Happy Trails Chris Drury

Well it is a pretty dreary day here in Nova Scotia. Just wrapped up a 3.5 hour thunder storm and I feel safe having my desktop computer on once again.

Well it shouldn't come as a huge surprise to some that Chris Drury has decided to call it a career. He like many others was lured to New York with the promise of a big contract and the hopes that they are the "missing piece" only to underachieve and find themselves homeless (not figuratively of course) after a couple of seasons.

I think any player signing a contract with the Rangers should take out an insurance policy on their talent as it seems to disappear more often than not when they arrive. Jagr is pretty much the only exception I can think of in the last 15 years. Holik, Gomez, Drury, Redden, Lindros and countless others showed up to NY with the hopes of Cups and playoff appearances only to find themselves failing.

Chris Drury was a winner however in his previous life first winning the Calder Trophy in 1999 with the Avalanche. He will be best remembered by me for great 2001 Playoff performance with the Avs which contributed to the Devils not being repeat Champs. I think he made the right choice retiring on his own terms and not embarrassing himself by trying out with other clubs and finding himself on a 4th line or being scratched occasionally on a non-contending team.

I don't have many Drury cards in my collection, but I do have his 05-06 Parkhurst card which does picture him during his best offensive days.

Final career numbers for Drury are:

892 gms, 255 goals, 360 assists and 615 points.

His best season was in 06-07 (which lead the the huge contract with the Strangers)

37 goals, 32 assists for 39 points

Happy Trails Paul Kariya

Well it looks like Paul has decided to call it a career. It is probably good that Paul is able to walk away from the game without any further concussions. However, it will leave many fans wondering "what could have been?" had he not had so many injury ridden seasons.

Paul was also a victim of bad timing as he missed out on winning a Cup despite trying to chase after one in Colorado, only to have the Ducks eventually win a Cup without his presence.

Drafted 4th overall in 1993 Paul began his career with much promise

Here is his 92-93 UD Rookie card. It is the ONLY rookie card of Paul.

Paul put up some pretty decent career numbers where he averaged exactly a point a game.

402 goals, 587 assists and 989 points in 989 games.

His finest year was in 95-96 when he had 50 goals, 58 assists and 108 points.

The closest he came to winning a cup was in 2003 when the Ducks lost out in game 7 of the Stanley Cup final to my very own New Jersey Devils.

Now the debate begins, does he have what it takes to make the Hall of Fame? I don't think he will on the first several ballots. Players like Adam Oates should make it in before Paul does, but I won't rule out a chance of him making it in on his 10th+ ballot.

Here is a 07-08 UD jersey card I pulled from a pack.

No doubt he was talented, but head shots did shorten his career and hopefully the NHL takes care of this before players like Crosby are the next Kariya!

Bill Guerin Retires

Well my favourite player from my childhood has decided that he is done playing professional hockey as has retired as a Pittsburgh Penguin. The retirement ceremony can be see here.

Bill Guerin had an excellent career, the former 5th overall pick of the Devils in 1989 scored 40+ goals twice and had a career high 85 points in 2000-01. His final totals were 429 goals and 856 points in 1263 games and 13 times finished with 20+ goals. In addition to those stats, he also won two Stanley Cups.

The one games I will always remember of Billy was game 4 of the 95 Finals when he scored 3 points to secure the first cup in Devils franchise history.

Bill was an excellent power forward who skated well and had a shot that rivaled some of the best in his prime. As I mentioned in a previous post, Bill was my first and only TTM. As you can see below, he used blue sharpie on his 92-93 Parkhurst RC. The other auto was signed with a black sharpie and was one I has bought a few years later from a sports store in the mall back in 98. I believe I paid 5 bucks and in my opinion it was money well spent. Both autos have his name and number 12. He would switch to #13 after he was traded for Jason Arnott and would keep that number for the rest of his career.

In addition, I also bought a game used lot off ebay a year or so ago and managed to get three g-u cards for 0.99 plus shipping. The blue swatch was from his brief time with the Blues and the other two are different greens both from his days with the Stars.

The Shooting Stars swatch is the nicest of the three in my opinion partly because the play on words and it is the largest of the three swatches.

I am sad to see that he has decided to call it a career, but he did leave relatively on top of his game. His final season he still managed to score 21 goals with the Penguins and though they didn't win the Cup that year and he likely will never make the Hall of Fame, he still left the game with two rings and many other accomplishments such as Olympic Silver Medalist, and World Cup of Hockey Champion.