TTM: Gaston Gingras

   Gaston Gingras had already played a season of professional hockey when he was selected by the Montreal Canadiens with the 27th overall pick in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft.  Gingras, previously undrafted, had played one season with the Birmingham Bulls of the WHA.  Gingras would play 3 1/2 seasons with the Habs before a midseason trade sent him to the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1982-83 season.  In what must have been the low-point in his hockey career, Gingras was sent to the AHL in 1984-85, where he spent the rest of the season.  During that low point, the best thing in his career happened, he was traded back to the Montreal Canadiens.  He would help thier AHL team, the Sherbrooke Canadiens, win the AHL's Calder Cup.  He finished the following season Montreal and helped them win the 1986 Stanley Cup.  Gingras would finish his career as a St. Louis Blues in 1989 before spending four seasons playing in Europe.  Gingras is still active coaching and teaching hockey at the youth level.  He has also made several trips to Nunavik to help teach hockey skills to Inuit youth.
  I had sent Mr. Gingras two cards to be signed.  Gingras did not have a card made of him during his second tenure with the Canadiens.  One of the cards I sent was a custom 1986-87 OPC of himself.  He kept the extra copy, as offered, and then also added another card and a over-sized card.  Great return from a member of the 1980s All-Star Moustache team.