Upper Deck has cancelled two products and delayed the release of its flagship hockey product because of what the company calls “production and supply chain management challenges.”
On Tuesday, the company confirmed what one of its distributors had already announced: 2020-21 Ice and 2021-22 Trilogy were being dropped from the schedule. 2021-22 Series I Hobby has been moved back to an unspecified date in December, while retail packaging isn’t likely to arrive until after the holidays.
While the ’21-22 season is already underway, the company still has several 2020-21 products that are in production but the company says it will “provide updates on those when we have more clarity with regard to their release date.”
Upper Deck has indicated that issues in acquiring the materials used to produce Ice and Trilogy are what’s behind their cancellation. The company says it has brought on new vendors to assist with production but items used in the production of its trading cards “are difficult to acquire.” The company won’t say exactly what those items are but paper products and cardboard have been among the items that have been in short supply.
Series 1 Hockey has traditionally been released in conjunction with the annual Sports Card Expo in Toronto which is slated for next month, but the product’s postponement means that won’t be happening.
ICE isn’t gone for good. Upper Deck plans to put it back on the calendar next year.
Upper Deck still plans to release 2021-22 O-Pee-Chee Platinum on November 10 and Team Canada on November 17 while ’21-22 MVP and Ultimate Collection will arrive by mid-December. Stature and Premier are planned for late December. Other future releases include Goodwin Champions (January); O-Pee-Chee (January); Metal Universe Champions (January) and SP Authentic Golf (February).
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