As we all go through our various stages of hockey withdrawal, here's one instance of hope to hold onto until NHL clubs open training camps for the 2008-09 season.
Despite conflicting release dates (July 9 or Aug. 5?), we should soon expect to see Upper Deck offering Victory Hockey, the first cards for the upcoming season, featuring 200-card base and 50-card rookie sets.
Looking past its low-end reputation, meaning it'll likely be ignored by "elitist" collectors, I believe Victory provides autograph stock for quite a few big-name prospects:
~ Boston's Milan Lucic;
~ Chicago's Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews;
~ Edmonton's Andrew Cogliano and Sam Gagner;
~ Los Angeles' Jack Johnson;
~ Montreal's Carey Price and Andrei Kostitsyn;
~ the Rangers' Marc Staal;
~ Phoenix's Martin Hanzal;
~ St. Lous' Erik Johnson; and
~ Washington's Nicklas Backstrom
Key rookies, primarily late-season call-ups who enjoyed a couple of sips from their NHL cups of coffee last season, include Dallas' Mark Fistric, Los Angeles' Erik Ersberg, the Islanders' Kyle Okposo and Ottawa's Brian Lee.
A quick check of the Fleer hockey page, a subsidiary of Upper Deck, shows no future release dates. Disappointing, if you ask me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Duly noted, Chris. Thanks.
Post a Comment