Up-and-Comers On the Cheap - Robby Fabbri

People who don't follow NHL hockey too closely may not realize it, but there are plenty of impressive young players in today's game whose last names aren't McDavid or Eichel.  Maybe it's just because I'm following the game even more closely the past few years in particular, but it seems to me that more than ever the NHL is brimming with young talent.

This past winter I made it a point to grab some nice cards of these players from the "second tier", but on a budget.  I plan to highlight one or two of these guys a week during this season's playoff run.  Hopefully you'll learn of a player you knew little about, or at the very least be reminded that you don't need to shell out a ton of money to land a solid rookie card of a promising youngster.

Kicking off the series today is St. Louis Blues center Robby Fabbri:

I'll confess that I was a little late to the party learning about this guy.  He was St. Louis' 1st round draft pick in the 2014 entry draft (21st overall).  After just one year of seasoning in minor league hockey, Robby debuted in the Blues first game this season and never looked back.

Fabbri became a key member of the Blues roster, and appeared in all but 10 of the team's games this year (injury).  He scored 18 goals despite missing those 10 games, and that coming in a season for which he was just 19 years old for the first half of!  With the speed and talent he displayed at his age this season, I don't think it's inconceivable that he could turn into a regular 30-goal scorer at the NHL level.  At the very least, he'll be a guy to watch when the Blues kick off their first-round match-up against the rival Blackhawks tomorrow night.

This is obviously Robby's standard Young Guns rookie that you see here.  I got such a deal on it on COMC that I decided to pick up another card to accompany it:

This would be Robby's Canvas rookie, as you can plainly see.  The Young Guns are short-printed within the Canvas insert set each year, and traditionally have not been the easiest cards to pull.  I'm not going to be able to retire early even if Robby here turns into Sidney Crosby, but it's kind of a cool card and a little nicer than the standard and more prevalent Young Guns rookie if you ask me.

I love the write-up on the back of this one.  McDavid, Shmick-David!  My total price for these two cards combined was just $5.37.  Not too shabby if you ask me.  The Blues are my favorite team of the eight who qualified in the Western Conference this year, so I'll certainly be pulling for Robby and the gang to take down the Hawks!