In 2005, I started to get the collecting itch again after purging most of my collection in 2002 to assist with the purchase of my first house. With $10 burning a hole in my pocket at a flea market in Ohio, I purchased a lot of 50 hockey rookie cards from an older lady selling mostly knitted dolls. She wouldn't let me look inside the small box, but she said her son had collected up until a few years ago and these were his "leftovers." I figured most of the cards were commons and I remember when I got back to my house, I had heard of a few of the guys, but some of the cards were from players in the 1970's. Not all are in the best shape, but for $10, what do you want? After a while, I decided just to put the box in the corner of my closet, and I simply forgot about it. So, 14 years later, I decided I would take out a card from the box at random and write a small post about the player. I'll count down from 50. Here goes:
44. 1982/83 O-Pee-Chee Normand Aubin RC #316
Normand Aubin "Norm" was born July 26, 1960, in Saint-Leonard, Quebec. Aubin was the #2 overall selection in the 1976 QMJHL Entry Draft by the Sorel Black Hawks just behind Gilles Brazeau who was drafted #1 overall by the Montreal Juniors. Eventually, Aubin would make Montreal pay for that decision. Norm had a successful first season in the QMJHL as a 16-year-old. He would play 50 games for Sorel and put up 51 points (25 goals, 26 assists). The next season /1977/78), Sorel became the Verdun Black Hawks and Norm Aubin would start his reign as a QMJHL legend. Aubin was on fire. In 71 games, he would post 62 goals to go along with 73 assists for 135 points! The crazy thing about Aubin's '77/78 season is that it wasn't even his best. His second-best year came in 1978/79. In the 70 games he played, he would score 80 goals and 69 assists for 149 points! This would prompt the Toronto Maple Leafs to select Aubin in the 3rd Round, 51st overall in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. Norm Aubin would have a monster year in the 1979/80 season. Knowing that this would be his last year of junior hockey, Norm would be traded after 21 games with Verdun (where he posted 41 goals and 29 assist for 70 points!) to the Sherbrooke Castors for center Andre Cote and right-wing Jean-Marc Gaulin. Aubin. However, the trade didn't slow down his scoring pace that season it only fueled it. He finished that season scoring 91 goals, 89 assists for 180 points! Also, during that season in a game against the Montreal Juniors, Aubin would make them pay for passing on him in the 1976 QMJHL Draft by potting 8 goals and 3 assists in a single game! Take that Gilles Brazeau! The Sherbrooke Castors with Aubin leading the way finished first overall in the regular season winning the Jean Rougeau Trophy as the beast team in the regular season. However, they could not defeat the Cornwall Royals who would beat them 4 games to 2 in the finals.
Once his junior career came to a finish, Aubin was ready for the next step in his professional hockey career. The 1980/81 season, Norm would find himself in the AHL playing for the Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs affiliate in the New Brunswick Hawks. In 79 games played, he was able to lead the team in scoring with 89 points (43 goals, 46 assists). The next season, the Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard decided they needed their own developmental hockey team and created the Cincinnati Tigers of the CHL. Aubin would split his time with the Tigers and Maple Leafs that season. In his 43 NHL games played in 1981/82 he would post 14 goals, 12 assists for 26 points. These numbers didn't quite wow the Maple Leafs brass, so Aubin would start the 1982/83 in the Maple Leafs AHL team the St. Catharines Saints team. Aubin would then again be called up to the big club and this time he would not impress. The Leafs only played Aubin in 26 games, and he posted 4 goals and 1 assist. 1983/84 would be his last season with the Leafs organization. With the St. Catharines Saints of the AHL, Aubin would play in 80 games and post 94 points (47 goals, 47 assists), which was good for 3rd on the team behind Mike Kaszycki and Bruce Boudreau - yeah, that Bruce Boudreau. A change of scenery came for Norm Aubin during the 1984/85 season as he signed with the Edmonton Oilers, only to be sent down to the minors to play the season for the Nova Scotia Oilers. In Nova Scotia he was a point per game player (48 games, 49 points). However, the Oilers were a hot team that season and they eventually won their first Stanley Cup, without the services of Norm Aubin. After retiring from the game of hockey for years, Aubin would come out of retirement in 1999/00 to play in 3 games with the Sorel Royaux going scoreless. When Norms playing days were over, he worked as a negotiation's specialist working in the field of powdered steel and metal. The metal his company made was to build GM and Chrysler motors. Also, Norm's son, Mathieu Aubin, was a 5th Round Draft Pick from the 2005 NHL Draft. He played 11 seasons of minor hockey in the AHL and ECHL. I guess you can say, after it is all said and done, Normand Aubin is definitely better at hockey than Gilles Brazeau.
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