2016-17 Upper Deck SP Game Used Hockey Preview, Checklist

Upper Deck’s 2016-17 Game Used Hockey is once again a hit-oriented product, with four of the six cards in every one pack hobby box being an autograph or memorabilia offering.

Hobby boxes will be available beginning Wednesday, January 18.  Expect to pay anywhere between $85 to $105, depending on the retailer. The price is slightly lower than last year with one more card per pack.

A complete checklist is at the bottom of the page.

2016-17 SP Game Used Hockey Base Set, Parallels

The base set will consist of 100 cards and 99 Authentic Rookies, along with 1/1 autograph parallels.

The rookies offer collectors an interesting look — cards of the first-year players are limited to their jersey number.

Base parallels are intriguing, too. Rainbow parallels are numbered to 200, plus the player’s age. So a guy like Jack Eichel will have parallels numbered to 220, while Jarome Iginla will be numbered to 239. And since Wayne Gretzky is included in the set, his parallel will be numbered to 256; that’s jumping the gun a bit, since the Great One does not turn 56 until Jan. 26, but it’s close enough.

Orange parallels follow the same idea as Rainbows, except the cards are numbered to 100 plus the player’s draft year (using only the last two digits). So Patrick Roy has parallels numbered to 184, while Patrick Sharp is numbered to 101.

Each base card also will have a Green Snow Storm card that will be a 1/1.

And there are more base parallels. Blue autograph parallels will fall every six packs for base cards and rookies, while red auto parallels will appear every 15 packs on average for base and 12 for the Authentic Rookies. Some collectors may find Red Autograph Jersey parallels, too, or a Red Spectrum autograph card numbered to 25.

A box break might look like this: One autograph or premium memorabilia card, plus three additional autograph or memorabilia cards. The final two cards will either be base, parallel or a combination of the two.

Memorabilia Cards

Focusing on hockey’s all-star activities, the 2016 All-Star Skills Fabrics includes a jersey swatch, while patch parallels will be numbered to 35. Fabrics Duals includes two jersey swatches of teammates, like Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos and Ben Bishop, or Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. These cards also come in a patch variation, and also in quad and six player cards that have swatch and patch parallels.

Relic Blends will be numbered to 99, with patch variations numbered to 15 also a possible pull. Other inserts will include Game Gear All-Star Skills. Other cards include Supreme Patches and Supreme Gloves and Pads. The swatches are 1 inch by 2¾ inches in length and width, which is certainly a generous size.

Also from the All-Star Game are game-used puck cards, featuring players like Malkin, Stamkos, Jaromir Jagr, Jonathan Quick, P.K. Subban and Corey Perry. These cards will be tough pulls, falling once in every 840 packs. An easier find will be the Net Cord inserts, numbered to 25. There will be 1/1 Shield Logo versions of these cards, too.

Returning to pay tribute to the annual NHL draft are Draft Day Marks, which will contain signed letters for veterans numbered to 10 per letter; and rookies, numbered to 34.

2016 NHL Stadium Series Material Game Used pucks, will feature pieces from series that pitted the Chicago Blackhawks against the Minnesota Wild and the Detroit Red Wings vs. the Colorado Avalanche. Winter Classic and Stanley Cup final cards will offer similar memorabilia, including gloves, sticks and net cords.

There are some new wrinkles this year. Banner Year inserts highlight event-used banners onto the card, while Frameworks uses a jersey design to showcase the memorabilia cards.

You can see 2016-17 SP Game-Used hockey boxes for sale on eBay here.

2016-17 Upper Deck SP NHL Game-Used Checklist

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About Bob D'Angelo

Bob has been a sportswriter and copy editor for more than 45 years and a blogger for two decades. He is celebrating his 60th year of card collecting, and still counts his 1965 Topps Mickey Mantle as his favorite. You can reach him at [email protected].