Retail Repack Adventures #17

Seeing as the NHL is neck deep in the Stanley Cup Playoffs currently, I thought this would be a good time to go through another hockey repack. Full disclosure here, I took a picture of the actual box but I have no clue what happened to it. To be honest, it may not even be necessary.

Here's the cover card and it's from the same 2015-16 Upper Deck Star Rookies set as the Connor McDavid in a previous repack. Looking at the checklist for that set, I forgot how good of a rookie class there was that year with not only McDavid and Jack Eichel but also Fabbri, Max Domi, Artemi Panarin, Sam Bennett, and Nikolaj Ehlers just to name a few.

Here's a very trippy card of Wendel Clark in a very strange New York Islanders uniform. This particular uniform was worn only for two seasons in the mid-90s by the Isles according to the research I found and it was universally hated. Gone was the traditional orange, white, and blue and in it's place was this weird conglomeration of white, orange, and teal along with a character logo resembling that of a sea captain.

Moving back to more traditional means, I've spoken before of my fondness for 1992 Upper Deck baseball but I've never really checked out the hockey issue from that year. I think I might have to change that at some point. This card of Caps goalie Mike Liut is a "sunset card" from that year. While I never watched Liut play, I enjoy collecting his cards as he was once the goalie for the long gone Cincinnati Stingers of the WHA.

What is a repack without junk wax? Here's a good smattering of some stuff from the early 90s including two cool goalie cards in John Vanbiesbrouck and Curtis Joseph.

Here's more of these random Canadian minor league hockey cards. I was fully prepared to say that none of these guys played in the NHL but from my research, only one of them did, that being Marquis Mathieu. Mathieu enjoyed a brief 16-game NHL stint with the Bruins over parts of three seasons. 

One of my favorite things of these hockey repacks is getting cards of defunct teams, such as the original Winnipeg Jets (now the Coyotes), the Atlanta Thrashers (now the new Winnipeg Jets), and the Quebec Nordiques (currently the Colorado Avalanche. I always forget about the Thrashers when I'm out searching cards of defunct teams.

The utter insanity that is 1995 Fleer was not just limited to baseball cards, it bled over to hockey cards as well. At some point when I have some spare time, I might dig out some of the 1995 Fleer cards I have from various sports and compare them. That should be quite the trip.

And the last card of the box, a nice Upper Deck Artifacts Zach Parise.  That's a pretty good way to end the box and it's a Devils card to boot. 

I'm kind of torn on these hockey boxes and to be honest, I quite prefer the baseball ones. Yes, it's a good way to amass some hockey cards but honestly, half the cards in them either go to the trade box or the donation bag for Goodwill. I usually only keep the "star cards" or players I collect so I'm not sure if investing in these 100-card hockey bricks in the future will be worth it. The baseball ones are much better as I know the cards and most of the players.