Let's get roaring into May while completely ignoring that the calendar as I'm writing this shows that tomorrow is the last day of July!
The first trade package I received that month came from the most prolific of all of my trade partners: Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. This envelope was definitely different than the norm in terms of dimensions and weight for reasons I wouldn't be able to guess until I'd ripped it open.
The cardboard content was uncharacteristically sparse, though plenty familiar as it starred three players from my favorite MLB team. Miggy's from a Topps on-demand product from 2023 called Game Within the Game, one of 10 art cards done by Paul Jennis. At 1,612 copies printed it's on the higher end of rarity, which is cool by itself, plus the card looks great.
"Whiffin'" Willi Castro left Detroit after the 2022 season and naturally became a quality player for the Twins, putting up 2.7 bWAR last year while getting on pace to equal or exceed that number as a 2024 All-Star. You see him here on a Topps UK base from 2022.
I did use the word "familiar" above when referring to the team these three cards share, though that didn't necessarily refer to the players. Rucker didn't ring a bell but I did find him on the lower end of Fangraphs' top Tigers prospects. He's a 3B taken in 2023's 4th round out of high school and therefore a reasonable choice for Panini's Elite Extra Edition product, like the 2023 base you see above.
That was it for cards but not the package itself, not by a longshot. No, friends, I was treated to not one, not two, but four beautiful autographed 8x10s of some excellent Michigan Hockey alumni.
Michigan sports blog MGoBlog recently put together a two-part series on the top 20 careers of Wolverine NHLers (part 1, part 2, and you should totally check these out if you love Michigan Hockey) and two of the four guys here made the cut, fairly impressive given the large quantity of quality Michigan icers to play in the league. I'll borrow a bit from those posts for those three guys and give my own thoughts on the fourth:
Andrew Cogliano: Ok, so I have to admit that of the four photos, this one stumped me for a bit because the auto wasn't a gimmie and the player's name doesn't appear anywhere. Eventually I compared the signature to cards I have and came up with LW Andrew Cogliano, a guy I tend to associate with teams other than the Oilers. His UM career started the the school year after I graduated--2005--but I still got to see him play in-person a bit.
Per the aforementioned Top 20 posts,
"The recently retired Cogliano was the inspiration for this piece, a player who had a hell of a run as a middle six winger for a bunch of teams. That's not what he's most remembered for in the NHL, though. That would be his remarkable iron man ways, as Cogliano at one time owned the longest consecutive games played streak in the NHL at over 800 games. He did not miss a single game his first 10 seasons in the NHL and remained remarkably well conditioned into his mid-30s."
"He started out in Edmonton but found a home in Anaheim, a fixture of the Ducks' really good teams in the mid-2010s in the middle six of the lineup. A well liked guy everyone would have a spot on their team for, that allowed older Cogliano to make deep runs in the playoffs with Dallas (2020) and Colorado (2022), the latter winning him a Stanley Cup."
Also of note, this is my second 8x10 signature of Cogs courtesy of Doug, who previously sent me one back in November of 2019, the 33rd time I'd shown off cards from him here!
John Madden: Not the meathead NFL coach/announcer but the guy who won a pair of cups with the Devils and another with the Hawks, Madden was a four-year C in the mid-90s for some very successful NCAA teams including the 1995-96 champs.
EDIT: Jon Merrill: Thanks to Chris for pointing out that I got the wrong Jon/John from the Devils! Merrill's name has popped up quite a bit here especially thanks to Doug but briefly, the D from nearby Brighton was a three-year Wolverine at the stat of the 2010s and was a second round pick by New Jersey. This past NHL season was his 11th and he's suited up for a total of five teams including Detroit briefly in 2020-21. I don't see him surpassing anyone on this list but a double-digit year NHL career is nothing to sniff at!
Al Montoya: Montoya's the odd man out here as he understandably didn't make the list, though said list includes only one goalie (Marty Turco), and that's in line with the alumni the Wolverines have produced at the position. To be clear, that's 100% based on his not-terribly-exciting pro career of 168 games (136 starts) over nine seasons with six clubs. You wouldn't have guessed that back in the mid-2000s, though, when he was a highly rated hot-shot freshman. His first year coincided with my sophomore year and first with season tickets, and he'd go on to win 86 games over his three seasons, highlighted by a charge to the Frozen Four in his first year on campus. While he didn't live up to his billing as the 6th overall pick in 2004, he was a blast to watch guarding the goal for some excellent teams while I was a student.
Brendan Morrison: Morrison is my favorite of this quartet despite the fact that he played at Michigan the same years as Madden and therefore before I was ever on campus, and even though he never hoisted the Cup. That said, he was arguably the biggest superstar in this group during his college years having won that NCAA championship I mentioned in Madden's blurb plus winning the Hobey Baker Award, a.k.a. hockey's version of the Heisman. New Jersey had drafted him in 1993's second round and he'd spend parts of three seasons with them before eight solid years with the Canucks. A few other destinations followed and over the course of his 14-year career he'd pot exactly 200 goals and 401 assists.
His Top-20 write-up mentions,
"Morrison was never going to be able match the heights he achieved in college in the vastly more talented NHL, where his skill level was not overwhelming in any way, but Morrison still cobbled together a successful career."
I'd say 14 years in the league after that kind of college career is pretty solid.
Many thanks to Doug for this amazing group of signatures that adds to a growing collection of of Michigan Hockey autos not just on cardboard but on some eye-popping pictures too! Your generosity never ceases to amaze me and I appreciate you finding these for me. Rest assured I'm taking my responsibility of maintaining diplomatic relations seriously and working on a return for you.
Everyone else can look forward to another blogger trade package next time!
