Now that the 2011 NHL Draft is in the books, those of us that happened to partake in any opening of 2010-11 ITG Heroes & Prospects may want to revisit our stacks. At a rate of about 1 per box, ITG threw in Class of 2011 Mystery Draft Redemption cards that would net you a pretty nice return.
The cards featured a gold silhouette of a player on the front with a red border at the bottom stating "Class of 2011 Heroes And Prospects" and then a designated player letter. The idea was that each player letter would correspond to a draftee at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. ITG announced the list of players about ten days after the
2011 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game where Team Orr, coached by Doug Gilmour and Wendel Clark, destroyed Team Cherry 7-1 (bet you can't guess who coached Team Cherry...that's right Darryl Strawberry). In case you haven't made your way over to the In The Game Heroes & Prospects page in a while, here is the list of players chosen by ITG for each letter:
Player A - Sean Couturier
Player B - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Player C - Gabriel Landeskog
Player D - Jonathan Huberdeau
Player E - Dougie Hamilton
Player F - Nathan Beaulieu
Player G - Sven Baertschi
Player H - Ty Rattie
Player I - Ryan Murphy
Player J - Brandon Saad
As you can see by the image, I had Nathan Beaulieu here. I also had an A and a C if you are keeping score at home.
Now, on the back of your card, there will be a draft position stamped in foil that designates a respective spot in the first round of the draft. The idea is that if your player on the front, matches the draft position on the back, you win. It's like gambling without the sound of plinking coins in a hopper. What do you win, you ask? Well If everything matches, you would send your card along with your info into ITG and you would receive a Game-Used Memorabilia card that is numbered /10. Their official rules don't state whether it will be of your player or not but I can only assume that to be the case.
For those that may or may not have checked out the draft, of the list of 10 players, to many pundits and fans surprise, only 8 of them were drafted in the first round. So if you have Player H - Ty Rattie, or Player J - Brandon Saad, sorry for your loss but thanks for playing. That leaves A-G and I. Here is the list of players and their draft positions. See if you are a winner.
Player A - Sean Couturier; Drafted 8th by Philadelphia
Player B - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins; Drafted 1st by Edmonton
Player C - Gabriel Landeskog; Drafted 2nd by Colorado
Player D - Jonathan Huberdeau; Drafted 3rd by Florida
Player E - Dougie Hamilton; Drafted 9th by Boston
Player F - Nathan Beaulieu; Drafted 17th by Montreal
Player G - Sven Baertschi; Drafted 13th by Calgary
Player H - Ty Rattie; Drafted 32nd (2nd Round) by St. Louis
Player I - Ryan Murphy; Drafted 12th by Carolina
Player J - Brandon Saad; Drafted 43rd (2nd Round) by Chicago
So if your card matches either A-8, B-1, C-2, D-3, E-9, F-17, G-13, or I-12, you are a winner. You have until, well, I don't know when you have until. They haven't posted that information online yet. But if it is anything like the last few redemption programs, you may get at least a year or more, although supplies may be slim depending on how many of each redemption card combination they made.
I unfortunately was not a winner. I had Landeskog at 17th, Beaulieu at 20th and Couturier at 2nd. I was at least close with the Beaulieu. If you have any of these, post a comment and let us know how you did. If you may have won, leave a comment and let us all know what you plan to do with your card (ie. sell it, cash it in, trade it to me for some shiny marbles).
