Brad Maxwell

Sent: 3/10/11
Received: 2/29/12
Time: 356 Days
Address: Home
Item Sent: 1979-80 Topps, 1983-84 O-Pee-Chee, 1984-85 Topps
Item Received: 1979-80 Topps, 1983-84 O-Pee-Chee, 1984-85 Topps.  All signed in black Sharpie.

Notes:
I'm really excited about this one.  Brad Maxwell was nearing the end of his North Stars career when I discovered hockey.  He was probably the toughest dude on the team, and during the 1983-84 season he broke through as an elite offensive producer as well, with career highs of 19 goals and 54 assists (as well as a career high 225 penalty minutes).  He was inexplicably traded to Quebec early into the following season.  After brief stints with the Maple Leafs, Canucks, and Rangers, he came back to Minnesota late in 1987 to play his final 17 games with the North Stars.

Luke Richardson

Sent: 2/8/12
Received: 2/29/12
Time: 21 Days
Address: c/o Ottawa Senators
Item Sent: 1990-91 Upper Deck, 1991-92 Score Canadian Series 1, 1991-92 Score Canadian Series 2, 1991-92 Score Rookie & Traded
Item Received: 1990-91 Upper Deck, 1991-92 Score Canadian Series 1, 1991-92 Score Canadian Series 2, 1991-92 Score Rookie & Traded.  All signed in blue Sharpie.

Notes:
Richardson was drafted seventh overall by the Maple leafs in 1987 and was expected to be an impact, all-around defenseman.  His offense never developed at the pro level.  Therefore, he's best remembered in hockey-mad Toronto for being a draft bust and for getting his ass kicked by Dino Ciccarelli's stick.  (Dino spent a night in jail after giving Richardson a few whacks upside the head.)  It's a shame that's the case.  Richardson lasted 21 years in the NHL and turned into a very solid stay-at-home defender.  He is currently an assistant coach for the upstart Ottawa Senators.

Reggie Berg

Sent: 2/21/12
Received: 2/28/12
Time: 7 Days
Address: Home
Item Sent: 1995-96 Minnesota Gophers Hockey Team Issue
Item Received: 1995-96 Minnesota Gophers Hockey Team Issue, signed in thin black Sharpie.

Notes:
It's been a while since I've been able to add to my 1995-96 Gophers hockey team seat.  It was one of my big initial TTM projects in 2010, but I've had trouble tracking down the last few guys.  I finally found an address for Reggie Berg.  The hard-nosed forward never made the NHL, but enjoyed a very long career for the ECHL's Florida Everblades, where he ranks top-five in franchise history in every statistical category and is the club's all-time leader in goals and points.

Clem Haskins

Sent: 2/16/12
Received: 2/28/12
Time: 12 Days
Address: Home
Item Sent: 1971-72 Topps, 1974-75 Topps, 1996 Skybox Team USA
Item Received: 1971-72 Topps, 1974-75 Topps, 1996 Skybox Team USA.  All signed in thin blue Sharpie.

Notes:
Should I be pissed at Clem Haskins?  I don't know.  I suppose I should be upset that the academic violations that occurred under his nose, stripping the Gophers' 1997 Final Four appearance and leaving the basketball program in shambles.  But, doggone it, I still can't help but love ol' Clem the Gem.  His teams were fun!  I have never had more fun watching college (or any kind of) basketball than the back-to-back Sweet 16 and Elite 8 teams of 1989 and 1990.  Except, perhaps, for the aforementioned Bobby Jackson-led run to the Final Four.  The Dan Monson and Tubby Smith regimes have been bad on the court.  Even worse, though, they've been boring.  Clem's teams were never dull, and neither was he. 

David Bruce

Sent: 11/17/11
Received: 2/28/12
Time: 103 Days
Address: Home
Item Sent: 1991-92 Score Canadian, 1992-93 Topps, 1992-93 Ultra
Item Received: 1991-92 Score Canadian, 1992-93 Topps, 1992-93 Ultra.  All signed in blue Sharpie.

Notes:
After shuffling up and down between the Vancouver Canucks and the minors for four seasons, David Bruce put it all together for the Peoria Rivermen of the IHL in 1990-91.  He scored an incredible 116 points in 60 games and earned a 12-game call-up to the St. Louis Blues.  He didn't do much for the Blues, but his banner year was enough to get him selected by the San Jose Sharks in that season's expansion draft.  He set NHL career highs across the board during the Sharks' inaugural season: 60 games, 22 goals, and 16 assists.

Curtis Joseph

Sent: 11/14/11
Received: 2/24/12
Time: 148 Days
Address: c/o Agent
Item Sent: 1991-92 Score Canadian, 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Retro, 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Update Retro
Item Received: 1991-92 Score Canadian, 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Retro, 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Update Retro.  All signed in blue Sharpie.

Notes:
Cujo is the best goalie of his generation (and maybe the best ever) to never win either a Stanley Cup or a Vezina Trophy.  He won 454 regular season games and 63 playoff games over his 19 year career.  He reached the 30 win plateau seven times, was a three-time NHL All-Star, a three-time Vezina finalist (and two-time runner-up), and an Olympic gold medalist for Team Canada.  He was also one of my very favorite goalies to watch.  Awesome return!

Bob Murdoch

Sent: 2/2/12
Received: 2/22/12
Time: 20 Days
Address: Home
Item Sent: 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee, 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee 
Item Received: 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee, 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee.  Both signed in black Sharpie.

Notes:
Bob Murdoch followed a similar career path as fellow California Golden Seals/Cleveland Barons defenseman Rick Hampton (whom I received a response from just one day earlier).  Both were offensively talented defensemen who had just started their NHL careers before the Seals moved to Cleveland.  Both played for both seasons of the Barons existence.  Both were dealt away by the North Stars following the merger and dispersal draft.  And both were out of the NHL at a fairly young age after approximately one more season.  Murdoch was an All-Star during his rookie year for the Golden Seals in 1975-76.  His 49 points that season were a career high.

Charlie Manuel

Sent: 2/9/12
Received: 2/21/12
Time: 12 Days
Address: c/o Philadelphia Phillies Spring Training
Item Sent: 1971 Topps, 1987 ProCards Portland Beavers, 2010 Topps Heritage
Item Received: 1971 Topps, 1987 ProCards Portland Beavers, 2010 Topps Heritage.  All signed in black gel pen.

Notes:
Charlie Manuel is, of course, best known as the folksy, down-home, World Series winning manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.  He has a reputation as one of the true gentlemen of the game and as the consummate "player's manager."  All this is true.  What many younger and casual Minnesota Twins fans don't know is that Manuel spent a great many years as a player and coach in the Twins organization.  The bulk of his short major league playing career was spent at Met Stadium, before he became an MVP slugger in Japan.  After retiring as a player, he became a minor league manager for the Twins from 1985-1987.  One of the players on his 1987 Portland Beavers squad was a just-hanging-on utility infielder named Ron Gardenhire.   

Rick Hampton

Sent: 2/1/12
Received: 2/21/12
Time: 20 Days
Address: Work
Item Sent: 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee, 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee 
Item Received: 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee, 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee.  Both signed in blue Sharpie.

Notes:
Cool addition to my obscure little Cleveland Barons collection!  Rick Hampton was an offensively gifted defenseman for the doomed Seals/Barons franchise.  In his sophomore season, at the age of 19, he scored 51 points for the final Golden Seals club.  The next year - the first in Cleveland - he put up 40 points in 56 games.  He had loads of promise, but those years ended up being the highlights. After the Barons-North Stars merger, Hampton landed with the Los Angeles Kings, where he hung around for one full season followed by three final NHL games the next year.

Steve Christie

Sent: 9/22/11
Received: 2/17/12
Time: 148 Days
Address: Home
Item Sent: 1990 Score Traded, 1992 Topps, 1994 Topps
Item Received: 1990 Score Traded, 1992 Topps, 1994 Topps.  All signed in black Sharpie.

Notes:
Canadian placekicker Steve Christie came to the Buffalo Bills in 1992 after two solid but under-the-radar seasons with the woeful Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  He replaced longtime Bills kicker Scott Norwood,  a fine kicker who was never quite the same after hooking the potential game-winning kick in Super Bowl XXV.  While Norwood had unfairly earned the reputation as a choker courtesy of that one missed kick (albeit on the world's biggest stage), Christie quickly established himself as the exact opposite.  Christie himself recovered his own perfectly-executed on-side kick during the Bills historic playoff comeback against the Oilers during the 1992 playoffs.  He would later nail the overtime game-winner, completing the greatest comeback in NFL history.  He also holds the record for longest field goal in Super Bowl history (54 yards in Super Bowl XXVII against Dallas) and has a share of the all-time NFL career record for regular season overtime game-winning field goals.  Kickers and punters often get slighted in discussions of great football players, but Steve Christie is a bona-fide Bills legend.

Shane Conlan

Sent: 10/6/11
Received: 2/16/12
Time: 133 Days
Address: Home
Item Sent: 1988 Topps, 1989 Score, 1989 Score All-Pro
Item Received: 1988 Topps, 1989 Score, 1989 Score All-Pro.  All signed in black Sharpie.

Notes:
It's no coincidence that the Bills ascension toward AFC dominance in the late 1980s and early 1990s began with the arrival of rookie linebackers Shane Conlan and Cornelius Bennett in 1987.  Bennett wreaked havoc on the outside and Conlan plugged the inside.  He was a prototype inside linebacker, right down to the missing front tooth (see the great photo on his 1988 Topps rookie card).  Conlan was a perennial Pro Bowl selection on the Bills dynasty and has gone down as one of the all-time great defensive players in team history.

Nikolai Kulemin

Sent: 3/24/11
Received: 2/15/12
Time: 328 Days
Address: c/o Toronto Maple Leafs
Item Sent: 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Retro, 2010-11 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary
Item Received: 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Retro, 2010-11 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary.  Both signed in black Sharpie.

Notes:
Last season, Nikolai Kulemin broke through as one of the rising stars on a very talented young Maple Leafs team as he hit the 30 goal plateau, which nearly doubled his previous career high.  Though the Leafs are playing better this season, Kulemin has had a hard time finding the back of the net.  He has only five goals through the season's first 57 games.

Kevin Lynch

Sent: 2/9/12
Received: 2/14/12
Time: 5 Days
Address: c/o FOX Sports North
Item Sent: 1991-92 Classic Draft Picks, 1992-93 Ultra
Item Received: 1991-92 Classic Draft Picks, 1992-93 Ultra .  Both signed in black Sharpie.

Notes:
Kevin Lynch could be as responsible as anyone for making me a basketball fan as a kid.  Before we had the Timberwolves, my hoops education came from Clem Haskins' back-to-back Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight teams in the late '80s.  Willie Burton was the superstar of those teams.  Richard Coffey was the bruising inside force.  Melvin Newbern was the floor general.  Walter Bond was the sixth man.  And I loved them all.  But Kevin Lynch was one of us.  He was the local boy who became the sharpshooting off guard on those squads.  In 1991 he was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets with the first pick in the second round of the NBA Draft.  While his NBA career only lasted two seasons, he played for a decade in the CBA and Europe.  Upon retiring and returning home he began serving as a broadcaster for the Gophers and Timberwolves.

Christian Ponder

Sent: 10/24/11
Received: 2/13/12
Time: 112 Days
Address: c/o Minnesota Vikings
Item Sent: 2011 Topps Legends Aspiring Legacies
Item Received: 2011 Topps Legends Aspiring Legacies, signed and personalized in black Sharpie.

Notes:
One of the lone bright spots in possibly the most miserable season in Minnesota Vikings history was the early play of first round quarterback Christian Ponder.  He had the fans giddy after a valiant effort against the then-undefeated Green Bay Packers in his first NFL start.  He struggled badly down the stretch, but rookie quarterbacks thrown to the wolves usually deal with that.  In his defense, he had a terrible offensive line, a below-average corps of receivers, and his safety net (Adrian Peterson) missed most of the second half of the season with injury.  I'm still excited about Ponder.  Yeah, he made a lot of mistakes, but he seems like a smart kid.  I think he can learn from them.  I do think he has solid intangibles and I believe he can be the franchise quarterback Vikings fans so badly crave.

Mike Knuble

Sent: 11/3/11
Received: 2/13/12
Time: 102 Days
Address: c/o Washington Capitals
Item Sent: 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Retro, 2010-11 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary
Item Received: 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Retro, 2010-11 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary.  Both signed in black Sharpie.

Notes:
Mike Knuble broke into the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings late in the 1996-97 season.  He would win Stanley Cups with the Wings in each of his first two years (although his name was only engraved on the cup after the 1997-98 title).  Since then he has made the rounds among some of the league's highest profile teams: the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, and now the Washington Capitals.  He has transformed from a bruising young fourth-liner, to a top scorer (peaking with 65 points for the Flyers in 2005-06), to an elder statesman.  Now 39 and battling through an injury-filled season in Washington, he is still trying to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since his first two seasons in Hockeytown.

Frank Reich

Sent: 9/16/11
Received: 2/11/12
Time: 148 Days
Address: c/o Indianapolis Colts
Item Sent: 1989 Score Supplemental, 1989 Topps Traded, 1991 Score
Item Received: 1989 Score Supplemental, 1989 Topps Traded, 1991 Score.  All signed in blue Sharpie.

Notes:
Frank Reich was one of the NFL's all-time great backup quarterbacks.  When I say that, I'm not talking about a Steve Young type (or even a Matt Schaub type) future star who was blocked by a star #1 quarterback.  I'm talking purely in terms of holding the clipboard, taking the reins for a few games when needed, and winning big ballgames.  His signature moment was his orchestration of the greatest comeback in NFL history.  Down 35-3 early in the third quarter against the Houston Oilers in the 1992 playoffs, Reich led the Bills on a 38-3 run to win the game in overtime, 41-38.  It was deja vu all over again for Reich, who in 1984 led his Maryland Terrapins to the biggest comeback in NCAA history.

This request was sent to the Colts, for whom he coached for the last several seasons.  He was let go after Indy's disastrous 2-14 season, but immediately found work as the new wide receivers coach (and possible Peyton Manning recruiter?) for the Arizona Cardinals.  The only bummer about this return are the smudges and thumbprints on each of the signatures.

Jonathan Lucroy

Sent: 7/7/11
Received: 2/11/12
Time: 219 Days
Address: c/o Milwaukee Brewers
Item Sent: 2011 Topps Heritage
Item Received: 2011 Topps Heritage, signed and personalized in thin black Sharpie.

Notes:
Long hailed as the Brewers catcher of the future, Lucroy was finally handed the reins as the everyday guy in 2011 and he responded with a fine campaign for the NL Central Champions.  He hit 12 home runs and knocked in 59 while spending most of the season at the bottom of the batting order.  The Brewers will surely be hoping for steady improvement on those numbers this season as they look to replace the offense lost with the departing of Prince Fielder and pending suspension of Ryan Braun.  More importantly, though, they'll look for continued improvement defensively.  Lucroy showed off a cannon arm and expertly handled the Brew Crew's star-studded rotation in his first full season. 

Mike Christie

Sent: 2/1/12
Received: 2/10/12
Time: 9 Days
Address: Home
Item Sent: 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee, 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee 
Item Received: 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee, 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee.  Both signed in blue Sharpie.

Notes:
Physical, no-nonsense defenseman Mike Christie is a poster boy for defunct franchises.  He broke in with the California Golden Seals and moved with them to Cleveland.  Halfway through the Barons second and final season, he was dealt to the Colorado Rockies, for whom he had he longest NHL tenure and even served a season as team captain for coach Don Cherry.

Bob Sweeney

Sent: 8/4/10
Received: 2/4/12
Time: 549 Days
Address: Home
Item Sent: 1991-92 Pro Set, 1991-92 Score Canadian, 1991-92 Upper Deck
Item Received: 1991-92 Pro Set, 1991-92 Score Canadian, 1991-92 Upper Deck.  All signed in thin blue Sharpie.

Notes:
It's a new record!  At 549 days, Bob Sweeney has surpassed Mike Grier by a full two weeks to capture the status of my longest wait for a success.  It's my third wait of 500+ days and my first successful request to span three calendar years (sent in 2010, received in 2012).  My best guess would be that this letter simply got lost.  Mr. Sweeney is an 80% signer according to SCN, with most of his requests (including several during the time I was waiting) coming back in about a month.

Dennis Hextall

Sent: 1/27/12
Received: 2/3/12
Time: 7 Days
Address: Home
Item Sent: 1973-74 Topps, 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee 
Item Received: 1973-74 Topps, 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee.  Both signed in black Sharpie.

Notes:
Hailing from one of the great families in hockey, Dennis Hextall is the son of Hall of Famer Bryan Hextall, Sr., the brother of Bryan Hextall, Jr., and the uncle of Conn Smythe and Vezina Trophy winning goalie Ron Hextall.  The North Stars rescued him from the California Golden Seals in 1971, and his three full seasons in Bloomington were the three best of his fine career as he averaged about 80 points and 140 penalty minutes per season.