Question

[jim bradt]

If there is a lockout in the NHL will Upper Deck still release their series 1 hockey at regular time?

[flopfish]

I don't even think they'll release a Series 1...

[30ranfordfan]

I don't recall when the released 2004-05, but I'm sure that Upper Deck Series 1 will still get made.... lockout or not.

[flopfish]

I don't recall when the released 2004-05, but I'm sure that Upper Deck Series 1 will still get made.... lockout or not.

OHHHH RIGHT! They did the retired YGs that year... It released on December 20th. It'd take some time to swap out the Young Guns of Rookies they were hoping for and decide on what to do.

[RGM81]

Simply put, we don't know.

It depends on how long the lockout goes, if there is one at all. The licensees are going to have to make some tough choices (perhaps the PA will make them for them) in the coming weeks regarding products.

[Mnum]

Hopefully there will be no lock out (but I will not hold my breath). UD had that good awful set that year. You can still buy those boxes pretty cheap. I think all the companies will scale down the number of sets they will release thou. Going to really hurt the sport & collecting if there is a lockout. There is no Crosby or Ovechkin to fall back on this time.

[30ranfordfan]

Yup!

If I had to bet.... they either limit the number of YGs (i.e. 25 of them) and use holdover RCs..... or they do a full slate of 50, but it will be a mix of holdovers & vets / retired.

Here's the list of guys that have RCs in OPC (I think I counted 43)

Carter Camper
Maxime Sauve
Lane MacDermid
Torey Krug
Michael Hutchinson
Travis Turnbull
Sven Baertschi
Akim Aliu
Jeremy Welsh
Brandon Bollig
Tyson Barrie
Mike Connolly
Dalton Prout
Cody Goloubef
Shawn Hunwick
Ryan Garbutt
Reilly Smith
Brenden Dillon
Scott Glennie
Riley Sheahan
Philippe Cornet
Colby Robak
Jordan Nolan
Kristopher Foucault
Jason Zucker
Tyler Cuma
Chay Genoway
Gabriel Dumont
Robert Mayer
Chet Pickard
Aaron Ness
Casey Cizikas
Matt Donovan
Chris Kreider
Brandon Manning
Michael Stone
Matt Watkins
Tyson Sexsmith
Jake Allen
Jaden Schwartz
J.T. Brown
Carter Ashton
Ryan Hamilton
Jussi Rynnas


That would make for a flop of a product, but they'll have to include some of them anyway. Not sure how many others have not been used (i.e. holdover RCs not included in that list). If that's 43, including a checklist makes 44.... so find 6 others that didn't get a card RC yet? Not sure if the names exist (I did check a thread I knew existed on HI... where they have a list of Hold overs. They've got the list as 48 names - I will assume it is correct, don't want to do the work to verify).

Problem is.... preseason should be starting in a week, or so, and that's when UD / Panini would be getting photos of players to use on those cards. If the lockout ended on (for example) December 1st.... UD would most likely have already switched to plan B, and wouldn't be able to get guys like Yakupov into a Young Guns set until Series 2.


Going to make things interesting..... for sure

OHHHH RIGHT! They did the retired YGs that year... It released on December 20th. It'd take some time to swap out the Young Guns of Rookies they were hoping for and decide on what to do.

[centrehice]

How is UD bound contractually in regard to what they can print, that is what you must find out. UD is not a member of the NHLPA, they are a tertiary supplier that generates income through revenue sharing.

I don't know what happens to merchandise sales when a governing Sports body locks it's players out. Hockey is not played, but fans continue to buy hats, pucks, jerseys, T-shirts, etc. while the lockout is still going on and I'm not sure the legalities in regard to those suppliers.

I would hazard a guess that if Upper Deck has only one Sport License in Hockey, if it stops producing cards, it will have to go out of business, ...... then why would it stop producing cards?

If I am Upper Deck and Hockey is my only license, I can't stop producing cards or I will soon be out of business.