Trio of Hawks Sign Extensions

The Chicago Blackhawks have signed three of their top players to contract extensions today. Forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have signed 5-year deals, while defenseman Duncan Keith has signed a 13-year pact.

Toews and Kane’s deals are worth $31.5 million ($6.3 big ones per year), while Keith’s deal was for $72 million ($5.54 mil per year).

Full stories about this can be found on NHL.com and the Blackhawks’ website.

This is exciting news for Blackhawks fans like myself, who would hate to see the team’s great young players end up signing elsewhere. Brian Campbell and Marian Hossa might be the best-paid players on the team, but Kane, Toews and Keith are the core.

This calls for another LOLTaves:

Upcoming Hockey Figures

Here’s a quick rundown of NHL SportsPicks Series 23 and 24 by McFarlane Toys.

NHL Series 23 – January 2010
Marc-Ander Fleury (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Alexander Ovechkin 4 (Washington Capitals)
Gordie Howe (Hartford Whalers)
Teemu Selanne 2 (Anaheim Ducks)
Bobby Orr 3 (Boston Bruins)
Luke Schenn (Toronto Maple Leafs)

NHL Series 24 – April 2010
Robyn Regehr (Calgary Flames)
Michael Cammalleri (Montreal Canadiens)
Jonathan Toews (Chicago Blackhawks)
Tim Thomas (Boston Bruins)
John Tavares (New York Islanders)
Jonas Gustavsson (Toronto Maple Leafs)

NHL Series 23 seems to be a pretty typical assortment. I’m already tired of Ovechkin figures and Maple Leafs figures. A figure of Gordie Howe with the Hartford Whalers should be interesting, though a figure of him as a Houston Aeros would really rock.

Now, NHL Series 24 has my attention. McFarlane Toys is making figures of popular rookies John Tavares and Jonas Gustavsson while they are still rookies. Mike Cammaleri is currently second in scoring for Montreal, and Tim Thomas has more than established himself as a top-tier player.

But what really excites me is that there will be a figure of Blackahwks team captain Jonathan Toews. While there have been recent figures of retired ‘Hawks (Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull and Bobby Orr), this is the first figure of a current ‘Hawk since Nikolai Khabibulin was released in NHL Series Series 12 (May 2006).

Which leads me to ask, why no Blackhawks figures for so long? They have been among the hottest teams in hockey in the past two years. Patrick Kane won the Calder Trophy in 2008, but still has yet to be immortalized as a figure. Current stars Marian Hossa and Christobal Huet both appeared as SportsPicks in 2007; why not repaint them as Chicago players?

Either way, I’ll be looking to get a few of these. I’ve really slowed down on the SportsPicks as of late. I really need to get my hands on this one.

Hockey Card Haul – Part 4: Sets

OK, this is the end of all my gloating, I promise. In addition to the rookie cards, vintage cards and autographs I bought at the card show on November 22, I also hit the mother load of cheap complete sets:

2005-06 Upper Deck Series 2 (base set 243-442) – $5
1998-99 Pacific (1-451) $8
1997-98 Collectors’ Choice (1-320) – $5
1997-98 Pacific Paramount (1-198) – $8
1996-97 Collectors’ Choice (1-348) – $8
1995-96 Score Summit (1-200 – $6
1992-93 Classic Pro Prospects (1-150) – $3
1992-93 Pinnacle Canadian (1-420) – $6

That’s $49 for 8 complete sets. The best part is that all of these sets came in new Ultra Pro pages. So more accurately, $49 got me 8 complete sets and 258 card pages.

I also purchased three other sets, though they did not include pages:

2004-05 SP Authentic (base set 1-90) – $5
2004-05 Upper Deck Ice (base set 1-90) – $5
1993-94 Parkhurst (1-540) – $6

In all, that is 3,007 new cards in my collection for $65–a mere 2.2 cents per card! That’s enough cards to go around a hockey rink 1.5 times.

Hockey Card Haul – Part 3: Autographs

(Dragging out) Continuing my epic hockey card haul of November, here are some autographed cards I picked up. I normally don’t look for ‘graphs at card shows, but if something grabs my attention and is cheap enough, then I’ll go for it.

2005-06 SP Authentic Jim Slater – Worth all 100 pennies of the dollar that I paid for this card. It is hard-signed in blue Sharpie marker.

2005-06 Fleer Prized Prospects Danny Richmond – Richmond was born in Chicago, and played parts of 3 seasons with the Blackhawks. He also wore 44, which is my favorite number. The card is a sticker ‘graph, but signed in blue. Cost was $3, and is numbered 538 out of 999.

2007-08 Be A Player Shea Weber – One of my favorite d-men in the NHL. $3 for this autographed card seemed fair.

2007-08 Be A Player Daniel Carcillo and Aaron Voros – This dual-signed card cost me $5. I don’t know much about Voros, but Carcillo was my favorite Coyotes player last season. Heck, he’s probably my favorite Flyer this year. He reminds me of Dave Manson, a player I grew up watching.

I got a few more goodies at this show, but I’m still in the tedious process of sorting and scanning…

Hockey Card Haul – Part 2: Vintage

Continued from my previous post about all the awesome hockey cards I picked up on November 22. Here’s some vintage, gum-smelling goodness:

Twelve (12) cards from 1973-74 Topps for $8.75. Now I only need 9 more cards and I’ll have the entire 198-card set.

Three (3) cards from the 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee set for $3. I’ve got quite a ways to go before completing this set, though.

1974-75 Topps Denis Potvin RC for onnnnnnneeeeeeeee dollllllllllar!!!!! Yeah, OK…it’s got a slight crease. But did I mention that I got it for onnnnnnneeeeeeeee dollllllllllar?

1974-75 Topps Bobby Orr–the greatest defenseman of all time–for $3. I might have to start putting this set together too.

1960-61 Topps Al Arbour. This card rocks because of its use of primary colors (blue, yellow, red). Plus, Arbor is wearing glasses. Most of you probably remember him better as the longtime coach of the New York Islanders, but he was the last guy to play while wearing glasses. Oh yeah, I paid $5 for this slice of cardboard. Ironic that I paid more for an Arbor card than Orr and Potvin combined.

To be continued…

The Onion riffs on hockey

The Onion is a free, satirical newspaper here in some U.S. cities. Every now and then, they riff on hockey in their Sports section. Here’s some of their latest hockey quips.

People Probably Affiliated With Hockey In Some Way Inducted In Hockey Hall Of Fame – unfortunately, it wasn’t a full article, just a photo and caption.

Nation’s Morons March On Washington State – not a hockey article, but the moron on the left is holding a sign that says “Go Red Wings.”

And from last season, here’s a hilarious infographic about Alexander Ovechkin (click on it to read).

Heh, heh…speaks fluent Ovechkin. Happy Friday, everyone.

Hockey Card Haul – Part 1: Rookies

Every November and March, there is a big card show in Chicago sponsored by the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. I almost always find a bunch of cards that I am looking for, and sometimes cards that I’m not looking for but are too good to pass up.

This past Sunday, I went to the show and got quite the haul. So truly epic was this haul that I will have to break it up into several blog posts. First, some recent rookie cards:

Eight (8) 2007-08 Young Guns for $22, including David Krejci, Brian Little, Sam Gagner, Jiri Tlusty and Devin Setoguchi

Twenty-four (24) 2005-06 Young Guns for $29. Mostly scrubs of the “Common YG” variety, but I did manage to pick up Ryan Getzlaf, Tomas Vanek and Andrei Kostitsyn.

Now, onto some SHINY ROOKIE CARDS!!!

2006-07 Upper Deck Trilogy Shea Weber 745/999. For $1, who would not want this shiny Shea card?

2007-08 Black Diamond Milan Lucic. One day, I might actually complete this set. It is a low priority for me, but a $5 Lucic rookie seemed like a good purchase.

2007-08 SP Authentic Holo FX Patrick Kane. It would be insane of me to pass this up for $1. I remember a shop in Chicago selling this very same card for $20 about 2 years ago. Wait long enough, and you eventually get the deal you want.

Much more to come…

Hossa is back!

Marian Hossa will make his debut as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks tonight, as the ‘Hawks take on the Sharks at 9:30 pm CST.

The Blackhawks are 15-5-2 so far this year, and have won their past 7 games. If you think the ‘Hawks are tough…well, now they got Hossa. Western Conference teams, be afraid. Be very afraid.

1963-64 Parkhurst #38 – Dave Balon

What’s with Balon’s bug-eyed expression? He kind of looks like that big-headed alien you see during the end credits of the original “Star Trek” TV show.

Believe it or not, this alien’s name is Balok. That’s way too close to “Balon” to be a mere coincidence. If Gene Roddenberry was alive today, he would totally admit that his inspiration for that alien character was this card of David Balon.

This is my 16th card in my 1963-64 Parkhurst set.

Note: I was not on “The War Room” this week, but will be back on their show next Wednesday.