Upper Deck The Cup Signature Renditions: Seth Jones

Here's the second card I picked up from the "Signature Renditions" subset in Upper Deck's 2013-14 The Cup release:

I didn't actually mean to buy this card. I had been watching auctions for a couple of others that I wanted more, and both ended up moving just beyond my price range at the last minute. But this one -- the one I wasn't too interested in at the time -- was ending around the same time and, of course, the price was still hanging just below $20, which was the threshold I'd set for myself. In a fit of pique, I bid $1 higher on this, not expecting to win but just being a jerk who was trying to drive the price that much higher. Naturally, I won the auction.

But I'm sure glad I did. This card is really beautiful, one of the best-looking in the Signature Renditions line that I've seen so far. I love the way the people in the crowd have been blurred, giving the card an almost impressionist look. If I had one minor complaint, it's that the signature is small and gets a little lost with the Predators logo.

Seth Jones is one of the more promising young players in the NHL. He was the guy I wanted the Lightning to draft with the third pick in the 2013 draft, although they passed and he ended up going fourth overall to Nashville. He burst out of the gate in his rookie season, although he cooled down considerably in the second half. He's having sort of a quiet season so far this year, with three goals and 13 points in 43 games and average ice time of a hair over 18 minutes a game (fifth among Predators defensemen.) But John Tortorella always said that defense is the hardest position to play in the NHL and that it takes young defensemen around 300 games to figure everything out, so Jones still has a very bright future. Also, I'm not sure of the rules on this sort of thing, but I think this may be a rookie card, or at least a rookie year card. Even though the Cup came out after the 2014-15 season had begun, Upper Deck calls it a 2013-14 release.

The card commemorates the second goal of Jones' career, a game-tying tally in the third period last year against the Montreal Canadiens. It's sort of an odd milestone to mark. I'm guessing Upper Deck chose it because the celebration photo was too good to pass up.

More of these to come...