All-Star Autograph on NHL All-Star Weekend

Looking forward to the start of the Olympics this weekend, alongside the NHL Skills challenge tonight and the All-Star game Saturday afternoon. 

While I don't have autographs of current All-Stars in my small hockey card collection, I do have a few from one of favorite players from my childhood, John LeClair. It's been years now, but I sent an autograph request through the mail to the former Flyers left-winger.

A 5x All-Star, LeClair was a part of my favorite team from the 90s, forming a fearsome front line with Eric Lindros and Mikael Renberg. Back then my favorite way to enjoy the team was through playing NHL on the playstation, specifically NHL 97 and 99. I remember being excited because Lindros was on the cover. 

I'm definitely not anywhere close to fluent on hockey cards from that period, even though I know some followed suit with basketball. Cards from the Pacific brand weren't a thing in basketball though, so this design isn't a familiar one for me. This one reminds me of a Topps Gallery type design.

I've now shown off my only hockey cards that are pre-2016 that aren't Predators. Happy to have these autographs in my collection. Definitely fond memories of those Flyers teams, and firing in goal after goal with LeClair and Lindros on the playstation, often playing against my dad's Penguins.

Hope everyone enjoys the All-Star weekend!

Fire on Ice

My son and I are enjoying hockey in many forms these days. Between opening a few hockey blaster boxes, watching hockey games on ESPN+, and going to a minor league hockey game for the first time since the pandemic started, we've got hockey activity around our house just about on a daily basis. 

He's all about the Sharks, but he'll watch just about any game on TV. He doesn't know it's coming, but he's going to lose his mind over the NHL All-Star festivities this weekend, coinciding with the start of the Winter Olympics. Even though NHL players aren't in the Olympics, we'll be watching hockey I'm sure.

Meanwhile I'm soaking up hockey card content and adding cards to my Predators want list. While I've tried to hold off on making too many purchases, I did make an initial purchase after seeing a parallel version of this set on twitter.

The parallel version I saw was shinier and serial numbered, but I'm happy with this rookie year card of the top scorer on the Predators, Filip Forsberg. It wouldn't scan well, so I took photos in my light box. A rookie year Forsberg in a set like this, I couldn't pass up when I saw they were a very reasonable price. 

One thing I noticed, and I am not up to speed on Panini's history with a hockey card license, is the Dual Class wording on the Rookie Card logo.  Does this indicate multiple rookie classes in a single year's set? I googled and couldn't find information on it. Was this an attempt by Panini to introduce a rookie card logo in hockey? Info on this would be appreciated.

Same image used on the front and back of the card, but you get to see a faint background. Forsberg's been my favorite Predator to watch since I started following the team. He hit the 200 goal mark just recently, and is on a tear right now. On fire, you might say. He's in the final year of his contract and while he's sure to get a big contract, surely he'll be back in Nashville.

In modern card collecting, I am drawn to sets that are a throwback to a prior set. The 'Fire on Ice' name was used for Leaf insert sets in the mid-90s, the 1997-98 version being my favorite.

So there you have it, my first purchase for the Predators collection. Many more to come, I'm sure.