Slater Koekkoek Autographed Card

After two unsuccessful turns in 2014-15 and 2015-16 and a decent 29-game showing last year, the Tampa Bay Lightning re-signed Slater Koekkoek to a one-year deal over the summer worth $800K.

The 23-year-old, 6'2", 193-pound rearguard was the Bolts' first pick of the 2012 draft (10th overall) was dominant in last year's AHL playoffs and will look to build on that to stick with the Lightning.

What you get from Koekkoek is a bit of everything. He was drafted to be a good second-pairing defender with the ability to quarterback a powerplay, good speed, the cardio to play a high-tempo game, an accurate first pass, good play-making ability and a heavy, accurate shot. He had also captained the OHL's Peterborough Petes and been an alternate captain on a U-18 Team Canada that won gold at the 2011 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, so there was some leadership to his game.

In last year's Calder Cup Final run with the Syracuse Crunch, however, he added "shut-down defender" and "penalty-kill specialist" to his skill set.

That's not to say he can do all these things against the likes of Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid in the best league in the world, but it cements his potential as a #3 defender, no doubt. And if you factor in the fact that Tampa already has Norris Trophy contender Victor Hedman and added a guy who could win one in the next decade this summer in Mikhail Sergachev, an excellent #3 is just what they need anyway.

I already see them winning the Atlantic Division this year, maybe we should just go ahead and pencil them in for the next five years.

Here is Koekkoek wearing the "C" on the Petes' purple uniform, on card #76 from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects set:

He signed it in blue sharpie after a game against his hometown Ottawa Senators during the 2014-15 season.

Vaclav Prospal Autographed Card

It's been a few seasons since the Philadelphia Flyers were considered serious contenders, but I feel they're on the verge of breaking out - not this year, but the way GM Ron Hextall has built his roster and taken his time bringing his players up in a way that he'll be able to keep most of them if not all under the salary cap for a long time, as soon as goalie Anthony Stolarz is ready to take over the #1 job between the pipes.

Since breaking into the NHL 50 years ago, the Flyers have been able to build a Stanley Cup finalist every decade, which is rather impressive. The team from the mid-1990s, starring Hextall for much of it, the Legion of Doom (Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg) up front, Team Canada defenseman Éric Desjardins, Rod Brind'Amour, Paul Coffey and so many more was pretty memorable despite never winning a championship.

One long-time NHLer was drafted to fit right in with that group, in the third round (71st overall) of the 1993 draft: Vaclav Prospal. Unfortunately, it was not to be, as Prospal was traded along with Pat Falloon and a second-round pick for the Ottawa Senators' Alexandre Daigle, in January 1998.

Prospal would spend parts of four seasons with the Sens, with whom he had his first 20-goal and 55-point season (1999-2000), then half a season with the Florida Panthers before getting traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning, where he had his finest seasons in the NHL in three separate stints with the team:

From HockeyDB

As you can see, he narrowly missed being part of the 2004 Stanley Cup-winning Bolts team...

Although he was eventually bought out from the last three years of his final deal with the Lightning, he did play well for the New York Rangers (where he was also an alternate captain) and Columbus Blue Jackets - for two years apiece - after his time in Tampa.

Here, though, in keeping with my theme of featuring the same team on each of my blogs for all of September as I make my 2017-18 predictions public, I will show him wearing the Flyers' white (then-home) 1980s-1990s uniform, making a play along the boards in front of the New Jersey Devils' John MacLean, on card #McD-39 from Upper Deck's 1997-98 McDonald's / Ice set and Ice Breakers sub-set, which he signed in blue sharpie in 2012 or 2013:

I am particularly fond of how the signature does not bleed through his body on the reverse of the plastic see-through card:

He missed the 1998 Olympics because of an injury but did earn a bronze medal with the rest of the Czech Team at the 2006 Torino Games to go with his 2000 and 2005 World Championship gold medals.

He retired in January 2014.

Jake Allen Jersey Card

It's been a tough summer for the St. Louis Blues, as the injuries have been piling up in a way that is reminiscent of last year's Dallas Stars. That is the sole reason why I see them failing to make the playoffs this year, not goaltending, because I do believe Jake Allen has finally "arrived" as a true #1 goalie.

His performance in last year's playoffs was terrific, as he posted a 1.96 GAA and .935 save percentage to go with a 6-5 record in 11 games. If you read that the way you should, his team did not match up in the second round and was swept, giving him an 0-4 record against the Nashville Predators, meaning despite those four straight losses, he was able to let in fewer than two goals a game on average. He's actually the sole reason why St. Louis made it out of the first round.

His play in the postseason was equal to what he'd shown in the past three years in regular-season play, in which he was good enough for the Blues to let All-Star and Jennings Trophy winner Brian Elliott go in the summer of 2016:

From HockeyDB

Now 27 years old, there is no need to worry about him for the next seven years; like any goalie, he will likely have one season of sub-par play, but he'll bounce right back - such is the nature of the beast.

Here he is wearing the Blues' beautiful alternate uniform, on card #GJ-JA from Upper Deck's 2016-17 Series 1 collection and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It features a matching game-worn jersey swatch.

Karl Alzner Autograph Card

Amid the series of questionable-to-awful-to-terrible moves Montréal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin has made this summer, one signing seems out of place for being smart, reasonable and savvy: the free agent signing of former Washinton Capitals defensive defenseman Karl Alzner. It won't be enough for the team to make the playoffs, but it was a very good move.

In Alzner, the Habs get a high-level defensive specialist the likes of which they haven't had since Josh Gorges in his prime. He's a good shot blocker who intercepts the puck well by covering passing lanes in the defensive zone. He's reliable and can kill penalties. In terms of pure skill, he's an upgrade over the loss of Alexei Emelin, tough Emelin's departure leaves just Shea Weber as a capable, physical checker.

What hurts Montréal most is who else left over the summer, because in addition to Emelin's hard-hitting checks, Andrei Markov and Nikita Nesterov both left for the KHL, Nathan Beaulieu was sent to the Buffalo Sabres, and future Norris Trophy contender Mikhail Sergachev was sent to division rivals Tampa Bay Lightning for Jonathan Drouin (whose offense merely replaces that of free agent goner Alexander Radulov). And that's just on defense (well, apart from Radulov). The Habs also lost heavy depth players Brian Flynn, Steve Ott and Dwight King, but they already had 15 fourth-liners, so that hurts less - except for the fact that those are probably guys who would fit better under "new" head coach Claude Julien's preferred style of play.

All told, I expect a difficult season in La Métropole, one filled with growing pains and fan anger, perhaps even (gasp!) not selling out every game. There will be panic-induced trades, and Bergevin might not make it until next season. After all, Patrick Roy's contract with the Colorado Avalanche has now run its course, and he's now free to peddle his services anywhere he wants to. And he really wants to make the Canadiens contenders again. And he still believes in Carey Price, whose $84M, 8-year contract is a no-trade clause by itself.

But Alzner's five-year deal worth $4.65M per season is a good bargain.

Here he is on card #A-Al from Upper Deck's 2011-12 Artifacts set and Autofacts sub-set:

It features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph - and a relatively clear one at that - with his uniform number with the Caps (27) tagged at the end.

Brendan Shanahan Dual Jersey Card

I've been holding onto this card then losing track of it then waiting for the appropriate time to talk about it since 2010:

That's former head of the Department Of Player Safety and current Toronto Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan, sporting the New York Rangers' classic blue (now-home) uniform, on card #HS-BS from Upper Deck's 2008-09 Trilogy set and Honorary Swatches sub-set.

After predicting the Rangers would finish 5th in the Metropolitan Division but still make the playoffs as the Second Eastern Wild Card team, I figured now would be as good a time as any to feature the Hockey Hall Of Famer.

I've hinted at it in the past, but in my view, Shanahan was an All-Star, but not a Hall Of Famer. He reached the 50-goal plateau twice, both times before the Clutch-And-Grab Dead Puck Era, the second being his lone 100-point season; in both instances, he played on a line with Brett Hull, who had more goals than he did. He failed to score 30 goals eight times in a 21-season career (notwithstanding lockout-shortened seasons), and never won a scoring title of any kind; as a matter of fact, he only finished in the top-5 for goals once, finishing fifth in 1993-94 with 52, his career-high. He only twice finished in the top-10 for points, finishing eighth in 1993-94 (with 102) and tenth in 1996-97 (with 88), yet stands 26th in career points (with 1354) because he played seemingly forever; having suited up for 1524 games, he is not a point-per-game player despite playing eight seasons before the New Jersey Devils made it so that the entire league started playing anti-hockey.

And his three Stanley Cups came before the salary cap, when the Detroit Red Wings spent all the money in the world to ice the likes of Shanahan, Hull and Luc Robitaille in bit roles for the chance of buying themselves at least a Conference Finals finish every season between 1995 and 2005. Prior to that, his Devils, St. Louis Blues and Hartford Whalers never amounted to much, and later in his career, it was more of the same with the Rangers and his second stint in Jersey.

That being said, he's the only NHLer with career stats that include over 600 goals and 2000 penalty minutes, and he has had a few noteworthy postseasons, such as the Cup-winning 1996-97 and 2001-02 Wings teams, where he finished second in points both times, first behind Sergei Fedorov, then tied with Fedorov behind Steve Yzerman.

Again, "star player" material, just not any performances for the ages.

Mikhail Shtalenkov Autograph Card

Technically, it was supposed to come next year, but with the pre-season injuries list to the Anaheim Ducks piling on, the Edmonton Oilers have a legitimate shot at winning their division this very season - and I personally think they will.

They have an excellent mix of high-end talent (Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Cam Talbot), mid-to-high-end talent (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan Strome), grit (Milan Lucic, Patrick Maroon, Zack Kassian, Eric Gryba), surprisingly good offensive defensemen (Oscar Klefbom, Andrej Sekera), defensive defensemen (Adam Larsson, Kris Russell), youth up front (Tyler Benson, Kailer Yamamoto, Anton Slepyshev), and youth out back (Darnell Nurse, Matt Benning, Caleb Jones, Ethan Bear), and after last season, they now have playoff experience as well, having eliminated the San Jose Sharks and pushed the Ducks to seven games.

In many ways, they remind me of the Oilers of the late 1990s, which featured the likes of Bill Guerin, Doug Weight, Mike Grier, Ryan Smyth, Josef Beranek, Roman Hamrlik, Todd Marchant, Rem Murray, Janne Niinimaa, Kelly Buchberger and Georges Laraque.

One player who made a brief appearance on those teams was Mikhail Shtalenkov, a former star for the USSR's Moscow Dynamo (1985-92, 2000-02) who went 12-17-3 with a 2.67 GAA and .896 save percentage in 34 games with the Oilers in 1998-99. He wore #35 in Edmonton, which is perfect for my Oilers Numbers Project thanks to the gold signed insert version of card #204 from In The Game's 1998-99 Be A Player set:

It shows him wearing the Oilers' beautiful dark blue (away) turn-of-the-millennium uniform, with the "oil driller" shoulder patches; it is hard-signed in thin black sharpie.

In the NHL, Shtalenkov spent most of his time with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks (five seasons), as well as parts of two seasons (19 games total) with the Phoenix Coyotes, and 19 games with the Florida Panthers, before returning to the Dynamo in 2000-01, for two seasons.

Here are his stats from the Russian SuperLeague and while representing his country, whether it was called the USSR/CCCP, the United Team, consisting of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Armenia from the former Soviet Republic (1992 Olympic gold) or Team Russia (1998 Olympic silver):

From HHOF/Legends Of Hockey

It's fairly easy to see that he was better at covering his angles on the wider international ice surface than in North America, where his success was limited to the Rookie Of The Year award (Garry F. Longman Memorial Trophy) in the IHL in 1992-93...

Following his playing career, he turned to coaching. There was an odd incident in 2012 where he neglected to come home for two days after his flight landed, and his wife reported him missing...

Brian Hayward: Three Signed Sharks Cards

Remember the good old days when you could count on the San Jose Sharks to not make the playoffs? Well, according to me earlier today, things are looking bad for the boys in teal this coming season, as I see them finishing 6th in the Pacific Division.

It's not that they don't have top-level talent, they do: GM Doug Wilson has built a strong roster with good upper-end players like Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns and Marc-Édouard Vlasic, who can provide an almost-elite-level 20 minutes per game, plus the 60 games of top-notch goaltending from Martin Jones. Instead, the problem lies within the team's depth and a lack of youth among their prospects, considering none of Danny O'Regan (23 years old, C, point-per-game AHLer), Julius Bergman (21, D), Antoine Bibeau (23, G), Marcus Sorensen (25, LW), or Radim Simek (25, D) are under the age of 20, and some are already in their mid-20s.

It's not as bad as the Sharks' inaugural season, mind you, when a rookie by the name of Pat Falloon, whom many (not me) see as a failed draft pick or, worse, a "bust", led the team in every offensive category with 25 goals, 34 assists and 59 points in 79 games. Those would be half-decent numbers in 2017, but they were extremely low in 1991-92. So low that he was also a -32, which was in a three-way tie (with Jayson Moore and Pat MacLeod) for fourth-worse on the team; indeed, Paul Fenton was -39, current GM and then-captain and All-Star Wilson was -38, and Bob McGill was -34.

In net, the highest save percentage was a tie between Jeff Hackett and Wade Flaherty, at .892; followed future All-Star Arturs Irbe (.868), Team Finland goalie Jarmo Myllys (.867) and three-time Jennings Trophy winner Brian Hayward, whose back gave out from all the flailing around required to stop pucks with that porous a defense (.867, in 7 games). In terms of goals-against average, it ranged from 3.84 (Hackett) to 5.02 (Myllys), with three at 4-or-more in between (Flaherty at 4.38, Irbe at 4.47 and Hayward at 4.92).

It was while injured that Hayward caught the broadcasting bug, as he would serve as colour commentator for Sharks games when he was sidelined, until he retired and the expansion Anaheim Mighty Ducks came calling and offered him to do the job for them... fives times. He declined for a while, wanting to finish his MBA at Cornell University instead.

He did eventually agree and, 23 years later, he's still there, occasionally taking on double-duties with Hockey Night In Canada and on NBC. It was during one of those double-broadcasts in the playoffs that I crossed his path at the Bell Centre, where he took a black sharpie to sign cards featuring him wearing the Sharks' inaugural uniforms.

Let's start with the white (then-home) uniform, for which all players posed with the same, generic #91 jersey, on card #59 from Upper Deck's 1991-92 Series 1 set:

For the teal (then-away) uniform, I decided to go with two cards from the Topps brand:

On the left, possibly in the middle of one of his patented two-legged pad slides, is card #436 from the 1992-93 Topps set, while the picture on the right - also known as card #60 from the 1992-93 Bowman set, of which I have an unopened box for sale or trade, if anyone is interested - is probably from a pre-game warmup. What I like on the Bowman card is that he's two years removed from asking for a trade away from the Montréal Canadiens, but is still wearing Lefebvre pads, hand-made made by then-Habs trainer Gaétan Lefebvre for Patrick Roy and other butterfly goalies. Lefebvre produced these from 1987 until roughly 1995 for close friends and their families, but had already drastically reduced production when Roy started using all-Koho equipment prior to the 1992-93 season.

Marc Denis: Two Autographed Cards

One thing we know about the Columbus Blue Jackets is that they're really good, extremely balanced, and deep at almost every position. We can add that they have a shrewd GM in Jarmo Kekalainen who is as good at signing reasonable contracts with his RFAs as he is good at winning trades, and that's without mentioning that as head scout for the Ottawa Senators and St. Louis Blues, he had the best eye for talent in the league, as he was responsible for the drafting of such stars and sleeper picks as Marian Hossa, Ray Emery, Martin Havlat, Alex Pietrangelo, T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund, David Perron and David Backes. I predict the Jackets will finish second in the Metropolitan Division this year and should, legitimately, be looked at to win their first playoff series in team history.

Another hockey expert I like to link to the Blue Jackets is their former #1 goalie Marc Denis, who is now the hockey analyst for TV station RDS. In my opinion, he's the best in the business. Sure, he has to say that every Carey Price save is a work of art because his network happens to own part of the Montréal Canadiens, but he is also always insightful, particularly when it comes to the tactical side of the game, as well as defensive positioning and goaltending. It helps that he was the goalie coach for the Chicoutimi Saguenéens at the turn of the decade.

Stylistically, like every Quebecer in his (and my) age range, he was a pure butterfly stopper, emulating Patrick Roy. The initial King of Butterfly Saves, Hall Of Famer Tony Esposito, once said of Denis: "(He) has one of the brightest futures in the game. He has shown the ability to dominate a contest." The year after that quote, Denis appeared in 77 games for the Jackets, setting an NHL record for most minutes played with 4511.

He signed two cards (in black sharpie) from his days in Columbus for me last season, both showing him wearing their then-home white uniform; first, here is card #33 from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Heroes set, showing him receiving shots during a pre-game warmup:

And finally, here is card #68 from UD's 2000-01 Ice set, an amazing see-through plastic card that this scan does not do justice to:

Of course, the back has the reverse of that picture to go with statistics; notice how the signature doesn't penetrate his body:

Year in and year out, Ice and Artifacts are the best-looking and most spectacular cards on the market. I have had this card for years, and I still get happy just looking at it - the autograph just adds to my pleasure.

Semyon Varlamov Dual Jersey Card

Everything went wrong for the Colorado Avalanche last season, and I predict more of the same this year, with a second-straight last-place finish. This time, though, they will even be surpassed by the Vegas Golden Knights, an expansion team that had a grand total of two players before the expansion draft in late June.

GM Joe Sakic opted to protect Semyon Varlamov instead of Calvin Pickard in a bizarre move, considering the Golden Knights were extremely unlikely to pick a 29-year-old veteran goalie with health issues who has two years left with a $5.9M cap hit when Marc-André Fleury and Petr Mrazek were also available, to say nothing of talented unproven quantities like Philipp Grubauer and Antti Raanta.

It's not like Varlamov doesn't have the tools to succeed; after all, we're talking about a former first-round draft pick (23rd overall, Washington Capitals, 2006) who once finished second in Vezina and fourth in Hart Trophy voting. And goalies using mostly a butterfly style tend to have their hips and groins act up as they enter their 30s, but with proper care can get operated on and continue playing at a high level, so there's the high probability that last season's procedure will give him five more years at elite status.

It's just that Pickard had shown to have similar potential should he find consistency and is young enough to not have had that patch of injury-related hard luck, while Varlamov had been on a four-season slide, statistically-speaking. Of course, a huge chunk of that falls on the Avs being a terrible, terrible team with no defense to speak of during the entirety of Sakic's tenure with the club - and perhaps one can qualify its depth during the Greg Sherman years as questionable as well.

That being said, I've been waiting for years to feature this beautiful card, #TS-SV from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Artifacts set and Treasured Swatches sub-set:

It shows Varlamov wearing the Avs' white (then-away) uniform in a holding position, either while play is in the offensive zone or waiting on a face-off, and features two matching game-worn jersey swatches.

Jimmy Howard Dual Jersey Card

This summer, the Detroit Red Wings surprised a good number of onlookers and pundits by protecting Jimmy Howard and offering Petr Mrazek as bait for the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft; Vegas ended up plucking Tomas Nosek from the Wings instead, after the Pittsburgh Penguins added a draft pick to entice them to pick Marc-André Fleury.

We now know that it had much to do with Mrazek not being a good team player, having requested Howard be traded despite not performing well enough to be slotted as the #1 goalie himself.

But what of the merits of Howard? Hasn't be been on a straight decline ever since he signed his extension in 2013? Not exactly.

He has been injured quite a few times and hasn't suited up in 60 games or more since 2010-11, but part of that is also linked with platooning with Mrazek, who'd been groomed to be the Wings' next #1 since the day he was drafted.

Injuries notwithstanding, Howard has had a GAA below 2.50 in five of his eight full seasons in the NHL, and below 2.30 in four; his save percentage was below the .910 mark in just two of those, and he finished with GAAs of 2.79 and 2.80 those two years as well, including in 2010-11, when a .908 save percentage was near the average for an NHL starter.

Last season, before missing three months with a sprained knee, he ranked in the top-3 for wins, save percentage and GAA; he finished with a 2.10 GAA and .927 save percentage, because the Team USA alumnus's skill set has his well-equipped to deal with the current trend of players shooting from any angle to boost their Corsi rankings. He didn't finish twice in Vezina top-10 voting for naught.

Now, I'm not saying I'd pick him in the first round of my office pool, nor that he's become one of the 15 best in the world*, but if Carey Price is worth $10.5M per year, having the $5.9M Howard in net is a decent value and bang for your buck. Unless, of course, you factor in Marc-André Fleury at $5.75M, Ben Bishop at $4.917, or Braden Holtby at $6.1M...

Here he is sporting the Wings' white (now-away) uniform, on card #TS-JH from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Artifacts set and Treasured Swatches sub-set:

It features two game-worn jersey swatches.

*For the record, my top-15 this year would read: Holtby, Sergei Bobrovsky, Cam Talbot, Devan Dubnyk, Matt Murray, Jonathan Quick, Corey Crawford, Price, Pekka Rinne, Tuukka Rask, Fleury, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Robin Lehner, Martin Jones, and Henrik Lundqvist (out of respect for his past and for when he's on, such as in last year's playoffs). I think the Vezina nods will go to Bishop (winner), Dubnyk, and Talbot.