2026-27 Upper Deck Hockey MVP Box Break

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I couldn't pass up the opportunity to grab myself a box of the season's first set, Upper Deck's 2026-27 MVP (Retail version):

The main set has a nice futuristic, computer chip-y design that UD could have used on a more premium set (but I'm glad they didn't):

I miss when the backs had statistics from the previous five seasons, but having an anecdote for every single player is actually a pretty decent feat. The box cost me $80 (plus taxes, which amounts to $92) for 36 packs of 7 cards each - 252 in total. All told, I pulled 29 insert cards, which means I got 223 base cards.

As far as inserts go, here is how they break down: 6 Silver Scripts, a returning sub-set, of Sam Bennett, Tim Stützle, Nils Hoglander, Dylan Strome, Vincent Trocheck, and Alex Laferriere:

Now, granted, these aren't Young Guns from the flagship product, but folks are mostly chasing the Rookies cards, of which I pulled 7 (the first four of which I'm very happy to have): Nathan Gaucher, Anton Frondell, Konsta Helenius, Cole Hutson, Drew Fortescue, Avery Hayes, and Sandis Vilmanis:

Another returning sub-set is Clutch Performers, where I present you Nikita Kucherov and Carter Verhaeghe:

Paired Up features two players who at least ended the season on the same team, as seen here with Brady Tkachuk / Stützle of the Ottawa Senators and Kirill Kaprizov / Matt Boldy of the Minnesota Wild:

Gotta Have Hart is a good idea, but I'm on the mind that Nathan MacKinnon may have a better chance of winning it than William Nylander:

The Slot (possibly the heir to the "old" Net Crashers sub-set) sees Martin Necas and a pre-wealthy Leo Carlsson playing around the opposite goalie:

There were two Welcome Freshmen cards, of Danny Zhilkin and Angus Booth:

Another sub-set that is reminiscent of the past is Let It Rip!!!, with Boldy and Sidney Crosby:

But my very favourite sub-set this year is the (card-sized with rounded edges) Stickers. What a terrific design!

That's Josh Samanski, Vilmanis, Quinn Hughes and Necas.

Affordability and value are key issues in 2026, and the design of these cards make it a solid 8/10.

Alexander Khokhlachev Jersey Card

Continuing with this month's theme, here's a Boston Bruins-related post, after I predicted they'd finish sixth in the Atlantic Division this season. Today, I thought I'd focus on a highly-touted prospect who came to the OHL's Windsor Spitfires from Russia to get acquainted with the smaller ice size, was drafted in the second round by Boston (40th overall in 2011), showed some promise in the AHL with the Providence Bruins but lost patience with the team when he felt head coach Claude Julien didn't give him a fair chance and went back to the KHL.; that's right, we're taking a look at Alexander Khokhlachev!

Khokhlachev has become a master at the offensive side of the game. He is a slick puck carrier who can both protect the puck well with his low center of gravity (5'10", 180 pounds) and make moves to distance his checkers, and has a creative offensive sense that ranks in the top 10% in the world; on one hand, he can make nearly-impossible passes and, on the other, he can find the open ice to be in a position to receive passes himself like the best of the elite players, and he has a tremendous release as well.

He's willing to sacrifice his body to make a play - as long as said play is in the offensive zone. That's where his issues lie; he has concentrated so much on making his o-zone play top-notch that he forgot to learn the basics of playing defensively. His backwards skating is deficient, his man-to-man coverage is null unless he hits the body and his zone coverage is akin to that of a pylon.

Young, creative, smallish, bad defensively. And he wonders why Julien wouldn't give him a chance?

There are players like him who have had fine NHL careers; Thomas Vanek comes to mind, except Khokhlachev may be even better with the puck... and worse defensively. (Vanek could play defensively, he just doesn't want to).

In two yeas in Providence, he has led the team in points both times, appearing in one AHL All-Star Game. Signing in the KHL, he first went to powerhouse St. Petersburg SKA, where he had little ice time behind the likes of Ilya Kovalchuk, Vadim Shipachyov, Nikita Gusev, Evgeny Dadonov, Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeni Malkin's buddy Sergei Plotnikov, meaning he also didn't get to play with the likes of Slava Voynov, Anton Belov and Igor Yakovlev on the back end; his production was thus limited to 10 points (5 goals and 5 assists) in 25 games. He did win the Gagarin Cup with the rest of the team, though.

He was then traded to his original KHL team, Moscow Spartak, (where his father is the general manager) a few weeks ago, and he is showing extremely well there, with 5 points in 8 games so far and generally leading the play alongside Ben Maxwell.

Here he is sporting the Bs' black (home) uniform, on the "gold" variant of the "Jersey" insert version of card #132 from Upper Deck's 2014-15 SP Game-Used Edition:

It features a matching jersey swatch from a rookie photo shoot and is numbered 214/499.

He has silver (2012) and bronze (2013) medals suiting up for Team Russia at the World Juniors; it remains to be seen if he'll make the Olympic squad this year, but I figure he'd be a good sleeper pick on it.

Griffin Reinhart Jersey Card

Last April, I wanted to write about Griffin Reinhart but realized I either didn't have or couldn't find a card of his to feature, so I found this one on Ebay for $2.50:

That's the jersey insert version of card #113 from Upper Deck's 2014-15 SP Game-Used Edition set and Rookies sub-set (gold variant, numbered #34/499), showing him wearing the New York Islanders' white (now-away) uniform, with a matching jersey swatch from a rookie photo shoot.

Reinhart was the fourth overall pick in the 2012 draft, behind Nail Yakupov (1st, Edmonton Oilers), Ryan Murray (2nd, Columbus Blue Jackets) and Alex Galchenyuk (3rd, Montréal Canadiens), so it's safe to say the top talent from that year has yet to fully develop, although some picks have now become impact players, such as Morgan Rielly (5th, Toronto Maple Leafs), Hampus Lindholm (6th, Anaheim Ducks), Mathew Dumba (7th, Minnesota Wild), Jacob Trouba (9th, Winnipeg Jets), Slater Koekkoek (10th, Tampa Bay Lightning), Filip Forsberg (11th, Nashville Predators by way of the Washington Capitals), Cody Ceci (15th, Ottawa Senators), Tom Wilson (16th, Caps), Andrei Vasilevskiy (19th, Bolts), Olli Maatta (22nd, Pittsburgh Penguins), Brady Skjei (28th, New York Rangers), Tanner Pearson (30th, Los Angeles Kings), Colton Sissons (50th, Preds), Joonas Korpisalo (62nd, Blue Jackets), Shayne Gostisbehere (78th, Philadelphia Flyers), two-time Conn Smythe contender Matt Murray (83rd, Pens), and promising goalies Connor Hellebuyck (130th, Jets) and Linus Ullmark (163rd, Buffalo Sabres).

His slow development meant Isles GM Garth Snow was willing to let him go for the right price, so when Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli offered first- and second-round picks in the 2015 draft for his services, a deal was struck.

Unfortunately, Reinhart would only suit up for 29 games with the Oilers and 84 with the Bakersfield Condors over the following two seasons before getting chosen in the expansion draft by the Vegas Golden Knights, meaning Chiarelli essentially gave up too much for him and lost him for nothing.

On the other hand, that means the Oilers get to keep the likes of Benoit Pouliot, Iiro Pakarinen, Jujhar Khaira, Mark Fayne, Tyler Pitlick, Kris Russell and backup goalie Laurent Brossoit.

Two Jamie Benn Autographed Cards

Going into training camps 7 NHL teams (out of 30) are without a captain. Here are my picks:

Tampa Bay Lightning: Martin St-Louis
Edmonton Oilers: Jordan Eberle
Buffalo Sabres: Thomas Vanek, assuming he remains past this season (otherwise, Steve Ott)
Ottawa Senators:  Jason Spezza
Calgary Flames: Mark Giordano and Michael Cammalleri
Columbus Blue Jackets: Brandon Dubinsky
Dallas Stars: Stéphane Robidas

A lot of people would rather see Tampa go for Steven Stamkos, and I respect that, but as a gesture of recognition for his work, St-Louis should get the nod for his last two seasons or so, then Stamkos will have the team to himself for the next decade.

The Oilers have to decide which of their young stars will be the designated leader, and though Taylor Hall also has a few years of experience, I think Eberle is the wisest choice because he doesn't already come with the pressure of being a former first-overall pick that Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins do. He's also proven to be a clutch performer at all levels, including internationally.

If the Sens don't go for Spezza, the only other logical choice is Chris Phillips. And while I love the idea of going with role players for captain, Spezza's learned a lot under Daniel Alfredsson, and is still an elite player. He is the face of the franchise now, along with the goalies and Erik Karlsson.

In Calgary, both guys are deserving, and both crave it. They should alternate, until one of them leaves, leaving the other as the stand-alone guy until one of the kids is ready to take the mantle.

Dubinsky is ready in Columbus, and already had a leadership role on his former team, the New York Rangers. But Marian Gaborik is a steady force on offense, and has already sported the 'C' with the Minnesota Wild. One of the defensemen could also take the mantle.

Which leaves us with Dallas, and the consensus choice of Jamie Benn, which I passed over in favour of veteran defenseman Robidas. Robidas is 36 and has two or three seasons left; he has represented Canada twice and played in an All-Star Game, despite being more of a dependent defensive force than an offensive powerhouse - precisely the type of guy who embodies ''team spirit''. Benn, on the other hand, while constantly improving and deemed worthy of keeping instead of James Neal, just isn't there yet.

Sure, he can be counted on for some 20-25 goals, eventually 30, perhaps even 40 once or twice - and his point production went from 41 points in his rookie year to 56 to 63 to 33 last season (in 41 games, which makes for 66 pro-rated to 82 games). But is he an undisputed leader on a team that has former Oilers captain Shawn Horcoff, lettermen Sergei Gonchar and Erik Cole, and high draft picks Tyler Seguin and Valeri Nichushkin? Probably not. He may even be the odd man out in three or four years.

Which isn't to say I don't like the guy. I do. He even signed these two identical cards for me:

They're from Upper Deck's 2010 National Card Day collection (card #HCD-3), a set I don't usually go after (my weekends are hectic, Ebay gets expensive) but for some reason I got a hold of that year through trades, even managing to nab a few doubles; getting both of these signed in beautiful (albeit fading) blue sharpie, though, means my set is now incomplete - guess I'll (try to) have them all signed, then!

I'm open to trading one, if anyone's interested.