NHL 300 Wins Club - Cards to add this season as new Goalies join
david20009
Posts: 8 ✭
After going a while without any goalies hitting 300 career wins it looks like there will be five that cross that threshold this year, which would more than double the number of active goalies in the club.
While pretty much every major skater of note has a regular Upper Deck Young Gun card great goalies often come from more obscure backgrounds and thus have slightly more obscure rookie cards.
I am starting this thread to discuss which rookie cards should be added to the 300 Wins club. (Full disclosure I have the 5th all-time finest set and the set with the second highest completion level)
The assumption is if the player has a regular Upper Deck rookie card that is the default card for the set. For those that do not I have tried to select what would be considered their main rookie that is not autographed, memorabilia or numbered.
Here are the goalies approaching 300 wins that should get there this season:
297 Kari Lehtonen – 2003 Upper Deck Premier #98. There is no logical card for Kari given he appeared in 4 games near the end of the season. All the main card sets were already issued that year before he played his first game. This card is number to 399 but is his most graded PSA card that was available in packs. His most graded RC is BAP In the Game VIP which was from a program where for $9.99 you could request any rookie card you wanted.
297 Cam Ward – 2005 Upper Deck #229
278 Pekka Rinne – 2005 Upper Deck Black Diamond #258. There was no regular Upper Deck card issued. This is his most popular non- autographed, memorabilia or numbered rookie card.
273 Carey Price – 2007 Upper Deck #227
269 Jonathan Quick – 2007 SP Authentic #177. There was no regular Upper Deck card issued. Very few rookie card choices as Jonathan is another goalie who made his debut late in the season. This card is serial numbered to 999 but is considered his main rookie card.
Other goalies that could get to 300 wins in the next 2 or 3 seasons include:
245 Craig Anderson 2003 Upper Deck Premier 65 (serial numbered out of 399) or 2003 Be A Player Memorabilia #318. Has yet to have any rookie card graded by PSA from any set. The 2003 Upper Deck Premier card is the same set as the card that should likely be used for Kari Lehtonen so would be my choice.
221 Corey Crawford – 2005 Upper Deck Black Diamond #225. Same set as Rinne and not serial numbered like the SP Authentic and Ice rookie cards are.
217 Jaroslav Halak – 2007 Upper Deck 228
207 Tuukka Rask – 2007 Upper Deck #456
201 Steve Mason – 2008 Upper Deck #208
201 Braden Holtby – 2009 Upper Deck #499
191 Sergei Bobrovsky – 2010 Upper Deck #240
Comments
One of my friends was going over the list and he disagreed with the choosing Upper Deck Premier for Kari Lehtonen. He felt since it was limited to 399 copies it was not a good card. He recognized that there are very few choices but felt strongly that 2003 Bap in the Game VIP Rookie Debut#140 Kari Lehtonen should be the card in the set. There are more copies of the card and it has double the amount of PSA graded copies (13 for it versus 6 for the Upper Deck Premier card). After listening to his argument I agree it would be better to use 2003 Bap in the Game VIP Rookie Debut#140 Kari Lehtonen for the set.
He had the same issue for Craig Anderson but has no idea what would be a better card. Anderson has yet to have any rookie card PSA graded and there really is no logical card. He figured the argument might be moot as Anderson might not make 300 wins so debate could be put off for a while.
The rest of the cards he thought were the logical choice.
For Anderson, Rinne, and Crawford, the Future Watch is definitely the card to use.
Anderson - 2002 SP Authentic #174
Rinne - 2005 SP Authentic #271
Crawford - 2005 SP Authentic #257
For Anderson, who has no logical rookie card the SP Authentic card would be as good as the Be A Player Card if UD Premier card and is perhaps a better choice.
For Rinne and Crawford I disagree as keeping consistent with the set is non-numbered popular RC’s where possible. Their SP authentic cards are great but I think Black Diamond is more inline with the sets and similar to how the Black Diamond cards are used for the Sedin twins where they do not have regular upper deck rc’s.
Anderson has a rookie card - 2002 SP Authentic.
The advantage to SP Authentic for that, Rinne, Crawford, and others across multiple hockey sets is that FW, like YG, is one of the key continuous card runs across many years. Consistency is good, and it has a hobby following/prestige that exceeds Black Diamond.
Sedins aren't a good comp because it was pre-FW. Quick is a better comp.
BD is also a less desirable choice because the brand has been functionally discontinued with the recent product revamp.
I did not say Anderson didn't have a rookie card. I said he did not have a logical card to use and agreed with you that his future watch was as good as, if not better, than the other options, as there are no great options.
I do not think future watch cards should be used for the other players where possible though as most future watch cards are both numbered and autographed and that is not keeping with the consistency of the other cards in the set which are mass issued Parkhurst, O-Pee-Chee or Upper Deck cards. They might be good for a separate set of goalie cards.
It is unfortunate that some of the goalies do not have great cards. Voukon for example is using a Donruss Canadian Ice card in the set and Nabokov BAP Memorabilia card as neither of them had regular Upper Deck Rookie cards.
Quick likely needs to use his autographed numbered SP Authentic Future watch card when he gets to 300 wins as the choices for him are so limited given his late season debut.
Just out of curiosity Mr Hockey. Are you working on a set of the 300 win cards? There are so few of us in the registry doing so it would be cool if you were.
-- None of the FW I mentioned are autographed
-- They are serial numbered, but not less than /999 (only Quick, others /1999), which may be different for this set but is broadly in keeping with the standards used for key cards sets throughout the Registry
-- They're much better and more collectible cards - a long running, iconic set that has near-YG status in the hobby, unlike any others mentioned
-- You may want to review other key card sets for ideas - Nabokov is already in the Calder registry, for example. You'd want to keep that consistent. Quick is already in the Conn Smythe. Anderson already in Masterton (using SP Authentic), etc.
-- Yep, I am doing the set!
We now have two goalies at 299 wins – Ward and Lehtonen. Guess it will soon be time to add:
Cam Ward – 2005 Upper Deck #229
Kari Lehtonen - 2003 In the Game VIP Rookie Debut#140
I agree consistency is important – which is not a strong suit in many of PSA’s hockey sets.
It really annoys me that for both the 1000 Points and 100 Point Seasons that Daniel Alfredson’s RC is his SP card when every other player in the set that has a regular Upper Deck RC uses it,
Or for First Over All Draft Pick set they use Bryan Berard’s 1994 SP card instead of his Upper Deck card where every other player but one uses their Upper Deck card. Yet for Ed Jovanovski they use his 1994 Finest card instead of his SP card which is in the same set as Berard. Also for Vincent Lecavailer’s they use his Zenith card instead of his Upper Deck card.
Or for more seemingly randomness sometimes it is Eric Lindros and Martin Brodeur Canadian Score cards and other times their American Score cards.
For the Post War Hall of Fame RC’s for** Fetisov** you can use his Score or Upper Deck RC card but not his OPC RC which is used in other Hall of Fame sets. (Speaking of Hall of Fame sets the 1933-1991 OPC Hall of Fame set needs a few cards added to it for 1990 and 1991, and many cards if OPC Premier is included – I just had PSA remove 2 cards from the set of players who were not in the Hall of Fame but who had names of players who were in the hall of fame).
Back to Goalies that may get to 300 Wins
I see that Quick is in the Jennings set is using his SP Authentic card, yet Crawford is in the Jennings using his Upper Deck Ice card and not SP Authentic. I do note that Anderson is listed in the Masterton using his SP Authentic card (which now has a single graded copy). For the 2010 Second team All Star set it is Rinne’s Upper Deck Ice card and for the 2011 Second team All Star it is Quick’s SP Authentic.
Upper Deck is the default so when (if) Ward, Price, Halak, Rask, Mason, Holtby and/or Bobrovsky get there it is easy which card to use.
For Rinne, Quick, Crawford and Anderson I could live with SP Authentic for each of them to add some consistency and they are non-autographed cards. (Although I personally still prefer Black Diamond for Rinne and Crawford). It makes no sense to use Upper Deck Ice for Crawford.
For** Kari Lehtonen **it would be In the Game Rookie Debut. (How did someone drafted 2nd overall have almost no RC’s).
By the way which is your handle for the 300 Win Set?