Hackett and Kolzig.
Playoffs: Belfour; ahead of Roy and Joseph.
2000-01: Vezina: Hasek; ahead of Roman Cechmanek and Brodeur.
Best: Cechmanek; ahead of Burke and Hasek.
Playoffs: Roy (Conn Smythe); ahead of Turek and Joseph.
2001-02: Vezina: José Theodore; ahead of Roy and Burke.
Best: Theodore; ahead of Roy and Burke.
Playoffs: Irbe; ahead of Roy and Patrick Lalime.
2002-03: Vezina: Brodeur; ahead of Marty Turco and Belfour.
Best: Turco; ahead of Roy and Cechmanek.
Playoffs: J.S. Giguère (Conn Smythe); ahead of Brodeur and Lalime.
2003-04: Vezina: Brodeur; ahead of Miikka Kiprusoff and Roberto Luongo.
Best: Kiprusoff; ahead of Luongo and Theodore.
Playoffs: Kiprusoff; ahead of Nikolai Khabibulin and Evgeni Nabokov.
2004-05: NHL lockout. Booooooooooooooo!
2005-06: Vezina: Kiprusoff; ahead of Brodeur and Henrik Lundqvist.
Best: Kiprusoff; ahead of Lundqvist and Tomas Vokoun.
Playoffs: Dwayne Roloson; ahead of Ilya Bryzgalov and Cam Ward (Conn Smythe).
2006-07: Vezina: Brodeur; ahead of Luongo and Kiprusoff.
Best: Kiprusoff; ahead of Niklas Backstrom and Lundqvist.
Playoffs: Luongo; ahead of Giguère and Turco.
2007-08: Vezina: Brodeur; ahead of Nabokov and Lundqvist.
Best: Giguère; ahead of Backstrom and Kiprusoff.
Playoffs: M.A. Fleury; ahead of Osgood and Lundqvist.
2008-09: Vezina: Tim Thomas; ahead of Steve Mason and Backstrom.
Best: Thomas; ahead of Vokoun and Luongo.
Playoffs: Fleury; ahead of Osgood and Jonas Hiller.
2009-10: Vezina: Ryan Miller; ahead of Bryzgalov and Brodeur.
Best: Miller; ahead of Nabokov and Kiprusoff.
Playoffs: Jaroslav Halak; ahead of Antti Niemi and Michael Leighton.
2010-11: Vezina: Thomas; ahead of Pekka Rinne and Luongo.
Best: Thomas; ahead of Rinne and Luongo.
Playoffs: Thomas (Conn Smythe); ahead of Jimmy Howard and Luongo.
2011-12: Vezina: Lundqvist; ahead of Jonathan Quick and Rinne.
Best: Lundqvist; ahead of Halak and Brian Elliott.
Playoffs: Quick (Conn Smythe); ahead of Lundqvist and Mike Smith.
2012-13: Vezina: Sergei Bobrovsky; ahead of Lundqvist and Niemi.
Best: Bobrovsky; ahead of Craig Anderson and Lundqvist.
Playoffs: Corey Crawford; ahead of Quick and Tuukka Rask.
2013-14: Vezina: Rask; ahead of Semyon Varlamov and Ben Bishop.
Best: Rask; ahead of Bishop and Lundqvist.
Playoffs: Quick; ahead of Lundqvist and Rask.
2014-15: Vezina: Carey Price; ahead of Rinne and Devan Dubnyk.
Best: Dubnyk; ahead of Price and Fleury.
Playoffs: Crawford; ahead of Bishop and Lundqvist.
Honestly, before starting with this exercise, I thought the one-hit wonders would be more numerous and would help determine which one goalie stood out in an era, with two to five sub-contenders per, but a far cry behind. For example, when Patrick Roy had his coming out party in the 1986 playoffs, I was under the impression that he relegated Grant Fuhr and Mike Vernon to second-tier status - which he did - but the podium didn't just have two spots, as John Vanbiesbrouck, Tom Barrasso, Réjean Lemelin and Andy Moog also put in a good number of strong seasons, well into the 1990s for all except Lemelin.
And let's be honest: while I did my best to ignore Ed Belfour's milestones and achievements while he was playing, he was a definite top-10 goalie most times, and could have runs where he was top-5. Same thing for Dominik Hasek; there were years when the Buffalo Sabres' system protected him so well his job was almost too easy, but there are others where he was leading the elite by too wide a margin to ignore.
And while many claim the same about Martin Brodeur, this was a worthwhile exercise to show that GMs (who vote for the Vezina) can and do make mistakes, as can be attested by his run of 1998-02 where his save percentage was .906 three of four years and still he finished in the top-5 for voting, on a team so well defended that he saw less than 25 shots per game, none of them from the slot. That was followed by 4 Vezinas in 5 years and a runner-up in the middle, usually with a save percentage 15 points below that of the league leader.
Which leads, using 5 points for a first place, 3 for second and one for third, plus 5 for extra NHL Awards not counted here, to the following aggregated results of 29 goalies with over 10 points:
Patrick Roy: 117 points
Dominik Hasek: 60 points
Martin Brodeur: 40 points
Tom Barrasso: 37 points
Grant Fuhr: 34 points
Ed Belfour: 32 points
Miikka Kiprusoff: 31 points
Mike Vernon: 30 points
Tim Thomas: 30 points
Henrik Lundqvist: 29 points
Billy Smith: 28 points
Ron Hextall: 27 points
Jonathan Quick: 21 points
John Vanbiesbrouck: 19 points
Jean-Sébastien Giguère: 18 points
Carey Price: 18 points
José Theodore: 16 points
Andy Moog: 16 points
Roberto Luongo: 16 points
Corey Crawford: 15 points
Pelle Lindbergh: 13 points
Pete Peeters: 12 points
Chris Osgood: 12 points
Tuukka Rask: 12 points
Olaf Kolzig: 11 points
Réjean Lemelin: 11 points
Curtis Joseph: 11 points
Marc-André Fleury: 11 points
Devan Dubnyk: 11 points
I guess it's safe and fair to say anyone with over 30 has had ''their era'' (damn you, Brodeur!), and that Lundqvist and Quick will likely get there as well. Crawford, Rask and Price could, although Price will need to repeat his 2014-15 many times for that to happen.
What I get from this is that Billy Smith and Fuhr owned the early-to-mid 1980s, that Barrasso almost had the mid-80s were it not for Roy, whose success was constant from 1988 until 2003, though he had to share the glory with Hasek, mostly, from the mid-1990s on, with Brodeur often the third wheel, but far behind.
Tim Thomas had an almost unprecedented level of success in a three-year run, but the early-to-mid-00s saw a Kipper dominance, and Lundqvist has held the mantle almost alone since, save for Quick in the playoffs and Rinne as this generation's third wheel.
This is probably the year where a ''goalie controversy'' emerges with the Colorado Avalanche, leading the team to shop Calvin Pickard next summer, when the market won't be as saturated as this year (I envision Dustin Tokarski to also be available and one of the Tampa Bay Lightning's goalies, while this year Cam Talbot, Eddie Lack, Robin Lehner, Jhonas Enroth, Michal Neuvirth, Anders Lindback, and Martin Jones were available via trade and Antti Niemi and Devan Dubnyk were set to become free agents).
The third goalie chosen at the 2010 draft, he's already surpassed Jack Campbell and Mark Visentin in his draft class, as well as the Avs' official backup Reto Berra last season, head coach Patrick Roy preferring to send in freshly-recalled Pickard instead of his official backup whenever Semyon Varlamov was feeling under the weather. he's also surpassed his older brother Chet Pickard, a former Nashville Predators first round pick now playing in Denmark.
The Avs will hold on to Varlamov for the next decade, seeing as he's a proven commodity - an Olympian and Vezina nominee - but if I had a billion dollars to buy an NHL team, I would be very comfortable selecting Pickard and Tokarski as my goalies.
I met Pickard last year when he played in his first NHL start in Montréal, so look for another post whenever he makes the news again. For now, though, here's a 2013-14 Prizm card (#A-2P of the Dual Rookie Class sub-set, the silver version) by Panini, showing him in his awesome cat-like stance, wearing the Avs' burgundy (home) uniform:
Well, the St. Louis Blues are certainly keeping busy this off-season, signing a ton of players and shaking up their roster with a couple of trades so far, acquiring Konrad Abeltshauser from theSan Jose Sharks, and Troy Brouwer, Phoenix Copley and a draft pick from the Washington Capitals for Team USA Olympic hero and playoff underachiever T.J. Oshie.
It reminds me a bit of the late 1990s - ironically during the era where their uniforms were the same as their current/throwback ones - when they went through an awful lot of player changes, with Al MacInnis coming in, Pierre Turgeon passing by, along with the likes of Scott Young, Craig Conroy, Doug Weight, Marty Reasoner and Geoff Courtnall.
Young brings a wealth of experience, not just as a good scorer (one 30-goal season with the Québec Nordiques and a 40-goal season with the Blues) with a tremendous slap shot in the NHL, but also some international experience, with gold (1996 World Cup), silver (2002 Olympics) and bronze (1986 World Juniors) medals with the American team at various levels and in different decades. Oh, and Stanley Cups with the 1990-91 Pittsburgh Penguins and 1995-96 Colorado Avalanche.
He's been around the block a few times and knows a thing or two about a lot of things, so the kids at BU are in good hands to learn about Life in a sports context.
Here he is wearing the Blues' dark blue (then-away) uniform:
It's the signed insert of card #278 from In The Game's 1998-99 Be A Player set, signed on-card in thin black sharpie.
When all is said and done, I will not be surprised to see Martin Saint-Louis inducted in the Hockey Hall Of Fame: over 1,000 games played, over 1,000 points, a Stanley Cup, two Art Ross trophies won nine years apart, a Hart (plus one Hart nomination), a Lester B. Pearson, three Lady Byngs (and seven times the runner-up), one First All-Star Team and four Second All-Star Team nods, plus a World Cup (2004) and Olympic gold (2014) with Team Canada to go with two World Championship silver medals (2008 and 2009).
All this from an undrafted 5'8'' player from the Montréal suburb of Laval who played his last stint as an amateur at the University of Vermont rather than in the LHJMQ, almost nullifying his chances of ever reaching the NHL.
Except he rewrote the University of Vermont Catamounts' record books, earning an invitation to the Calgary Flames' training camp, and though the team eventually lost him to waivers, he was picked up by the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team he would mostly be associated with, won the Cup with, and captained in his final season there.
With four 90-point seasons (with a high of 102 in 2006-07), seven 30-goal seasons (with a high of 43) and twice the league assists leader (ironically, he led he league in assists with 56 in 2003-04 but surpassed that mark four times without leading the league), he was the face of Tampa's franchise, bridging the gap from Vincent Lecavalier to Steven Stamkos, the team's two first-overall goal scoring superstars.
Sure, he asked for a trade to the New York Rangerswhen team GM Steve Yzerman initially left him off of Canada's Olympic roster, but he'll always be a Bolt in most people's hearts. And though Ryan Callahan will end up playing longer, the Rangers surely do not regret that trade of captains, as Callahan had priced himself out of the Rangers' budget, and St-Louis was around for two seasons, playing a leadership role on a team that went to a Stanley Cup Final and an Eastern Conference Final.
And even though he tested free agency (and probably only got offers from teams who were too far away from his family in Connecticut), he changed his stance today and opted to retire. His 52 points in 70 games in his final season, at age 39, were more than decent, but many had criticized his playoff production, which, at 7 points in 19 games, brought his career average below the point-per-game mark, finishing with 42 goals and 90 points in 107 postseason games.
In tribute of the diminutive superstar's career, I feature him for the first of three times with this card showing him captaining the Bolts, from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Series 2 set (card #GJ-SL of the UD Game Jersey sub-set):
It shows him wearing the Lightning's white (away) uniform and includes a black game-worn swatch, from their older jerseys.
Too bad all the so-called ''experts'' only had the Phil Kessel trade on their minds...
Kessel is probably still one of the NHL's top-5 shooters. And so much has been said about his physical shape, effort level (or lack thereof), and disdain for the media that I won't go at lengths about it here, but with centers like Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, he may very well (and definitely should) reach the 40-goal plateau for the first time in his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After all was said and done, apart from draft picks, Kessel, defenseman Tim Erixon (already on his fifth team since 2011-12 and fourth since 2014) and forward Tyler Biggs will make their way to the Pens, while defenseman Scott Harrington, and forwards Kasperi Kapanen and Nick Spaling will head to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who also signed P.A. Parenteau and brought back Daniel Winnick to the fold today.
My focus today will be on former London Knights captain Harrington, a ''character'' defenseman who is merely 22 years old. London has one of the best Juniors programs in Canada, headed by the Hunter brothers (Mark is now a Leafs executive, Dale Hunter is back coaching), so Harrington learned to develop a complete game from a relatively young age.
He was considered a two-way defenseman in the OHL/CHL, but his offensive statistics were actually better at the AHL level with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (24 points in 76 games in 2013-14 and 12 points in 48 games in 2014-15) than in London (81 points in 206 games from 2009-13), so his game's improving.
And yet, the 54th-overall pick of the 2011 draft was always seen as a tall (6'2''), built (205 pounds so far), smooth-skating, positionally-sound, smart player. If he can put points up on the board as well, he'll turn into much more than many had envisioned him becoming.
Internationally, he's suited up for Team Canada, winning silver for Team Ontario at the 2010 U-17s and bronze at the 2012 World Juniors, and with a fourth-place finish at the 2013 World Juniors, where he was sporting the alternate captain's ''A''.
But the ''C'' remains a definite possibility in the future, as can be attested by this card showing him with the Knights' black uniform, from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects set (#M-35 of the Game-Used Jersey sub-set, the Black Version variant):
It contains a huge white-beige swatch. I got it in a trade a year or two ago, with other CHL jersey cards going both ways.
Writer, mostly, in mediums diverse and similar: musician, film-maker, poet - not the bad type, nor the pretentious type. It's more that I suck at everything except producing words and shouting ideas at people. Oh, and I'm the guy who brings you UnPop Montreal yearly, helping the little guy get a voice in this variety-deprived city.
