Legends IN THEMAKING
Upper Deck’s 2020-21 SP Signature Legends release took some chances on the way to becoming an instant hobby classic.
BILLY CELIO AND THE CREATIVE TEAM BEHIND UPPER DECK’S 2020-21 SP SIGNATURE LEGENDS SET CROSSED THEIR FINGERS THE DAY THEY SHIPPED A BOX OF CARDS TO WAYNE GRETZKY TO AUTOGRAPH.
Over the course of a relationship that’s run for more than three decades, the company had plumbed its creative depths to produce a compelling variety of cardboard tributes to
e Great One. It had released special pee-wee, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds,
Indianapolis Racers, and WHA AllStars cards of No. 99. ere are cards of Gretzky golfing and playing tennis.
Upper Deck even included him in a
1994 FIFA World Cup soccer set (he was an ambassador when the United
States hosted the tournament) and a
1993 Looney Toons release (one card has a cartoon Gretzky racing Speedy Gonzales in rollerblades).
Coming up with a fresh concept then hadn’t been easy. But as Celio, Upper Deck’s senior product manager, conceived SP Signature Legends, he knew he wanted to create a unique single of Gretzky for his on-card autograph.
It was a task that proved to be as challenging as stopping e Great One in his prime.
“ere are certain players that have (a) large collector base, and a lot of stuff they haven’t seen (before),” he said. “With Wayne Gretzky, that’s tough. We’ve been making his hockey cards for quite some time.”
A lengthy search through the company’s photo library uncovered images of Gretzky from his 2005-2009 stint as coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, a team he also owned and helped run as a managing partner.
Celio knew Upper Deck had once made a promotional card of Gretzky coaching. Nothing, however, had ever been included in a major set, let alone been signed for the hobby. at wasn’t a simple oversight, of course. Gretzky’s time behind the bench was somewhat less successful than his unparalleled career on the ice. e Coyotes never sniffed the postseason. Gretzky resigned as coach when the franchise went bankrupt, and the NHL took over the team.
e league owed him millions, and he stayed away from any official involvement with the NHL for years until he was paid.
Would the Great One want that chapter of his career commemorated on cardboard?
Gretzky’s contract with Upper Deck allows him to approve all card images, so Celio said the company is “very cautious on what we put in front of Wayne.”
“We don’t want to have to do the work twice,” he said of the possibility of image rejection. “For a while, we kind of stayed away from the (St. Louis) Blues. He loosened up on it, I guess, and we can make Blues cards. We don’t do it very o en.”
Upper Deck cleared one hurdle when Gretzky authorized a Coyotes photo for inclusion in the 10-card Behind the Boards insert set.
But would he agree to sign it? Celio said Gretzky’s “always cooperative.” Still, a card picturing him during his difficult days in the desert likely wouldn’t rekindle the fondest memories.
“We were kind of holding our breath on whether those cards were going to come back signed or not, and luckily they did,” he said of the highly coveted parallel that is limited to just 49 copies. “And that was one of those special inserts that I wanted to see all these years (finally) get made.”
While the Gretzky single drew considerable attention, Upper Deck packed SP Signature Legends, a set comprised entirely of retired players, with unique insert and base cards making for an instant hobby classic.
In addition to Gretzky, Behind the Boards features the first card of Patrick Roy from his three-year run as the coach of the Colorado Avalanche (2013-2016). Roy’s also included in the star-studded All-Time Future Watch insert, an idea Celio said “was a no-brainer” because of the SP label.
“Most of these legends have not had a Future Watch Rookie Card,” he said of the set that includes Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, and Dominik Hasek, among other Hall of Famers.
While those hobby favorites are mainstays in vintage sets, many of those in the 300-card base set hadn’t been featured on any cards since their playing days ended. e series boasts the most comprehensive checklist of retired talent since 2012-13 Panini Classic Signatures and the largest since 2004-05 In e Game Franchises.
Alongside a stellar cast of hobby legends are scores of players who made their own mark on the game. ere are memorable journeymen (Randy Cunneyworth), local favorites (Joey Kocur), Stanley Cup winners (Brad Lukowich), and other familiar names from the past.
Gino Odjick, the popular former Vancouver Canucks enforcer who died in January just two months before the set was released, has a base card along with a signed Decagons insert card.
Sean McKenna, who had two 20-goal seasons with the Buffalo Sabres in the 1980s, never had a Rookie Card until the ITG Franchises set came out more than 14 years a er his retirement. He finally earned another card in SP Legendary Signatures.
“It’s called SP Legendary Signatures, so there are some people that are like,‘ is person’s not a legend, this person’s not a legend,’” Celio said.“ere’s like legends of old, just guys that are fan favorites, guys that people remember. at’s part of it, too. It’s not just like who was the best player on the team in the ‘70s, who was the best player on the team in the ‘80s. We wanted to add a big mix to it, and our coordinator took quite some time (building the checklist).”
Celio said SP Signature Legends took about four years to complete.
e COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the longer-than-usual process.
While it has been labeled a 2020-21 issue for hobby purposes, he said it shouldn’t have had a year attached.
It’s the second set Upper Deck has built with its NHL Alumni Association agreement, a deal that has allowed the company to feature a large number of players it never previously had under contract. Still, Celio said the company signed some former players to individual deals.
Gerry Meehan, who had a 31-goal season in 1972-73 as captain of the Sabres, a team he later ran as general manager, also appears in the set.
It’s his first card since the 197879 Topps and O-Pee-Chee issues. When he was asked to be included, he saw some of the progress the
NHL Alumni Association has been making.
“ey’ve gone beyond asking for handouts from the league and the (NHL Players’) Association and they’re starting to build meaningful business models,” he said. “And why not cooperate, because if it generates money to support the association and their work, then I’m all for it.”
e licensing deal with the
Alumni Association was key to the product’s success.
“We don’t have as much memorabilia as maybe some other companies do, but being able to get autographs of some of these guys that haven’t had cards in years, (let alone) autograph cards, that felt really special,” Celio said.
Many of the retired players expressed how happy they were having new cards produced.
“We did get some feedback from some of the players, like, ‘Wow, my grandson didn’t believe I played hockey and now
I have a card to prove it,’” Celio said. “Our customer service people actually got a couple of emails and phone calls from players about the cards because they were just excited that they had something being made for the first time in quite some time.”
While the certified autographed inserts were the product’s big draw, Celio recognized another level of potential appeal: cleanly designed base cards that collectors could take to shows or send through the mail to get autographed.
“We do a lot of all-time greats, but the Kocurs of the world haven’t necessarily had a base card that somebody can get signed,” he said.
A product of this magnitude has a lot of moving pieces. And so, despite the diligent efforts of the UD team, the product had at least one flaw.
Rick Lanz felt some dejà vu when his new cards arrived at his doorstep to autograph. e former defenseman’s 1981-82 O-Pee-Chee RC features a photo of his Canucks teammate,
omas Gradin. Lanz’s SP Signature Legends card has the same photo of Gradin, a le -handed shot, in Vancouver’s “Darth Vader” uniform. Lanz is a right-handed shot.
It’s likely someone mislabeled a wire photo decades ago and the mistake was never corrected.
“I try to rationalize there’s a lot of players and this must happen quite a bit, right?” said Lanz, who dealt with the same problem when his 1983-84 Vachon card used a photo of Curt Fraser.“But that was the only way I could kind of deal with it, I guess. Looking back on it now, it’s slightly aggravating because it’s something you’ll never get a chance to get back.”
Despite this slip-up, the effort that went into creating SP Signature Legends is resonating with collectors and should give it long legs on the secondary market.