Kevin Fiala Jersey Card

Kevin Fiala scored the Minnesota Wild's first goal of the 2019-20 postseason, cementing his position as the team's next offensive star, after posting 54 points in 64 regular-season games, including no less than 14 goals and 26 points in the final 18 games.

It's not that people didn't think he could make it - he was, after all, the 11th-overall pick of the 2014 draft, ahead of the likes of Jakub Vrana (13th), Dylan Larkin (15th), Travis Sanheim (17th), Alex Tuch (18th), Tony DeAngelo (19th), Nick Schmaltz (20th), Robby Fabbri (21st), David Pastrnak (25th), Brayden Point (79th) and Viktor Arvidsson (112th) - but the fact that it took him power forward-type years (his sixth season) to put the ingredients together in a way that maximizes his skill-set against opponents must have a few scouts breathing easier in Nashville nowadays.

Although former Wild GM Paul Fenton - who had previously worked in the Nashville Predators' front office - was probably among those who held him in high esteem, considering he's the one who tagged prized young forward Mikael Granlund as the one to move South so that Fiala could come to the State of Hockey.

Considering the Wild has eight players over the age of 30 on their regular 20-man roster in Eric Staal (34), Mikko Koivu (36), Ryan Suter (34), Zach Parise (35), Mats Zuccarello (32), Brad Hunt (31) and goalies Alex Stalock (32) and Devan Dubnyk (33), they can sure use Fiala's fresh 23-year-old legs to lead them into the future.

Here he is wearing the Preds' ugly yellow (home) uniform from five years ago on card #RRJ-KF from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Ice set and Rookie Relic Jumbos sub-set:

It features a large blue jersey swatch that was worn in a rookie photo shoot, and is numbered 275/299. I got it on Ebay a couple of months ago, knowing I was going to be talking about him in the enar future, whether it was during the Play-in or the offseason.

Boyd Gordon Autograph Card

Boyd Gordon was a serviceable defensive forward who at one point in the 2014-15 season "owned the defensive zone" under Dallas Eakins' "everyone-has-just-one-job system with the Edmonton Oilers.

It was the year Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tied for the team lead in goals with 24 goals apiece and the Oilers failed to make the playoffs despite playing in the worst division in the league, finishing with the third-worst overall record and second-worst in the Pacific on the "strength" of a 24-44-7-7 record, with no fewer than three head coaches (Eakins, Craig MacTavish and Todd Nelson) failing to crack the .500 mark with Ben Scrivens spending 57 games in front of the blue team's net.

It was the worst of times.

It must have been particularly nightmarish for Gordon, who had come to Edmonton to share what he had learned under head coach Bruce Boudreau with the Washington Capitals, finishing with division titles year in and year out yet still being criticized for not winning the Stanley Cup every year. The veteran wanted to show he could teach other youngsters to win.

Even the best laid plans can backfire, so those put forth by the likes of Eakins and Nelson were doomed from the start. This was before Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl (and during Nail Yakupov).

These days, the Oilers are on the rise, heavy favourites to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks in the play-in to enter the official playoff picture, while the Caps are still contenders, participating in the round robin to determine the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference. The smart money favours them earning one of the top two spots.

Here is Gordon wearing the Caps' red uniform (2007-present) on card #S-BG from Upper Deck's 2009-10 Be A Player set and Signatures sub-set:

It features a black-sharpied on-sticker autograph with his jersey number (15) tagged at the end.

All told, Gordon played for 13 season sin the NHL. He won championships at nearly every level, with a Memorial Cup (Red Deer Rebels, 2000-01), World Juniors silver medal (Team Canada, 2003), and Calder Cup (Hershey Bears, 2005-06).

My Expos Numbers Project: An Introduction

Why limit a good and fun concept to just hockey when I have enough signed baseball cards to seriously consider adding a Montréal Expos Numbers Project to all my hockey ones (my Habs Numbers Project, my Oilers Numbers Project, my Sens Numbers Project, my Canucks Numbers Project, and my Nordiques Numbers Project).

It'll be harder to finalize because baseball has more players in uniform (factoring in spring training and the 40-man roster after the trade deadline), but I start with the advantage that the team no longer exists, and no new number will be worn.

The first Canadian (and first non-U.S.) team to join Major League Baseball (in 1969), the team had its two best seasons when strikes disrupted play: the 1981 division win, and the magical 1994 season where they were leading the majors with a month left of play when the playoffs were cancelled as players walked out, which rang the beginning of the end for the team, who started its first official fire sale.

There'd been prior instances of the team trading highly-paid veterans for youth when they were being priced out of the team's budget (Gary Carter), but post-1994, it actually became official team policy to always trade players when they hit their prime and were about to earn serious dough. From the first wave (Delino DeShields, Marquis Grissom, Larry Walker, John Wetteland) to the second (Pedro Martinez, Jose Vidro, Vladimir Guerrero) to seasons where it was a single player to when the Evil Twins came from New York with empty promises and ran the team to the ground so they could profit from its sale and trade up, to the Florida Marlins.

So, here I am attempting to collect autographed/memorabilia stuff from players representing every number worn by a member of the Expos. So far, I have featured 35; here they are:

Managers: Bill Virdon and Buck Rodgers.

3: Jose Vidro and Junior Noboa: check!
4: Mark Grudzielanek: check!
6: Ryan McGuire: check!
11: John Tamargo: check!
12: Wilfredo Cordero: check!
13: Jeff Fassero: check!
15: Curtis Pride (also wore #16) and Jeff Huson: check!
16: Tom Foley: check!
19: Fernando Seguignol: check!
20: Mike Fitzgerald and Brandon Watson: check!
21: Larry Jaster: check!
22: Rondell White: check!
23: Mitch Webster and Grant Jackson: check!
24: Darrin Fletcher: check!
25: David Segui: check!
27: Andy McGaffigan: check!
29: Tim Wallach (and again here): check!
30: my favourite ball player of all time, Tim Raines (and Cliff Floyd, twice): check!
32: Dennis Martinez: check!
33: Carlos Perez and Peter Bergeron: check!
34: Gil Heredia (also wore #52): check!
35: Otis Nixon: check!
37: Buck Rodgers: check!
41: Brian Barnes (also wore #47): check!
44: Tim Burke and Ken Hill: check!
45: Michael Barrett (also wore #5), Carl Pavano and the great Steve Rogers: check!
46: Kevin Gross: check!
47:  Brian Barnes (also wore #41): check!
50: Jay Tibbs: check!
51: Randy St. Claire, Mike Thurman, and Scott Stewart: check!
54: Tim Scott: check!
55: Bill Sampen: check!
57: John Wetteland: check!
62: Henry Mateo: check!
64: Keith Evans: check!
66: Andy Tracy: check!
73: Josh Labandeira: check!

My Whalers Numbers Project

As you may know, I have Numbers Projects for so many teams now (my Habs Numbers Project, my Oilers Numbers Project my Sens Numbers Project, my Canucks Numbers Project, my Nordiques Numbers Project, my Flames Numbers Project , my Team Canada Project and my Expos Numbers Project, so I figured I could also pay tribute to one of the most still-beloved defunct teams, the Hartford Whalers.

Whilst in the NHL, they mostly played in Hartford, Connecticut, but as a franchise, they were brought from the WHA where they were known as the New England Whalers, and they played in Boston. For this project, I will indeed draw from both iterations, since they are the same team.

I may also eventually add players, coaches or managers of the AHL's Connecticut Whale, but since they're not exactly related, I'll refrain for the time being. It would be a nice cop-out, though.

So far, I have featured 16 players representing a total of 15 jersey numbers.

Here they are:

1: Sean Burke: check!
3: Joel Quenneville: check!
7: Randy Cunneyworth: check!
8: Jody Hull: check!
11: Kevin Dineen: check!
12: Dean Evason: check!
21: Andrew Cassels and Blaine Stoughton: check!
23: Nick Fotiu: check!
26: Mark Hunter: check!
28: Paul Ranheim: check!
29: Randy Ladouceur: check!
30: Peter Sidorkiewicz: check!
37: Patrick Poulin: check!
39: Kelly Chase: check!
40: Frank Pietrangelo: check!

Captains: Ladouceur

Travis Hamonic Autographed Card

Travis Hamonic is a very good defensive defenseman who has been among the best second-pair defenders in the NHL for the better part of the past decade while suiting up for the New York Islanders and Calgary Flames.

He will not be accompanying his team to Edmonton to take part in the play-in and playoffs, however, due to a family matter: his daughter suffered a severe respiratory illness earlier this winter and her life would again be at risk if he were to bring Covid-19 home. He is the first NHLer to publicly announce his decision not to go.

He was a huge part of helping the Flames to third-place in the Pacific Division with 79 points in 70 games; he himself had accumulated 3 goals, 9 assists, 12 points, 27 penalty minutes and a -3 rating in 50 games, battling injuries earlier on. He was a +21 (with 7 goals, 12 assists, 19 points and 33 penalty minutes) in 69 games in 2018-19.

Because he has a valid reason to skip the summer tournament, if I were the Flames' GM, I would find a way to keep him in contact with the team, be it via pre-game videoconferencing in the dressing room as motivation or another way, and I would petition to have his name included on the Stanley Cup if the team were to win it.

Here he is from his days in Juniors, wearing the Moose Jaw Warriors' terrible Buffaslug-inspired black jersey (and the assistant-captain's "A") on card #131 from In The Game's 2009-10 Heroes And Prospects set:

He signed it in blue sharpie back when he was playing on Long Island, between 2012 and 2015.

The 53rd-overall draft pick from the class of 2008 was named to the Memorial Cup All-Star Team in 2007 and has won silver with Team Canada at the 2010 World Juniors (the United States won gold thanks to a 6-5 overtime win).