The 2004-05 hockey year represents a unique situation in the hockey world as this is the first and only year to date where the entire NHL season was canceled. It also marks the last year before the introduction of the "Post-Lockout" style Hockey with the salary cap, the no-tie game / shoot-out as well as the introduction of one of the strongest rookie classes ever with phenoms such as Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Corsby. Similarly, the hockey card world was also affected with a major upheaval where Upper Deck received an exclusive NHL license to produce Hockey cards, shutting out other popular producers such as Topps, ITG and Pacific.
While many considered the exclusive license a poorly managed decision and a deadly blow to hockey card collecting, the exclusive license granted to Upper Deck could not be considered a betrayal. With no active NHL games, some companies curtailed their production to nothing and allowing licenses to lapse (Topps), went out of business (Pacific), or released retro-styled or international hockey cards. For example, ITG released the popular ITG Franchises set along with their staple products. Of those that remained active in the field ITG was the only other company who cared about the exclusive license and since ITG is best known for its Ultimate (an extreme high end product featuring both active and retired players) and the Heroes and Prospects brands (a predominantly non-NHL hockey set), the decision to award the exclusive license to Upper Deck seems logical in retrospect.
In response to the lockout, Upper Deck's flagship product, Upper Deck Series 1 and 2, was, for the first time in their company's history, limited to Upper Deck Hockey Series 1 without a follow-up second set. This set featured an elegant design which mixed the splash of "Post-Lockout" design we are seeing currently with the classical design seen in previous years. I consider this set to be Upper Deck's test set for their future designs. If you wish to jump straight to the photos to see what I mean, you will find links at the bottom of this page.
Similar to recent years, the 04-05 Upper Deck Series 1 Set included a base set of NHL players and 4 insert sets seeded at normal rarities and the inclusion of High glossy cards numbered to 10 (Silver) or 5 (Gold). However, with the absence of a Draft in 2004-05 this set, which normally relies heavily on rookie cards to fill the voids (rookies are approximately 12-20% of the base set and normally account for at least one insert set), featured 'Young Guns' in the form of past stars and important hockey personalities in poses reminiscent of their original Rookie cards. Following on the retro theme, 1997 Jersey game cards with styles similar to the 96-97 Jersey cards first released by Upper Deck were included as well as Swatch of Six Pieces featuring modern players the 'Orginal Six' Hockey teams and finally a subset featuring game used pieces from players who were in the Heritage classic game. For many of the players, while the NHL stopped, hockey didn't and so played internationally. Upper Deck followed suit by releasing the 'World Cup' Tribute Game Jersey Set (made up of singles, double and triple memorabilia pieces) and the corresponding insert set found only in retail boxes. To round out the game used portion Upper Deck fell back on tried and true methods: a 'Big Playmakers' game used featuring swatches taking up half the card; a 'NHL's Best' set featuring the big names from previous seasons (this set would eventually form the design of the 05-06 McDonalds Patches Cards); 'Youngstar Swatches' of previous years' up and comers to ensure a small rookie element to the set and; a selection of patches from the names, numbers and logos of star players. In order to boost sales in Canada, only 'Canadian Exclusives' parallels of the base and Young Guns cards were included, numbered to 50 and 25 respectively. This replaced the 03-04 practice of having both Canadian exclusives and regular exclusives numbered out of 100 Upper Deck Exclusive cards. Finally, the 04-05 Upper Deck Series 1 set was special in that it featured the largest checklist of game jersey autos to date featuring semi-stars, stars and superstars of both modern and retired NHL players in the Upper Deck Flafship product. This is especially unique for a product which is considered low to low-mid end in terms of price. The game jersey auto would only be seen in the Upper Deck flagship product again in 2005-06 but would only feature rookies. The game jersey auto card would disappear completely from the set and as of 2008-09 has not been re-introduced.
In 2004-05, from the culmination of the Hockey strike, and my own personal re-introduction to hockey card collecting, I decided to pursue a true Masters Set for this product. The term 'Masters Set' has recently come to refer to a set of base cards, rookies, and seeded insert cards at a ratio of 1:24 or more. The term True Masters Set means a set of cards featuring at least one of every type of short print. The accomplishment of this goal is particularly difficult due to the short printed patches from this set which are numbered as low as 2. Please enjoy the presented collection of cards that I have already accumulated.
Base & Young Guns:
Inserts:
Game Jerseys:
Game Jersey Autos:
Patches:
Overall Total: 654 / 1163 = 56%
I'm also working on a second Set of Canadian Exclusives which is currently at: