The 90s Goalie Project - Askey me about it

  The 90's Goalie Project was first mentioned in a  post several months ago, and while it has been slow going, it is still on going.  I have added four or five to each Sportlots order. Let's look a few of the newer ones.

1998-99 Upper Deck

Tom Askey had a very brief NHL career, playing seven regular season games and one play-off game.  His NHL career was also winless, retiring with a record of 0-2-1. Tom played for Ohio State University before turning pro.  In four seasons, he went 17-68-10, with a 4.59 GAA.  Yikes, but it drew the attention of the Mighty Ducks who drafted him 186th in 1993.

  When Brian Hayward was traded from the Montreal Candiens, there was a glut of young goalies vying for the back-up job behind Patrick Roy.   Jean-Claude Bergeron was one of those young goalies.  1990-91 was JC's only season with the Canadiens.  In the 1991 expansion draft, the Tampa Bay Lightning selected goalie Fredric Chabot from the Montreal Canadiens.  The Canadiens protected two goalies, Patrick Roy (duh!) and JC Bergeron.  The very next day, either the Lightning or Canadiens realized they got the wrong man, the Lightning traded Chabot back to Montreal for J.C. Bergeron.  It was the first trade in the history of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

  This is an example of not using a player's rookie card.  Pauli Jaks had a rookie card in the 1991-92 Upper Deck update set.  Problem is, that he is part of the World Junior Championship subset.  I am looking for goalies' first NHL card, so his RC was ineligible for this project.  Pauli Jaks has only one NHL card, to go with his one NHL career game.  On January 25th, 1995, after allowing four goals in the first period against the Chicago Black Hawks, the LA Kings would bench Jamie Storr in favour for Pauli Jaks.  Jaks would allow 2 goals on 25 shots in 40 minutes. Jaks returned to Europe in the offseason.

 If you have been a dedicated reader of this blog, which I am sure you are, you already know that Glen Hanlon was the first NHL goalie to allow a goal to Wayne Gretzky and know you will know who was the last goalie the Great One beat.  It was Wade Flaherty.  On March 28th, 1999, Wayne Gretzky scored his 894th career NHL goal in a game against Flahety and the New York Islanders.  For Flaherty, it was the 245th goal scored against him in his career.