Marek Zagrapan Autograph Card

Slovakian prospect Marek Zagrapan was a first round pick (13th overall) of the Buffalo Sabres in 25, after his first of two 80+ -point seasons in the LHJMQ with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens. Unfortunately, he was never able to transpose his offensive prowess to the AHL, with 38-, 40- and 49-point seasons with the Rochester Americans and Portland Pirates.

He moved back to Europe prior to the 2009-10 season, knowing full well he was too far behind in the Sabres' depth chart at center: Derek Roy, Tim Connolly, Jochen Hecht, Paul Gaustad, Tyler Ennis, Adam Mair, Matt Ellis and Cody McCormick were all ahead of him!

He has since played in 3 different European leagues (the KHL, the Czech league, and the Swedish SM-liiga), never averaging more than 0.33 points per game.

This card was a signed insert found in packs of In The Game's 2007-08 Heroes And Prospects set (card #A-MZ).

Mathieu Garon Signed Team Postcard

He has a winning record in the NHL (139-122-29), a career GAA of 2.83 and a .904 save percentage, yet he has only once played more than 50 games in a season - 63 for the Los Angeles Kings in 2005-06.

A second round pick of the Montréal Canadiens (44th overall) on the strength of having been the CHL's goalie of the year in Juniors, the same round that has given the team Patrick Roy and José Théodore. Unfortunately for Garon, he was behind Theodore and Jeff Hackett on the depth chart, which cost him some time, and eventually led to his trade to the Kings (for Radek Bonk and Cristobal Huet).

Ironically, I got this 2002-03 team postcard signed at the same pre-season event that netted me this Hackett autograph. It shows him wearing the Habs' white (home) uniform, and he signed it in black sharpie.

He currently warms the bench for the Tampa Bay Lightning as they figure out if they want to have Anders Lindback as their goalie of the future.

Jonathan Bernier Swatch Card

Jonathan Bernier kind of requested a trade last summer, when the Los Angeles Kings signed Jonathan Quick to a long-term contract pretty much ensuring he would be a second-stringer if he remained in L.A. He did retract himself when the season started, though, but not before winning the Spengler Cup with a stacked Team Canada in Switzerland during the lock-out and demonstrating he can, indeed, tend the nets on a daily basis in the NHL.

He has had a lot of success at lower levels: he was the LHJMQ playoff MVP in 2007, was drafted in the first round (11th overall) in 2006, played in the AHL All Star Game, and won the AHL best goalie award, the Baz Bastien trophy.

He shows a lot of promise, but has yet to impose himself as the go-to guy in the big show. Unfortunately for him, 50 goalies are drafted each year by NHL teams, from 30-some different leagues, and there are only 30 starters in the NHL... time is inevitably running out. He could end up having a career similar to that of Martin Biron, which is very respectable, just not star(ter) material.

This photo shoot-worn black swatch comes from Upper Deck's 2007-08 Series 2 set (card #RM-JB, part of the Rookie Materials sub-set). I almost always like the Kings' uniforms, and this one was pretty cool.

Kirk Muller Autograph Card

The Carolina Hurricanes stand at 2-3-0 to start the season, good for 12th in the East. We'll see how things pan out, but I have to say Kirk Muller didn't choose the easiest team to start a coaching career with. Sure, they have decent talent in the system, but on the current team, they have one top line (Eric and Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner), one of the 10 best goalies in the league (former Conn Smythe winner Cam Ward) and offensive defenseman Joe Corvo, but little depth; should injuries occur, they'll be more or less sending out an AHL team to compete against NHLers.

Captain Kirk knows his way around the game, though. He was almost a #1 overall draft pick (he fell second to Mario Lemieux), captained two teams (the New Jersey Devils for many years, and the Montréal Canadiens temporarily, part of the 4 guys who got to wear the C between Guy Carbonneau and Saku Koivu between 1994 and 1999), won two Stanley Cups (Habs and Dallas Stars) and nearly scored 1000 points - he was stopped at 959, in 1349 games, to go with his 66 points in 110 playoff games. He has also participated in 6 All-Star Games, and represented Team Canada six times, be it at the World Juniors (1984), Olympics (1984) and World Championships (1985, 19856, 1987 and 1989) as well as made the NHL team at Rendez-Vous '87.

This is a signed insert from Pinnacle Brands' 1997-98 Pinnacle Be A Player (card #121). I sent Muller 4 cards when he was the Habs' assistant coach three years ago, and never got them back, so I was happy to pull one of these last year, although he's obviously wearing the Florida Panthers' white (home) jersey, not one I mostly identify him with...

Matt Stajan: 5 Autographed Items

There are many things I don't get about Matt Stajan, and they all have to do with other people's perceptions of him.

I don't understand Leaf fans who thought he was a top-line center (although those expectations can come from being a second-round pick), and I don't get Calgary fans who think he's a disappointment.

I've always seen him as a reliable second-liner, a better passer than scorer (he's never scored more than 16 goals, but gotten at least 14 five different times) who, when playing with average players, can get 30-some points, and can reach 50 when surrounded with better talent, say filling in for an injured player, or getting good powerplay minutes.

It may have been unfair to him to have been the key player going back to the Calgary Flames when the Toronto Maple Leafs traded for Dion Phaneuf, but that's not his fault, and in his defense, Phaneuf's stock value had fallen somewhat.

I'd sent Stajan 5 cards on March 19th, 2012 - he kept two and signed the rest in black sharpie, adding the correct jersey number on each card - 14 with the Leafs, 18 with the Flames - but he also signed both of the insert cards I included to protect the cards, so I still ended up with 5 signed items, so all's good.

Here are the cards he sent back, first with the Leafs:

From Upper Deck's 2005-06 SP Authentic set (card #95), sporting the white (home) jersey they spent most of the 2000s in (with the TML on the shoulders):

And from Upper Deck's 2009-10 Victory set (card #180), the third jersey from a few seasons ago, with the stylized leaf crest:

Finally, one with the Flames, from Panini's 2010-11 Score (card #103):

The Flames' white (away) uniform - as seen here - is one of the few where the piping doesn't make me gag. Part of that's probably due to its only being subtle on the sleeves, leaving the chest well alone. I also dig the team's 30th anniversary logo on the chest.

Guillaume Latendresse Jersey Card

Guillaume Latendresse is a polarizing figure in the NHL, and in Montréal especially. Drafted by the Montréal Canadiens in the second round in 2005, expectations were high on the kid, and only raised higher when during his first training camp, at age 18, he was the best player on the ice for the Habs, prompting the adoring Centre Bell crowd to chant ''Gui, Gui, Gui'' every time he touched the puck. He was sent back to juniors that year, mostly so he could learn to dominate at that level and to have a chance at the World Juniors (he won gold), but made the team the following season.

I've talked about his first year with the Minnesota Wild in a previous post, so I'll have a quick mention for his injury-plagued final two seasons with that team: in 2010-11, suffering from a sports hernia and a torn labium in the hip, he played in only 11 games, gathering 6 points to go with 8 penalty minutes and a +2 rating; in 2011-12, he played in 16 games, scoring 5 goals and totaling 9 points with another hip injury and concussion problems. The Wild let him go, but his points-per-game ration was still good for third on the team for players with more than 10 games played.

This summer, he was picked up by the Ottawa Senators, and I predicted the team would finish second in their division and be well positioned for the playoffs, and added that I thought 'Tender' would be one of ten 25-goal scorers this season - my reasoning is that it's easier to carry momentum in a 48-game schedule than 82... On a team with such sublime passers as Jason Spezza and Kyle Turris, pure snipers like Latendresse can do a lot of damage to opposing teams.

I saw this card going for $3.99 on Ebay a couple of weeks ago and couldn't help myself. It's from In The Game's 2005-06 Heroes And Prospects set (card #GUJ-28), and contains a white swatch of jersey that was used in a Drummondville Voltigeurs game.

4 Gord Murphy Autographed Cards

It's a long-belated post, because while I sent Gord Murphy these four cards on April 11th, 2012, he not only sent them back, signed in black sharpie, on May 16th, but also signed an insert card, which I have misplaced. I wanted to write about all the items at once, but now I'm afraid it might take forever...

Murphy is one of those relatively unlucky players that defied expectations (he was a 9th-round pick, 189th overall) to become the top offensive defenseman of three different teams, yet will never gain support for the Hall Of Fame, while similar players (Larry Murphy, for one) have been elected.

The Philadelphia Flyers, who drafted him, were the first beneficiaries of his talent, and he was good for some 40 points per season while he was there, but they traded him to the Boston Bruins midway through the 1991-92 season, essentially for Garry Galley, another offensive defenseman.

These cards were from that period, first in the home uniform, from Score's 1992-93 Score (French Canadian Version), card #29 in the set - notice some corners are dented; those are the risks of sending through the mail:

Also, the away (black) jersey the Bruins wore for most of my youth, from Pro Set's 1992-93 Parkhurst (French Canadian Version), card #227 in the series:

As the 1992-93 season brought injuries into the mix, Murphy was left unprotected for the expansion draft, and swiftly chosen by the Florida Panthers, with whom he spent 6 seasons, including a Cup run in 1996 that ended in a 4-game sweep by the Colorado Avalanche. Of this period I sent these two cards, both of him wearing the team's white (home) uniform, first from Pinnacle Brands' 1994-95 Pinnacle set (card #141):

And also this card, #161 in the series, from Donruss' 1995-96 Donruss set:

In 1999, the Panthers traded him to the Atlanta Thrashers where he played 85 games over two seasons before going back to finish his career with the Bruins for 15 games in 2001-02.

These days, he's back in the Panthers' organization as an assistant coach, which is where I sent these cards; he's helping turn Dmitri Kulikov into a top young NHL point man.

Alex Tanguay Jersey Card

I wrote about another Alex Tanguay jersey card two and a half years ago, when he had just returned to the Calgary Flames. Since then, he's had a 22-goal, 69-point campaign in 2010-11 (in 79 games), and 49 points in 64 games last year. He has also scored a goal so far tonight.

He is three assists short of 500 in his career, and has 59 points in 98 career playoff games - and I predicted that the Flames would make them this year, so I'm guessing he'll be adding to that total. With the Flames, he's 1-7-8 in 13 playoff games.

This card (#FF-AT in the series) is from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Ice set, one I eagerly await every year. It and Artifacts are the two best-looking hockey sets ever made, and improve each year. The white jersey swatch is guaranteed to have been used in an NHL game.

Christian Proulx Autographed Card

I mentioned this card in a recent Brent Bilodeau post detailing a trip to Albany to watch an AHL playoff game with my family when I was 16.

Christian Proulx was drafted in the seventh round by the Montréal Canadiens in 1992 (164th overall), after averaging half a point per game to go with his 3-plus penalty minutes per game; I really thought he'd be a mainstay on defense with the Habs for a while, but he only ended up playing 7 games for them (and in the NHL in total), all in 1993-94, going 1-2-3 with 20 PIMs, keeping pretty much the same pace in the NHL as in juniors, stats-wise.

Until 2006-07, he would jump from league to league, country to country, in the hopes of securing full-time employment playing hockey, from the AHL to the IHL to Italy to Germany - first and second divisions - to the QSMHL to the LNAH. From 1994-95 to 2007, he played for no less than 12 different teams.

I saw a few of the games he played for the Laval Chiefs in the LNAH near the end of his career and think I got some cards signed then as well, but I couldn't get a hold of them so far; I'm keeping an eye out, for sure.

This card, from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set (card #8) was signed in blue sharpie. He added his jersey number (3) to the signature.

Guy Hebert Autograph Card

I'm preparing for two hockey pool drafts (a keeper in its second year tomorrow, a one-season deal on Saturday), and my 2013 predictions for my regular blog, and I have to say I don't think the Anaheim Ducks will be making the playoffs this year, which doesn't bode well for my keeper pool, seeing as I have both Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf in it...

But it got me thinking about this Guy Hebert card from In The Game's 1999-00 Be A Player Millenium Signature Series (card #5) - yes, another one from that set - signed in thin black sharpie!

I love Hebert's position in this card, awaiting the shot, focused, looking like a gladiator, his equipment white like his Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim (home) jersey.

Since the Ducks changed their name, we can almost view the Mighty Ducks as either a period of the team's history, or just a different team altogether, and Hebert, to me, pretty much represented the team. Sure, many will point to Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne as the key figures, but Kariya never produced as much without Selanne, who was lucky enough to also have Saku Koivu share to a special bond with.

But Hebert made Team USA 4 times (at the 1990 Goodwill Games, 1994 World Championships, 1996 World Cup and 1998 Nagano Olympics), the NHL All-Star team and, most importantly, had a character named after him in the short-lived animation TV series.

Also, apart from his first 37 NHL games (played with the St. Louis Blues) and last 13 (New York Rangers), he played all of his NHL games in Anaheim.