The cards will be included in 2025-26 Upper Deck Extended Series, which will be out this summer.
A rookie’s first NHL game is a moment players never forget — and now, Upper Deck is turning that moment into a collectible.
Upper Deck announced the creation of the Rookie Debut Game Jersey Program, which will feature images from the debut game and pieces of the game-used jersey from an NHL rookie’s first game embedded directly into cards.
The cards will be included in 2025-26 Upper Deck Extended Series, which will be out this summer.
“I think the goal was to make it accessible,” said Upper Deck president Jason Masherah. “We have three levels of chase for this. We want it to be accessible to all hockey collectors at a reasonable price.”
Thirteen players will be on the first checklist, including Anaheim’s Beckett Sennecke, who is leading all rookies in scoring this season, and Islanders’ Matthew Schaefer, the 2025 No. 1 overall draft pick.
It will not include Ivan Demidov or any other players who made their debut last season as the program only began with the start of the current season.
Upper Deck wanted to ensure the cards had the proper provenance and chain of custody for the Debut Game Jersey Program cards. The process involved Upper Deck, the NHL, NHLPA, teams and their equipment managers to make the program work.
“With the last-minute nature of finding out when players will make their debut, it takes a lot of on-the-fly coordination with the respective NHL teams and their equipment managers to make sure the player's game-worn jersey is set aside for Upper Deck,” said Troy Bendian, manager of athlete relations at Upper Deck.
“One unique variable is when the team is on the road, the equipment staff are working at light speed once the game concludes to pack up their locker room and get to the next city,” he said. “Even then, equipment managers have made Upper Deck and this program a priority by making sure all the necessary steps are taken to ensure a successful acquisition of the jersey."
There are three levels of rarity with the game-used jerseys, autographed game-used jerseys and the 1-of-1 tag patch, which comes from the jersey. The tag patches could look different from player to player as it depends on how the teams catalogued the jerseys.
The “Debut Game Jersey Auto Black features a swatch from the most authentic and unique tag on the player’s debut jersey,” said Paul Zickler, Upper Deck’s director of sports brands. “This may include a provenance tag issued by the team, or a third-party authenticator or a personalized inscription from the team’s equipment manager on the tag or fight strap. These are truly remarkable cards.”
Special anniversary
There’s a fun surprise in store for collectors as it is the 30th anniversary of the 1996-97 season where Upper Deck included game-used jerseys into cards for the first time – and helped change a market.
The new version of the cards take inspiration from the original designs, but have a very modern twist.
The new Rookie Debut Game Jersey cards could have gone into any of the hockey products Upper Deck puts out, including its ultra high-end The Cup. Instead, they will be in the 2025-26 Upper Deck Extended Series, which has been historically a sub-$100 hobby box product.
“So much is about flipping and gambling, and we try to put ourselves in the shoes of the collectors,” Masherah said. “That’s how e-pack started, ‘How do we get hockey content to people who don’t have card shops?’ Same type of thing here. We want to make cool content. But how do we make it accessible to the broadest swath of collectors?”
How does the program work?
Working with so many moving parts can be a challenge. Bendian gave a rundown of how the program works.
Once it’s announced a player will be called up to the NHL, a member of Upper Deck’s Talent Relations team flies out to the city where the player will be, but if the player doesn’t make his debut in the first game, the Upper Deck employee will follow the player until he does.
Once the game is over, the Upper Deck employee and the team’s equipment manager will meet outside of the locker room to exchange the jersey. They complete paperwork to ensure authenticity, and also image the jersey to keep for records.
“Each team’s jersey has slightly distinct features on the inside of the jersey where the tags/straps are, and we are so excited to be able to showcase those features for collectors chasing after these cards,” Zickler said.
Category: General Sports
