Playing devil's advocate here -
How do you know they're really Sakic's shin pads?
Jerseys, gloves, sticks, helmets and even skates (to a certain extent) can be photo-matched. Shoulder pads and elbow pads are much tougher to photo-match as they're typically covered by the jersey, although since I collect goons and they tend to lose their jerseys from time to time, I was able to photo-match my Probert elbow pads prior to purchasing them.
But, shin pads are covered by socks 100% of the time. How are they being identified as being his g/u pads? Something directly from the team?