A Pair of Kucherovs

Last year I was involved in a hockey pool for charity that I was fortunate enough to win with my neighbour. The reason why we won was because I knew and believed in the Lightning more than the other 20 or so poolies at the table and we slaughtered the competition. In fact, of the 80+ 2 man teams in all the pools, no one came close to us. The reason why I knew so much about the Lightning was my PC boy Brett Connolly. However, since he departed to Boston I still have a soft spot for Tampa Bay and as a result have a few other players I follow on a daily basis and have subsequently added them to my collection. Nikita Kucherov is one of those such players.

Originally a member of the Triplets line he found instant chemistry with Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat. However, this season has been a bit tough on the trio at first. Palat came out of the gate cold with 2 goals and 7 points in 16 games before getting injured and then only recently has fired back up his offensive engine with 7 goals and 10 points in the last 10 games. Johnson also has had a season to forget with a frigid start with 11 points in his first 28 games and a number of missed games due to injury as well. Like Palat, Tyler Johnson has come back a bit of late with 13 points in his last 16 games to show TB fans he will have his scoring touch in time for the playoffs. Kucherov the third member of the Triplets has arguably been the most consistent member of the Lightning this season and is currently tied with Stamkos for the lead in point with 60 and second in goals with 28. He is one goal and 5 points away from career highs in both categories and with 9 games to go there is no reason to believe he won't beat those numbers.

So what options do Kucherov fans have for rookies? Well there are a few including the staple Young Gun rookie but if you are looking for an auto rookie well....keep looking. Apart from the UD Buyback Young Gun Auto Rookie /86 or Gold Version /25 there are none. Yep, he was missed by nearly all the manufacturers save for some non autographed versions. So, I was a little disappointed by this but was able to track down two decent cards nonetheless.


13-14 Panini Prizm Prizm Nikita Kucherov RC

No typo here, those are back to back Prizms because this is the Prizm parallel of Kucherov's Prizm rookie. This is the nicest looking rookie card in my opinion of all the ones you can dig up. That could be because I am biased to shiny things but this card does look pretty cool in the right lighting!


13-14 Upper Deck Young Guns Nikita Kucherov RC

Perhaps one of the more valuable rookies of Nikita Kucherov is his Young Guns rookie which for the record isn't a bad looking card either. Personally I am a fan of the 13-14 design and this card is a winner too. There are /100 and /10 versions of this card too for the hardcore Kucherov fans out there but I haven't broken the bank to try and track one down and perhaps might not ever but I won't say never either.

While I often wonder how neat it would be to have an auto rookie of Gordie Howe or Wayne Gretzky the truth is those card were created without autographs on them and that doesn't make them any less desirable. However, for some reason in today's world I find myself often preferring an autographed rookie over a non-autographed one and wonder if I am the only one in this department. The lack of any Kucherov auto rookies is a little unusual especially when you consider there are far too many Daniel Bang auto rookies from the same year but sometimes that is the luck of the draw I guess and card companies can only do so much for us needy collectors. So I will leave you with this one question, are there any auto rookies of players you like or wish you could have had that were never produced?

A Successful International Experiment

So a while back Shane from Shoebox Legends writes to ask me if I wanted to participate in an experiment. I was flattered and immediately agreed to (for the sake of science of course). So fast forward a little over a week and in my mail was a wonderful care package of 9 cards in a PWE!  The best part is they all arrive safe and sound and what would have originally cost a finger or two to mail to Canada set Shane back nothing more than probably the hair off his knuckles!

I on the other hand, get ALL the rewards! Check them out!

Here is the gem of them all! My first Brett Connolly Young Gun! Despite having countless rookies and autos I never actually had this card (now I have 2, story to follow). Brett was recently traded to the Boston Bruins which did excite me because he was getting a new start after being buried low in the depth chart due to the hoarding of many young offensive forwards by Steve Yzerman.

Love this kid, just wish the coaches did. I have a couple of his rookies but this is the first Prizm one! Eric was a bit of a whipping boy for PDB, but since his firing, Eric has seen an increase in ice time and a decrease in scratches which will hopefully translate to a longer term deal next season (especially since we let Marek Zidlicky go).

I said that the Connolly YG was the Gem, but that is because I was expecting it. The real diamonds in the rough are this card and the next one.The Stadion cards are a Czech release from the early 2000's which feature players from all sorts of sports. Here is an awesome photo that I doubt Upper Deck would ever put on their cards. Scott has been wounded in action and I can almost picture this being taken while he was on the bench waiting to hear if the player got 4 minutes for the infraction! Or maybe it was a fight? Maybe it was a "no call". Well the cool thing about these cards, is there is a date stamp on the back which states when the photo was taken it this one was from Game 3 of the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals. Ville Niemenen took a 2 min boarding call against Scott in the first period so this could have been the result or maybe it was something missed. Either way, Scott didn't take any penalties during this game so it is safe to say it wasn't a fight. Love this card!

Here is another one, this time Scott Gomez is celebrating a goal! No games this time, this game is from April 20 2001 and while the Devils lost this game 3-2 to Carolina, they would go on to of course win the series and make it eventually to the Cup final. This particular game, Scott Gomez was one of the goal scorers but Arturs Irbe stopped 37 of 39 from the win. Based on these two cards I am very tempted to try and see others from this set. I am not sure how many Devils make an appearance but these two are great examples so far.

Yikes! Ok, don't judge a book by its cover but I have a hard time seeing him as a goalie coach! Maybe the accountant or something like that but not goalie coach. Well, it turns out boys and girls that the goalie coach for the 1980 USA Miracle on Ice team was Mr Strelow! He was only with the Devils for one season but he did coach in San Jose and Washington as well.

Leading scorer in Devils history! Sweet!

Some more Elias! Awesome!

In addition to these 7 cards, there was also base cards of Zach Parise and Brian Gionta filling out a PWE stuffed with 9 cards. Every card made it safe and sound and I want to thank Shane again for including me on a pretty awesome experiment. Hopefully it isn't 3 weeks until my next post either :)

What happens when one Devils fan meets another on Twitter?

Social media has impacted most people and while not all impacts are positive, I can say it has been a positive for me. I have had a chance to meet other collectors, get neat links and see other people's collecting successes. When you have little money for the hobby, trading is one way to freshen up your collection and the next couple posts will be on that topic.

One trade I made this summer involved a fellow Devils fan named Tom who wrote me asking me if I ever traded with people on twitter. I responded that I did and from there a friendship formed. While the trade we made isn't going to be the envy of collectors world wide and we didn't swap thousands of dollars in cards, we did help each other out and found a fellow fan with a common interest. 

Tom is a collector who is trying to specifically focus on Marty Brodeur and I am a collector who is all over the map. In the end we each sent a package with some fun cards to go along with a 3 for 3 trade. Here are the three that made their way to me: 

While I already have a Matteau auto, I believe this kid will be good and I do like the Prizm release so I felt picking this one up was a nice addition.

This card was the centerpiece of the trade. Numbered to just /25, Keith is GOING to be the backup goalie for the Devils after the preseason is over and I am happy to add a third auto to my collection to go along with his Dominion rookie and a ITG AHL auto of his.

This last card seems a little dirty for a Devils fan to own, but like I said I am all over the map. Having avoided 12-13 like the plague I am without a few decent rookies and Kreider is one of them. He has potential to be decent so I felt a chance was here for me to land this card at a fair price so I sprang for it and I am happy to add it. Besides, you never know where he will be in 5-6 years.

Thanks for a great trade Tom, I appreciate our chats and I look forward to having another Devils fan to cheer with.

13-14 Panini Prizm Tanner Pearson Rookie Auto

Well the Kings won the 2014 Stanley Cup and I am pretty sure I am not breaking this news to any hockey fans out there. The last time the Kings won the Cup was 2012 against my beloved Devils. During their 2012 Cup run, I noticed a young defenseman who really impressed me named Slava Voynov.

This past run, two players who really jumped out at me were my boy Tyler Toffoli, and Tanner Pearson. On a line with Jeff Carter, these three exhibited a great deal of chemistry on the ice, which gave the Kings two solid scoring lines and propelled them to their Cup win.



13-14 Panini Prizm Tanner Pearson Rookie Auto

Here is a card that I put a bid on in the spring and had lost. The seller came back and offered me a second chance because the seller didn't accept the buyer's form of payment. I gladly accepted the second chance and here it is.

So here is what I bought with my Brendan Gallagher Loot - Part 5

Ryan Murphy was a player who has been on my radar since he tore up the OHL in the 10-11 season with the Kitchener Rangers. Ryan Murphy is an excellent offensive defenseman who was drafted 12th overall by the Canes in 2011. I am turning into a Murphy super collector since I already have a 1/1 and a couple rookies. 

13-14 Panini Prizm Ryan Murphy Rookie Auto

This is an autograph parallel of the Ryan Murphy rookie. I was really keen on this set when it was first released but was curious to what "value" it would be as far as secondary market goes. My hesitation was because box prices were about 100 bucks with 2 autos and 20 rookies. The 20 rookies is cool but many were duds and with 20 rookies and 2 autos I suspected secondary pricing to rival that of OPC and sure enough it did. Autos have some value but again aren't selling for as much as the box price dictates so I decided to buy one rack pack (will share later) and this auto online. The price was about 4 bucks with shipping and apart from my top loader scuffs, this card does look nice. I plan on buying a few more of these once the market is flooded with key rookie autos or when boxes hit the 60 dollar mark.

Two cards left to share with my loot, one is pretty interesting and the other is one I have wanted for a while.