Lightning Card of the Week - Autograph Prospects

OK.  This is starting to get downright uncanny.  On Sunday I got this.

That’s right, baby! It’s a hand-signed Steve Konroyd 8x10! He was signing at the Blackhawks game, there was a line, and I like standing in lines.  So I got an autograph.  Konroyd had a decent career in the NHL and now works with Blackhawks media.  It’s always nice to add a NHL autograph to the collection, but that’s not the reason I’m posting this.

You may remember that the last two times I picked up an in-person autograph of a former Blackhawk I ended up getting a Through-The-Mail autograph the next day.  Surely, that wouldn’t happen again would it? 

After working on a piece for The Hockey Writers I went downstairs to check the mail slot and low-and-behold I saw one of my self-labeled envelopes amongst the advertisements for Seamless.com and Comcast Cable (Hey Comcast, how about you match up your mailing lists? I just switched over to you).

Inside the envelope was this:

Brendon Mikkelson 2008-09 ITG Heroes and Prospects signed with what appears to be a small paintbrush.  Well at least there was no smudging on it this time.

Mikkelson was picked up by the Lightning in January for Blair Jones and has played fairly well since then.  The big, smooth-skating defenseman just picked up his first NHL goal in the 3-1 loss to St. Louis Saturday night and now has 3 point in 30 games with the Bolts. Though his ice time has dropped a little recently, he’s been playing around 15-17 minutes on a pretty regular basis.  Not bad for24-year-old with limited NHL experience.

A Restricted Free Agent after this season, I fully expect he’ll be brought back (and hopefully signed to a multi-year deal) once the CBA is figured out.  He’s not that flashy with the puck, but he can handle it, has decent speed (always a bonus) and has shown a proclivity for staying calm in the sometimes chaotic Lightning defensive zone. 

I guess I have to check the Internet and see when the next signing is happening in Chicago if I want to see any of my other TTM cards come back.  As they say in Norfolk, “Three isa fluke, four is a streak”.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my love for the ITG products in the past, and 2008-09 Heroes and Prospects was the first product I ever busted from them.  It's nice to rummage through around when the Lightning pick up players so that I can send the cards off quickly for autographs.

Showing him in his junior's uniform is kind of fudging the whole "Lightning Card of the Week" gimmick, but frankly I didn't want to subject you to back-to-back single card posts.  Aren't I a kind and benevolent blogger?