CONFIRMED – Connor Bedard Canvas Young Gun in Extended!

At this point on the calendar, you’re probably expecting me to come here and give you a look at the highly anticipated 2023/24 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey, especially with the looming release of the coveted Young Guns Connor Bedard card. Despite popular belief, I’m here to break down the sometimes afterthought release of Extended Series.

Why? Looking at the solicitation left me with questions, answers, and a few more questions. Oh, and I’ve got a question for you! Why aren’t you liking and subscribing to the dacardworld YouTube page? Get on that so you don’t miss a second of our hobby content! We appreciate all your support.

Here’s what a hobby box of Extended Series will likely hold! Upper Deck says there are six Young Guns or First Round Rookies, which immediately piqued my curiosity because Series 1 and 2 guarantee six Young Guns and do not mention First Round Rookies. Your standard four UD Canvas and one Outburst parallel, which could be First Round Rookies, still stands along with a Blue Dazzler per box, with a shot at the Pink Dazzler parallel, and four of the new Seeing Red insert, with a Silver Spectrum parallel. Extended Series follows the new Upper Deck flagship look with 12 packs per box and 12 cards per pack.

Extended Series is tapping into nostalgia with Upper Deck’s catalog, with six inserts including the likes of 08-09 Upper Deck Retro & Retro YG and 03-04 Beehive & Beehive Rookies cards. There are also two 97-98 SPx Holoview Retro, two 07-08 Black Diamond cards, and six Silver Skates and/or 98-99 UD3 cards per box. If you’re an old hockey card head and like to see new players on the older designs you remember collecting growing up, you’ll love what Extended Series offers. 

Yes, there was a time when Upper Deck Black Diamond was not a one-pack hit-filled product. Rookie Gems used to be right behind Young Guns in terms of collectibility for hockey fans, and they can relive that here in Extended Series with the classic one, two, three, and four-star variations of 07-08 Rookie Gems with players like Devils Luke Hughes. Additionally, there are Ruby versions numbered to 100 and Emerald Auto parallels. The 97-98 SPx Holoview Retros are another trip down memory lane featuring another memorable design from Upper Deck’s past with vets and rookies gracing the front and red to 250 and gold to 50 parallels.

Okay, I’ve made you wait long enough. We can talk about Young Guns now! A topic of discussion and debate that usually comes with Extended Series is what Young Guns are on hold for this product. I distinctly remember having this conversation and mentioning Coyotes Logan Cooley and Sabres Zach Benson. If you scroll to page 2 in the slideshow, there he is, in all his glory, a Red Outburst parallel numbered to 25 of none other than Logan Cooley. So, yes, numbered Young Guns are carrying over into the Extended Series from Series 1 and 2. First Round Rookies also have these parallels. 

So, Connor Bedard will have two Outburst Gold one-of-one cards?! Only time and lots of pack ripping will tell. Don’t forget about old reliable Exclusives to 100, High Gloss to 10, and the hobby-exclusive Clear Cut. They’re very much still in play in Extended Series.

That’s a great segway to tell you Exclusives and High Gloss are also available as parallels to the 08-09 Young Guns Retro set. In another ode to a classic set highlighted by rookies Claude Giroux, Steven Stamkos, Drew Doughty, and TJ Oshie, Upper Deck is bringing back the design with rookie standouts from this season, like the example they give in Columbus’s Adam Fantilli. However, the biggest highlight of the solicitation comes from an image on the same page. It’s not uncommon to have a top rookies have their Young Guns in one product and their Canvas variation in the other. That’s the case here with Bedard. 

While there’s no checklist yet, speculation is his Young Guns will be in Series 2, and now his Canvas YG’s will be in Extended Series. That includes the also hobby-exclusive black-and-white variation. What are the odds of getting one of those, possibly a Bedard? Easy, it’s one in every 216 packs, whereas the color Young Guns Canvas is about one in every other box.

Artificial short prints are as popular as ever in 2024, so here are some “short prints” to look for when ripping packs of Extended Series. Besides the Young Guns Black-and-White Canvas I mentioned before, First Round Rookies Clear Cuts are one in 360 packs, and Outburst parallels are one in 150 packs. Young Guns Outbursts are one in 100 packs, and Clear Cut is one in 360 packs. 07-08 Black Diamond Retros Four-Star and Four-Star Rookies are one in 200 packs, HoloGrFx Rookie Golds come one in 120 packs, and HoloGrFx Future Fame is one in 360 packs. UD Canvas Legends and All-Stars Black-and-White parallels are the hardest to find, with one coming every 540 packs. 

According to Upper Deck, on average, a case will hold four hobby-exclusive UD Canvas Black-and-White parallel cards, four hobby-exclusive base set Clear Cut parallel cards, and four HoloGrFx cards. And let us not forget about everyone’s recent favorite Population Count returning in Extended, mimicking a slabbed card with counts as high as 1000 and as low as one.

We still have to get through a couple seasons before we are due to get this one on shelves in the summer, but anything involving the Connor Bedard Young Guns is under a microscope and needs a little dissecting to try make sense of it all.

Knowledge is power, so keep this video bookmarked when Extended Series eventually comes around, and you want to stay as sharp as a skate.

Presell is available on dacardworld.com.