Doug Soetaert Autograph Card

Honestly, I didn't know much about Doug Soetaert until I landed this card a few years ago.

He was the goalie wearing #1 on Montréal Canadiens team pictures in 1984-85 and 1985-86 - I know that because I'm a Montrealer, because I have a thing for goalies, and because I've been looking at those pictures pretty much my entire life, as they are the first ones of Patrick Roy.

I knew he'd signed with the New York Rangers afterwards, having a sub-par outing for them going 2-7-2 with 14 penalty minutes in 13 games - yes, that's more than a minute per - and a whopping 5.16 GAA and dismal .842 save percentage, after which he retired.

What I didn't know was that he spent the second half of the 1970s with the Blueshirts, followed by three seasons with the Winnipeg Jets. You can find a profile of his career here.

Post-retirement, he was VP and GM of the WHL's Everett Silvertips, then assistant GM with the Calgary Flames, scout with European teams falling under the Red Bull (you read that correctly) banner in Austria and Germany, and has been on the Arizona Coyotes' scouting staff since last summer.

He had a pretty cool mask whilst with the Rangers, too, as can be attested on card #A-DS from In The Game's 2011-12 Between The Pipes 10 Anniversary set (part of the Decades - The 1970s and GoalieGraphs sub-set):

It features a black-sharpied on-sticker autograph that is extremely subtle, as is was often the case with ITG. I speak in the past tense, of course, because ITG will cease to exist once it releases its Final Vault product in a few weeks, after an unsuccessful merger with Leaf.