Released in March, the 2025-26 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey card set is a continuation of Series One, which was released in October. Like Series One, Series Two has 200 base cards and 50 short-printed Young Guns. You get one Young Guns rookie card in every other pack, for a total of six per box.
A hobby box – costing around $230 – has 12 packs. Each pack has 12 cards. Let’s look at what’s inside a typical box of 2025-26 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey.
108 Base Cards
Each pack of Series Two has nine base cards. Card fronts feature a full-bleed photo with the player and team names at the bottom in silver foil. The Upper Deck logo – either in the top left or top right corner – is also in silver foil. There were no doubles of base cards in any of my packs.
Card backs have up to five years of statistics, as well as career totals and vitals like height and weight. The same photo from the front is reprised on the back of the card at the top, while small biographical blurb fills out the bottom of the card. Upper Deck used a subtle gray texture behind the text, though it is light enough that it doesn’t interfere with the text’s legibility.
Inserts
Each pack contains three insert cards – either a Young Guns rookie card, a parallel such as a Silver Outburst or Clear Cut, or any other from a myriad of insert sets, like Dazzlers, UD Canvas, and Population Count.
6 Young Guns Rookie Cards
The big draw in Series Two – that is, the Young Guns card that everyone is chasing – is of Islanders rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer. I did not get a Schaefer Young Guns card, though I did get the Young Guns Checklist card (#450) that pictures Schaefer and Sharks’ rookie Michael Misa. The other five Young Guns in my box were of Axel Sandin-Pellikka (Red Wings), Brady Martin (Predators), Hunter Brzustewicz (Flames), Danila Yurov (Wild), and Ville Ottavainen (Kraken).
Young Guns card backs have one line of stats from the previous season from the highest league they played in during 2024-25 – whether it is a game or two in the NHL, a handful of games in the AHL, or their college or junior team.
4 Encore
Encore cards are printed on shiny foilbard. The four encore cards in my box were of Sidney Crosby, Nikke Kokko (Kraken), Colton Dach (Blackhawks), and Beckett Sennecke (Ducks). I like the Encore inserts. If there weren’t so darn many of them to collect, I would consider building the entire insert set.
3 UD Canvas “Veterans” Cards
You get four UD Canvas cards per box. I got three UD Canvas cards of veteran players, plus a Canvas Young Guns card – more on that in a moment. Canvas cards use unique or offbeat photos. My three UD Canvas “veterans” were of Sean Monahan, Robert Thomas, and Kyle Palmeri.
1 UD Canvas Young Guns
The UD Canvas Young Guns card I got is of Hurricanes rookie Alexander Nikishin, who was drafted by Carolina in the 3rd round of the 2020 NHL Draft. He scored 11 goals and 22 assists for 33 points in 81 games this season.
3 UD Portraits
UD Portraits cards are weird and creepy – but at least they are NOT boring. The UD Canvas cards I pulled were Matthew Schaefer, Joakim Kemell (Predators), and Sidney Crosby.
3 Sizzle Reel
What makes Sizzle Reel cards are the QR codes on the back.
If you scan the QR code with your camera phone, you will be taken to a website that shows a highlight video of that player. I think it is a cool idea, since pretty much everyone has a smart phone. I’d love to see more insert cards like this in the future, that have some sort of interactive or digital component. The Sizzle Reel cards I got were of Duston Wolf (Flames), Kyle Connor (Jets), and Jason Robertson (Stars).
2 Glow-Up
I’m not sure what the deal is with these cards. They look more like inserts that you’d get in a box of Skybox Metal Universe. Anyway, from what I can tell reading the text on the back, it appears that the pictured player had a breakout season in 2024-25, hence a “Glow Up” from the prior year. The two Glow Up inserts I got are of Connor McMichael (Capitals) and Marco Kasper (Red Wings).
2 Let Them Cook
I guess these cards are of players who got hot in a game. The two Let Them Cook inserts in my box were of Connor Bedard (Blackhawks) and Jack Eichel (Golden Knights).
1 Let them Cook Speckle
I also got a “Speckle” parallel Let Them Cook of Nikita Kucherov (Lightning).
2 Vibing
Vibing inserts focus on goalies. My two Vibing inserts were of Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson of the Capitals.
2 Slaps
Players doing slap shots! I got Auston Matthews (Maple Leafs) and J.T. Miller (Rangers).
1 Slaps Speckle
I also got a “Speckle” parallel of Steven Stamkos (Predators).
1 Boomtown
Boomtown cards show players throwing bodychecks – or otherwise getting physical with an opponent. These are found one in every 10 packs and there are only 15 of them, so I may track all of these cards down. The Boomtown insert in my box was of Martin Popisil (Flames).
1 IYKYK
IYKYK stands for “If You Know You Know”…but I don’t know what the point of this insert set is. The back seems to highlight some random fact about the player. My lone IYKYK insert was of Cam Fowler (Blues). The card back notes that his 1,000th game was in the Winter Classic on December 31, 2024, and that he netted two goals in that game. And know I know.
1 Dazzlers Blue
Dazzlers have a shiny background and come in different colors. I got a Blue Dazzlers card of David Pastrnak (Bruins).
1 Population Count 1000
Population Count cards are printed on clear PETG plastic and are made to look like they are in a graded card holder. There are also different versions of Population Count cards, including 1000, 500, 100, 50, 25, 10, and 1. I got a Population Count 1000 card of Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson.
1 Young Guns Outburst Silver Parallel
Well, I got a Young Guns of an Islanders defenseman…but it wasn’t Matthew Schaefer, but of Marshall Warren. Ah well, I still beat the odds, as you get an Outburst Silver Young Guns card one in every five boxes (1:60 packs). Outburst Silver parallels of base cards are found one in every 30 packs.
1 Young Guns Clear Cut Parallel
What’s this? Another parallel Young Guns card? This is Zoideberg’s lucky day! This Clear Cut Young Guns parallel pictures Matthew Schaefer (seated) and rookie teammate Marc Gatcomb doing their impression of the “Stepbrothers” movie poster. Clear Cut cards are found one in every 96 packs. Considering that I got both an Outburst Silver Young Guns and a Clear Cut Young Guns, I’d say overall this box was pretty good.
Upper Deck Series One, Series Two, and Extended Series are one of the few sets that I try to build each year. What keeps this year’s Series Two set from getting a higher score is that hobby box prices are too expensive. $230 for a 12-pack box – about $20 per pack – is a lot to ask, considering that you get 12 cards in a pack. And sometimes, the sheer number of insert sets and parallels of inserts can be overwhelming. But overall, Upper Deck Series Two looks great. I can do without some of the inserts, though I am sure there’s got to be a few fans of the Glow Up, Vibing, or Portraits inserts.
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