Jody Hull: 2 Autographed Cards

When Jaromir Jagr passed Brett Hull as the NHL's third-highest scoring player last night, my mind wandered in a million places - as it usually does; I was reminded how I wasn't a huge Jagr fan when he came up (because I tend do dislike all things Pittsburgh Penguins-related, and he was a bit cocky); of how his O-Pee-Chee Premier rookie card was once worth upwards of $50 apiece and I had literally over a hundred of them at one time, most of them lost in a flood during the 1998 Ice Storm; how he set the New York Rangers' single-season points mark in his 30s; how he was shunned by NHL teams and had to go play in the KHL for three seasons; how the Montréal Canadiens keep refusing him his wish of playing with fellow Czech Tomas Plekanec.

How Hull was a goal-scoring machine at the turn of the 1990s; how he scored a controversial goal when the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup against the Buffalo Sabres; how he won another with the free-spending 2000s Detroit Red Wings.

How many people my age thought Jody Hull was his brother.

Nope.

Jody Hull was born in Ontario, and rose through the hockey ranks like many Canadian NHLers, through the high midget categories, then Junior B, then playing for the OHL's Peterborough Petes, a team he now coaches.

He was drafted 18th overall in the first round by the Hartford Whalers in 1987 and went on to play in over 800 NHL games, including two stints with the Ottawa Senators. He also played in the AHL with the Grand Rapids Griffins, the Binghamton Whalers, the Binghamton Rangers, and retired following a 34-game stint with the Binghamton Senators. I'm kind of surprised he didn't relocate there after his career was over.

In his coaching career, he was the Petes' assistant coach for seven seasons before being promoted to head coach, a position he's held since the 2012-13 season. He's also risen through the ranks of Hockey Canada's U-18 program, going from video coach to assistant to head coach two summers ago.

Here he is in the two uniforms I associate him the closest to, in two cards he signed in black sharpie in the early-to-mid 1990s, first showing him with the Whalers' classic green uniform, from Upper Deck's 1990-91 Series 1 set (with card #322 in the series):

And here he is in the Sens' original white (then-home) uniform, from UD's 1992-93 Series 2 set (it's card #539):

All told, the rugged right winger finished with 124 regular-season goals and 261 regular-season points in 831 games to go along with 9 points (4 goals, 5 assists) in 69 playoff games. He reached the Stanley Cup Final in 1995-96 as a member of the Florida Panthers, suffering a sweep at the hands of the mighty Colorado Avalanche.

Bobby Ryan Jersey Card

Last season, a lot of people were afraid that Bobby Ryan's numbers would fizzle after signing a huge contract that gave him a $7.25M cap hit for six seasons after this one. His 18 goals and 54 points in 78 games were, indeed, below what he had accustomed us to, but he has bounced back in style this year.

59 games into 2015-16, he has already hit the 20-goal mark, and his 46 points are just two short of his total for the 2013-14 season, which he'd reached in 70 games. His goals also happen to be spectacular.

At 28 years of age, he'll be part of the Ottawa Senators' core for years, along with Erik Karlsson and Kyle Turris. The 2010 silver medal-winning Team USA Olympian should make the World Cup roster next September as well, possibly showcasing his skills on the second line (with Phil Kessel manning the first), giving the Americans a strong, balanced offense that can keep attacking in waves.

For now, however, here is a card showing him in the Sens' beautiful "O" alternate uniform on card #FA-BR from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Artifacts set (and Frozen Artifacts sub-set):

It contains a matching black game-worn jersey swatch, which cool. I have yet to purchase an actual pack of this year's Artifacts collection, but I found this in a re-pack, somewhat surprised to have a current non-flagship "hit" card in it, to go with various 1990s common cards.

Josef Beranek: 2 Autographed Cards

As I mentioned when I initially made my list for my Oilers Numbers Project, I was fairly certain I had a signed card of Josef Beranek's with the Edmonton Oilers, but I cannot seem to be able to get my hands on it, no matter which box I look into.

Still, I managed to find two where he's with the Philadelphia Flyers, tonight's guests in town, as they were facing the Montréal Canadiens at the Bell Centre:

Beranek was the Oilers' fourth-round pick (78th overall) in 1989, the year Mats Sundin was chosen first overall by the Québec Nordiques. There were a few very good players left from the third round onwards, such as Olympians Rob Zamuner (45th), Nicklas Lidstrom (53rd, yeah, I know), Kris Draper (62nd), Robert Reichel (70th), Pavel Bure (110th), Anatoli Semenov (120th), Vladimir Malakhov (191st), Arturs Irbe (196th), and Evgeny Davydov (235th), as well as All-Star Donald Audette (183rd).

Beranek had a knack for beginnings; upon being traded from the Oilers to the Flyers midway through the 1992-93 season, he scored 10 goals in his first 29 games in Philadelphia, ending with 13 in 40 with the team and 15 goals (and 33 points) in 66 games in total. At the beginning of the 1993-94 season, he went on an even hotter streak, with no less than 18 goals in his first 23 games (including an 8-game goal streak), but finishing with 28 goals and 48 points in 80 games that year.

He signed both cards in ball-point pen in the mid-1990s; here's the first one, in his own zone in from of goalie Tommy Soderstrom (I had the same Jofa helmet as Soderstrom's at the time), from Score's 1993-94 Score (Canadian Bilingual Edition) set, with card #439 in the collection:

And here he is moving in on the Washington Capitals' Don Beaupre, from Pinnacle Brands' 1994-95 Score set (card #77 in the collection):

On both cards, he's wearing the Flyers' orange uniform from my youth, with the black sleeves and white arms with black lines, a truly classic look.

The Czech winger retired in 2010 after nine seasons with Slavia Praha (Prague) of the Czech League.

Nathan Marsters Autograph Card

Posting about Jean-Sébastien Giguère last night got me thinking about this former prospect, Nathan Marsters, seen here wearing the AHL's Portland Pirates' beautiful red (away) uniform, from In The Game's 2005-06 Heroes And Prospects Series 2 set:

It's card #A-NM in the series, with a black-sharpied on-sticker autograph affixed to it.

Masters was picked 165th in the 2000 draft by the Los Angeles Kings but they let him go a few years later and he signed on as a free agent with the Anaheim Ducks. He never got to play in an NHL game, but he did suit up for one when Giguère fell to injury in practice in 2005-06.

His 23-9-2 record (with a 3.10 GAA and .900 save percentage in 37 games) with the Pirates that year would prove to be his best professional record, save for a .917 and 2.61 performance in an 8-game stint with the CHL's Laredo Bucks the following year.

After a couple of seasons with a GAA near 4.00 in the ECHL, he tried his luck in Germany in 2007-08, playing 9 games for the Krefeld Penguins.

We'll never know if he would have pulled an Andrew Hammond on the hockey world, because he died in the summer of 2009, his truck being the second that hit a deer, which crushed his windshield and hit him directly.

He is survived by his wife, Olivia.

Jean-Sébastien Giguère Jersey Card

For the longest time, my memories of this Jean-Sébastien Giguère card were that it was a one that contained a piece of a game-used glove; I was wrong:

As you can see, though the sub-set is called Great Gloves, it actually contains a white game-worn jersey swatch under a goalie-shaped die-cut hole. It's card #GG-JG from Upper Deck's 2002-03 Mask Collection set, which I was once offered $30 for.

It shows J.S. Giguère in perhaps the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim's best white (then-home) uniform, devoid of purple and where teal isn't overly dominant a colour, and black and grey make for perfect highlights.

The Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup winner, at this point, was wearing the same equipment - Koho - as his boyhood idol, Patrick Roy, and the card not only shows this extremely well, but it also shows the square butterfly drop with which he would stifle opponents during his prime.

Carter Hutton Autographed Card

I often say that goalies nowadays are not like in the past; there aren't a half-dozen on which you can rely to never have a bad season, save for Henrik Lundqvist (except for his Octobers) and Pekka Rinne. Well, Rinne's not having the best season of his career, which means Carter Hutton's outplayed him, though he's appeared in some 35 less games, so the sample size is to be considered.

Hutton's statistics are superb this year, with a 2.17 GAA and .922 save percentage and 2 shutouts in 10 games, and a stellar 0.33 and .967 in his three starts prior to last night's game versus the best offense in the league, the Dallas Stars, which he forced into overtime, stopping 29 of 32 shots after a 22-save shutout performance against the Florida Panthers on Saturday.

Now, I am by no means comparing Rinne and Hutton's careers, nor do I think that Hutton has reached his prime at 30 years old and will dominate the NHL for years to come; but the Nashville Predators are legitimate contenders this year, and head coach Peter Laviolette may have to make a hard decision come springtime.

The undrafted Hutton signed on with two different teams (the Philadelphia Flyers and San Jose Sharks) before getting his first taste of NHL action with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2012-13, suiting up for a single loss before the Hawks let him go and the Preds came calling.

I have a Score card of his that he signed showing him with the Flyers while listing him as a Shark, but I can't find it at the moment, so I'll instead feature him via this card he signed last season, showing him in the Sharks' best white (away) uniform (though I would have taken the number on the front of the jersey off), from Panini's 2010-11 All Goalies set (card #75), signed in blue sharpie:

I like that his equipment is a rag-tag mix of different manufacturers, with a Sher-Wood (originally a stick-making company from Sherbrooke, Québec) glove, Bauer (originally an equipment manufacturer specializing in helmets and skates) stick, and Vaughn blocker (a taste I used to share in my playing days).

Anthony Duclair Autographed Card

Sure, Oliver Ekman-Larsson was a huge piece of the Arizona Coyotes thumping the Montréal Canadiens tonight, but Anthony Duclair's goal and assist in the first period really set the tone for an offense that would plow through goalie Mike Condon, with captain Max Pacioretty doing nothing but watching idly, managing a mere shot on goal and a -3 rating in the process.

This is the game that finally got the first Canadian sports news outlet (in this case, Sportsnet) to call out for head coach Michel Therrien's head, though I don't agree with some of their points, namely that Andrei Markov, P.K. Subban and Tomas Plekanec had abandoned because they combined for a -1 rating; I mean, come on, minus-one playing over 20 minutes (i.e. a combined 60-plus minutes...) in a 6-2 thumping? That's practically a miracle, right there.

With GM Marc Bergevin already stating Therrien's job was secure until the summer, it falls on him to either provide the coach with players who can reinvigorate this team, or to go in full tank mode; unfortunately, both he and the coach subscribe to the generally-accepted notion that this team is centered around goalie Carey Price and that all hope is lost when he's out, a dubious claim at best.

For starters, he has yet to score an NHL goal, meaning if it was all up to him, the best the Habs could hope for would be 0-0 ties going into the shootout. Also, as a starting netminder, he's set to appear in some 60-to-65 games, leaving 20-25 to someone else in the best-case scenario, which means you need to give that time to someone capable, lest you deliberately choose to forego a quarter of your season.

And preparing for injuries to your starting goalie goes two ways: first, your defensive system must allow for some protection that suits your backup (see: the Los Angeles Kings, who made Ben Scrivens look like Jonathan Quick), and secondly, the backup must be ready to take on a larger workload on a whim (case in point: Cam Talbot posting better numbers than Henrik Lundqvist - the actual best goalie in the world, by the way - when The King went down last season with the New York Rangers).

But the Habs' defeat to the Coyotes wasn't just about their own failings; Arizona's young stars played a terrific game, though I see Max Domi inherited his father's dislike of Montréal and temper, which might be costly later in his career (see Milan Lucic somehow always costing his teams games against the Canadiens).

So here's a card featuring speedster and scorer extraordinaire Duclair, who will definitely be an All-Star someday, from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects collection (card #245, part of the CHL Rookie sub-set):

It shows The Duke wearing the Québec Remparts' classic red uniform, and he signed it in (fading) blue sharpie last Spring, making sure to add his jersey number (10) at the end.

Kelly Buchberger Autograph Card

Roughly a year and a half ago, I posted about a terrific return from Kelly Buchberger, mostly featuring cards of his wearing the Edmonton Oilers' classic uniform; since then, in my Oilers Numbers Project as in all of my other personal collections projects, I have decided to also list the teams' captains of whom I have autographed cards.

Buchberger served as captain from the time the title was stripped from Shayne Corson (mostly for his off-ice behaviour) until the Atlanta Thrashers selected him in the 1999 expansion draft.

Here is Buchberger wearing the "C", in the Oilers' turn-of-the-millennium uniform (darker blue, bright orange replaced with rusty light brown, simple lines on the arms, traditional "hockey" shoulder design replaced with "oilman" patch):

It's the autographed insert silver version of card #201 from In The Game's 1998-99 Be A Player set, which he signed on-card in thin black sharpie.

After a few seasons as an assistant coach with the team, he was re-assigned to the player personnel staff last summer as part of the team's general overhaul.

Anze Kopitar Jersey Card

As Anze Kopitar goes, so do (pretty much) the Los Angeles Kings. It's therefore fitting that, as we enter the final stretch leading to the playoffs, the team that currently stands first in the Pacific Division is starting to get into nearly-unbeatable gear, with Kopitar possibly playing his best game of the season thus far last night, with a hat trick on four shots, five hits, and a whopping 65% success rate in the face-off circle.

Things aren't all rosy for the Kings, though, as superstar goalie Jonathan Quick is out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, and sniper Marian Gaborik did not finish the game after a hard collision.

But with Kopitar dominating up front and Drew Doughty doing the same on the back end, it's less of a challenge for the other 18 skaters to step up to face it.

Here's Kopitar in the Kings' current white (away) uniform, from Upper Deck's 2012-13 SP Game-Used Edition set (card #AF-AK of the Authentic Fabrics sub-set):

It includes a purple game-worn jersey swatch from one of L.A.'s retro uniforms (either the purple or gold one).

Chad Johnson Autographed Card

In the seven seasons from 2009-10 until 2015-16, Chad Johnson has played in at least one NHL game in six of them. For five different teams - the New York Rangers, Phoenix Coyotes, Boston Bruins, New York Islanders and now the Buffalo Sabres. He's also played in the AHL for the Hartford Wolf Pack/Connecticut Whale and Portland Pirates, so I'm guessing it was goal of his to play everywhere in New England at some point...

He is also an Adirondacks and a Rochester team away from playing all over New York State, and with one appearance with the New Jersey Devils could also include all of the NYC's hockey-represented burroughs. I mean, while we're at it...

He doesn't always look like a Vezina winner out there, but his .915 career save percentage and 2.42 GAA are decent for a backup goalie - and that's counting his sub-par season with the Isles last year where he went 8-8-1 with a 3.08 GAA and .889 save percentage in 19 games, which accounts for roughly a quarter of his career NHL games so far.

He won against the Montréal Canadiens tonight, in an entertaining 6-4 game that saw all kinds of goals (from one-timers to penalty shots to the puck hitting a linesman for a bad bounce), with three four players (Sven Andrighetto, Alex Galchenyuk, Marcus Foligno and Evander Kane) having two-goal nights.

It wasn't a stellar night for goaltending, and I had a bit of fun with my friends (one of whom quoted me on Twitter), joking that we were lucky to have two of the 500 best goalies in the world in nets - and that was before Ben Scrivens was replaced with Mike Condon:

"On est vraiment chanceux d'avoir un duel entre deux des 500 meilleurs gardiens au monde ce soir."
- @sebastianhell

— Martin Sasseville (@PuckTaVie) February 13, 2016

In any event, Johnson won, which brings me to card #54, from In The Game's 2010-11 Between The Pipes set (and Future Stars sub-set), which he signed in blue sharpie:

It shows him wearing the now-defunct Whale's green uniform; the team's since gone back to their former moniker, the Wolf Pack. That uniform was just... too green for hockey.