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.