Loonies and Toonies Well Spent....According to me of course.

I raided my LCS's Dollar and Toonie bin again and found one or two cheapies online too. Here are the results, money well spent I think, tell me what you think.

10-11 UD Series 1 Young Guns Checklist

 These three are certainly off to great careers! Cost 2 bucks.

12-13 UD Artifacts Cody Eakin Team Canada /999

 Here is one for the PC. Cost a dollar.

07-08 Fleer Ultra Jaroslav Halak Rookie

 Halak attack! Took me 2 dollars to take him home.

96-97 BAP Pinnacle Jim McKenzie Auto

 Tough guy and tough auto! A former Devil for 196 games, won a Cup with us in 2003. A dollar? Yes please!

11-12 UD Mika Zibanejad

 Every time I say his name I think I am saying it wrong....He has loads of potential and is having a solid post-season! 2 Dollars...

10-11 SPX Jake Muzzin Rookie

 At the midpoint of the season some had him as a dark horse for the Calder. He isn't a finalist but he still might win something yet with the Kings. This was a dollar.

11-12 Limited David Rundblad Rookie Phenoms /299

 Another D-man prospect. This one had a tough season in the NHL and spent most in the AHL. I believe he will be a regular someday, 2 bucks on that bet.

02-03 Crown Royale Purple Patrick Sharp Rookie Parallel /799

 Patrick has been good the Chicago and Chicago has been good to Patrick. 2 dollars here.

05-06 UD MVP Zach Parise Rookie

Zach, I am no longer bitter about you moving. Here is the proof. I bought another one of your rookies...True it was only 2 dollars but remember...baby steps.

Thanks for reading, more coming soon!

11-12 Cody Eakin Prime Rookie

Cross another things off the to-do list. Finally a Prime Rookie to my collection and a solid higher end Cody Eakin rookie. Cody was shipped from Washington to Dallas as part of the Ribeiro deal during the off-season and Joe Nieuwendyk must be pretty pleased at his return. Cody has a solid 6 goals and 19 points this season which is way higher than the 8 points he had in 30 games last year. He is continuing to improve and has been an awesome second/third liner for Dallas seeing some time on the PP occasionally. He is the kind of player all teams need and I look forward to seeing his career progress. 

11-12 Panini Prime Cody Eakin Rookie /199

These rookies remind me a lot of how some of the old OPC Premier rookies used to look back when UD was still producing them. This is a solid 2 colour, 4 piece set of swatches with a good blue sharpie on card auto. Totally a worth-while pickup that was very affordable.

Another Great Trade with Cardboard Conundrum

You have to love a trade that is complete with a total of 3 emails! That is what happened with this most recent trade between Matt and I. He wanted a Crosby game used that I wasn't too attached too and I noticed he had two PC guys of mine so I had no problems at all with a nice two for one trade in my favour. Thanks again for an awesome trade Matt.

12-13 SP Game Used Team Canada Fabrics - Brett Connolly

 LOVE LOVE LOVE this insert idea. I am totally chasing all my PC guys that played for Team Canada.

11-12 Panini Contenders NHL Ink Cody Eakin

Another great card, this time a rookie year auto of Cody Eakin which features a nice and large on card auto. I did chase a legit auto rookie of his as well which I will share at a later date.

Sometimes the best trades are the biggest but rather the simpliest.

Eakin and Gudbranson

While I have made it no secret that I have been a big fan of the Rookie Anthology product, I see no reason why I can't mention it again! This product speaks to me and I have enjoyed buying two boxes of the stuff and getting a few singles online as well. Here is another one of those singles.

11/12 Rookie Anthology Rookie Rivalry Eakin/Gudbranson

Even though this card isn't numbered and doesn't book for very much, that certainly doesn't deter me from dropping nearly 3 dollars on it (including shipping). These are two former Team Canada World Junior players who I really enjoyed seeing wear Red and White for Canada and both are looking like they will have some pretty solid NHL careers. Just another cool card from my favourite set from 11/12.

11/12 Rookie Anthology Box Break - The Rookies

With the big hits all out of the way, there was still 6 other packs with rookies in them. Here they are in no particular order. 

Each box usually has one of these rookies from the Contenders release. 

Not sure if Harry Z was a big threat for the Calder trophy, but he did make it to the NHL and suited up for half a season so that is saying something. Harry also got himself into a little hot water a few years back with a video camera and a young lady. I guess the past is behind him and he could have an NHL future if the league ever resumes.


Each box usually has like 4 of these Pinnacle rookies featuring their Nufex technology.

True these cards are much nicer than a decoy or a 10 cent off coupon, but fact of the matter is, there really isn't much value in these cards which makes shelling out 12 bucks a pack and ending up with this as your hit a bit depressing. But at the same time, getting 4 in a box in addition to the other hits does feel a little more like icing on the cake. Nilsson joins a long line of Islander goaltenders to have played since DiPietro was drafted.

Dylan Olsen is not a household name yet and may never score more NHL goals than he has fingers in a season, but he is dependable and as a former first round pick will have expectations of being a steady defenseman who can chew up some NHL minutes. So far in 28 NHL games he does have an assist, and there are likely more of those to come.

Cody was a former member of team Canada at the 2011 WJHC and I just loved seeing him play. He does a little bit of everything on the ice and even though he may not put up the same offensive numbers he did in junior, I think he could be a solid top-6 NHL'er some day.

Speaking of the Canadian World Juniors, here is another! As far as rookies go, these last two were fun additions to an already cool box.

Crown Royale update rookies fall around 1 per box as well and I think I landed one of the better ones.

Andrew Shaw only played about half the season, but still managed a great rookie campaign. Andrew actually had the 4th highest ppg average among rookies who played at least 30 games. Only the three Calder finalists had higher ppg averages.