from Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star,

Marcel Dionne was giving a visitor a tour of his sports memorabilia shop.

The place is called Marcel Dionne Inc., and it also includes the occasional flourish of Marcel Dionne ink. Hanging among the racks and shelves stocked with officially licenced NHL jerseys and foam fingers are autographed photos of a who’s who of Hockey Hall of Famers, the 64-year-old Dionne among them.

But as for the autographed wares of current NHLers, Dionne, one of the great goal scorers in NHL history, said he doesn’t often deal in such merchandise. He laughed a little as he explained the reason.

“Athletes today, it’s impossible to read what they write,” said Dionne. “I mean, it’s absolutely asinine that people pay that kind of money and you can’t even tell who signed it.”

It wasn’t always so, of course. There was a time when the game’s greats signed their names as gracefully as they skated, in swoops and loops and curls crafted with care.

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