Configuration:
Packs per box: 15
Cards per pack: 5
Boxes per case: 8 per inner shipper
Set size: 100 cards
Box Break:
– Four base set parallels or Printing Plates
– Six Program of Excellence or Local Legends inserts
– One Program of Excellence or Local Legends Patterned Rainbow parallel
– Four autograph or memorabilia cards
Canadian hockey fans were tantalizingly close to seeing their national teams win gold at the World Junior Championship and the Women’s World Championship events earlier this year and those teams are a big part of the upcoming 2017 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors release.
Arriving in late August, it will give collectors a taste of some of the game’s top Canadian-born prospects along with with plenty of hits that have made this brand a success in recent years.
Base Set and Parallels
The 2017 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors base set is relatively small at just 100 cards, but it is loaded up with young talents that will rise to prominence as they move up to the pro level. Looking at the 2017 roster, there are some that already have NHL cards like Thomas Chabot, Mathew Barzal, and Dylan Strome plus potential top draft pick Nolan Patrick. There will also be a subset dedicated to the National Women’s Team and these cards feature some veteran names like Meghan Agosta, Marie-Philip Poulin, and Shannon Szabados.
Each base set card has five additional parallel versions to collect. The easiest to find are the Gold (1:6), but the rest are all numbered. All of the parallels combine to fall four times per box and the other versions include Red Exclusives (/125), High Gloss Silver Spectrum (/25), Black (/5), and one-of-one Printing Plates.
Inserts
There are two different non-memorabilia insert themes inside packs of 2017 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors. Program of Excellence (1:5) have a regular version and an additional 1997-98 Retro design (1:9) which have tough Patterned Rainbow parallels numbered to 100 or 50, respectively.
Local Legends (1:13) has a sharp look with the player’s hometown shown in the background. Both active and retired players will be on the checklist and have a Patterned Rainbow parallel (/100), too.
Patterned Rainbow parallels are slated to come once per box.
Autographs and Memorabilia
Autographs appear to be a challenging pull in 2017 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors and the ones everyone will be chasing are the Black Autographs which are limited to five copies each. The checklist for the set is expected to have both future stars and legends.
The basic Team Canada Jersey (1:13) should draw from a deep roster of players. There will be a premium series with prime swatches from Women’s sweaters (/225) along with two tiers of Team Canada Premium Series Auto cards (/235 and /135). Emergence jersey cards (1:19) have a sharp ice blue look with additional Premium Series Auto (/99) and Women’s Premium Series (/10) editions.
Maple Leaf Forever is back again for another year and the regular jersey cards drop once in every four boxes on average (1:60). Some collectors will be lucky enough to find a version with sleeve patch pieces (/3) or even the one-of-one Logo Premium Series Auto. On top of that, there are Jumbo Canada Premium Series cards numbered to just six and they should have an enormous piece of a game-used patch.
Manufactured patch cards make their debut in this season’s product as well. Look for 1983 Juniors Manufactured Patches (1:80) and Canada Legends Manufactured Patches (1:160).
