A Fortnight of Penguins Hits Part 5 of 14: He Could've Been Toews

Recently, I made a significant purchase for my Pittsburgh Penguins Collection. I found a seller who was unloading a bunch of Penguins cards, and when I combined an itchy trigger finger along with a lack of Ebay self-control, I found myself the new owner of 16 phenomenal cards of Pittsburgh Penguins Players. I didn't want to just unload them all on one post, so I decided to stretch it out to 14, mostly just because I wanted to use the word "fortnight" in the title.

Anyway, here's today's "Fortnight" card:

2010-11 The Cup Stanley Cup Signatures 1/50

This one comes from Upper Deck's super-premium The Cup set, and features its namesake big and bold on the right-hand side of the card. I have a few Staal autographs, but unlike yesterday's card, this is one that I don't already have. The card features foil everywhere, except for the player image and white space for the signature, which do a great job of spotlighting both elements. Here's the interesting thing about Staal, though. The Pittsburgh Penguins drafted him second overall in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, right behind defenseman Erik Johnson. Number three that year was Jonathan Toews. So, in theory, had that draft gone differently, you could have a Penguins team with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Jonathan Toews at the center position. Of course, there's also the fact that you'd have to keep all three once their contracts were up, along with Kris Letang, Pascal Dupuis, etc., and there's also the fact that Toews' biggest asset is his leadership, which would be diminished on this roster, but still, it's amazing to think of the possibility.