Evgenii Dadonov: Two Autographed Cards

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the Florida Panthers would finish third in the Atlantic Division in 2019-20).

The most complicated thing about Yevengy/Evgeny/Evgenii Dadonov is the correct spelling of his name; everything else is either straight to the point or so well-executed it looks effortless. One thing's for certain, he's not just a third wheel going forward on the strength of linemates Alexander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau, he has earned his spot on the Panthers' top line with his steady play and elite-level zone entries.

He's a right winger who plays like a centre, looking for opportunities to give his linemates the puck but totally able to control it at will as well. And he has a heck of a shot from the slot, which explains his two straight 28-goal seasons since making it back on this side of the Atlantic. He's improved his point production, too, going from 65 to 70 points, and an 80-point 2019-20 is not out of the question if he can stay healthy, particularly if the team isn't stuck in its own zone for long periods of time in a system created by Joel Quenneville and backed by Sergei Bobrovsky.

Of course, it will take time for the team to gel, but once they get rolling around the Holidays, there won't be much to stop them.

I like that I was able to have him sign his rookie card last year, #509 from Panini's 2010-11 Score collection and Hot Rookies sub-set, showing him wearing the team's then-home black uniform:

The Cats would switch the red and black and remove the piping for the 2011-12 season, so this was one of its last instances.

He also signed a card with the Panthers' current away (white) uniform, #185 from Upper Deck's 2018-19 O-Pee-Chee set:

I don't hate it, it's possibly their best white uniform yet, but I still haven't fully gotten used to football-styled numbering on the shoulders.

I don't like the current home (red) uniform, though, that is basically this one with the red and white reversed. It's too "College Hockey", too "KHL" and too "Detroit Red Wings", it doesn't feel unique nor on brand.

Zemgus Girgensons Jersey Card

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the Buffalo Sabres would finish sixth in the Atlantic Division in 2019-20).

I'll admit it right off the bat: Latvians weren't the only ones who massively voted for Zemgus Girgensons for the 2015 All-Star Game; I must have done so 15 to 20 times as well, and convinced others to do the same. I appreciate his honest, gritty two-way play and want to watch this video as much as I can:

Also, face it, OLAS' trap style forebode the U.S. mainstream by three full years.

Girgensons was the Sabres' 2012 first-round pick (14th overall), a draft that is seen nowadays as a bunch of shots in the dark, where the first four picks (in order: Nail Yakupov, Ryan Murray, Alex Galchenyuk and Griffin Reinhart) are considered disappointments despite their former "blue chip" statuses.

The picture gets clearer when we look at the top-20 point producers of that draft year:

from HockeyDB

Seven years in, we're already seeing a pattern of no career point-per-game forwards and strong-to-solid defensemen, with a handful of long-shots for the Norris Trophy (Morgan Rielly, Jacob Trouba, Hampus Lindholm, Shayne Gostesbehere, Matt Dumba, Jaccob Slavin and Colton Parayko).

We're also seeing a couple of good two-way forwards in there, like Chris Tierney and Girgensons, so while it may not have produced an elite or "generational" player, there was some good in there.

He signed his third-straight short-term contract this summer, emulating his $1.6M cap hit from the previous two seasons, but he will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of it unless he re-signs with the Sabres. It's hard to see them being able to afford him a raise, though, what with the gross overpayment on star players Jack Eichel ($10M per until 2025) and Jeff Skinner ($9M until 2025), as well as depth pieces Kyle Okposo ($6M until 2024) and Zach Bogosian ($5.15M this season).

"Z" himself is a smooth-skating 6'2", 190-pound centre with a decent shot and leadership skills who likes to play a physical game. If they weren't overpaying Kevin Hayes themselves, he would probably be a good fit on the middle-six of the Philadelphia Flyers.

If I can, I would like to vote Girgensons into the All-Star Game again this year, so he can earn himself a fine raise as a UFA this summer, what with his two-time All-Star credentials. For now, however, let's take a look at him wearing the Sabres' white (away) uniform, reminiscent of their 1980s garbs except for the useless numbering on the chest:

It's card #GJ-ZG from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set and features a blue game-worn jersey swatch either from the shoulders of this one, or (more likely) from the team's blue (home) one.

Of note, Zemgus' father, Aldis Girgensons, had a fruitful career with Dynamo Riga in the Soviet system of leagues.

Robby Fabbri Jersey Card

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the St. Louis Blues would finish fourth in the Central Division in 2019-20).

Robby Fabbri was once a promising prospect, a first-round draft pick after consecutive seasons in Juniors where he posted seasons of nearly two points per game, and an OHL playoff MVP (with 28 points in 16 games with the Guelph Storm in 2013-14), followed by a gold medal with Team Canada at the World Juniors.

Then at age 19, he made it to the Big Show and had an okay showing in the regular season, except during the playoffs, he tied Vladimir Tarasenko for the team lead in points with 15 in 20 games as the Blues made it to the Western Conference Final.

Two operations to the same knee and a full year and a half of rehab later, he made it back to the team only to suffer a shoulder injury. He did play 10 postseason games as St. Louis won the Stanley Cup in June, but with so little playing time that he couldn't make a dent on the scoreboard, it feels almost like an honorary mention than the type of accolade Ryan O'Reilly now gets.

As a matter of fact, even the Blues don't know what to make of him at this point, as they signed him to a one-year deal over the summer that will only pay him $900,000... $25,000 less than what he made last year, and considerably less (23%) than the $1.107M he made in the four seasons of his ELC.

And it's not like the 2018-19 Blues were an offensive force, as these were its top-15 point producers, none of whom were point-per-game players:

Courtesy of HockeyDB

Furthermore, on that chart, only Jaden Schwartz incrementally improved his production in the postseason, meaning that for most of these guys, this was the year they had, period. If it's an outlier, it's a consistent, year-long outlier.

There's room for a couple of younger guys to come into their own and crack that list, but there should also be room for a 23-year-old to get another real shot, not just the 12:39 per game he averaged during the regular season, and definitely more than the 8:39 he was given in the playoffs.

Here he is wearing the Blues' current (and 90s-retro) blue (home) uniform, with the team's 50th Anniversary patch on the right shoulder, on card #GJ-RF from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set:

It features a white game-worn jersey swatch that is probably from the team's away uniform. To the naked eye, there seems to be a line of stitching going through it.

2019-20 Upper Deck Hockey MVP Hobby Box Break

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

With my birthday coming and my family and friends scattered all around the globe, I was pleasantly surprised to see an early present from my Mom ring my bell a few minutes a go - on a Saturday! It was a "Retail" box of Upper Deck's 2019-20 MVP hockey cards, coming in at 36 packs of 5 cards apiece.

This year's set has a nice, simple design that compares to that of previous years (semi-futuristic lines, a contour that lets the picture reach the border on at least one side) with a greenish grey tint that sets it apart (last year's set had bronze borders, for example), with the backs including statistics of the five preceding seasons:

Now while UD is known for great action photos, in time, those can become a little redundant, as can be attested by the similar position, team, jersey colour, position on the ice in regards to the boards and general feel of the two cards above, featuring the Vegas Golden Knights' Paul Stastny and Max Pacioretty. It's just one of many flagrant example of cards that can easily be mistaken for one another in this set.

There are more inserts this season, but the classics remain, such as the "Silver Scripts", with facsimile autographs in silver, of which I landed Henrik Lundqvist, Tom Wilson, Jake Muzzin, David Rittich, Nazen Kadri and Tomas Tatar:

What's cool about them is that this year's version has the silver signature atop a black background, similar to "real" autograph cards like the 2011-12 Parkhurst Champions set that had the picture a little bit whitewashed to underline the signature.

As usual, the MVP set pays tribute to a collection from the past, and this year, it's the 1999-2000 MVP Stanley Cup Edition design, as can be seen on the four "Silver Script" parallels of Phil Kessel, Brayden Point, Mackenzie MacEachern and Sebastian Aho:

Another fun detail with these is the variant zoom of the same picture used in the parallels and the "original" versions of cards, as can be attested from the Brayden Point cards:

Notice how the "retro" card shows the puck, so we're catching Point in the offensive zone, either attempting a pass or winding up for a slap shot; the "regular" version of the card is zoomed in, and it looks more like he's waiting/calling for the puck than about to do something with it.

Of course, there are also Rookie cards, in my case of Alexandre Texier, Max Jones, Teddy Blueger, Quinn Hughes and Erik Brunnstrum:

There are two insert sub-sets I could do without, chief among them the Checklists, particularly when they're of the same two players from the past 15 years, one of the three best shooters of all time in Alex Ovechkin, and a fine player from current-days, Sidney Crosby:

The the Puzzle Backs... I didn't think it was a great idea when Donruss did it for their baseball cards in my youth in the 80s, it's definitely passé now, and poorly done with the copyright text taking up too much of the "real" card:

You can count the Evander Kane, Jack Eichel and Seth Jones cards as doubles (I got their regular-issue cards in the same box), but the Yanni Gourde was the only one of its kind, and possible the first and only card I have of his so far, so it's a bit if a waste that way.

In terms of new sub-sets, Supernovas looks cool on Brock Boeser:

Laser Shots are also nice, though they're a tad reminiscent of UD's McDonalds cards sub-sets:

Connor McDavid always makes for a great foil card, and it was also nice to get the "red" variant for Victor Hedman.

In terms of team breakdowns, it was pretty even; if you forget about the Toronto Maple Leafs and trade them for Vegas, my Canadian team pulls were as follows (including inserts):

Ottawa Senators: 4
Edmonton Oilers: 3
Vancouver Canucks: 7
Winnipeg Jets: 6
Calgary Flames: 5
Montréal Canadiens: 5
Golden Knights: 6

All told, there was a pretty good collation (no actual doubles, but four or five cards that came with regular and variant versions), a nice variety of jerseys (home away, third, outdoor games), new and original inserts that allow for some players to be featured twice and - best of all - the continuation of MVP cards no longer having facimile autographs on all cards, enabling fans to try to get them signed themselves.

Additional points for being a low-price purchase, more points for being the first set of the year and at times the only chance to get a player in a uniform they weren't in for long; points of for tired sub-sets like Checklists and Puzzle Backs, and some choices in photos used.

Still, it's a solid 7.5/10.

Joe Thornton Jersey Card

(As per years past, this is a twin-post with my "regular" blog, where I predicted the San Jose Sharks would finish third in the Pacific Division in 2019-20).

"Jumbo" Joe Thornton will be back with the Sharks this coming season, outlasting "Little" Joe Pavelski (now with the Dallas Stars), as he signed a $2M, one-year deal earlier today. It was inevitable: if he were to continue playing, it would and could only have been with the Sharks, who had a roster spot conveniently still open for him.

At this point of his career, at age 40, he should find his rightful place centering the third line behind the younger Tomas Hertl and Logan Couture and, although he posted 51 points in 73 games in 2018-19, it would be foolish if not unfair to expect more than 40 points from him in that role. I'd also expect him to miss 10-15 games from the nagging pain of injuries past and just to get some rest on  a few back-to-back games.

I still cheer for him never to win a Stanley Cup, but there is no denying that he - along with, say, Jason Spezza, Sidney Crosby, Andrei Markov and Nicklas Lidstrom - is one of the best playmakers of his generation and, as such, is pretty much a lock for the Hall Of Fame, whether I like it or not.

There will be those who will remind the rest of us that he has always failed to lead a team to a championship, winning gold medals with Team Canada riding other players' coattails, from the 1997 World Juniors (Boyd Devereaux, Marc Denis) to the 2004 World Cup (Vincent Lecavalier, Joe Sakic) to the 2010 Olympics (Roberto Luongo, Jonathan Toews, Jarome Iginla, Shea Weber) and the 2016 World Cup (Sidney Crosby, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, Toews).

But as leader of the 2001 World Championship squad? Fifth place.

As captain of the Sharks and Boston Bruins? Nada.

He will probably top the 1500-point mark this year and he has a reasonable shot at Gordie Howe's games played record if he plays for two more seasons after that, but apart from the 2005-06 Art Ross and Hart trophies, winning in the NHL has eluded him.

And yet, he's a three-time 100-point performer - and one of those times came in 2002-03, near the end of the Dead Puck Era. That is quite the accomplishment.

Here he is as I will likely remember him best, wearing the captain's "C" for the Sharks, in one of their many different teal (now-home) uniforms:

It's card #GJ-JT from Upper Deck's 2014-15 Series 1 set and UD Game Jersey sub-set, and features a white game-worn jersey swatch that is from either the Sharks' or the Bruins' white uniforms.