Jordan Eberle Jersey Card

The New York Islanders made a superb deal when they signed Jordan Eberle to a five-year extension that brings him to the end of his prime years (and perhaps a couple of years beyond that point); of note, it carries a lower cap hit ($5.5M instead of $6M) than his previous deal, which got him traded by the Edmonton Oilers - a move Oil fans regret to this day.

He's had his ups and downs throughout his career, dropping from a 30-goal player to 25 then 20 in Edmonton, and reviving his career with 25 goals two winters ago on Long Island, to falling to just 19 (and only 37 points) this past season, although he made up for it with his finest playoff performance to date, with 9 points in 8 postseason games as the Isles made it to the second round.

I just thought I'd mention it while I fell upon a double of this card I'd already featured on here:

It's card #AF-JE from Upper Deck's 2013-14 SP Game-Used Edition set and Authentic Fabrics sub-set, showing him wearing the Oilers' iconic blue-and-orange uniform and sporting the alternate captain's "A", with a nice, big, dark blue swatch encrusted in it.

Jason Spezza Autographed Card

One of the better free agent deals of the summer may prove to be Jason Spezza's one-year, league-minimum ($750K) contract with his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs, solidifying their depth down the middle.

Now, granted, his final two seasons with the Dallas Stars have seen him relegated to mostly a defensive role, as his points totals of 26 and 27 points are far behind his 62, 63 and 50 of the previous three years and light yeras away from his 90-point, All-Star Game heyday, but he led the league in face-off percentages last season (58.2%) and managed some clutch goals down the stretch and in the playoffs to keep his team's chances alive when it seemed like captain Jamie Benn was unable to spark himself up.

He was also a leader in the room who now sits at 915 career regular-season points (in 1065 games), so he may require two more years to hit the 1000-point mark - and I hope he does.

He sent me this card (#312 from Upper Deck's 2015-16 Series 2 set) in the mail a couple of summers ago, before my most recent move:

It shows him wearing the Stars' beautiful green (home) uniform and is signed in blue sharpie.

I hope he gets some second-unit powerplay time with the Leafs, to pad up his stats line in the twilight of his career on a team that has some decent offensive weapons.

Jayna Hefford Autographed Card

A few days ago, in the wake of the CWHL's demise, Mike Murphy from SB Nation's The Ice Garden compiled a list of the league's greatest players by position - a.k.a. the First Team All-Stars - and for perhaps the first time ever, I agreed 100% with someone else's list.

In the next few days, I'll feature a few of the outstanding athletes I was fortunate enough to see play in the few years I had season tickets to Montréal Stars / Les Canadiennes games. Today's spotlight shines on Hockey Hall of Famer Jayna Hefford, whose 20-year career includes 12 World Championships (seven gold medals, five silvers) to go with four Olympic gold medals (and one silver). As a matter of fact, she, Hayley Wickenheiser and Caroline Ouellette are the only women to win four consecutive Olympic gold medals in hockey, a feat that will become increasingly difficult to match, particularly now that there are three superpowers in the women's game (Canada, the U.S. and Sweden) and that other countries are improving as well.

Just about a year ago, the retired player and then-current University of Toronto assistant-coach took on the reins as CWHL interim commissioner (following the sudden departure of Brenda Andress after a ten-year tenure in the position) and had hoped to "increase the (league)'s visibility and popularity" via her own profile but also marketing its stars better, and showcasing their talent.

It wasn't to be, as her reign ended abruptly - she dissolved the league earlier this summer when she saw that despite Andress' best efforts to expand from four to six teams, into the U.S. and China, and having a TV deal in place with Sportsnet, none of it meant added revenue streams. In fact, the league's finances were so dire that not only did it have to fold, but it asked its players to send back the jerseys they wore and trophies they'd won so they could be sold at auction; many of the players' families as to re-buy the cherished memorabilia so the player could keep what would technically - ethically - been rightfully theirs.

The Hall of Fame would wind up buying out the rest so it wouldn't get thrown away. We are still in the infancy of the women's game, and there was no way having two separate professional leagues was ever going to work. The players have now formed a union, so that last-minute surprises like the league shutting down should never happen again, as the next league's finances should be more accessible to those trying to bring the game to the next level. And maybe Hefford's wife, former U.S. Olympian and CWHL co-founder Kathleen Kauth will have her say in the next step forward as well.

Hefford was the league's first scoring champion and points leader, and three years after she retired, became the namesake for the award handed to its most outstanding player as voted by the players.

That kind of respect doesn't come undeserved.

Here she is sporting Team Canada's red uniform, on card #72 from Upper Deck's 2014 Team Canada Women set:

She signed it in black sharpie three or four years ago at a league benefit, adding her jersey number (16) at the end.

Caroline Ouellette: Two Autographed Cards

A few days ago, in the wake of the CWHL's demise, Mike Murphy from SB Nation's The Ice Garden compiled a list of the league's greatest players by position - a.k.a. the First Team All-Stars - and for perhaps the first time ever, I agreed 100% with someone else's list.

In the next few days, I'll feature a few of the outstanding athletes I was fortunate enough to see play in the few years I had season tickets to Montréal Stars / Les Canadiennes games. Today, I'll shine the spotlight (once more) on the player with the most achievements, the Maurice "Rocket" Richard of women's hockey, Caroline Ouellette. Most of the following facts come from Murphy's original post.

The CWHL's career points record holder - with a staggering 315 points in 184 games - is the cream of the crop. Only three skaters managed to post 60-point seasons, and she's the only one with two. She's the only career 125-goal scorer, the only 125-assist skater, and the league's sole 300-point getter. With two MVP titles and four Clarkson Cups (2009, 2011, 2012 and 2017), she collected both personal and team accolades in her nine-year career.

How incredible was her production? Her 184 assists alone would make her the league's fourth-best in career points. Even better: in an era where players come up younger and younger each year, where pundits start talking about "wrong side of 30" to speak of declining production, Ouellette mutes those voices all by her lonesome, considering she joined the league at age 29, technically past what would nowadays be considered her "prime" (though I tend to disagree with tha notion, because while point production is usually highest between the ages of 23 and 26, overall play and impact is best served from 25 to 32, in both the men's game and women's).

I always like to point out the fact that she is one of the rare players who got to play meaningful, in-season games in an arena bearing her name, a tribute usually given to retired or deceased athletes.

Then again, few team sports athletes get to win four Olympic old medals, six World Championship gold and six more WC silver medals to go with her league championships.

For all those reeasons, she was always one of my favourite hockey players.

Here are a couple of signed cards where she's wearing a pink Team Canada uniform from the 2007 World Championships in Winnipeg, paying tribute to the first Worlds just over 25 years earlier (1990, Ottawa):

That's card #23 from In The Game's 2007-08 O Canada set and National Women's Team subset, which she signed in blue sharpie. I'm open to trading one of them, but I'm not adamant about it either. She will be in the Hall Of Fame someday.

Julien Gauthier Autographed Card

As I mentioned earlier this year, I went to Place Bell to see the Laval Rocket play the Charlotte Checkers during the Holidays and witnessed a game the Checkers dominated and where one goalie (Laval's Étienne Marcoux) and two skaters (one from each team) were clear standouts, in a nine-goal game won 5-4 by Charlotte. The Rocket's best skater was Michael McCarron, while the Checkers' (and the entire game's) best player was Julien Gauthier.

Still just 21, Gauthier just completed his second AHL season, nearly doubling his production, going from 16 goals and 25 points in 2017-18 to 27 goals and 45 points in 2018-19 as the Checkers won the AHL's Calder Cup championship.

He'd been a relatively quiet point-per-game player in the LHJMQ mostly suiting up with the Val d'Or Foreurs save for a playoff stint with the Saint John Sea Dogs, but posting 7 points in 7 games at the 2017 World Juniors - helping Team Canada secure a silver medal - justified his being a 2016 first-round pick.

A quick look at the Carolina Hurricanes' roster for the coming season shows there likely won't be room for him in the top-9 for the coming season, especially with almost all of the team's forwards being versatile:

Sebastian Aho, 22, C/LW, $8.454M cap hit through 2023-24
Jordan Staal, 30, C/LW, $6M through 2022-23
Teuvo Teravainen, 24, RW/LW, $5.M through 2023-24
Nino Niederreiter, 26, LW/RW, $5.25M through 2021-22
Ryan Dzingel, 27, C/LW/RW, $3.375M through 2020-21
Andrei Svechnikov, 19, LW/RW, $3.6M ELC through 2021-22
Erik Haula, 28, C/LW, $$2.75M for one more year
Brock McGinn, 25, LW/RW, $2.1M through 2020-21
Jordan Martinook, 27, C/RW/LW, $2M through 2020-21
Martin Necas, 20, C, $1.4M ELC  through 2021-22

What you want is to bring kids up in a way to maximize their chances of success. I could totally see Gauthier getting seasoned for another year while, say, Haula's contract runs out, then trying him beside Necas and Svechnikov - except maybe at that point Svechnikov is so good he plays with Aho and Teravainen full-time. It's a bit of a puzzle, to be honest.

But like most of the Canes, he is comfortable playing on either wing, and you can bet the 6'4", 225-pounder will just keep improving every year and getting in better and better shape; he is, after all, part of Canada's most physically fit family: his father is a former Mr. Canada, his uncle Denis Gauthier played in the NHL for 13 seasons, and his grandfather's generation spawned fitness kings and wresters the Rougeau Brothers, three athletes who spent decades performing in the then-WWF as a side job, like their fathers before them.

Maybe it's the fellow Pointe-Aux-Trembles native in me or maybe I just know something obvious when I see it, but I'm betting on this kid becoming an elite power forward from the ages of 24 to 32. Heck, I'm 6'2" myself, and my playing weight was around 210-220 pounds as a hard-nosed goalie, but even at my current near-300-pound state, having this kid in front of me  -again, this 21-year-old kid, I'm 40 - made me step back a bit, give him respect and space, when he signed this card in blue sharpie:

It's #12 in Upper Deck's 2017-18 Team Canada Juniors set, which means I can slot him in my Team Canada Project as a representative of jersey #12.