Thursday, September 17, 2015

Brad Winchester Jersey Card

After Simon Gagné yesterday, it's now time to bid farewell to another retiree, Brad Winchester, who I had featured last November.

The 35th pick of the 2000 NHL draft, he wrapped up his career after playing in 390 regular-season NHL games with the Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks. Not only are the Blues the team he's played the most games with, they're also the only team he's scored over 10 goals in a season with (13, in fact, in 2008-09).

He had spent the last 3 seasons playing exclusively in the AHL, with five different teams - the Milwaukee Admirals, Rockford IceHogs, Iowa Wild, Norfolk Admirals, and Oklahoma City Barons. By finishing with the Barons, he book-ended his career with stints in the organization that had initially drafted him, the Oilers.

The 6'5'', 230-pound winger's career AHL numbers are pretty good, with 74 goals, 58 assists and 132 points in 232 games, with an astonishing 460 penalty minutes, meaning his contributions came with relatively limited actual ice time...

He had led the Edmonton Roadrunners in goals in 2004-05 with 22, and had 26 more (and 40 total points) in 40 games the next year with the Hamilton Bulldogs, a season in which he finished the year up in Edmonton, where his burly play and all-effort game-winning goal against the Detroit Red Wings in the playoffs turned many a head and led some to believe he might turn into an elite power forward.

This is what he looked like when everything seemed so promising, from Upper Deck's 2005-06 Series 1 set (it's card #RT-BW from the Rookie Threads sub-set, featuring a photo shoot-worn dark blue jersey swatch):
He himself is wearing the team's late-1990s, early-2000s white (home) uniform, with the "oil driller" shoulder patches.

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