For 14-year-old Recchi Robichaud from New Brunswick, the pandemic provided him some with additional free time to focus on growing his collection of hockey cards - but not just any hockey cards. Robichaud has spent a significant amount of his time assembling a collection of Connor McDavid hockey cards.
The teen has spent most of his time away from school and his part-time job securing new additions to his ever-growing collection of McDavid cards - which has now reached almost 500.
"The past 14 months I worked a lot, I worked ten times harder than I ever have on my collection," Robichaud told CBC News.
During the summer of 2020, the Edmonton Oilers caught wind of young Recchi's growing collection, which was at 192 at the time, and featured it on the team's social media accounts. Since that point in time, collectors from around the world have gotten in touch with Robichaud and his family, helping the youngster acquire more cards for his impressive collection.
"People reach out to me like, 'Hey, I got all these McDavid cards, you got anything to trade?' The mailbox has honestly been flooded these past 14 months with McDavid cards," he said.
On Thursday, McDavid himself reached out to Recchi to acknowledge his enormous collection and invited the teenager and his family to attend a preseason game in Edmonton at the end of September. Recchi gladly accepted the invite.
Robichaud has been able to refrain from spending any more of his money on cards - instead, opting to use other cards as trade bait or selling them off in order to continue to invest in his McDavid card collection.
The teen's most prized possession is an Upper Deck card that he had sent to the team, which McDavid had autographed and returned to him.
The young man certainly has an impressive collection, but perhaps even more impressive is his desire to grind away and work hard to obtain more pieces and see his passion grow.
G | A | PTS | ||
Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
Complete stats |
STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
Conference | Cumulative |