THE NEXT ONES

★ ★ ★

While today’s stars draw fans to rinks and yesteryear’s heroes bring autograph seekers to collector shows, there is a third group that gets attention — the next ones. Spurred by media who provide regular coverage of hot draft prospects and memorabilia companies rolling out products dedicated to rookies, the chase to grab collectibles of “the next big thing” in hockey is never-ending. Every time a Taylor Hall makes an impact in the NHL or a Nathan MacKinnon grabs headlines in the CHL, the hockey world is put on notice that yesterday’s can’t-miss prospect is already old news.

Prospect collecting hearkens back ages. In their junior careers, players like Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky were under intense media scrutiny and pre-hobby pundits were collecting autographs of the next men to lead the hockey world; but the hobby boom in the early 1990s, which coincided with the rise of Eric Lindros, saw the first true superstar born before he even was drafted. Later on, other prospects would be hotly pursued through memorabilia, including the likes of Joe Thornton, Ilya Kovalchuk. Sidney Crosby, and Alexander Ovechkin.

Prospecting in the hobby can be extremely fun, but it brings out a certain core of collectors — investors. This group will hang on the words of NHL insiders and try to get a leg up on hobbyists by snagging autographs, rookie cards, and other memorabilia of players very early in their careers with the hope of being able to get excellent return on their investment; but for every “can’t miss” prospect who blossoms into a bona fide NHL superstar, there are countless more who don’t make it. Every Alexander Ovechkin has an Alexandre Daigle, after all; and yet, even the player who doesn’t make that immediate impact still has investors and collectors clamouring for their keepsakes. Why? Because you never know who will end up being a superstar once they reach their prime.

Witness Markus Naslund. In 1991, Naslund was a first-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers. When he didn’t produce, he was traded to Pittsburgh for Alex Stojanov. Wise collectors kept his rookie cards and had their supply of autographs ready for resale by the time he emerged as an All-Star in Vancouver. Naslund offered his own analysis as to why it took him longer to live up to his high draft position. “It takes longer for some guys than for others. Not only are you expected, from others, to step right in and play good right away,” he said, “but coming over from Sweden and having success throughout my career, I thought it would be an easy adjustment; but it was tougher than I [expected]. It was a big adjustment and I think patience, for young players, is key.”

So as we can see, the risk can definitely result in a handsome reward; but that same risk has snake-bitten so many collectors that one might assume the madness would cease at one point or another. That’s far from the case, however. Speculation still fuels the hobby and drives a lot of expectation on the shoulders of teenagers not yet in their maturity. No one understood this pressure more than Sidney Crosby. Ages before he was a Hart Trophy winner, Crosby was a headliner across Canada, and his name was bandied about in hobby shops. Autograph seekers hounded young Sidney severely, while memorabilia companies were working with him early into his CHL career. Being the subject of such demand was something Crosby took in stride. At the 2005 World Junior Hockey Championship selection camp, Crosby talked about how he dealt with the pressure, choosing to focus only on that which he put on his own shoulders, not what anyone else did.

“I think the only pressure you have is the pressure you put on yourself,” the very young Crosby said in December 2004. “I don’t put that pressure on myself. I just do what I’m capable of doing. I don’t put any expectations on. I just try to do that and see what happens.”

Still, one cannot ignore the attention one gets as a stud rookie in wait, and Crosby, even at that young age, was constantly in demand for his coveted signature. Already showing maturity well beyond his years, Crosby knew that this was an integral part of the career path he was choosing for himself. “Everyone loves hockey. They want autographs and I’m fine with that — hockey’s the biggest sport in Canada and it’s to be expected,” Crosby said in the same 2004 interview. “I’m fine with that and I accept it; it’s part of being a hockey player.”

★ ERIC LINDROS ★

There may be no player in NHL history who was as heavily hyped as a junior as Eric Lindros. Before he was even drafted, The Big E had an autobiography, a dedicated trading card series, and an autograph hound following unlike anything the league had seen up until then.

Some of the hype around “The Next One” was self-propelled, as Lindros famously declared that he would never suit up for the Quebec Nordiques, prior to the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. He didn’t even wear the jersey on Draft Day. Soon after, Lindros suited up for the Canada Cup tournament. As part of the host squad, young Eric skated alongside the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier as his NHL future held a giant question mark. It was a year before the fate of the unhappy Nordiques prospect would be decided. Around Draft Day 1992, two trades were engineered, one that had Lindros going to the New York Rangers, the other to the Philadelphia Flyers. It took arbitration to make the final decision about Lindros’s destination, and in the end the Flyers came out the victors.

Lindros’s NHL debut largely lived up to the hype, though he fell short in his bid for the Calder behind Teemu Selanne and Joe Juneau. Undeterred, however, Lindros performed incredibly well in Philly, leading his squad to the Stanley Cup Finals and also picking up the Hart Trophy as league MVP in 1994–95. This season, however, proved to be the best he would deliver on the ice, as concussions soon took their toll, limiting his prowess. Arguments with Flyers General Manager Bobby Clarke led to his departure from Philly. Lindros rounded out his career with a variety of teams, including the Rangers, Dallas Stars, and Toronto Maple Leafs, before hanging up his skates permanently.

Because Lindros came into the NHL at the peak of the hockey card boom, it’s not surprising that he is perhaps best known in the memorabilia world for the variety of cardboard that has been dedicated to him, especially from Score, who took full advantage of its exclusive contract and created a cornucopia of products, including a set of three cards available only via the purchase of the aforementioned autobiography and a holiday card. Trumping the Score cards is a product that was never supposed to see the light of day. During the 1991–92 NHL season, Pro Set teamed with memorabilia company Ace to produce a dual-packaged card and pin, which included Lindros on the checklist. Because of the exclusive deal Lindros had with Score, the combination never made it to retail, but several pins have popped up online in recent years.

★ ALEXANDRE DAIGLE ★

Despite the potential that players like Paul Kariya and Chris Pronger had, Alexandre Daigle was seen as the unquestioned first overall pick in 1993’s draft, especially in his own mind (he once said, “I’m glad I got drafted first, because no one remembers number two”). Daigle was taken first overall by the Ottawa Senators, a sad-sack squad at the time, who were even rumoured to have thrown the last few games of the 1992–93 season in order to draft Daigle (whether true or not, it was speculated that to prevent such a move by a team, the NHL moved to the lottery system to determine the draft order). By Draft Day, card company Score had signed an exclusive agreement with the prospect and produced early cards of Daigle. First, it issued a special card at the Draft, which lit on fire in the secondary market and is still a tough card to find today. Later Score issued a redemption for his first fully licensed NHL trading card. In promoting the chance to get the first card of Daigle in his NHL duds, Score created the single worst advertisement in the history of hockey-related product. Rather than putting Daigle in hockey skates and a jersey, Score dressed him up in a variety of other uniforms. Among them were a Mountie uniform (which created controversy because he was saluting with the wrong hand) and a nurse’s WWII–style uniform.

JON WALDMAN

Daigle was barely in consideration for the Calder Memorial Trophy in his first season and soon ended up on the outs with Senators fans. He was shipped around the NHL a couple times before leaving hockey to pursue an acting career but later attempted a comeback. He seemed to have regained his promise when he landed with the Pittsburgh Penguins and later moved to the fledgling Minnesota Wild. Daigle even led the team in scoring during the 2003–04 season (with 51 points, mind you) but didn’t stick well for the 2005–06 season and was eventually moved to the AHL. One year later, Daigle moved to the Swiss league and found a permanent home there. Now far removed from the NHL, Daigle is regarded as one of the worst number-one selections in Entry Draft history. He totalled 327 points in 616 league games, including a paltry 129 goals. To say he did not meet expectations would be an understatement.

★ SIDNEY CROSBY ★

When the NHL announced its return from the 2004–05 lockout, numerous questions needed to be answered; but the one that was on the minds of most every NHL fan was the fate of phenom Sidney Crosby. Like other junior stars before him, Crosby had set hockey prospect pundits ablaze with his fantastic play on both the CHL and global stages. Even before licensed companies got on the Crosby bandwagon, his junior team, the Rimouski Oceanic, issued a special credit card–sized DVD of an amazing lacrosse-style goal Cros scored. This is what separated El Sid from the pack, however: his uncanny desire to be the best in the world. Crosby knew what looked to be his destiny and took advantage of his marketability. Like Lindros and Daigle before him, Crosby was already an autograph hound’s dream, and he took advantage of the opportunity presented to him, teaming with Frameworth on autographed collectibles.

KEN ROBERTSON

During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, one of the biggest questions surrounded Crosby and which team would be lucky enough to gain the number-one pick in the following NHL Entry Draft. With no season to base rankings on, it was decided that the year’s Draft Lottery would encompass all 30 member teams. Crosby was quite literally thrust into the national spotlight. If you thought the LeBron James free-agency-decision special on ESPN was a media circus, you should have seen the lengths the NHL and TSN went to with the lottery, as teams were eliminated one by one from Crosby contention until only the Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Mighty Ducks were left standing. In the end, the Penguins won out, and No. 87 was headed to Steeltown.

Crosby made an immediate impact with the Penguins, and while he finished second to Alexander Ovechkin in Calder Trophy voting, “Sid the Kid” showed that he was the head of the class of his rookie year. He set a torrid pace, garnering a Hart Trophy win one year later and became the youngest player to captain a Stanley Cup–winning team. Crosby’s career was further accentuated in 2010 as he scored what Chris Cuthbert dubbed “The Golden Goal” at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, but soon after that moment of glory, Crosby’s career would start to be derailed by concussion and neck issues. And yet, whenever it seemed his promising future was in jeopardy, he showed that he hadn’t lost his step, continuing a torrid scoring pace and each time re-establishing that he was the true heart and soul of the Penguins.