Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Mail - The Flying Father

The chase continues with 15 new NHL player autographs in the mail since the last post. That brings the grand total to 5,593 autographs for 75% of everyone who has every played in the NHL.

Thanks to Kingsley and Jerry for trades. The only purchase here was Les Costello. The signature comes from an old Flying Fathers program that I won for a steal.
Another notable addition in this post is Kay Whitemore's autograph. I've sent half a dozen TTM requests to him over the years but a trade finally landed me his signature. I say its notable because he's one of the last living goalies I was missing.

                                Les Costello
   From 1948 to 1950 Les Costello played 15 regular season and 6 playoff games in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was a star junior player who won the Memorial Cup twice with the St. Michael's Majors. Costello scored 2 goals and 4 points in 5 playoff games with the 1948 Maple Leafs as they claimed the Stanley Cup. Costello got his named engraved on hockey's holy grail. He retired from hockey in 1950 to become a priest. As a priest he founded the Flyer Fathers hockey team, a famous group of priests who traveled around playing local teams for charity. Costello passed away in 2002.

                            Andrey Pedan
   Andrey Pedan was drafted in the 3rd round of the 2011 NHL draft by the New York Islanders. The defenseman was traded to the Vancouver Canucks in 2014 and made his NHL debut with the 2015/16 Canucks. Pedan played 13 games in the NHL with the team that season. In 2017, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins but has yet to make it back to the NHL. 

                            Buddy Robinson
   From 2015 to 2017 Buddy Robinson scored 1 goal and 2 points in 7 career NHL games with the Ottawa Senators. He was originally signed by the Sens as an undrafted free agent from Lake Superior State University. In the summer of 2017 he signed a deal with the Winnipeg Jets but has yet to make it out of their AHL club. 

                               Viktor Loov
   Swedish defenseman Viktor Loov recorded 2 assists in 4 career NHL games with the 2015/16 Toronto Maple Leafs. He was later traded to and signed by the New Jersey Devils but has yet to play for the NHL club. 

                         Rene Chapdelaine
   From 1990 to 1993 defenseman Rene Chapdelaine played 32 games in the NHL with Wayne Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings. He joined the Kings after four years at Lake Superior State University. 

                                   Lude Check
   Lude Check played 1 game in the NHL with the 1943/44 Detroit Red Wings and 26 games with the 1944/45 Chicago Blackhawks. He scored 6 goals and 8 points in 27 career NHL games. Check passed away in 2009. 

                           Duane Rupp
   From 1962 to 1973 defenseman Duane Rupp played 374 regular season games in the NHL. He's best year was with the 1967/68 Toronto Maple Leafs when he was a staple on the team's blueline and participated in the NHL's 1968 NHL All-Star game. Rupp played for the Rangers, Leafs, North Stars and Penguins. From 1974 to 1976 he spent a couple seasons in the WHA, playing with the Vancouver Blazers and Calgary Cowboys. 

                   Greg Paslawski
   From 1983 to 1994 Greg Paslawski played 650 games in the NHL, dressing with the Canadiens, Blues, Jets, Sabres, Nordiques, Flyers and Flames. The well traveled Paslawski was a solid point producer, netting 187 goals and 372 points in the NHL. 

                   Kay Whitmore
   From 1988 to 2002 Kay Whitmore played 155 games in the NHL. He spent most of that time with the Hartford Whalers or Vancouver Canucks. He's notable for serving as Vancouver's backup goalie during their 1994 playoff run that saw them make it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals, loosing to the Rangers. After long stints in the minors and a year in Europe, Whitmore later returned to the NHL to play a handful of games between the Boston Bruins and Calgary Flames. He was a well known hockey commentator after hanging up his skates and currently works for the NHL as the league's goaltending supervisor. 

                     Steve Vickers
   From 1972 to 1982 Steve Vickers scored 246 goals and 586 points in 698 regular season NHL games with the New York Rangers. Vickers is most notable for winning the NHL's 1972/73 Calder Trophy as rookie of the year. He was an NHL All-Star with the Rangers in 1975 and 1976. He scored a career high 41 goals with the 1974/75 Rangers, the only NHL team he played for. 

                       Ken Strong
   From 1982 to 1985 Ken Strong scored 2 goals and 4 points in 15 career NHL games, all with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was originally drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1981 but acquired by the Leafs in the Darryl Sittler trade. 

                      Cam Plante
   Defenseman Cam Plante played 2 games in the NHL with the 1984/85 Toronto Maple Leafs. He continued to play pro hockey until 1998. His sons, Tyler and Alex Plante, both made it to the NHL. Alex played a handful of games with the Oilers and Tyler, a goalie, backup up 7 NHL games with the Florida Panthers. 

                       Val James
   Val James played 7 NHL games with the 1981/82 Buffalo Sabres and 4 games with the 1986/87 Toronto Maple Leafs. He released a book in 2015 that I'd very much like to pickup and read; Black Ice: The Val James Story. 

                             Willy Lindstrom
   From 1975 to 1979 Swedish forward Willy Lindstrom starred with the WHA's Winnipeg Jets, winning the Avco Cup in 1978 and 1979. He followed the Jets into the NHL and continued to put up points, scoring 32 goals for the 81/82 Jets. He was later traded to the Edmonton Oilers and helped them win the Stanley Cup in 1984 and 1985. Lindstrom then spent a couple seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins before retiring from the NHL in 1987. During his career he was a teammate of Bobby Hull, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Lindstrom later scouted for the NHL's Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes and Phoenix Coyotes. Internationally, he took home a Bronze medal representing Sweden at the 1974 and 1975 World Championships. 

                             Dean Clark
   Forward Dean Clark played 1 game in the NHL. It came with the 1983/84 Edmonton Oilers, a team stacked with the likes of Wayne Gretzky and other future Hall of Famers who would go on to win the Stanley Cup that season. It was actually Clark's only game of pro hockey as he spent the remainder of the season in the WHL and later attended the University of Alberta.



2 comments:

  1. That's really cool that you're working on collecting as many NHL autos as possible I just pulled an autograph from Upper Deck ePack. Have you ever opened any packs on there before? I think that it's a lot of fun!

    Keep on collecting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the Comment and kind words Brennan.

      I think the ePack is a great concept, especially for new collectors. I don't, however, break much product at all as I like to channel all my hobby funds into signatures and stamps :)

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