As the remaining teams battle for Lord Stanley’s Cup, Upper Deck’s 2014-15 SP Authentic Hockey will be released this week, celebrating its 20th anniversary.
This year’s product offers a variety of signature and memorabilia cards, the always-popular autographed Future Watch cards of the NHL’s best young prospects as well as a blast from the past with insert sets using a famous design from the 1990s.
2014-15 SP Authentic Hockey has five cards per pack and 20 packs per box with three autographed cards. The price for a box is around $120, with 12 box cases settling at just a bit under $1,400.
The 150-card base set is similar to past SP releases with a large player picture on the front and a white background, along with an angular graphic in the background which also incorporates the player name and team name.
With one appearing in every box, the Autographed Future Watch cards are a large part of SP hockey with cards of young stars from past releases finding a receptive audience. Bo Horvat, David Pastrnak, Shayne Gostisbehere and Seth Griffith are some of the 60 prospects in the Autographed Future Watch insert set this year (see a checklist below). The cards are numbered to 999, and the card design has been tweaked from previous years. The card has less of a border separating the player picture and auto and instead the picture fades to a lighter color where the signature is now placed. There are also unsigned Future Watch cards of other prospects with two or three in each box.
Collectors with a folder full of 1994-95 SP hockey cards can search through that set and find players who also appear in the SP Retro insert set in 2014-15 SP Authentic. Martin Brodeur, Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Jaromir Jagr and Patrick Roy are some players on the 20th anniversary checklist. The old set also had Premier Prospects cards, which included early cards of players like Jarome Iginla and Ed Jovanovski, and among the ’94-95 SP Retro Premier Prospects in 2014-15 SP Authentic are Evgeny Kuznetsov, Teuvo Teravainen, Johnny Gaudreau and Aaron Ekblad.
The new ’94-95 SP cards share their card design with those from two decades ago, with the distinctive gold border along the left side of the card which includes the player name and SP logo while the team name is in gold along the bottom of the card. There are around six ’94-95 SP Retro cards and one or two ’94-95 SP Retro Premier Prospects cards per box. At around one a case, the ’94-95 SP Retro Gold Die-Cut Autographs and ’94-95 SP Retro Premier Prospects Gold Die-Cut Autographs cards will be hard to find.
The ’13-14 Authentic Moments and All-Time Authentic Moments cards in 2014-15 SP Authentic provide a reminder of the biggest plays and achievements of last year as well as throughout NHL history. Both sets have single and multi-player cards, from Teemu Selanne’s last NHL game to all the way back to Team Canada with Guy Lafleur and Marcel Dionne. There are signed cards available in the 2013-14 Moments Gold Ink Auto, 2013-14 Moments Multi-Player Gold Ink Auto, All-Time Moments Gold Ink Auto and All-Time Moments Multi-Player Gold Ink Auto sets. As the name suggests, these rare cards are signed with a gold pen.
Among the other insert sets for collectors to look for in SP Authentic are Regular Card Limited Autograph Patch Variations, which come in several tiers, numbered to 100, 25 or 10. The Young Guns Updates and Upper Deck Updates come with low-numbered parallels. Signed cards are in the SP Chirography, Premier Chirography, Immortal Inks and Marks of Distinction insert sets. The Immortal Inks cards are reportedly numbered to just 10 and include players like Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, Steve Yzerman and Wayne Gretzky.
Sign of the Times is a name that goes back many years at Upper Deck and in 2014-15 NHL SP Authentic there are not only single signed cards but others with two, three, four six and eight autographs as well. One Sign of the Times is an eight autograph book featuring all Detroit Red Wings, including Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood. There’s a triple auto Gretzky, Lemieux and Messier while Colorado Avalanche fans will hope to find a Sign of the Times quad auto with Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy and Rob Blake.
You can see 2014-15 SP Authentic on eBay here.
Future Watch Autograph Checklist
261 William Karlsson, Anaheim Ducks
262 Darnell Nurse, Edmonton Oilers
263 Jake McCabe, Buffalo Sabres
264 Patrick Brown, Carolina Hurricanes
265 Joni Ortio, Calgary Flames
266 Mark Visentin, Arizona Coyotes
267 Corban Knight, Calgary Flames
268 Stuart Percy, Toronto Maple Leafs
269 Phillip Danault, Chicago Blackhawks
270 Patrick Nemeth, Dallas Stars
271 Colton Sissons, Nashville Predators
272 Curtis McKenzie, Dallas Stars
273 Sam Reinhart, Buffalo Sabres
274 Melker Karlsson, San Jose Sharks
275 Nicolas Deslauriers, Buffalo Sabres
276 Christian Folin, Minnesota Wild
277 Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers
278 Sven Andrighetto, Montreal Canadiens
279 Chris Tierney, San Jose Sharks
280 Trevor Van Riemsdyk, Chicago Blackhawks
281 Andy Andreoff, Los Angeles Kings
282 David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins
283 Vincent Trocheck, Florida Panthers
284 Teuvo Teravainen, Chicago Blackhawks
285 Bo Horvat, Vancouver Canucks
286 Anthony Duclair, New York Rangers
287 Damon Severson, New Jersey Devils
288 Evgeny Kuznetsov, Washington Capitals
289 Rocco Grimaldi, Florida Panthers
290 Dennis Everberg, Colorado Avalanche
291 Alexander Wennberg, Columbus Blue Jackets
292 Derrick Pouliot, Pittsburgh Penguins
293 Ryan Sproul, Detroit Red Wings
294 Kevin Hayes, New York Rangers
295 Jiri Sekac, Montreal Canadiens
296 Vladislav Namestnikov, Tampa Bay Lightning
297 Tobias Rieder, Arizona Coyotes
298 Brandon Kozun, Toronto Maple Leafs
299 Shayne Gostisbehere, Philadelphia Flyers
300 Marko Dano, Columbus Blue Jackets
301 Calle Jarnkrok, Nashville Predators
302 Seth Griffith, Boston Bruins
303 Griffin Reinhart, New York Islanders
304 Alexander Khokhlachev, Boston Bruins
305 Laurent Brossoit, Edmonton Oilers
306 Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames
307 Brett Ritchie, Dallas Stars
308 Markus Granlund, Calgary Flames
309 Aaron Ekblad, Florida Panthers
310 Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning
311 Adam Lowry, Winnipeg Jets
312 Andre Burakovsky, Washington Capitals
313 Jonathan Drouin, Tampa Bay Lightning
314 Curtis Lazar, Ottawa Senators
315 Mirco Mueller, San Jose Sharks
316 Teemu Pulkkinen, Detroit Red Wings
317 Ty Rattie, St. Louis Blues
318 Victor Rask, Carolina Hurricanes
319 Kerby Rychel, Columbus Blue Jackets
320 Jori Lehtera, St. Louis Blues
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