97-98 BAP Joe Thornton Auto "Rookie"

So with the playoff now underway and nearly all teams have played at least one game, my sentimental favourite to win the Cup is Joe Thornton. Don't get my wrong there are a few other teams I would like to see win the Stanley Cup over the Sharks (namely Chicago (my second team), Panthers (I enjoy their rise to success), Nashville (Ryan Ellis) ) but Joe has always been there in the NHL working hard and has done much of it with a level of class and professionalism (if you don't mind forgetting about Hertl's four goal game).

One project that has really hit the backburner is my attempt at all 250 cards in the 97-98 BAP autograph set. At the moment I am about half way there with a few of the big names missing and in the last year I was able to cross one off and with the Sharks winning last night I felt it was a good time to share this one.

97-98 BAP Joe Thornton Auto

I use the term "rookie" in quotes because while this card is from his rookie season, during the 90's it was very common for companies to try and poach rookies before they were rookies in the NHL. The most classic case is Eric Lindros but many others were poached by Upper Deck thanks to their license with Team Canada.

This is my second Thornton auto, my first is on coaster of his Junior B team thanks to an ex-girlfriend who was a high school buddy of Joe's. I like this card a great deal because it has his old number 6 on it and it helps me get one step closer to completely my set.

For those of you who's teams are no longer in contention, do you have any back up teams or sentimental favourites for this post-season?

Countdown to draft day – Boston Bruins

Boston is an original 6 team which means they have been a part of every entry/amateur draft since 1963, when the first draft took place. In that first draft, Boston had the 3^rd overall pick and they selected Orest Romashyna. Orest, never made it to the NHL but he did end up playing for the University of Waterloo which is where I did my undergrad degree. We should give the Bruins a break because that wasn’t exactly the most loaded draft in NHL history with a total of 21 players being selected and only 5 making it to the NHL. The best player from that draft ended up being the second overall pick Pete Mahovlich.

The Bruins over the years have had some pretty good luck with the draft with years like 2006, 2004, 1997 all proving to be loaded with full-time NHL players. But when you try to pin down Boston’s best year you need to go a little further back. In my opinion I would have to say their finest year was 1979.

-taken from hockeydb.com

Every player selected in that draft, eventually played in the NHL. In fact, 5 out of the 7 picks would end up playing at least 400 games and the gem of their draft was selecting Ray Bourque with the 8^th overall pick. Other guys like McCrimmon, Crowder and Krushelnyski all would go on to have very successful NHL careers.

It is difficult to determine which draft was the worst in Bruins history. In 1963 none of their 4 picks would skate in the NHL. Boston’s last four drafts have also yielded few NHL skaters at THIS point but it is a little early to classify them as busts. At this point, I am going to have to suggest that the worst draft for the Bruins was in 1996.

-taken from hockeydb.com

For starters you get a gold star if you actually heard of any of these players other than Aitken or Whitfield. They ended up being the only two players out of the 10 drafted that would go on to play an NHL game and even then, their first pick Johnathan Aiken would finish with his NHL career with 44 games, 0 goals and 1 assist. Bruins would make up for this draft the following year when they would use their first overall pick to get Joe Thornton who as of today is one point shy of 1000 for his career.

Interesting fact that year, the San Jose Sharks had the second overall pick that year so they missed out on selecting Thornton but drafted Patrick Marleau. Thanks to a trade with the Bruins, both Marleau and Thornton are united on the same team (picks 1 and 2).

Joe Thornton

One of the things I like about ITG's products is you get a chance to get an autograph of an NHL star before they were famous. I had a friend who I met back in 2000 who went to high school with Joe Thornton. She went to school with him for most of her life and spent some time hanging out with him and got an autograph from him just in case he ever became famous. I think he was about 15 when he signed the autograph.

I was lucky enough to be given that autograph as a gift from her.

It is a promo coaster from his Jr. B Team. He played for them during the 93-94 and 94-95 seasons.

After playing for the Stars, Joe would then join the Sault Greyhounds and the rest is history.

As you can see his autograph has changed a little bit over the years but I think that happens from time to time as players transition from teenagers to adults.

Upper Deck McDonald's 09-10

I would like to have an order of McNuggets, fries and a coke. I would also like to have 3 packs of card with that too please. I can't count the number of times I have gone to my local McDonalds and ordered lunch and hockey cards.

It all began back in 1991-92 when Upper Deck and McDonalds collaborated to make a small set which had 25 base cards composed of NHL's who played in the All-star game and 6 hologram cards. The cards were of pretty decent quality for the time and they even had a hologram on the back in the shape of the McDonalds M. The next season they did the exact same thing and over the 14 years McDonalds did change companies who would make their cards but the ability to get hockey cards at McDonalds was always there. Then comes 2005 and a new rookie is in the NHL and Upper Deck and McDonalds release one of the most wanted base cards in McDonalds history and that is a Crosby rookie card. There was much debate if it would even be considered a RC but when the dust settles it is considered to be a true rookie and is one of the more affordable ones on the market. Here is one on ebay


It would turn out to likely be the last Crosby McDonalds card because of the deal Crosby has with Pepsi and since McDonalds is a Coke distributing restaurant those two topics will not mix. Now it is 2010 and once again a McDonald's set is available. I have stopped trying to collect a whole set, not just for my health but rather it seems to be a little bit of a gimmick these days. There are some good inserts that are very hard to come by, but the base cards are pretty worthless.

They are of decent quality, in fact I find they are every bit as good as UD Ice's product, but rather there is a noticeable lack of rookies. The last rookie to grace a McDonalds card was Rob Schremp. I for the most part I am a rookie collector and I can't justify buying more cheeseburgers than Randy from the Trailer Park Boys and ripping dollar packs like they are going out of style because in the end there will only be a bunch of base cards which aren't any different than the other middle road base sets. I still feel a patriotic duty to buy a few packs here and there even if only for nostalgic sakes. Here is a look at the product.



As you can see, there is a texture to the card much like UD Ice and Ovation, and there is a hologram on the back which again suggests that this is at least a middle range quality card. Each pack has 3-4 cards and there are some inserts including acetate cards, and other redeemables. Writing on the back is in both official Canadian languages.

I was able to get a checklist from the pack I am showcasing. These are inserted 1 per 4 packs which isn't especially rare and there were 6 checklists in total. Though I didn't show it here, in one of my other packs I bought this year I did have one real "hit". I pulled a Joe Thornton Pride of Canada card which is an acetate card. They are available at a rate of 1:40 cards which isn't too bad for only buying 8 packs this year from McDonalds.