2014-15 Upper Deck The Cup Hockey preview

As usual Upper Deck saves the best for last with their final release of the hockey season. 2014-15 The Cup Hockey brings the best hits of the season, especially for the rookie class, with stunning on-card autographs and amazing patch pieces. The Cup will come in it’s traditional tin package with two autographed patch cards plus two more hits (autograph, memorabilia or low-numbered parallel).

The holy grail for hockey collectors every year are the rookie patch autos in Upper Deck The Cup. Basic versions of the RPAs are divided into two levels with Level 1 cards numbered out of 99 and Level 2 numbered out of 249. Gold Rainbow parallels are numbered out of ten. New for this year are Red jersey tag parallels numbered to just three. Some of the big names collectors will be chasing after for rookie patch autos are Aaron Ekblad, Jonathan Drouin, Johnny Gaudreau, Teuvo Teravainen and Sam Reinhart.

Base cards in 2014-15 The Cup Hockey are numbered out of 249 with Gold Spectrum parallels numbered to five plus one-of-one Black parallels. Rookie base cards are numbered out of 249 as well. Look for signed versions of rookie base cards that are also numbered to 249. Gold Spectrum Rookie parallels are little bit easier to find than their veteran counterparts as they are numbered out of 25 while Black parallels remain a one-of-one find. Base parallels have several variations that include an autograph and/or patch piece that are numbered to 25 or less. Veteran base cards have Red parallels numbered to three that come with either a laundry tag, an autograph or both.

Limited Logos autographed patch cards come in three tiers of rarity (#’d to 50, 25 or 10). New for 2014-15 The Cup are NHL Glory relic cards. These come with a chrome NHL logo shield under a layer acetate. Regular and signed versions are numbered to just ten with player signature right over the top of the NHL logo relic.

2014-15 The Cup also boasts some stellar booklet cards, including the return of Autographed Monumental Patch booklets with massive logo patch pieces. Dual auto Bookmarks booklet come with signatures and patch swatches from two different players. Rookie player editions are numbered to 25 with veterans Bookmarks numbered to just ten. One of the more unique booklets are Autographed Rookie Draft Board & Patch featuring a patch pieces and a signed piece of a nameplate from the NHL Entry draft board.

Upper Deck has already announced that Exquisite Hockey cards would be a part of many of their 2015-16 releases, but that didn’t stop them from including Exquisite cards 14-15 The Cup. These include rookie patch autos numbered to the player’s jersey number, Exquisite veteran autograph cards that are numbered to 25 and Exquisite Art of the Game booklets feature hand-painted artwork are numbered to just three.

The Cup features a solid selection of autograph cards from NHL veterans and hockey legends. Program of Excellence once again pays tribute to Canada’s national hockey program with autograph cards numbered to ten, dual auto numbered to five and triple autos to three. Signature Renditions and Brilliance autographs are inserted in one of four packs.

Property Of are one-of-one relic cards with nameplates taken from game-used hockey sticks. Notable Nameplates come with letter patch from a game-worn jersey and are numbered to the quantity of letters in the player’s last name.