2024-25 Upper Deck Extended Series Hockey comes out today. As the name implies, Extended Series extends Upper Deck’s flagship release by another 250 cards for a total of 750 cards between the three series.
Since 2020-21, Extended Series has made a good thing better by making Upper Deck’s flagship release the largest set of the season. Extended Series usually brings along with it loads of fun, retro-themed insert cards, drawing inspiration from the late 1990s to mid-2000s. In the past, many of the inserts you found in Extended Series were seral numbered, too.
A box of 2024-25 Upper Deck Extended Series is selling for around $120 for a 12-pack box. Each pack consists of nine base cards and three insert cards for 12 cards total. There is even a very long shot at pulling an Alex Ovechkin Young Guns buyback autographed card. There’s only eight of those Ovie Autos floating around, so your chances of getting hit by lightning are probably better. And no, I don’t mean Victor Hedman…though he does have a card in this set.
Today, I opened a box of 2024-25 Upper Deck Extended Series Hockey. Let’s see what was inside.
108 Base Cards
With nine base cards per pack, 12 packs will get you 108 base cards – or about 54% of the 200-card base set. None of the base cards in my box were doubles of each other. Some base cards feature players who changed teams in the offseason, such as Steven Stamkos, who signed with the Predators last summer.
But it isn’t all just traded guys or fourth-line players in Extended Series. Upper Deck held back some “star power” to include in the Extended Series base set – such as Sergei Bobrovsky, Patrick Kane, Mika Zibanejad, and Victor Hedman.
We also get a look at some of the former Arizona Coyotes in their new Utah Hockey Club uniforms.
Rounding out the base set are 42 cards picturing players from the 2024 NHL All-Star Game. I have been a fan of All-Star Game cards ever since Pro Set first included those in its 1990-91 set. All-Star cards are also an easy way for Upper Deck to justify making more cards of players like Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, and Auston Matthews.
3 Young Guns & 3 Round One Draft Picks
Of course, the big draw for Upper Deck’s flagship releases – Series One, Series Two, and Extended Series – are the Young Guns rookie cards. There are 729 Young Guns plus one Young Guns checklist. My box had three Young Guns.
The last 20 short-printed rookie cards (731-750) are called “Round One Draft Picks” and feature some of this year’s best rookies that had Young Guns in Series One or Series Two. These cards use draft day photos and are reminiscent of cards from the 1990s that used photos like these regularly on players’ rookie cards. My box had three Round One Draft Picks cards. I like these cards; why not have a second rookie card of a popular rookie, instead of a rookie card of a fifth-string goalie who was a backup for one game? (Besides, Upper Deck needs to save that fifth-string goalie for its 2025-26 Upper Deck Series One set, coming October 15.)
Insert Cards
The sheer variety of inserts you get in Extended Series can be overwhelming. My box had 10 different types of insert cards – 11 if you count a “Gold” version. And with three non-base cards per pack, you quicky get a lot of inserts.
4 Silver Skates Inserts
Silver Skates are shiny and silver, which makes sense. There are also “Gold” versions of Silver Skates, which makes absolutely no sense.
4 UD Canvas Inserts
UD Canvas is a perennial favorite among collectors and continues in Extended Series.
3 Beehive Inserts
These shiny-bordered Beehive cards are an oddity. I mean, old school Beehive cards didn’t have foil on them. No matter, these cards look great. The color photo of the player really pops against the grayed-out background and are framed by shiny silver foil.
1 Beehive Gold Insert
I actually like the Gold version of the Beehive cards better, because the sepia-toned background behind the player is more evocative of that old-timey feel that a set called “Beehive” should have.
3 Oracles Inserts
I’m not sure what Oracles are supposed to resemble. Tarot cards, maybe? They kind of remind me of those blacklight posters you’d find at Spencer Gift in the mall circa 1991. Regardless of the inspiration for these, Oracles cards look great. They use a metallic ink printed on a black background.
The backs of the cards have that “playing card look” to them, though they are not uniform like the O-Pee-Chee Playing Cards inserts. Note that the player’s name appears over the Oracles logo.
3 Pros & Prospects Inserts
Just like the name says, these cards spotlight pros…and prospects. These are supposed to look like inserts from 20 years ago or so. Other than the hearty dose of foil, I don’t see the appeal of these cards.
2 Encore Inserts
The card backs of the two Encore cards I pulled – Aleksander Barkov and Rasmus Dahlin – highlight multi-point games these players had last season. So, maybe Encore implies that the player scored multiple times in the same game?
2 Rookie Reflections Inserts
Shiny cards of this season’s top rookies, such as Josh Doan of the Utah Hockey Club.
2 Triple Dimensions Reflections Inserts
These “Triple Dimensions Reflections” cards have etched foil and prismatic backgrounds.
2 UD3 Inserts
I know these cards are meant to resemble the UD3 cards from the late 1990s, but they remind me a lot of those Upper Deck Ice cards from that era.
1 Dazzlers Blue Insert
I got one Dazzlers card in my box of Extended Series. You get one Blue Dazzler per box and one Pink Dazzler in every six boxes. There are also Green and Orange Dazzlers, which are found in Blaster Boxes and Collectors Tins, respectively. Although I don’t collect Dazzlers, I do like its design this year. Dazzlers seem to be popular enough to stick around every year, with some fans “chasing the rainbow” and collecting Dazzlers cards of their favorite players in all the different colors.
Parallel Cards
Usually, a box has one or two parallel cards – either a Deluxe Parallel numbered out of 250, a Silver Outburst Parallel, a Red Outburst Parallel numbered to 25, a Clear Cut parallel, or the elusive Gold Outburst Parallel that is numbered 1/1.
1 Deluxe Parallel /250
My box had a Deluxe Parallel of Vincent Desharnais, numbered 027/250. I believe this counts as my “hit” since this was the only serial-numbered card I got in my box of Extended Series.
1 Outburst Silver Parallel
I also got a Silver Outburst Parallel of Mason McTavish of the Ducks. You get one of these unnumbered parallels per box.
1 Swagnificent Parallel
Man, my box really was loaded with Mason McTavish, as I got his base card, his Silver Outburst Parallel, and this “Swagnificient” photo variant parallel. I don’t know what the odds of getting one of these are, but it is usually one per box or less. This Swagnificent photo variant pictures McTavish arriving at the Honda Center in his street clothes, pre-game beverage in one hand and smartphone blasting some tunes in the other hand. However, I am a bit surprised that MM doesn’t use Bluetooth headphones – or those huge, over-the-ear headphones that seem to be popular with young people today.
Extended Series does what it promises to do by increasing the size of Upper Deck’s most-popular hockey card set. I’ve been a fan of Extended Series since it first appeared in 2020-21. Heck, I even emailed Upper Deck back in 2017, asking them if they would ever release a “Series Three.” So, I’ve actually been a fan of the series longer than it has existed. This year’s Extended Series has photos of players who changed teams in the offseason, a first look at Utah Hockey Club players in their new uniforms, and cards of players at the All-Star Game. I like all of these things.
What I don’t care for are the inserts, which I found disappointing this time around. The inserts felt very repetitive and lackluster – which is an oxymoron, as nearly all of the inserts had either silver foil or were printed on shiny foil board and, in fact, did not lack any luster. Inserts from past seasons’ Extended Series were a lot better. And other than the Deluxe Parallel, none of the cards I pulled were serial numbered. In past Extended Series, you’d usually get at least two serial numbered inserts.
Regardless, I am all-in on collecting Extended Series for the additional base cards and rookie cards. If you are a fan of Series One and Series Two, then Extended Series is right in your wheelhouse.
Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk
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One thought on “2024-25 Upper Deck Extended Series Box Break”
One thought on “2024-25 Upper Deck Extended Series Box Break”