April 30

The end of my first full month trying to post autographed items from a former/current NHL’er whose birthday falls on that date. By my count, I’m 22/30 for April. I’m thinking this is pretty good. It’s not like this was my project to obtain a card for every day. Just kind of thought I’d try it and see what happens. I started by posting birthday greetings to my daughters and it evolved from there. Also included is a little write up on each player. Maybe it is someone you had never heard of and learn a little something about him. I’m going to keep on and see what happens.

So today, we will meet

Dale Rolfe

Dale Rolfe was a forward until he arrived to play junior hockey with the Barrie Flyers of the OHA in 1956. Under the direction of coach Hap Emms, however, his big, lanky frame was moved back to the blueline to serve and protect his future brother-in-law, goaltender Wayne Rutledge.
His most infamous moment came during a playoff game in 1974 against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers were intimidating Ranger players all night. At one point, they were zeroing in on defenseman Brad Park. Rolfe had seen enough. He stepped in to support his defenisve partner when he found himself squared off against Dave “The Hammer” Schultz. Before Rolfe could even react, his knees were already buckling under the weight of a severe beating. None of his Ranger teammates came to his aid.
Rolfe played a total of 509 NHL regular season games with 25 goals, 125 assists and 556 PIM

Received these blue ink signed cards TTM.

April 29

Jim Benning

Todays’ birthday boy.
Selected in first round
by Toronto Maple Leafs 6th overall in the 1981 NHL Draft.
It was Benning’s misfortune to be selected by Toronto. He was rushed to the NHL in 1981-82 and lost much of his confidence while playing on one of the league’s sad sack teams. He showed flashes of potential, registering 24 assists, but would have been better off developing in the minors. Benning spent five years in Toronto and had a career best 51 points in 1983-84.
Jim never fulfilled his potential, and never even came close to being a memorable Leaf blueliner, let alone the greatest defenseman in team history. Why is this? He, like so many other junior sensations, was rushed into the NHL destined to fail and quickly was labelled as a just another junior star who failed at the NHL level. While he likely never would have reached superstar status, with proper upbringing he could have developed into a top 4 defenseman with better point production. With all that said,  Jim had a fairly good career playing with some very poor teams.

CAREER NHL STATISTICS Years Teams GP G A TP PIM 1981-1990 Toronto, Vancouver 605 52 191 243 461

CAREER NHL PLAYOFF STATISTICS Years Teams GP G A TP PIM 1983-1989 Toronto, Vancouver 7 1 1 2 2

Received these blue ink signed cards TTM.
 

April 29

Jim Benning

Todays’ birthday boy.
Selected in first round
by Toronto Maple Leafs 6th overall in the 1981 NHL Draft.
It was Benning’s misfortune to be selected by Toronto. He was rushed to the NHL in 1981-82 and lost much of his confidence while playing on one of the league’s sad sack teams. He showed flashes of potential, registering 24 assists, but would have been better off developing in the minors. Benning spent five years in Toronto and had a career best 51 points in 1983-84.
Jim never fulfilled his potential, and never even came close to being a memorable Leaf blueliner, let alone the greatest defenseman in team history. Why is this? He, like so many other junior sensations, was rushed into the NHL destined to fail and quickly was labelled as a just another junior star who failed at the NHL level. While he likely never would have reached superstar status, with proper upbringing he could have developed into a top 4 defenseman with better point production. With all that said,  Jim had a fairly good career playing with some very poor teams.

CAREER NHL STATISTICS Years Teams GP G A TP PIM 1981-1990 Toronto, Vancouver 605 52 191 243 461

CAREER NHL PLAYOFF STATISTICS Years Teams GP G A TP PIM 1983-1989 Toronto, Vancouver 7 1 1 2 2

Received these blue ink signed cards TTM.
 

April 28

Dark day again. So update time it is.

Found my Ryan Walter autographed rookie card signed in black marker.

Previous post Feb 10. Showed letter received from Dennis but wasn’t doing my birthday theme yet. Might have made the March 28 list. Recived this blue ink signed cards TTM

Two days left in the month. Hopefully I can fill these in.

April 27

Murray Bannerman

Drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in the 4th round (58th overall) of the 1977 NHL amateur draft,  Bannerman was traded to Chicago as part of the Pit Martin trade after playing just a single game with the Canucks. He would apprentice with the Hawks farm team in New Brunswick and then as Esposito’s understudy, taking over the starting role in 1982-83.
Bannerman’s NHL career spanned 8 seasons and 289 games played. His record in that time was 116 wins, 125 losses with 33 ties. He had 8 career shutouts and a lifetime 3.83 GAA.

Received these blue ink signed cards and index card TTM.

April 28

Dark day again. So update time it is.

Found my Ryan Walter autographed rookie card signed in black marker.

Previous post Feb 10. Showed letter received from Dennis but wasn’t doing my birthday theme yet. Might have made the March 28 list. Recived this blue ink signed cards TTM

Two days left in the month. Hopefully I can fill these in.

April 27

Murray Bannerman

Drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in the 4th round (58th overall) of the 1977 NHL amateur draft,  Bannerman was traded to Chicago as part of the Pit Martin trade after playing just a single game with the Canucks. He would apprentice with the Hawks farm team in New Brunswick and then as Esposito’s understudy, taking over the starting role in 1982-83.
Bannerman’s NHL career spanned 8 seasons and 289 games played. His record in that time was 116 wins, 125 losses with 33 ties. He had 8 career shutouts and a lifetime 3.83 GAA.

Received these blue ink signed cards and index card TTM.

April 26

Pat Ribble

Pat Ribble played his junior hockey for the Oshawa Generals of the OHA from 1972 to 1975. It was there that he established himself as a big, crease-clearing rearguard who could move the puck although rarely as far as the opposition’s net. Selected in fourth round by Atlanta Flames 58th overall

 with a draft pick acquired from N.Y. Islanders to help settle the 1973 controversy over the pro basketball rights to Julius Erving, who had been property of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks before joining the ABA’s New York Nets, which were owned by N.Y. Islanders owner Roy Boe.

CAREER NHL STATISTICS
Years	Teams	GP	G	A	TP	PIM
1975-1983	ATL/CGY, CHI, TOR, WAS	349	19	60	79	365

CAREER NHL PLAYOFF STATISTICS
Years	Teams	GP	G	A	TP	PIM
1977-1979	Atlanta, Chicago	8	0	1	1	12

Received blue ink signed cards TTM in 1987.

April 25

Two days in a row. Pity. In its stead, we have more updates on things that were not scanned before.

Al Sims blue ink signed cards TTM.

Jacques Caron index card and envelope it came in.

April 24

UPDATES

Another dark day for todays birthdays so am updating some previous posts  with scans of items missed previously. My sorting method changed years ago. I started putting all the autographed cards together in pages and binders. But since I couldn’t always find what I wanted, I started putting them by year. 1980/81 OPC was the last year sorted this way and the previous years asre sorted by played. Hence, when searching for cards for this blog, I sometimes miss something. That gives me an excuse to fill days like this with stuff that should be here already. So, away we go.

Index cards from Bryan Campbell and Doug Jarvis.

Business cards from Ron Ellis, Brian Campbell, Vaclav Nedomansky (signed) and John Gould.

All items received TTM.