2015-16 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey Details

By Stephen Laroche | Beckett Hockey Editor

For many collectors, the big draw for 2015-16 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey is the Jack Eichel Young Guns rookie card, but there is also be plenty of other content to be found inside packs as usual.

Get a fully sortable 2015-16 Upper Deck Hockey checklist and price guide access.

Base Set and Parallels

Once again, the flagship 2015-16 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey set includes the biggest names that were not included in the prior release along with players that have changed teams or cracked their respective rosters this season. The checklist is 200 cards plus 50 Young Guns (1:4). It also boasts solid game-action photography. In addition to Eichel, the next group of Young Guns features Carolina’s Noah Hanifin and Vancouver’s Jake Virtanen.

Parallels are present in packs of 2015-16 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey and there are three types to collect. As per tradition, there are Exclusives (/100), High Gloss (/10), and one-of-one Printing Plates.

Whether you feel that the UD Canvas cards are parallels or inserts, this set will carry over the action from the first series and come four times per box on average. The big draw here, of course, is the UD Canvas Young Guns card of Edmonton Oilers phenom Connor McDavid. The regular Canvas come at a 1:7 ratio while the Young Guns are a tougher pull at 1:48 packs. The set is completed with Team Canada alumni in the Program of Excellence subset and retired stars that are seeded at a rate of 1:192.

Inserts

The non-memorabilia insert program for 2015-16 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey begins with UD Portraits Rookies and the best of this season’s freshmen will be found once in every six packs. In addition to a Gold parallel numbered to 99, there are also Platinum Blue cards to seek out (/25).

Members of the Chicago Blackhawks are shown celebrating their championship in Day With The Cup, and these long-odds hits have proven to be a major chase for collectors in recent years. Another hobby favorite is back with the die-cut acetate Rookie Breakouts that are once again limited to 100 copies and those pulling some of the bigger names are almost certain to get strong returns on the secondary market.

This season’s O-Pee-Chee set is updated in 2015-16 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey. This time, the veteran players come once per box while there are also four Update Rookies inside. As expected, there will be Red Border (1:1,200 vets, 1:300 rookies), Rainbow Foil (1:120 vets, 1:30 rookies), and Retro (1:42 vets, 1:17 rookies) parallels. In response to collector demand, Upper Deck also added Black Border parallels for each card and they are numbered to 100 copies each.

A couple of unannounced insert sets are included as well. Day with the Cup Flashbacks look at the New York Islanders dynasty of the early 1980s. Series One Young Guns also get the acetate treatment.

Memorabilia

One of the changes that Upper Deck made to the flagship this year was the reduction of memorabilia cards placed into boxes. Now with one per box on average, the hit has become a bit more meaningful and there are a pair of sets which are Series Two staples. Rookie Materials (1:48) are all about this season’s new recruits and usually feature photoshoot jersey pieces while UD Game Jerseys (1:48) carry over from Series One. Each set has a Patch version as well with the Rookie Materials being numbered to 25 and the UD Game Patch cards weighing in at 15 copies each.

An additional bonus are the 1,000 Point Club Jerseys that are a long-odds find at 1:864 and player collectors are going to get excited about the signed edition that is numbered to just 10.

Autographs

When it comes to autographs, 2015-16 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey keeps it quite simple with two sets in UD Signatures and O-Pee-Chee Update Signatures that combine to be found once per case on average (1:576 respectively).

2015-16 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey at a glance:

Packs per box: 24
Cards per pack: 8
Boxes per case: 12
Set size: 200 cards plus 50 Young Guns
Release date: February 18, 2016

What to expect in a hobby box:

• 6 Young Guns
• 5 O-Pee-Chee Update cards (one veteran and four rookies)
• 4 UD Portraits Rookies
• 4 UD Canvas (including possible Canvas Young Guns)
• 1 memorabilia card

Stephen Laroche is the editor of Beckett Hockey, Beckett Basketball, and Beckett Sports Card Monthly magazines. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at slaroche@beckett.com or follow him on Twitter @Stephen_Laroche.