Michel Goulet Swatch Card

Wayne Gretzky doesn't own all the NHL offensive records; he doesn't even own all goal-scoring records. As a matter of fact, as far as single-season game-winning goals, Gretzky's best season (1981-82) ties for 12th (with the fifth-highest total), with 12.

Russian scoring machine Alex Ovechkin hit 11 three times: in 2007-08, 2010-11 and 2014-15.

The leader this season, with some 25 games (seven weeks) remaining in the schedule, is Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, with 9.

The player with the most pro rated to the fewest games played is Conney Weiland, who scored 14 in just 44 games with the Boston Bruins in 1929-30; as a matter of fact, he had 43 goals and 30 assists for 73 points that year, 12 ahead of teammate Dit Clapper. The Bs led the league with a 38-5-1 record but failed to defend their Stanley Cup Champion title, losing to the Montréal Canadiens in a three-game sweep.

However, only two players share the distinction of having scored 16 game-winners in the same season: Phil Esposito did it twice with Boston (1970-71 and 1971-72), and Michel Goulet with the Québec Nordiques in 1983-84.

This card pays tribute to that achievement:

That's card #RA-MGO from Panini's 2013-14 Crown Royale set and Regal Achievements sub-set; it features a white game-worn jersey swatch and the artistic rendition depicts him wearing the Nordiques' blue (away) uniform.

I got it in a trade in exchange for three or four "regular" Crown Royale jersey cards.

Randy Carlyle Autographed Card

It's finally done.

After a 12-game losing streak earlier this season and riding a current seven-loss streak and losing 19 of their last 21 games, the Anaheim Ducks have relieved head coach Randy Carlyle of his position; GM Bob Murray steps in to fill the vacant slot until the end of the year.

We're talking about a head coach who, in two stints with the Ducks, made the playoffs in seven out of eight full seasons, is the franchise's all-time wins leader (with 384), brought them a Stanley Cup, two other Conference Finals (including one in 2016-17) and had a 111-74-35 record in his second go-round despite having been handed an aging roster that has consistently under-performed in comparison to its salary cap hit.

For instance, this season, none of their leading scorers are close to the point-per-game average, and most are along the 0.5 line:

Corey Perry has missed most of the year and only registered an assist in 5 games; the ghost of Ryan Kesler has 4 goals, 2 assists, 6 points, 29 penalty minutes and a -21 rating in 48 games.

Is the coach to blame, or the players? A bit of both? You can't fault Ryan Getzlaf's presence and will, as he's answering the media after every game saying the team needs to respond and play better, but if he can't rally the troops, maybe he's no longer worthy of the "C" on his chest. He sure can't carry the team's offense on his own anymore, leaving John Gibson to handle the load of the entire team between the pipes.

I'm not certain this was Carlyle's curtain call as a coach, either, because a team like the Philadelphia Flyers may want to return to a heavier style of play, or the Boston Bruins in the future; heck, if the Edmonton Oilers are waiting for Murray to get fired in the summer, who's to say the duo wouldn't get reunited in the tundra?

Regardless of your opinion of Carlyle as a coach, however, the fact remains that he was a very good defenseman in his day. He won the Norris trophy in 1980-81 and captained two teams: the Pittsburgh Penguins (1981-84) and Winnipeg Jets (1989-91).

He retired having scored 148 goals with 499 assists for 647 points with 1400 penalty minutes in 1055 regular-season games, and another 9 goals, 24 assists, 33 points and 120 PIMs in 69 playoff games. He had been drafted in both the NHL (Toronto Maple Leafs, second round, 30th overall) and WHA (Cincinnati Stingers, first round, 7th overall) in 1976.

He also won a silver medal with Team Canada at the 1989 World Championships, playing on a team that included Steve Yzerman, tournament leading scorer Brian Bellows, Kirk Muller, Sean Burke, and teammate Dale Hawerchuk. He tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs after a game against West Germany, but his B sample was found to be clear, so he was awarded his medal.

Here he is wearing the Jets' purple/blue (away) uniform (with a head shot in the white/home jersey) on card #288 from Score's 1991-92 Pinnacle (French-Candian Edition) set:

He signed it in blue sharpie when he was the Leafs' head coach (2012-15).

Slater Koekkoek Autograph Card

A couple of weeks ago, the Tampa Bay Lightning essentially gave up on trying to find room for Slater Koekkoek int heir lineup, sending him to the Chicago Blackhawks for Jan Rutta. Koekkoek, on the verge of turning 25, had been a first-round draft pick (10th overall in 2012); Rutta is an undrafted 28-year-old Czech star who is proving to be too good for the AHL but who also failed to make the Hawks a decent defensive team.

Ultimately, Koekkoek's failing will have been that he was unable to knock off a veteran from a line-up that included Jason Garrison, Anton Stralman, Andrej Sustr and Braydon Coburn, which morphed into the star-studded current lineup of Norris winner Victor Hedman, All-Star Ryan McDonagh, Stralman, eventual Norris winner Mikhail Sergachev, Coburn and a dependable second-rounder from 2015, Erik Cernak.

Not that he wasn't good. It's just that every time he finally found a roster spot, GM Steve Yzerman (maybe accidentally) added one or two left-handed defensemen that slotted ahead of him, with the  latest instances being former New York Rangers captain McDonagh and former Montréal Canadiens first-rounder Sergachev (actually, both are technically former Habs first-rounders).

It's hard for a young player to fight for ice time on a championship-caliber team - which the Bolts have been for years now - especially a young defenseman. Tampa will likely continue to be the cream of the crop for a few years as well. The Hawks, on the other hand, have big decisions looming with another expansion draft coming and two defensemen (Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook) with no-trade clauses they'll have to protect unless they can find a way of letting (at least one of) them go before the end of next season.

It may be of little comfort to a guy like Koekkoek who is about to enter his prime and might have had his development stalled a bit by remaining in the stands a tad too long in Florida, but an actual NHL roster spot will be available for him in 2020, in Chicago, Seattle or elsewhere.

Here he is wearing the Bolts' white (away) uniform, on card #152 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Trilogy collection and Rookie Premieres (Level 2) sub-set:

It's numbered #379/499 and features an on-sticker blue-sharpied signature. The scan made it blueish with green highlights, but to the naked eye, it's actually mostly silver with golden highlights.

Darnell Nurse Autographed Card

As is customary during Super Bowl weekend, the Montréal Canadiens hosted matinee games on Saturday and Sunday against the New Jersey Devils and Edmonton Oilers, respectively.

You may have heard how much of a trainwreck the Oilers are this year, with the firings of head coach Todd McLellan and GM Peter Chiarelli, Milan Lucic's year-long goal drought, the team's inability to find Connor McDavid a winger (save for second-line center Leon Draisaitl filling in at times), and the litany of bizarre-to-comical roster moves, such as, trading reigning NHL MVP Taylor Hall one-for-one instead of with a draft pick, essentially trading proven scorer Jordan Eberle for a player that was put on waivers, signing a goalie no one wanted to a three-year deal...

One of their smarter moves, though, was signing defenseman Darnell Nurse to a two-year bridge deal worth $3.2M per season; if they keep making smart moves, his next deal should be around $5.4M per before a top-dollar long-term deal is made.

Nurse is one of the team's few, good core pieces, with McDavid, Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Oscar Klefbom and Alex Chiasson, in addition to prospects Jesse Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto, Caleb Jones, and Evan Bouchard. That's half the building blocks Stanley Cup contenders have.

Nurse posted two assists in today's overtime loss to the Habs, bringing him to 26 points on the year, in 52 games - the same amount he got in 80 games last year. His next goal, assist and point will be career-highs.

Here he is wearing the Sault-Ste-Marie Greyhounds' red (away) uniform, on card #28 from In The Game's 2013-14 Heroes And Prospects set:

He signed it in thin blue sharpie before the game.

Antoine Vermette Autographed Card

Just a few hours ago, Antoine Vermette announced his retirement from the NHL, having been unable to find a suitor, as he was looking for a job as a checking center on a contending team.

Having already had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup thanks to a short stint with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2014-15 (19 regular-season games, 20 playoff games); his postseason run was memorable, as he tallied 4 goals, 3 assists and seven points, with three of his goals being game-winners, two of them coming in the Cup Final. His 58.9% playoff faceoff wins percentage was also dominant, although it may have ironically cemented his transition from the top-line center he was with the Arizona Coyotes to the defensive specialist he ended his career as.

I mention the Coyotes because he was often among the team leader in points in the parts of five seasons he spent in the desert, but statistically speaking, his best seasons came with the Columbus Blue Jackets (27 goals and 65 points in 2009-10) and Ottawa Senators (24 goals and 53 points in 2007-08), but those teams had better rosters than the Yotes.

At his best, he was one of the very good #2Cs in the NHL, but he didn't necessarily have the #1C prerequisite star power. He was instead better left in the shadows, accumulating Selke Trophy votes in four separate seasons and Lady Byng consideration in 2009-10. He was dependable on both sides of the puck and finished with the ninth-highest career faceoff percentage since the league started keeping tack of such things in 1997.

His worth can certainly be felt in the returns teams got for him in trades: the Sens got a #1 goalie (Pascal Leclaire) and second-round pick from the Jackets for his services in 2009; the Jackets got Curtis McElhinney, a second-rounder and a fourth-round pick from the Coyotes for him in 2012; and the Hawks gave away a defensive prospect and a first-rounder to secure his services for that Cup run in 2015.

I actually met him earlier this winter, and he signed a couple of cards for me, but today, I wanted to showcase an old card that reminds me of when it all started to come together for him, on card #83 from Upper Deck's 2000-01 Upper Deck Prospects set, which he signed in blue sharpie in 2013-14:

It shows him wearing the Victoriaville Tigres' white (home) uniform, sporting the alternate captain's "A" that he would also inherit in Columbus and Arizona. He'd scored 30 goals with 41 assists for 71 points in 71 games the previous season and had just been drafted 55th overall (second round) by the Sens, making the LHJMQ's Mike Bossy Trophy as best prospect.

John Klingberg Jersey Card

Much has been said about the Dallas Stars' disappointing season, but one of the players providing exactly what was expected of him is defenseman John Klingberg, who was one of the best defensemen in the league last year - and three years ago, when he led the entire league for Team Goals While On Ice (with 132).

This season, in just 31 games played (he missed five weeks due to an injury), he's already at 6 goals scored - two fewer than the 8 he scored in 82 games last year - and 25 total points. That's good for fourth on the team, despite playing in 17 fewer games than two of the three teammates who are ahead of him:

There's little doubt that Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov are also having fine seasons, as is rookie defender Miro Heiskanen. I do agree with the Stars' VP Jim Lytes that Jamie Benn could have better numbers, though; until he's 34 (so for the next four-to-five years), Benn should always be flirting with the 40/45-goal mark and the point-per-game ratio - not only does his salary command that, he also actually is that good and important to the Stars, and his power forward style of play is still effective in today's NHL.

Adding star goalie Ben Bishop (currently at 16-12-2 with a 2.37 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in 31 games) and second-line center (and former Ottawa Senators captain) Jason Spezza to the mix, Dallas absolutely should be able to make the playoffs year in and year out if their support staff does the bare minimum. It just hasn't in the past couple of years...

Klingberg's already 26, entering what should be the prime of his career. If he didn't live in the Age Of Erik Karlsson, along with Victor Hedman, Drew Doughty, Roman Josi, P.K. Subban, Mark Giordano, Kristopher Letang, Brent Burns, Seth Jones, and Dustin Byfuglien, I'd say he was the Norris Trophy-winning type, but there is tremendously stiff competition these days.

Hopefully the team helps him reach some level of success.

Here he is sporting the Stars' white (away) jersey (with matching game-worn swatch) on card #GJ-JK from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

I pulled it from an unopened pack in an Upper Deck Mystery Box a couple of weeks ago. He made a Make-A-Wish kid's dream come true with the rest of his teammates around the same time.

Rick Tocchet Autographed Card

(team and product links go to sponsored Amazon products, player links go to related pages on my blog, news links go to source pages)

I thought we could take the opportunity, during the NHL All-Star break, to look at Rick Tocchet's job as head coach of the Arizona Coyotes midway through his second season - possibly midway through his tenure, who knows?

Last season, the Coyotes finished with a 29-41-12 record, "good" for the eighth and final spot in the Pacific division. This was whiz "fancy" stats kid GM John Chayka's second full season with the team - a second major overhaul.

This year, so far, the team stands at 23-23-4, in sixth place in the league's weakest division, just one point ahead of the Edmonton Oilers, and six ahead of the Los Angeles Kings. Its leading scorer is sophomore Clayton Keller who, at 35 points in 50 games, places 90th in the league, meaning there are on average three players (an entire line!) per other team ahead of him. Keller is also -14, one better than star defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson (-15). That puts Keller 598th in the NHL, and OEL 806th. Out of 825 players who have suited up for at least a game this season.

Star goaltender Antti Raanta is out for the season having just played 12 games (5-6 record with a 2.88 GAA and .906 save percentage, middling backup numbers anyway), leaving Darcy Kuemper and Calvin Pickard to shoulder the workload.

Compared to the two teams within their reach - the Vancouver Canucks with Jacob Markstrom and the Anaheim Ducks with the best goalie this year in John Gibson - it seems like the 'Yotes are bringing a plastic spoon to a gun fight.

I'm not sure if Tocchet has what it takes to compete with the best head coaches in the business - the likes of Barry Trotz, Jon Cooper, Peter Laviolette, Ken Hitchcock, Claude Julien, John Tortorella, and Guy Boucher, heck even the unemployed Alain Vigneault and Darryl Sutter, or the KHL-exiled Bob Hartley - but I do feel like he's not given the best tools to give it his best shot, unlike his days coaching the Tampa Bay Lightning when he had a Hall of Famer (Martin St-Louis) and three perennial All-Stars and award-winners (Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards and a young Victor Hedman).

We'll see in due time how he fares.

In the meantime, here's a blast from the past, Tocchet wearing the alternate captain's "A" while playing for the Prince Of Wales Conference at the 42nd All-Star Game in Chicago:

That's card #311 from Pro Set's 1991-92 Series 1 set (the entirely French Canadian version). Those were nice All-Star Game uniforms!

Of note, Tocchet had a goal (assisted by Pat Verbeek and Joe Sakic) and an assist (on a goal by Kevin  Stevens) in an 11-5 loss to the Clarence Campbell Conference in that game, which was his third of four All-Star Games (1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993).

Mark Giordano: Three Autographed Cards

It had been a few quiet years on the "Mark Giordano deserves a Norris Trophy" front - since 2014-15, actually - and it has been given to players who didn't actually deserve it in their winning year of late: Drew Doughty wasn't the best defenseman by a long shot in 2015-16 (Erik Karlsson was, and Kris Letang was second), but he hadn't won one yet, which went against his reputation as one of the best defensemen in the game, so he got the nod; Brent Burns was handed the award in 2016-17 on the strength of his 29 goals and 76 points, but in terms of best defenseman, Karlsson, Victor Hedman and two-time winner Duncan Keith had better all-around numbers and metrics; so Hedman was given the award in 2017-18 despite posting 9 fewer points than the previous year, to make up for losing it then, when a case could have easily been made for P.K. Subban, a now-defensively-capable John Carlson, an MVP-like season for Seth Jones, "fancy stats" winners John Klingberg and Roman Josi, or even Doughty, who may have had his best season ever.

That's Oscars-level legacy recognition, or even worse, Martin Brodeur-level belated and overblown history revising.

If Giordano wins it this year, however, it will be out of merit, not just because he missed out on the final quarter-season of play in 2014-15 when he was away ahead of everyone else in the field. He and Letang are the only two defenders who rank in the top-six in the league in each of the following categories (among defensemen who have logged more than 500 minutes): goals, points, shots, shot attempt share, goal differential, and scoring chance share.

Both post those impressive numbers while consistently playing against the opposition's best five players, which is something Karlsson/Burns and Subban/Josi don't have to do, as they rarely play together and, thus, one is often playing against second-liners.

Both Giordano and Letang play on what is essentially a two-horse show this season, Giordano sharing the spotlight with possible MVP candidate Johnny Gaudreau while Letang is playing with a rejuvenated Sidney Crosby who is playing his most "complete" game ever, which excludes him from MVP and scoring leaders talk but has him in consideration for the Selke Trophy; what separates the two is that the Calgary Flames were supposed to be a bubble playoff team relying on a rookie goalie yet stand atop the Pacific Division, while the Pittsburgh Penguins are perennial Stanley Cup contenders who are stuck middling around the Wild Card race.

Giordano's impact on his team is simply much greater than Letang's, this year. The only thing that stands in their way of being the 1-2 picks is the Toronto-centric hockey media - which votes on these awards - and their craving to have a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs finally get his hands on an individual award, and their voting en masse for Morgan Rielly, who in my view comes far behind (in order) at least Giordano, Letang, Karlsson, Burns, Carlson, Hedman, and Jones, maybe even Thomas Chabot, Josi and Mattias Ekholm.

Time will tell, but the Flames' captain has put himself in position to contend, which is pretty much all he could do.

He was in town with the Flames facing the Montréal Canadiens in October, and signed these three cards in blue sharpie for the occasion, first wearing Calgary's classic uniform on the "Gold" variant of card #64 from Panini's 2013-14 Score set, getting in a shooting lane:

Another classic red picture with the prominent alternate captain's "A", this time carrying the puck up the ice on card #474 from Upper Deck's 2013-14 O-Pee-Chee set:

And finally, the captain's "C" clearly visible, looking for someone to pass the puck to, on the "Canvas" card #C132 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Series 2 collection:

Although undrafted from Juniors, he's definitely making a dent in NHL history as a two-time All-Star, a six-year captain, two-time World Championship silver medalist (2007 and 2010), Spengler Cup winner (2008), and 2015-16 NHL Foundation Award winner. Add a Norris or two, some playoff success, and maybe you're looking at a Hall of Famers; he'd be the second-most prominent undrafted player in my lifetime (after Adam Oates) to make it.

These signed cards will replace his jersey cards as the entry for #5 in my Flames Numbers Project.

Paul Fenton Autographed Card

All the talk surrounding the search for a new General Manager for the Edmonton Oilers got me thinking about one perennial candidate who is no longer in the hunt, Paul Fenton.

A veteran of 411 NHL games over eight seasons, Fenton was a tireless worker who didn't have the most talent in the world but willed himself into a 20-goal season with the Los Angeles Kings in 1988-89 and a team-leading 32 goals with the Winnipeg Jets in 1989-90 (Thomas Steen had missed half the season with an injury).

The Jets probably would have liked to keep him around for his leadership skills, but his trade value was so high that he and top-two defenseman Dave Ellett were bundled and sent to the Toronto Maple Leafs for 40-goal scorer Ed Olczyk and checker Mark Osborne at the beginning of the 1990-91 season. It was the beginning of a busy moving season as he was then bundled with enforcer John Kordic and sent to the Washington Capitals for a fifth-round draft pick (Alexei Kudashov) two months later, and flipped to the Calgary Flames the same day for defensive defenseman Ken Sabourin; come August, the Flames sent him over to the Hartford Whalers for the draft pick that became Joël Bouchard, and the Whalers sent him to the San Jose Sharks when the season started, where Fenton provided much-needed leadership and guidance to the first-year franchise. Going the Whalers' way was Mike McHugh, who never played for the team.

He also suited up for Team USA twice, at the 1985 and 1989 World Championships, totaling 7 points (3 goals, 4 assists) in 19 games.

A funny/ironic thing about Fenton is that while playing for the Boston University Terriers, head coach Jack Parker told him he should "look for a job outside of hockey", i.e. coach talk for "you're not very good", which never came to be, as Fenton kept gravitating around rinks even after his retirement, spending eight years as the Nashville Predators' Director of Player Personnel, then twelve as Assistant-GM. He was a natural fit for former Preds owner / current Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold to fill his team's vacant GM position last summer. after choosing not to renew Chuck Fletcher's contract.

Here he is sporting the Jets' classic "modern" Rangers-like blue uniform, on card #92 from Upper Deck's 1990-91 Series 1 set:

If memory serves correctly, he signed it in black sharpie at the 2009 All-Star Game held in Montréal (or a Preds game really close to that date).

Magnus Pääjärvi: Four Autographed Cards

As is the case every other year for the Edmonton Oilers, it's time for an organizational re-haul... after replacing perennial not-winning coach Todd McLellan with Edmonton native Ken Hitchcock earlier in the season, the Oilers will (likely, hopefully) remove General Manager Peter Chiarelli from his position today.

I will still defend the Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson deal (although a first-rounder should have also went the Oilers' way in that deal), but Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome for Ryan Spooner for, uh, waivers is unforgivable, as was never solidifying the defense or the goaltending position.

Chiarelli inherited the draft pick that became Connor McDavid, who blossomed into the best player on the planet in just his second season; one can forgive playing into McDavid's hand by foregoing the bridge deal between the rookie salary cap and the MVP-like contract he ended up getting, but there was no reason to also do so with Leon Draisaitl. Now, these two superstars account for roughly a third of the team's overall cap, which should fit 23 people. Doing so seriously limits the supporting cast you can surround your stars with, as the Pittsburgh Penguins noticed in the near-decade between their 2009 and 2016 Stanley Cups.

And one of the people under that cap is $6M Milan Lucic, he who hath scored 15 goals in the last year and a half and is under contract until 2022-23.

The three main things the Oilers have been doing wrong in the past decade have been picking some of the wrong guys in the first round, never picking up supporting pieces in the later rounds, and/or not developing their prospects into viable NHL players.

Case in point: Karl Magnus Svensson Pääjärvi, now known simply in NHL circles as Magnus Pääjärvi.

A star player in Sweden who had already medaled twice at the World Juniors (silver in 2008 and 2009) when he was drafted tenth overall (he would add a bronze medal in 2010), he was chosen ahead of the likes of Ryan Ellis (11th), Calvin De Haan (12th), Dmitri Kulikov (14th), Nick Leddy (16th), Chris Kreider (19th), Kyle Palmieri (26th), Ryan O'Reilly (33rd), Jakob Silfverberg (39th), Robin Lehner (46th), Richard Panik (52nd), Tomas Tatar (60th), Tyson Barrie (64th), Cody Eakin (85th), David Savard (94th), Craig Smith (98th), Mattias Ekholm (102nd), Marcus Foligno (104th), Sami Vatanen (106th), Mike Hoffman (130th), Gabriel Bourque (132nd), Marcus Kruger (149th), Anders Lee (152nd), and Erik Haula (182nd).

Now, at 6'3" and 206 pounds with speed and good hands, of course he's worth taking a chance on, same as Kreider. Ahead of talented defensemen like Ellis, Kulikov, Barrie and Ekholm, I'm not sure; ahead of a blue chip goalie like Lehner, perhaps; ahead of hard-working probable point-per-game players like O'Reilly and Hoffman, again, not sure.

But what you do when you land a talent like that is nurture it. That means powerplay time, offensive zone starts, not benching him at every defensive mistake; instill a discipline, a taste for physical effort, a taste for using his body - not necessarily through hard checks (although if he wants to, sure), but at least as a means to protect the puck and carry/shield it to and in the offensive zone.

It's a process that takes years. Five to seven years on someone his size.

The Oilers gave him three years before losing patience, but they still landed a valuable asset in David Perron when they traded Pääjärvi; the St. Louis Blues, on the other hand, never trusted him enough to give him the "candy" minutes, more often than not leaving him on the ice for fewer than 12 minutes per game, then crying about his lack of offensive contribution and unfit defensive zone play.

The Blues ended up waiving him, and the Ottawa Senators pounced on him. They even re-signed him to an affordable one-year, $900K deal over the summer (the type the Oilers should be looking at right now, what with their limited cap space), with GM Pierre Dorion saying:

“We’re happy to have Magnus back in Ottawa. He showed us last season that he can play the game with speed, which fits with the style of play we want our team to exhibit. Magnus is a versatile player who will be able to provide us productive minutes in many situations.”

Speed. Following the team. Productive minutes. In many situations.

Sure, he had six goals in 35 games with the Sens last year and five in 40-some games this year, but as a left winger, he's behind Ryan Dzingel, Brady Tkachuk and Mikkel Boedker at his position, on par with Zack Smith; so the Sens are giving him minutes where they can, including shorthanded, usually with Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who is shaping up to have a Sean Couturier-like career trajectory. One of his goals was a short-hander. One was on a breakaway against Jusse Saros. He even wiped out after a goal last weekend.

He's fun to watch. He'd probably be a lot more fun to watch playing alongside an even faster McDavid.

Here he is wearing the Oilers' ugly practice-like uniform from after the season-long lockout, on card #78 from Upper Deck's 2011-12 Victory set:

And here he is sporting the team's classic white (now-away) uniform, on card #198 from Panini's beautiful 2013-14 Score set:

And here he is wearing Edmonton's classic blue uniform, possibly one of the ten best hockey jerseys of all time:

The card on the left is #192 from Panini's 2011-12 Score set, while the one on the right is #124 from UD's 2011-12 SP Authentic collection.

He signed them in blue sharpie in October 2018, prior to a home game against the Montréal Canadiens. These cards cement him as #91 on my Oilers Numbers Project.