PHF announces exclusive trading card partnership

Upper Deck is a trading card company that holds the licenses for several notable sports properties including the The, MLB, NASCAR, Major League Lacrosse and more. They’ve been producing hockey cards for just over 30 years, producing cards for the NHL, AHL, and Canadian Juniors. Starting in the 2022-23 season, the PHF will be adding its name to that list.

The federation announced a multi-year deal with the Upper Deck that will see the company producing the first sets of professional women’s hockey trading cards in their history. Upper Deck has produced women’s hockey cards in the past as part of the company’s Collector’s Choice Series which saw several members of Team Canada featured as part of a National Heroes sub-set in 1997-98. This will be the first time that Upper Deck will be partnering with a non-men’s hockey league to produce full collections.

Trading cards and professional sports seem to go hand in hand. Trading cards become collector’s items and pieces of history. Rare cards become family heirlooms and prized possessions, less rare ones become bookmarks. Either way, having a trading card line raises the profile of a sport property and gives fans a desirable piece of memorabilia. Thanks to this partnership, the experience of shuffling through a shoe-box full of trading cards and memorizing the stats of all the best players will no longer be an experience only available to men’s hockey fans.

Collectors and fans will be able to find Upper Deck PHF trading cards at hobby shops beginning next season. They will also be able to purchase them through Upper Deck’s Authorized Internet Retailers.

These trading cards will also be available on Upper Deck e-Pack®,, an online platform that allows users to buy, open, collect and trade both digital and physical cards. While the digital cards available on Upper Deck e-Pack® not NFTs, the PHF has said that they intend to launch more information prior to the product launch and that this will include information about NFTs.

The decision to produce and sell NFTs is one that comes with a whole host of implications, one of the most pressing is the environmental impact of blockchain technology.

Through the 50/50 revenue split agreement that the Players’ Association has with the PHF, the players will be compensated for the use of their names, images and likenesses. There’s still nearly a year until the cards are likely to drop so just exactly what kind of content we’ll be getting from this partnership is still largely up in the air.