Jean-Pierre Dumont Autographed Team Canada Card

Jean-Pierre Dumont was drafted third-overall by the New York Islanders in 1996 following a 105-point season (48 goals and 57 assists in 66 games) with the LHJMQ's Val d'Or Foreurs. He was part of a stable of high-end talent that was traded away by "Mad" Mike Milbury, then team's GM. Imagine this roster from 1996 to 2001 (assuming All-Star Zigmund Palffy would still get traded because of his contract demands):

Todd Bertuzzi - Jason Spezza (2nd-overall draft pick) - J.P. Dumont

Derek King - Olli Jokinen - Tim Connolly / Robert Reichel

Jan Hlavac - Mike Rupp - Bryan Smolinski

Taylor Pyatt - Claude Lapointe - Raffi Torres

Zdeno Chara - Bryan McCabe

Wade Redden - Darius Kasparaitis

Bryan Berard - Eric Brewer / Kenny Jonsson

Radek Martinek - Scott Lachance

Olympians Roberto Luongo and Tommy Salo in nets

With eventual turnover (2001-2006, when he was fired) from the likes of: Sean Bergenheim (grinder), Frans Nielsen (middle-six forward), Robert Nilsson (middle-six forward), Bruno Gervais (third-pair D), Petteri Nokelainen (middle-six forward), Blake Comeau (sandpaper second-liner), Chris Campoli (third-paid D), Kyle Okposo (first-line forward), Andrew MacDonald (third-pair D), Mariusz Czerkawski (top-sic forward), Rick DiPietro (goalie) and three dozen prospects who could have panned out in a better environment.

That has the makings of a consistent playoff team, and one can argue that different draft choices (Zach Parise, Brent Burns, Ryan Kesler, Mike Richards, Corey Perry, Patrice Bergeron, Corey Crawford, Shea Weber, and Joe Pavelski were still available when Nilsson was chosen 15th overall in 2003, for instance) would also have made a huge difference as well.

Instead, the Isles were perpetually in the bottom of the NHL standings while Dumont carved himself a nice NHL career, ending with over 500 points on the strength of 214 goals, 309 assists and 364 penalty minutes in 822 regular-season games and another 34 points (17 goals and 17 assists) in 51 playoff games, including a deep run to the Eastern Conference Final in 2005-06 with the Buffalo Sabres (14 points in 18 games).

He was bought out by the Nashville Predators following the 2010-11 season and played the 2011-12 season overseas with SC Bern in Switzerland, finishing his playing career with solid numbers: 8 goals, 23 assists and 31 points (with 26 penalty minutes and a +6 rating) in 31 regular-season games - good for fourth on the team despite playing 16 to 19 games fewer than those ahead of him, none of whom had more than 10 points more tahn he did - and another (team-leading) 5 goals, 8 assists and 13 points in 12 playoff games as the team made its way to the league final, losing to Bob Hartley's Zurich Lions.

In honour of Canada Day, I wanted to include Dumont as #18 in my Team Canada Numbers Project, with card #271 from Upper Deck's 1998-99 Collector's Choice set and World Junior Showcase sub-set, where he is shown battling for the puck with a Finnish player:

He actually went pointless in 7 games with Team Canada at the World Juniors in 1998, as the team finished eighth in the standings - Finland won gold, ahead of Russia and Switzerland - under disgraced head coach Réal Paiement (now a Toronto Maple Leafs scout). The team's leading scorers were Josh Holden (4 points), Alex Tanguay, Daniel Tkaczuk and Daniel Corso (3 apiece), and the top defensemen were Brewer, Sean Blanchard, Brad Ference and Corey Sarich. Other notable forwards were Vincent Lecavalier, Matt Cooke, Jason Ward, Manny Malhotra and Steve Bégin, while goaltending duties were handled by the Québec duo of Mathieu Garon (1.91 GAA in 5 games) and Luongo (2.89 in 3 games).

Dumont signed this card for me roughly five years ago, at a Foreurs event; the team had retired his #96 nearly a decade earlier.

Kris Chucko Jersey Card

Not every first-rounder from the 2004 draft class played in the NHL; A.J. Thelen (12th overall, Minnesota Wild) and Andy Rogers (30th overall, Tampa Bay Lightning), for instance, haven't. Kris Chucko, chosen 24th overall with the Calgary Flames, played 2 games with the team in 2008-09, as he was being groomed for a bottom-six grinding winger role with middle-six upside due to his speed, hockey sense and 6'2", 198-pound physique.

His defensive play kept him from being relegated to the ECHL during his five-season AHL career, but his lack of consistent offensive production save for the '08-09 season didn't warrant any call-ups, either.

He also may have lacked discipline on the ice, as his penalty minute count usually surpassed his number of games played.

It wasn't any of that that put an end to his career, however: he suffered a serious concussion in December 2009 limiting him to 41 games that year and another one in October 2010 that ended his season after just two contests.

He didn't have a contract for the following season and had to consider his future quality of life.

Here he is wearing the Flames' red (home) uniform, on card #FT-KC from Upper Deck's 2009-10 Ice set and Fresh Threads sub-set:

It features a black jersey swatch from a rookie photo shoot.

After retiring, the Burnaby, BC native moved to Minnesota - where he had played NCAA hockey with the Golden Gophers at university - and turned to banking; he is currently a manager and VP for at U.S. Bank.

Mike Condon Autographed Card

It's been a hard couple of years for Mike Condon, what with sub-.890 save percentages and over-4.00 GAA for five teams from three organizations in three separate leagues since the beginning of the 2018-19 season.

One could forget he had strong showings both as a rookie with the Montréal Canadiens - highlighted by a Winter Classic win over his hometown Boston Bruins in Boston - as well as his first season with the Ottawa Senators in 2016-17 when he had a .914 save percentage and 2.50 goals-against average in 40 games.

The common thread between the two is that both times, he came in as the unexpected saviour, filling in for the injured Carey Price and Craig Anderson staying with his wife through her fight with cancer, respectively, with no fear of getting glued to the bench after a poor performance and no real pressure.

The same can be said for his one-game stint with the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he made 7 saves and didn't allow a single goal in an full period after being claimed off waivers from the Habs in early 2016-17, with starter Marc-André Fleury pulled, having surrendered five goals to the Nashville Predators.

It's when he's come into a season as the official backup for the Sens that things didn't end so well. Then again, Ottawa's problems are much larger than just the backup goalie, with owner Eugene Melnyk taking up more media space than his players - usually for the wrong reasons - and with bad influences in the room like Matt Duchene leading a putsch to remove demanding head coach Guy Boucher and his staff.

At 30 years of age, there is still time for Condon to pull off a Dominik Hasek/Tim Thomas and shine for a few years, but I see his future more like that of Mike Leighton: an experienced veteran who would be better served playing a 1B role and 30 games per year at the NHL level but will instead be relegated to a "silent leader" role as a #3-4 in the AHL. He even spent some time in the ECHL this year, with unconvincing results, after being sent to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Ryan Callahan's dead cap space:

from HockeyDB

I do not foresee him moving to Europe and having to adapt to different ice dimensions; he'll just need to regroup this summer and come back stronger next year, as most goalies will be affected by the Covid-19-related pause and will be rusty.

Here's a look at his Canadiens mask on card #P-85 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Series 2 collection and UD Portraits sub-set, with the team,s logo on the side - a staple since the days of Patrick Roy in the late 1980s - and a red shamrock near the neck:

The scan shows the foil well except for the word "Rookies" on the left of the card. He signed it in blue sharpie as a member of the Sens, in 2017-18.

Steve Bégin Autographed Card

With most governments having put a kibosh on education for the remainder of the school year, I decided to revisit a story I had touched upon in 2017, Steve Bégin aiming to finally obtain his high school diploma. He did so at the end of 2018.

I caught up with him in late November 2019 at the launch of his biography, Steve Bégin: Ténacité, Courage, Leadership (written by Luc Gélinas) where he signed this card for me:

That's #7 in Parkhurst's 2003-04 Original 6 (Montréal Canadiens) set, manufactured by In The Game. It shows him wearing the Montréal Canadiens' perfect white "third/1940s" vintage jersey - a work of art.

In a makeshift press conference before the meet-and-greet, he mentioned how he didn't feel worthy of a biography, rightfully mentioning he was never a generational talent like Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux, and wasn't electrifying like an Alexei Kovalev, but that people may have identified with his working-class roots.

I made sure to remind him he was more than that; he always made sure he was the hardest-working person in the building, even on a team that had Saku Koivu, a tireless workhorse if there ever was one, one whose defeat of adversity is almost on par with that if Maurice "The Rocket" Richard's in the Centennial team's history book. And yet, at that turn of the millennium, there is a rightful asterisk there for Bégin's courage, for finishing a shift against the Big Bad Boston Bruins despite what appeared like most of his teeth still remaining stuck in the end boards after an awkward collision and fall.

He killed penalties, won defensive-zone face-offs, was sent to counter opponents' tactics of intimidation despite his generously-listed 5'11" frame and 190 pounds (more like 5'8" and 180 if you ask me, someone who is 6'2" and 300 at the moment). He was a less legendary Guy Carbonneau, which might explain why Carbo had him traded to the Dallas Stars: he recognized himself in him, but where Carbonneau would have sought out the most efficient play, Bégin just dove head-first into any situation, with total disregard to his health at all times - and sometimes that led to injuries, while other times opponents took advantage of his gnarl to score.

Some teams reward those types of players with the captaincy.

It seems odd to say about a guy who "just" played 524 NHL games after being a second-round draft pick and scored "just" 56 goals to go with 52 assists and 108 regular-season points with the Calgary Flames, Habs, Stars, Bruins and Nashville Predators, never suited up for a full 82 games and only once reached the 20-point mark (23, in 2005.06, to go with 113 penalty minutes, on a Claude Julien-coached Habs team), but I stand by it.

"Heart-and-soul guy" gets passed around a lot, but in today's game, the only other non-captain that has what Bégin had is Brendan Gallagher, so, yeah.

His biggest regret in life was dropping out of high school to pursue his NHL dream. How, thanks to ChallengeU, an app developed with UFC legend Georges St-Pierre, he has remedied the situation. I didn't know that he could get more of my admiration, but there it is. So much so, that I can even forgive him for playing with Boston.

But I'm saving that one for another day.

Nick Bjugstad Jersey Card

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned; it's been over a month since I last completed a post.

Much has happened since, including the Covid-19 pandemic and pausing of the NHL season. For my part, as a translator for essential services providers such as pharmacies, grocery stores and sanitizing products, I've been working overtime to help people from both official languages have access to information about store policies, administrative changes, and manufacturing an distributing supplies and masks.

I did begin writing a few posts on Women's hockey, all-time greats who have seen their numbers being retired and reasons why the Toronto Maple Leafs are wasting valuable talents - and hopefully I'll finish them sooner rather than later - but always ran out of juice to put the finishing touches on them.

To get back into gear, I thought I'd write about American forward Nick Bjugstad, currently the Pittsburgh Penguins' third-line centre and formerly thought of as highly as former Florida Panthers teammate Aleksander Barkov.

Indeed, the former University of Minnesota Golden Gophers star was a point-per-game player when he was drafted 19th overall by the Cats in 2010, ahead of the likes of star forward Evgeny Kuznetsov (26th), first-liner Brock Nelson (30th), Justin Faulk (37th), Ryan Spooner (45th),  two-time Stanley Cup winner Tyler Toffoli (47th), Jason Zucker (59th), Sidney Crosby linemate Bryan Rust (80th), Joonas Donskoi (99th), #1 goalie Philipp Grubauer (112th), top-pair defenseman John Klingberg (131st), super-pest Micheal Ferland (133rd), Petr Mrazek (141st), multiple 30-goal scorer and heart and soul of the Montréal Canadiens Brendan Gallagher (147th), Dalton Prout (154th), Jesper Fast (157th), the best two-wayplayer in the game today Mark Stone (178th), and #1 goalie Frederik Andersen (187th).

Look at what Hockey's Future had to say in 2012:

Talent Analysis

Bjugstad is a physically dominating presence. His combination of strength and positional awareness with a hard, accurate shot makes him a force at both ends of the ice. Bjugstad plays with poise and he protects the puck exceptionally well in the offense zone by either skating out of trouble or simply shielding opponents with his arms and legs while he buys time to find an open teammate. He can be very difficult to knock off the puck and rarely loses battles along the boards.

Future

Bjugstad made his professional debut late last season, and looks to continue to play at the NHL level in the fall. He has the skill-level to become a scoring line center who will be defensively responsible and who can play in any game situation. His puck skills will allow him to be a mainstay on the powerplay while his high level of hockey intelligence and work rate can also make him a key member of a penalty kill unit.

If that isn't a spot-on description for Barkov, I don't know what is.

So... what happened?

Injuries, for starters, have slowed him down directly in his most developmental years. And while he was out, Barkov was healthy, quickly climbing the ranks not only to the team's first line but also to the captaincy, developing a tangible chemistry with Jonathan Huberdeau that borders on symbiotic.

There's luck, circumstance, and the weight of constantly playing for underachieving teams that he will no longer be subjected to as a member of the Pens, except for the fact that Pittsburgh is now seeing its window close with most of its core having hit the age of 30 and no true superstar set to take over at any position except perhaps defense. But they won't be at risk of missing the playoffs as early as January in the next five seasons, either.

"Bugs" is probably a throwback to when the Penguins had the luxury of counting Jordan Stall followed by Brandon Sutter, in that a player who owuld have been good enough the center a weak team's second line can now provide offense while defending on their third. To complete the hat trick of comparisons, Bjugstad is also a "Heritage name", as his father and uncle played in the WCHA, and uncle Scott also played in the NHL, for the Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings and Penguins.

Here is Nick after his first 40-point season, on the dual jersey version of card #28 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Artifacts set:

It features a black jersey swatch and a red one, too, both more vivid than what appears in this scan. It is numbered 45/125.