While the NHL continued its COVID hiatus, its trading card partner was busy finalizing details for the first half of the sport’s flagship hockey card product. 2020-21 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey has an approximate release date of November 18, promising a new Young Guns parallel, a mix of new and returning insert lineups and a little more color.
2020-21 Upper Deck Series 1 Configuration and Base Set
Each hobby box of Series 1 will once again contain 24 packs with eight cards per pack. On average, each box will include six Young Guns cards.
There will also be retail packaging for places like Target and Walmart.
The base set in 2020-21 Series 1 will include a 250 cards including 198 regular cards, 49 Young Guns and three checklists. Hobby-exclusive parallels include Exclusives (# to 100); High Gloss (# to 10) and Clear Cut (one in every 96 packs).
There’s also a new parallel to the base set this year, one that will take you back to the early days of Upper Deck’s hockey license or the vintage O-Pee-Chee sets. “French” parallel cards will include copy written entirely in that language. They’ll be a little tough to pull, especially the Young Guns which will only be found in every 120 packs. Canvas Young Guns will be found one in every 48 packs.
NHL Draft single prints will be cause for celebration if you land one with one card in every 12,960 packs.
Inserts, Autographs
Rookie Retrospective cards return with much tougher jersey (one in every 432 packs) and patch (# to 19) parallels.
The popular Canvas inserts are back in every seven packs, featuring both veterans stars and Young Guns. Much tougher to find will be Canvas Signatures, which add an autograph and come in both Vertical and Horizontal formats with each card numbered to the featured player’s uniform number.
With a nod to the 90s, Portraits and Portraits Rookies are also back with parallels numbered to 99 or less. The checklist will include active stars, retired standouts and rookies.
Clear Cut Foundations are case hits with this year’s themes including Foundation Duos, Leaders Trios, Honoured Members Updates and Cup Components. At one in every 4,000 packs, the Leaders Trios will be the toughest of the four.
Day With the Cup returns with one card in every 2,880 packs. Ceremonial Puck Drop inserts will also be scarce with unsigned versions in every 2,880 packs and autographed copies found only in every 30,000.
The long-running Game Jersey cards feature swatches from top players with patch parallels numbered to 15.
Four new insert sets are in the works including:
NHL Worldwide, which feature players from a variety of countries with the flag of their home nation. Die-cut parallels will be found in every 270 packs.
Upper Deck calls the Dazzlers parallel “a brightly-colored collection of full-bodied active stars.” They’ll be found one per box but look for Pink parallels falling in every 144 packs.
Predominant is an eye-catching insert with color photos offset against a black and white background. Gold parallels will be rare, falling one per 260 packs.
Debut Dates commemorates the first NHL game for last year’s top rookies. They’ll be found one per box with rare jersey (1 in every 432 packs) and patch (# to 25) parallels also possible.
Signature Sensations autographs will be found in every 276 packs.
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