The NHL has had many changes over the past few years, but one of the most prominent is that they no longer issue physical cards with players’ photos on them. Now, your collection of players is probably still stocked with these novelty cards from the ’90s, but the real collectors’ items these days are the ones that are created digitally, such as Google Card, Facebook Cards, and TikTok players.
On this blog post, we’ll take a look at who makes the real cardboard hockey cards and the pros and cons of each of the main vendors.
Table of Contents
NHL Team Sets
NHL team sets are a great way for sports fans to show their team allegiance. The sets usually consist of 40-50 cards, packed in a cardboard holder. The cards themselves are usually glossy, with a thick cardboard stock and a smooth finish. They also feature the full team photo and roster, along with player stats and biographies. In addition, your collection of team sets will also contain an insert of that team’s logo.
Scottish Professional Hockey League (SPHL)
The Scottish Professional Hockey League (SPHL) is the major development league for ice hockey in Scotland. It was founded in October 2017 and is currently comprised of seven teams, across two conferences. Each team is named after a famous Scottish athlete or sports personality, such as Chuck Fleming, Duncan McIntosh, and Fredrick Nash. In addition to hockey, the Scottish games also include curling and golf. It is widely believed that the SPHL is the official development league of the NHL. However, this has not been confirmed by either league.
The teams play a regular season from October to April, with each game usually being two periods of 20 minutes. The playoffs run from April to September, with the top-four teams from each conference progressing to the post-season. Like with many other sports organizations in the UK, the biggest events in the SPHL calendar include the Winter and Summer holidays, with the former often being used for internal roster shuffles and the latter for match days.
Quebec International Hockey League (QIHL)
The Quebec International Hockey League (QIHL) is a semi-professional hockey league based in the province of Quebec. It was founded in 2016 and currently consists of four teams, with a total of 10 players on every roster. The season runs from October to April, with each team playing a total of 42 games. The playoffs then follow, with the top two teams from each division contesting a best-of-seven series. The league is currently in the middle of a three-year developmental cycle, with the next stage – the Elite League – set to be launched in September 2020.
Central Professional Hockey League (CPHL)
The Central Professional Hockey League (CPHL) is a minor-league ice hockey organization based in Central Canada. The league was founded in October 2019 and will initially consist of five teams, with 27 players on each roster. According to the league website, the teams will be based in Thunder Bay, Ontario; Brantford, Ontario; London, Ontario; and Windsor, Ontario. The first season of the CPHL will run from October to April, with each team playing a total of 40 games. The playoffs then follow, with the top two teams from each division contesting a best-of-seven series for the championship.
United Hockey League (UHL)
The United Hockey League (UHL) is a semi-professional ice hockey league operating in the Mid-Atlantic area of the United States. The league was founded in 2010 and currently consists of seven teams, with a total of 20 players on every roster. Like with most other sports organizations in the U.S., the regular season for the UHL runs from October to April, with each team playing a total of 42 games. The playoffs then follow, with the top two teams from each division competing in a best-of-seven series. The UHL is the only major U.S. league to have a dedicated app, which is why most of the statistics and information associated with the teams and players are available on this application.
American Hockey League (AHL)
The American Hockey League (AHL) is the top development league for ice hockey in the United States. It was founded in 1971 and currently contains 30 teams in four conferences. The regular season runs from October to April and is similar to that of the UHL. Each team plays a total of 42 games, with the top two teams in each conference earning the right to participate in the playoffs. The AHL is widely considered to be the major league of North American minor ice hockey.
It would be a massive undertaking to try and cover every team, division, and player in the NHL, let alone the other prominent leagues across the world. We’ve decided to narrow our focus to the more traditional hockey cards, which is where this article will remain focused. This is also because, for many people, the novelty of collecting players’ autographs has diminished. Still, it’s worth noting that the most recent craze in collecting has veered greatly towards unique and limited-edition baseball cards and NBA Draft cards. These are the sorts of things that you wouldn’t normally find in a regular box of baseball or basketball cards.
How Do They Make The Cards?
As mentioned above, the real fun of collecting cards isn’t necessarily in collecting the actual pieces of cardboard with the iconic players’ images on them. It’s more about the process of bringing the players’ personalities and skills into being. This is where the vendors’ expertise and creative skills come in, with each of them having a special way of applying their own spin on a hockey card.
The three main companies that we’ll discuss in this article are: Canadian Tire Company Limited, McFarlane, and Topps. Let’s take a closer look at how each of them handles the cardboard, designs the cards, and applies the actual printings.
Canadians Tire Company Limited
Canadian Tire Company Limited is a major Canadian retailer that also has an extensive network of warehouses and distribution centers across the country. To ensure timely delivery of their products to customers, Canadian Tire has established close ties with various hockey card manufacturers. This relationship began in the early 1950s, with Canadian Tire regularly securing the rights to release certain players’ cards as part of a marketing campaign. This practice continues to this day and provides customers with a steady stream of new cards to add to their collections.
As a result of their long and fruitful association with the NHL, Canadians Tire have become experts in manufacturing hockey cards. The company’s in-house design team take the raw ingredients – photos, player stats, and bios – and use them to create a beautifully crafted cardboard box. In addition, the company’s artists hand-draw the players’ images right onto the cardboard, using various grayscale and color palettes. This ensures that every card is unique and features a high-quality image.
Topps Hockey
Topps Hockey is a trading card company that specializes in producing and distributing content for both traditional and digital platforms. Topps have been making sport cards for quite some time and have branched out into many different areas, including entertainment, music, and fashion.
As a result of their expertise in other areas of entertainment, music, and fashion, Topps have begun producing hockey cards, which they market as “collector items,” due to their unique look and high demand among fans of the sport.
Though Topps produce beautiful, unique items, the nature of their work means that they can’t use any photos copyrighted by other parties. This often leads to issues with licensing, as other companies’ images are often used without proper permission. Still, it’s great to see a company devoted to the hobby, mindful of these legalities and aware of their responsibilities to the athletes they represent on the cards’ fronts.
McFarlane
McFarlane is an international company, renowned for creating action figures based on pop culture icons. In addition to hockey, McFarlane have also produced cards for the MLB, NFL, and NBA. The company’s relationship with the NHL began in the 1960s, when they secured the rights to make and distribute various player figures and trading cards. The company has since grown to include many other sports, including soccer, golf, tennis, and more. Though they don’t produce cardboard by themselves, McFarlane have several affiliates that manufacture and distribute sports-related products, including hockey and soccer cards. As well, the company run a hockey league, the Diamond Ice Hockey League, where they sign professional players to lucrative contracts. This gives them full control over which players they represent on their cards, with no repercussions from the NHL or other sports leagues.