Louis Domingue Autographed Card

For a while there, it looked like Arizona Coyotes goalie Louis Domingue was headed to Europe next year, after GM Don Maloney signed no less than three other goalies (Anders Lindback to a one-way deal, as well as Niklas Treutle and Tyler Beskorowany to AHL deals, after both had played in Germany last year) in addition to having albatross Mike Smith already penciled in for the #1 spot.

But instead, he was released and accepted a two-way deal with the team, so he'll be staying in North America after all. I'm not sure why the Coyotes chose Lindback over him, or why they went with a two-way deal, considering Domingue had a respectable 2.73 GAA and .911 save percentage in the NHL last year, going 1-2-1 with the Coyotes, the second-worst team in the league.

His win came in his first start, too, against the Montréal Canadiens (who finished second overall, by the way), at the Bell Centre, no less. In February, not as they were shaking off some rust in early October. Alex Galchenyuk was the only player on the Habs to score on him, scoring twice in the first period.

It was at that game that I got three of his cards signed, but two are currently missing from my stash, so here's the one I could find:

It's card #56 from In The Game's 2010-11 Heroes And Prospects set, signed in blue sharpie. He's seen in the modern goaltender's stance, glove high up and little space between the blocker and pad when seen from the front, wearing the Québec Remparts' classic red uniform.

When the Phoenix Coyotes drafted him with the 138th pick of the 2010 draft, he was a typical goalie of his era, standing at 6'3'' and 191 pounds. He's almost smallish by current-day NHL standards, with the likes of giants such as Lindback and Ben Bishop.

Mark Visheau Autographed Card

I mentioned in the past having participated in two Winnipeg Jets summer "coaching camps" that doubled as rookie camps and pre-scouting camps for midget-aged players in the summers of 1994 and 1995.

One actual Jets prospect who was there was Mark Visheau, a 6'5'', 220-pound tower of power (who would play at 235 pounds with the Los Angeles Kings later in the decade), who was clearly being groomed to be a Lyle Odelein-type of stay-at-home defenseman who would fight, despite having posted 60 points in 62 games as a defenseman in his final season with the OHL's London Knights.

He only played one game with the Jets before toiling in the minors for a few years, until the Kings signed him as a free agent mostly as a negotiation tactic to bring Aki-Petteri Berg back in the fold, putting pressure on the Swede to accept a smaller salary (it didn't work).

During his lone season in Los Angeles, Visheau fought 13 times in 28 games (plus another 5 times in 5 pre-season games), and other health issues (an apparent urinary tract infection) resulting in complications led him to sue the Kings' medical staff, bringing an end to his hockey career - and bringing Berg back into the fold the following season; from afar, it really looks like he was used and thrown away.

He had signed an index card for me in Winnipeg, but I no longer have that; however, I do have this card, which he signed for me in blue sharpie during his season with the Québec Rafales in 1996-97:

It's card #101 from Classic's 1993-94 Pro Hockey Prospects set, showing him wearing the Moncton Hawks' white (home) uniform, matching the Jets' design. Pardon the scan's crop...

Guy Carbonneau Autographed Card

Guy Carbonneau is the reverse/bizarro Jacques Lemaire. On all levels.

First, let's start with Lemaire: he was without a doubt one of the five best offensive centers of his era, probably top-3, possibly top-2. If it was just that he had Guy Lafleur on his side, one could argue that it may have been Lafleur leading the way and Lemaire just benefitting, but Lemaire also fed another 50-goal winger on the same line, Steve Shutt. When one center has two 50-goal scorers at once on his wings, he's doing something right.

After his playing career, Lemaire turned to coaching, and his perfecting "the trap" into a near-flawless defensive system helped the Montréal Canadiens to two more Stanley Cups (1986 and 1993), the New Jersey Devils to their three including the one where he was behind the bench (1995, 2000, 2003), and made the Minnesota Wild a playoff team practically from the time they joined the NHL as an expansion team.

Offensively gifted turned defensive genius.

Carbonneau was a star in the LHJMQ in Juniors, but behind such centers as Bobby Smith, Stéphan Lebeau and Vincent Damphousse with the Habs, had to resort to playing the checking-line game if he wanted decent ice time. He did learn from the best (of their era) by sharing a line with Bob Gainey and Doug Jarvis, but by being a center who would often lead the league in face-offs won, he added a whole new dimension to the two-way forward role that neither had achieved. He shadowed the NHL's best and often had them finishing in the minuses because he could also contribute on the score board - all while playing clean hockey and not trying to get under their skin verbally.

The most obvious display of that mastery was in the Stanley Cup Final in 1993, as he shut Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings like no one had before and captained the team to what remains the last Cup having been won by a Canadian team to date.

After retiring, he held different management jobs, from assistant coach to assistant general manager to director of player personnel, until he was named the Canadiens' associate head coach in 2006-07 with the plan being that he would take on the job on his own the following season. And when he did, the Habs finished first in the Northeast Division with 104 points, and had the highest-ranked offense in the league with the Detroit Red Wings. When he was dismissed the following season (essentially for not following the company line and using Jaroslav Halak to win games instead of a struggling Carey Price), his team was still second in the Northeast - and they finished even lower after Gainey replaced him behind the bench.

For most of his tenure, the team led the league in penalty-killing (which was to be expected), but also on the powerplay. The result was a combination of having highly-skilled players such as Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu and Andrei Markov who were all allowed to be creative with the puck, sure, but also factoring in was Carbonneau's knowledge of how penalty killers think and react, and teaching his forwards to find ways around that.

Essentially, when he was hired as coach, he had three years to help the Habs win the Stanley Cup; he was ultimately given one and a half, because Gainey felt that goaltending wasn't that important a piece of the puzzle and it was better to go with the line-up he had envisioned for the Canadiens' Centennial instead of the one that worked and gelled. He was the boss, so it was his call, wrong as it was.

However, on the ice, Carbonneau did eventually supplant Gainey; he innovated past the teacher's lessons and became a master himself. Gainey's in the Hall Of Fame, and the main reason why the Selke Trophy even exists (having won it in its first four presentations); he played on 5 Cup-winning teams.

Carbonneau won the Selke three times (1988, 1989 and 1992) and probably deserved it in 1990 (Rick Meagher) and 1991 (Dirk Graham) as well. He's also played on three Cup-winning teams, including the 1999 Dallas Stars, on which Gainey was GM. It's while he was in Dallas that his daughter met her husband, Brenden Morrow.

If Gainey's in the Hall, so should Carbo. Not only was he the best at what he did for a long stretch (8 seasons in my count), but he revolutionized the position completely. Now every team has a third-or-second-line center shadowing the opposition's best player. That's all Carbo.

And so, for the first time I feature him, here he is depicted as a young player (before he ever sported the "C", so probably in 1985 or 1986 judging by the assistant coach on the bench), card #46 from Upper Deck's 2011-12 Parkhurst Champions set, showing him in the Habs' classic bleu-bland-rouge jersey:

He signed it in blue sharpie. Now that he's a TV analyst for RDS, he's relatively easy to find at all Canadiens home games.

Robert Meachem Rookie Jersey Card

Oh, look, a player-worn (but unclear whether in-game or during an event) jersey card:

(spoiler alert: he hadn't yet played in an NFL game, so it's ''event-worn''...)

That's from this card of Robert Meachem's, from Topps' 2007 Bowman Sterling set (card #BSRR-RM of the Authentic Player-Worn Jersey sub-set, which also acts as his rookie card in the collection):

He's pictured wearing the New Orleans Saints' black and gold uniform, the same worn he's worn in six of his seven NFL seasons, having spent the 2012 season with the San Diego Chargers.

He would usually dress for all the games (usually 16 in the regular season and 1 to 3 in the playoffs), but it's been harder on him since his one season in San Diego. In 2014, he was actually cut from the Saints' training camp and only offered a role after rookie Khairi Fortt got injured; he did manage to play in 11 games, though, and average his usual 16 yards per catch.

He's still a free agent as of today, but I'm fairly confident he'll get an offer soon. Every team needs a reliable wide receiver who happens to also be a veteran leader, a Super Bowl champion and former first-round pick to help teach the kids what it takes to win.

Maxim Lapierre Autograph Card

Maxim Lapierre has finally signed a professional contract... except he's headed for famed hockey team Ornskoldsvik Modo of the Swedish league, with an out clause releasing him to the NHL should he sign another deal prior to training camp.

I always thought he'd find a team that would pay him around $1.5M for the year, seeing as he's a decent face-off man, a right-shot center who can play on the penalty kill, and one of the league's biggest pests... although that, and the fact that he's a repeat offender when it comes to embellishment and diving probably played a part in that as well.

He collected 105 hits in 35 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins post-trade last year, which is consistent with the types of statistics he had in his last couple of seasons with the Montréal Canadiens before he was shipped to the Anaheim Ducks. Apart from taking stupid penalties at times, he's the type of player who'll do anything his coaches ask, whether it's shadowing the other team's top centers or chirp at them, or throw his (relatively diminutive) weight around. He can even fill in on the second line for a spell if a coach wants to punish certain players and reward effort.

Here he is wearing the Vancouver Canucks' current/retro blue (home) uniform, from Upper Deck's 2012-13 Fleer Retro set:

It uses the 1996-97 Skybox Autographics design and is card #96-ML in the sub-set, featuring a sticker autograph signed in blue sharpie, with his jersey number (40) tagged at the end, which qualifies him for my Canucks Numbers Project.