Markus Granlund Autograph Card

When the NHL season got underway, I traded for this card of Markus Granlund so I could check off #60 from my Flames Numbers Project:

It's card #YM-18 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Contours set and Youth Movement sub-set - numbered 154/399 - showing him wearing the Calgary Flames' white (away) uniform and featuring a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph.

The Nashville Predators' Mikael Granlund's younger brother, Markus started his career like many second-rounders do (45th overall, 2011), remaining in Europe to develop for a couple of extra seasons, then coming to North America and signing a three-year entry-level deal, alternating between the AHL and NHL in his first season, at some point leading AHL rookies in points, earning his first point in his third NHL game, scoring his first NHL goal in his fifth game. He finished the 2013-14 with 25 goals and 21 assists (46 points) in 52 AHL games, and 3 points in 7 NHL games.

2014-15 was spread out a little more evenly, and he collected 17 points in 21 games with the AHL's Adirondack Flames, and 18 points (8 goals) in 48 games with teh Flames; 2015-16 confirmed he was among the AHL elite (9 points in 12 games with the Stockton Heat) but after collecting just 7 poiits in 31 games at the NHL level, the Flames traded him to the Vancouver Canucks for Hunter Shinkaruk, a former firs-round pick (24th overall in 2013), where his 3 points in 16 games to close out the eyar were nothing to write home about.

He had his best season in 2016-17, scoring 19 goals and amassing 13 assists for 32 points in 69 games, displaying the sort of skills and understanding of the game that had him looking like an eventual solid second-liner, but he slipped to 12 points in 53 games in 2017-18 and 22 points in 77 games last year, falling out of favour in Vancouver.

He signed a one-year deal near the league minimum with the Edmonton Oilers last summer, and his points totals have all but dried up, playing part-time minutes on the fourth line, but he seems aware that he's there to help the penalty-kill first and foremost while the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and James Neal take care of the offence.

Who knows where his career will lead him from here, but he's almost half-way in playing for every Canadian team from West to East, so a good bet would be the Winnipeg Jets next, followed by the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators and Montréal Canadiens.

Ben Holmstrom Autograph Card

Ben Holmstrom was one of those undrafted College kids that sign with a professional team when they reach maturity, which is usually seen as less of a risk to the pro team, seeing as the player is already an adult, has been training at school and had more practices than games to learn to play a two-way game. Another risk associated with drafting American College kids is they can refuse to sign with the team that drafted them for four straight years and become free agents, resulting in a wasted pick.

A three-year captain - out of a four-year tenure - of the UMass Lowell River Hawks, Holmstrom signed with the Philadelphia Flyers, appearing in 7 games over five seasons, captaining their AHL affiliate Adirondack Phantoms for the last three.

He then moved onto the Charlotte Checkers for one season, and then the New York Islanders organization, where he captained their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, for four years.

After an injury-plagued season, he signed with the ECHL's Norfolk Admirals last summer, the only team in the league to not have an NHL affiliation; his 4 goals, 5 assists and 9 points in 21 games are rather unimpressive, which leaves me thinking the team signed him to please their leading scorer Josh Holmstrom (18 points in 30 games), his brother.

That being said, Ben is the only one with NHL experience. Here he is as a member of the Flyers on card #SI-HM from Panini's 2013-14 Select set and Signatures sub-set:

The card features a blue-sharpied on-sticker autograph. He looks good in Flyer orange.

This year marks the fourth team with which the Homstrom brothers are teammates; they also played together at UMass-Lowell, in Bridgeport and for the USHL's Sioux Falls Stampede before going to  College.

Danny Gare Autographed Card

Earlier this week, the Buffalo Sabres continued their 50th anniversary celebrations by having a "Founders Night", commemorating the Knox brothers being awarded a new franchise (along with the Vancouver Canucks, two markets that had been passed over in the 1967 expansion).

Sure, that makes the Sabres and Canucks tied for second-longest Stanley Cup drought behind the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the fans there have almost never wavered their support despite having witnessed just two Cup Finals in their history (1975 and 1999), and not having made the playoffs since 2011 - the longest active sequence without postseason play.

That wasn't the case in the 1970s, as the "French Connection" - one of the era's best NHL line's, starring Gilbert Perreault, Richard Martin and René Robert - ensured Buffalo at least made the playoffs practically every season (save for 1973-74). It was adding a secondary All-Star forward like Danny Gare, however, that proved to be the spark that was needed to bring the Sabres to the final round of play.

A short and strong player, Gare willed himself to two 50-goal seasons in the era of the Broad Street Bullies (1974 and 1975 Stanley Cup champions) and Big Bad Bruins - and the third Montréal Canadiens dynasty, of course. It was his character that had his named the Sabres' captain (1977-81) ahead of Perreault (81-85), who may still today be the face of the franchise's first 50 years.

If I were to make an All-Sabres Team, my first unit would be:

Forwards: Perreault, Martin, Robert
Defence: Phil Housley and Lindy Ruff
Goalie: Dominik Hasek
Coach: Scotty Bowman

My second unit would likely be:

Forwards: Pat Lafontaine, Alexander Mogilny, Gare
Defence: Mike Ramsey and Larry Playfair
Goalie: Ryan Miller, slightly ahead of Roger Crozier
Coach: George "Punch" Imlach

Granted, the defence isn't as strong as that of other similar lists for other teams, but the offence, goaltending and coaching is nothing to sneeze at - you might even say "world-class".

Which brings me to card #88 from Topps' 1980-81 Topps set, showing Gare wearing the Sabres' classic blue (away) uniform with the captain's "C" prominent on his chest:

The cards, which he signed in blue sharpie at a card convention in a Toronto suburb nearly 10 years ago, reflects that he had been named as an end-of-season All-Star (2nd Team All-Star). He has also participated in two All-Star Games and played for Team Canada at the 1976 and 1981 Canada Cups (winning in his first attempt, losing to the Soviet Union the second time around).

Nick Paul: Two Autographed Cards

First things first: Nick Paul was a power forward in Juniors who didn't quite live up to that reputation in the AHL afterwards, but with 9 points in 25 games with the Ottawa Senators so far in 2019-20, it feels like the 24-year-old, 6'3", 220-pound winger is getting a feel as how to translate that in the Big Show. However, he'd left Wednesday's game against the Edmonton Oilers in the first period with a neck contusion, so he wasn't playing at 100% against the Philadelphia Flyers this afternoon.

Second: Flyers gonna Flyer. It looks like a bench that has Alain Vigneault to lead it and Michel Therrien, Mike Yeo and Ian Laperriere wants to bring grit back after the Ron Hextall/Dave Hakstol talent-driven years, as the Flyers players took exception to many a hard, legal, quality hit by the Sens to retaliate, cheap-shot and goat Ottawa players into fighting.

Joel Farabee initiated a fight with Jean-Gabriel Pageau of all people for a clean hit Pageau had laid out on his prior - what ever happened to taking note of a guy's number and trying to get him back later? Does Farabee not trust himself enough to put himself in a position to either hit Pageau back or strip him off the puck in a manner that'll make it on a highlights reel? Pageau defended himself ok and threw a decent couple of shots, but someone should clock that rookie to teach him some respect.

Which brings me to Jakub Voracek. I like him a lot and will continue to defend his play and effort (when defensible) even as the 60-point seasons become more common than the 80-point ones, but seriously, it's not his role to pick a fight with Paul after the Sens laid big hits out on Travis Konecky (a masterclass center-ice hit by Mark Borowiecki, the guy who stopped a robbery in Vancouver earlier this week) and Farabee:

It was a case where I had to root for Paul, who dished out a couple of nice uppercuts, not just because the Sens were playing clean and didn't deserve to get called out on their hits, but also because Paul was damn close to having had a concussion just three nights ago and this dickhead chose him as the scapegoat to try to change the momentum of the game.

It did, as the Flyers ended up intimidating their way to a 4-3 win, and now head coach D.J. Smith has to convince his team that the pain they endured in a losing cause wasn't worth it, but perhaps just a tiny bit more pain - 5% more - would have resulted in a win, and that's pain that's worth the effort.

So Nick Paul and Jean-Gabriel Pageau deserve stars in their notebooks today, as does Borowiecki - and the Flyers earned a note in the teacher's binder that they are not mature enough to be patient, not smart enough to be strategic and win clean, not brave enough to fight fire with fire, and not talented enough to keep up with a team that was destined to be a bottom-two this season. They are once again bullies, but probably not tough enough to handle big boys like the Boston Bruins or St. Louis Blues.

Here is Paul wearing the Sens' best-looking jersey of all time, the "Black O", on card #299 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 MVP set:

And here's a close-up of his face, wearing Ottawa's white (away) uniform, on card #P-107 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 Series 2 collections and UD Portraits sub-set:

He signed both "Rookie" cards in blue sharpie last year, when the Sens lost 5-2 against the Montréal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

He suited up for Team Canada at the 2015 World Juniors, and one of his 3 goals (in 7 games) was scored in the final against Team Russia, helping the Canadians win gold on home soil in a 5-4 game.

Ryan Strome Jersey Card

Earlier tonight, New York Rangers forward Ryan Strome shot a puck directly into Montréal Canadiens captain Shea Weber's face, leaving the Norris Trophy candidate bloodied - although Weber wouldn't even miss a shift and would go on to play a game-high 24 minutes.

Strome's been finding more net than face this year, with 6 goals, 18 assists and 24 points in 28 games, with 22 penalty minutes and a +7 rating. He is second only to Artemi Panarin (13 goals, 21 assists, 34 points) in team scoring, playing upwards of 19 minutes per game. All this is factoring in the fact that he only had two assists in his previous five games, he's had a tremendous bounce-back season.

He's 11 points from last year's total of 35, which he had to dress in 81 games to get; his career-high of 17 goals and 50 points (2014-15, New York Islanders) not only seem attainable but well within reach.

It's the type of comeback story that wins a Bill Masterton Trophy if no one has a deadly affliction during the season.

We've been hearing the word "flop" associated with Strome for at least three years now, but the fifth-overall pick of the 2011 draft has climbed up the production chart to 16th of his class, which makes him worthy of a first-round spot, especially considering Nikita Kucherov (58th overall, second round, 1st in points), Johnny Gaudreau 104th overall, fourth round, 3rd in points), Brandon Saad (43rd, second round, 7th), Ondrej Palat (208th, seventh round, 10th), Vincent Trocheck (64th, third round, 13th), and Andrew Shaw (139th, fifth round, 15th) are ahead of him.

It's a safe bet that Kucherov, Gabriel Landeskog (second overall, 2nd in scoring), Gaudreau, Mark Scheifele (seventh-overall, 4th in scoring), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (first-overall, 5th in scoring), Jonathan Huberdeau (third-overall, 6th in scoring), Sean Couturier (eighth-overall, 7th in scoring), defenseman Dougie Hamilton (ninth-overall, 8th in scoring) and Trocheck continue hitting the same type of production for the remainder of their careers with similar aging curves, and it's expected that Saad, Palat and Shaw may regress due to playing more a physical style that lends itself to injuries as times piles on, and I'm betting on Mika Zibanejad (sixth-overall, 9th in points) to hit higher peaks than he had in past years for the next five, so my expectation of their points totals once they've all retired would have them finish in the following order:

1. Kucherov
2. Gaudreau
3. Huberdeau
4. Scheifele
5. Couturier
6. Zibanejad
7. Nugent-Hopkins
8. Landeskog
9. Trocheck
10. Strome
11. Hamilton
12. Rickard Rackell
13. J.T. Miller
14. William Karlsson
15. Jean-Gabriel Pageau
16. Phillip Danault
17. Palat
18. Saad
19. Shaw
20.  Vladislav Namestnikov

Or maybe Palat finishes 13th, but I'm fairly confident about the final positionning for the rest of the guys, with a two-rank buffer at most.

Which is to say that Strome, in less than a full calendar year with the Blueshirts, has even gone up five to eight spots in my own opinion of him. All credit goes to the way he's handling himself in a hard situation, with the pressures of a first-rounder, the near-kiss of death of serving as one of the Edmonton Oilers' worst transactions in recent memory - a one-for-one trade for Jordan Eberle, who it has to be said has been trending downwards in the goal-scoring department - to finding his game as a young veteran on a Rangers team that is going through a complete rebuild and where he was only expected to fill a roster spot, not earn top-six minutes and a new deal.

Which brings me to card #M-RS from Upper Deck's 2015-16 SPX set and Monochromatics sub-set, showing him and the rest of the picture in black-and-white save for the blue on Islanders' home jersey:

It features a matching game-used jersey swatch. Although it's impossible to tell via the scan, the "Monochromatics" text, the swatch's contour, his name and the SPX and Isles' logos are all actually in silver foil. It's a beautiful card and a great sub-set idea.

Anthony DeAngelo Autographed Card

Anthony DeAngelo had a good "first full season" last year, posting 30 points in 61 games with 77 penalty minutes, a points total that had him lead the New York Rangers despite playing in 12 fewer games than his closest pursuer, Kevin Shattenkirk.

This year, he's doing even better from an offensive standpoint, with 7 goals and 20 points in 27 games (and just 17 penalty minutes), and his +1 rating is a nice surprise considering he came with a reputation: that of an aggressive player who needed to keep his anger in check (from his days in Juniors) and a defenseman who refused to play defence (from his AHL days with the Syracuse Crunch as a Tampa Bay Lightning prospect). He was also unable to "stick" with the Arizona Coyotes.

Yet, with Jacob Trouba and Brady Skjei playing like a top pair and the Adam Fox/Ryan Lindgren pair making the argument that they're the best defensemen on the team this year, some are arguing that GM Jeff Gorton should sell high on the talented RFA-to-be, with only UFA Torey Krug being a comparable type of player without a contract for next year, with Dougie Hamilton (20th top scorer in the NHL so far) alone on a similar list of perhaps-available high-producing d-men with a year left on his deal after this one.

Any contender or playoff bubble team looking for an extra spark in their top-four would do well to inquire about his availability, as now would be a good time for the Blueshirts to listen to proposals. I would see him as an upgrade to Justin Schultz and an insurance policy with the oft-injured Kris Letang on the Pittsburgh Penguins, for instance.

Here he is wearing the Sarnia Sting's white (home) uniform on card #82 from In The Game's 2012-13 Heroes And Prospects set:

He signed it in black sharpie during the 2015-16 season, when he played for the Crunch.

Kirk McLean Autographed Card

I must admit I was surprised when Twitter showed #RIPKirk trending among Vancouver Canucks fans with one man specifically asking Canucks fans to tweet a farewell to his father "Kirk", who had "just passed away". It turns out it's either a hoax or just someone sharing the same same name, not the guy featured wearing the team's beautiful 1985-1997 black uniform on card #16 from Donruss' 1995-96 Donruss set:

You might not be able to see it, but Kirk McLean signed it for me in fading black sharpie via snail mail to the Canucks a few years ago. I was a Brian's man myself, but I'm hit with a bit of nostalgia looking at those Vaughn pads and glove (I could do without the brown blocker).

McLean to me is part of the trifecta of Best Canucks Goalies with Roberto Luongo and Daniel Bouchard, not quite the Hall Of Famer Luongo was, but a two-time Vezina nominee nonetheless, the guy who stopped 52 shots in Game 1 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Final to lead Vancouver to a 3-2 win over destiny's New York Rangers.

He won the Molson Cup (most Three Stars selections) honours three times at a time when Pavel Bure and Trevor Linden were on the team, which says a lot about the weight he carried on the ice. He's also participated in the 1990 and 1992 All-Star Games and played for Team Canada at the 1990 World Championships, finishing in fourth place.

In ten and a half years in Vancouver, he got to write a lot of the team's record book, and most of the enviable ones (wins, shutouts) were beaten by Luongo in some 70 fewer games, but he still has those for games played, playoff games played (68 vs 64), playoff wins (34 vs 32) and losses.

he's also played for the New Jersey Devils, Florida Panthers and New York Rangers, but he'll always be Vancouver's Goalie In Black to me. With this regular-sized card, he knocks Luongo's 4x6 picture off my Canucks Numbers Project for #1.

Johan Franzen Jersey Card

It's not getting any better for Mike Babcock's reputation, as Chris Chelios had things to say on the Spittin' Chicklets podcast, and Johan Franzen corroborated he was on the bad end of Babcock's moods, going so far as saying he was “the worst person I have ever met. A great coach, but he's a terrible person, the worst I ever met. He’s a bully who was attacking people. It could be a cleaner at the arena in Detroit or anybody. He would lay into people without any reason.”

So not just scratching Mike Modano playing for his hometown Detroit Red Wings for ten straight games so he could retire with 1500 games played, scratching Jason Spezza in what would have been his first game as a member of his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs because it was against his former team - but actual verbal abuse rough enough to launch a player suffering from a concussion into a full-blown depression.

And Franzen came to Detroit the same year Babcock started, the 2005-06 season, playing two games in 2015-16, the year after Babcock left - and had been on LTIR since.

The Mule wasn't just a bit player who won an Olympic gold medal with Team Sweden in 2006 and a Stanley Cup with the Wings in 2008; he had 18 points in 16 games during that Cup run and 23 points in 23 games the following team when the Wings lost the the Pittsburgh Penguins in 7 games. He holds the team records for most game-winning goals in a single month (6), most goals in a single playoff series (9), most game-winners in a playoff year (5), most points in a playoff game (6), shares the team record for most consecutive playoff point streak (12 games, with Gordie Howe) and the mark for most goals in a post-season (13, with Henrik Zetterberg) and the NHL record for most points in a 40-game series (9).

In my lifetime, he's probably the third-best playoff performer I've seen play for Motown, after Nicklas Lidstrom and Zetterberg, ahead of Pavel Datsyuk, Mike Vernon, Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan and Sergei Fedorov.

His regular-season numbers were nothing to sneeze at either, with four 25-goal seasons in five years - with a high of 34 in 2008-09 - and the one where he didn't put up those numbers on an even better pace, with 10 goals, 11 assists and 21 points in 23 games in 2009-10.

At 6'4" and 230 pounds, he wasn't physically weak, in case carrying the Wings on his back in the postseason didn't clue you in on that. He wasn't mentally weak either. But he still hasn't recovered from the physicality of the game coupled with the PTSD that came with Babcock piling on with his own shit.

I hope he can continue to improve as he turns 40 in 20 days, and lives a great retirement. He's more than earned it.

Here he is wearing the Red Wings' white (away) uniform on the dual jersey silver version of card #41 from Upper Deck's 2012-13 Artifacts set, numbered 80/125:

I got this one on Ebay a couple of weeks ago hoping to talk about Franzen again eventually, I just had no idea it would come so soon. It features two red game-worn jersey swatches.

Mark Borowiecki: Two Autographed Cards

They call him "Borocop" and the nickname proved to be truer than ever today, as Mark Borowiecki of the Ottawa Senators thwarted a theft in Vancouver ahead of tonight's game against the Vancouver Canucks.

Essentially, a man stole something from the back of a vehicle, tried to flee with it on a bike, BoroCop ran after him, clothes-lined him, wrested him, retrieved the bag and called the police. And this being Vancouver, the police have a word of warning:

As this did happen on Dec. 1, it’s the start of the holiday season, we are going to see more and more parcels in the back of vehicles and the front of vehicles. We’re asking people: keep your property in your car safe, keep it secure and out of sight.

I hate that we're there, in this day and age, that someone's stuff is only theirs until someone else takes it away and where folks are being spied on by the State and the police are militarized yet no one ever seems to catch petty criminals.

At least there are god people like Borowiecki, who we can watch 82 times a year perform his craft of defending his own zone and looking like a superhero on a card like #347 from Panini's 2011-12 Pinnacle set:

It's a dark, silver foil in the same vein as Upper Deck's Black Diamond series.

Here he is on the more classic card #486 from Upper Deck's 2016-17 Compendium Series 2 (Blue parallel, which one gets for redeeming 10 "regular" base cards on E-Pack) set:

Both feature him wearing the Sens' white (now-away) uniform; he signed them during the 2017-18 season in blue sharpie.

Eric Hartzell Autograph Card

Most Hobey Baker Award winners don't have a huge NHL career, and the finalists are oftentimes career minor-leaguers. Such is the case with Eric Hartzell, who starred and had tremendous numbers for the Quinnipiac University Bobcats, leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to sign him to a one-year entry-level contract.

He only appeared as a backup once with the main team but had an excellent season with the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2013-14, sharing the "Hap" Holmes Award as the league's best goalie, but it was mostly an ECHL and European thing after that magical season.

His final stint in the ECHL, with the Quad City Mallards, ended when the team folded at the end of the 2017-18 season. He never found work between the pipes after that, retiring at age 28, but I hear he may be a teacher at a hockey school in the summer.

And that's the difference between an undrafted player and one where the team feels forced to keep giving some guys chances despite pedestrian numbers on the long term - think Scott Darling, James Reimer and Carey Price - often rewarded with untradeable contracts to boot.

Here he is stopping pucks during warm-ups on the signed version of card #260 from Panini's 2013-14 Select set and Dual Rookie Class sub-set:

It features a blue-sharpied, on-sticker autograph and shows him wearing the Pens' then-white (away) uniform. I'd like to get some ECHL and European cards of him signed one day.