Zach Boychuk Autograph Card

The Carolina Hurricanes' first-round pick (14th overall) in 2008, Zach Boychuk has yet to make a name for himself in the NHL, with a total of 18 points (7 goals) in 72 games over 4 seasons, but there's always that chance that it could be just because he's been playing with the Hurricanes all this time, where all quality wingers play with Eric Staal and all the other centers have to play with third-liners (at best).

And while Boychuk has had trouble consistently playing above the point-per-game ratio in the AHL as well (while playing, again, with the Hurricanes' prospects...), he did have a great 2010-11 season with the Charlotte Checkers when he went 22-43-65 in 60 games.

Also, I'm always happy when a player scores his first NHL goal against Martin Brodeur, which he did in February 2010.

He won gold at the World Juniors for Team Canada in both 2008 and 2009.

This card shows him wearing the Hurricanes' white (away) jersey, and is from Upper Deck's 2010-11 Artifacts set (card #AF-ZA) and features an on-sticker autograph in blue sharpie. Notice how his jersey number (11) falls right in the middle of his signature!

Bruce Driver Autograph Card

While I'm on the subject of 1995-96 Be A Player cards by Upper Deck... here's Bruce Driver, the long-time (and one-time captain) New Jersey Devils point man who won the Stanley Cup with them in 1995 but then decided to finish his career with rivals New York Rangers right after.

It's card #S147 in the collection, signed in black sharpie. He hasn't changed one bit since the picture was taken:

Then again, he stays in shape by coaching a women's high school team and plays goalie in a recreational league, so I get it. But I'm still impressed. In the same time span, I went from looking like Chris Cornell to Kevin Smith - and I was a goalie to begin with.

Phil Housley Autograph Card

Once again, I was inspired by a post from fellow blogger Sal Barry for this one, seeings as his Gary Suter card features the same uniform as this Phil Housley card - a lock-out tournament, NHLPA uniform, full of sponsors. It's from a set I've featured often, Upper Deck's 1995-96 Be A Player collection (this is card #S72), which had an NHLPA licence but not one from the NHL, so players were depicted either in NHLPA garb, national team uniforms, or their NHL uniforms with the logo airbrushed out. It is signed in thin black sharpie that is hard to see at first through the red and black of the uniform (and John Vanbiesbrouck's pads), but is quite clear after you've seen it once.

Housley was one of the best offensive defensemen of his era, and perhaps one of the 10 best American defensemen of all time (a case can definitely be made for his contemporaries Chris Chelios, Brian Leetch, Mathieu Schneider - although he is half-Canadian -  and Gary Suter as well).

When this card was made, he was a member of the New Jersey Devils, but his cornerstone seasons were spent with the Buffalo Sabres and Winnipeg Jets; he also played with the Washington Capitals, Calgary Flames (twice), Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs, which whom he played just one game, which happened to be his last. He was a member of the 1996 World Cup-winning Team USA.

He is a member of the American Hall Of Fame and ranks among the highest point-producing Americans of all time, despite being a defenseman.

Brian Rolston Autograph Card

Brian Rolston turned out to have made a pretty good career for himself, enough that he played for the same team twice, well, twice - once (well, twice...) with the New Jersey Devils, and now in his second stint with the Boston Bruins.

A formidable two-way player who should have won a Selke trophy at least once, his booming slap shot is so heavy he usually mans the point on the powerplay, in addition to centering the penalty-kill. He's the type of guy you want on your team to man the third (used to be second) line, as his experience in key games and determination know no boundaries. He's won a Stanley Cup with the Devils, as well as a Tampere Cup (1993), a World Cup (1996) and an Olympic silver medal (2002) with Team USA.

He has reached the 30-goal plateau on four different occasions, and been near the 60-point mark seven different times, with a career-high of 79 (34 of them goals) in 2005-06.

He's one of the main reasons why the Minnesota Wild were so difficult to play against after the last lock-out, so it's ironic this one, should it last as long, could put an end to his career, as he has surely slowed down in recent years and can no longer play 20 minutes per game which, frankly, shouldn't be his role anyway. On a team like the Bruins where he's behind Patrice Bergeron and Tyler Seguin on the depth chart, third-line minutes, second unit PP (40 seconds or so), and second unit PK (30-40 seconds or so) should enable him to reach the 35-to-40-point mark without putting the burden of making others produce while shutting down the opposition.

He was a part of two major trades in his career; first, in 1999, he was traded by the Devils to the Colorado Avalanche for, essentially, playoff juggernaut Claude Lemieux (draft picks also went both ways), then the Avs traded him to the Bruins in 2000 with a first-rounder and Samuel Pahlsson and Martin Grenier for Dave Andreychuk and Ray Bourque.

Many will remember him for taking a slap shot that made Jean-Sébastien Giguère duck, with the puck passing over his head for a game-winning goal in 2007-08; I also recall his 2-goal, 2-assist (on two goals by Yanic Perreault) performance at the 2007 All Star Game in a 12-9 win for the Western Conference, where the MVP of the game was Daniel Brière from the losing team when either Rolston or my favourite player Joe Sakic (4 assists, +6) would also have deserved the title.

This card from Classic's 1994-95 Draft Picks set (card #33 in the Autographs checklist, numbered #1891/2400) sees him wearing the Albany River Rats' uniform, when they were the Devils' top AHL affiliate. It was signed in blue sharpie.

Peter Ferraro Autograph Card

Twin posts for twin brothers... you might have a sense of ''déjà-vu'' if you're read my earlier post about Chris Ferraro...

Peter Ferraro was a blue-chip prospect, a can't-miss minor league superstar who just fell short, perhaps because he was always paired up with his twin brother Chris; not only did they become only the second pair of identical twins to play on the same NHL team, they ended up doing so on three different occasions, first with the New York Rangers, then the Pittsburgh Penguins, and lastly the Washington Capitals (always in the same division)! They also played together for the AHL's Binghamton Rangers, Providence Bruins, Syracuse Crunch, and Portland Pirates, the SEL's Sodertalje SK, the DEL's Düsseldorfer Eislauf-Gemeinschaft Metro Stars, and the ECHL's Las Vegas Wranglers.

While his brother was chosen in the fourth round (85th overall) in 1992, Peter was selected in the very first round (24th overall) by the Rangers after scoring 153 points in 71 games of high school hockey. He then went on to have a 50-point season (one less than his brother) in 36 games for the University Of Maine Black Bears before making the leap to full-time Team USA the following year. He was named to the 1992 World Juniors All-Star team.

He also ended up with 591 points in 620 AHL games (a lot more than Chris in both categories, but both twins were near the point-per-game mark), but only 24 points - 9 goals - in 92 NHL games. He won the AHL's Jake A. Butterfield trophy as playoff MVP in 1998-99.

He is pictured above with his Team USA jersey, part of Classic's 1994-95 Draft Picks set (card #21 in the Autographs checklist, numbered #635/4875). It was signed with (a dying) blue sharpie. I actually traded for this card to have the pair, I think it was for a signed Tom Draper card I now regret no longer having.