2025-26 Upper Deck Splendor Preview: High-End Hockey Chase
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With only a single card in the box, there’s a lot riding on what’s inside once you tear off the shrink wrap.
It’s a gamble, no doubt, but when every card contains an on-card signature or a game-used jersey patch — or both — there’s plenty of potential to pull a spectacular piece of hockey history.
That’s what sets the 2025-26 Upper Deck Splendor apart, which returns as a premium, stand-alone product for the first time in eight years. All cards are limited to 36 copies or fewer and are slabbed straight in the pack with a QR code showing collectors exactly what’s inside the case.
From Wayne Gretzky to Matthew Schaefer, the 50-player checklist spans generations of NHL greatness, bringing together some of the game’s most recognizable names from the past, present and future.
You won't find a bunch of third-pair defensemen or AHL call-ups here. Just the household names you grew up watching and the headliners you’re rooting for (or against) today.
All About Autos
Autographs are at the heart of Splendor, with a mix of bordered and borderless, on-card parallels in the base set. Black and White Autographs keep it simple with minimal color and plenty of contrast, while additional versions add variety, including Red (/9), Green (/8), Gold (/5), and Black (/1).
Signatures are also paired with a variety of multi-colored swatches, all from game-worn uniforms, across multiple parallels and additional series, including Showpieces Auto Relics. The lineup is a who’s who of the best to ever lace ‘em up, including “The Great One” and Mark Messier, and future Hall of Famers such as Connor McDavid, Alex Ovechkin, and Auston Matthews.
Not to be outdone, Showpieces Auto Pucks embed game-used pucks alongside signatures from all-time greats and current stars. Numbered to five or fewer, they’re about as scarce as it gets.
Before we move on, let’s just take a moment to admire this card and get a little nostalgic. It really doesn’t get much better than a three-color patch from Gretzky’s black-and-silver Kings jersey, from his iconic late ’80s and early '90s run in Los Angeles, paired with his unmistakable full-name signature.
Rookie Class Highlights
While Young Guns from Upper Deck’s flagship products are the most collected, higher-end releases such as Splendor offer some of the most valuable, low-numbered, and signed rookie cards.
The top 10 up-and-comers from the 2025 draft class, one of the deepest and most talented in recent memory, are represented with game-worn Rookie Autographed Patches that come in a colorful array of parallels, including one-of-one masterpieces.
That list, of course, starts with Schaefer, the unanimous Calder Trophy winner who set numerous rookie records and became the youngest defenseman to reach 20 goals and 50 points. While defensemen have been generally overlooked in the hobby, the 19-year-old phenom has been one of the most talked-about and collected young players in the sport.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more jaw-dropping relic than his Rookie Patch Auto with orange and white striping cut straight from his navy Islanders jersey.
Not to be outdone, Canadiens rising star Ivan Demidov, who led all rookies in scoring with 62 points (19 goals, 43 assists) and was a unanimous All-Rookie Team selection, gets his share of the spotlight, too. Several of his cards pair his signature with memorabilia pulled from his red sweater or from a puck he handled in a game.
4 Nations, Front and Center
Last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off brought together many of the game’s marquee names for a high-stakes, bragging-rights international showdown that wasn’t short on memorable goals, intensity and some old-school scraps.
Splendor isn’t the first Upper Deck product to include event memorabilia, but it might have some of the most striking and massive memorabilia swatches we’ve seen so far.
Leading the way is an Auto Patch insert of McDavid, who buried the overtime game-winner to send Canada home with the tournament crown. The oversized red-and-white cut of fabric, featuring the “C” from his nation’s name, looks like it was ripped straight from the Team Canada jersey on No. 97's back in the photo.
Perhaps the biggest highlight of Splendor is the chance to pull a dual-patch auto, pairing memorabilia and signatures of two hockey heavyweights on a single card. While the full checklist is yet to be released, the Tkachuk brothers are prominently featured with jumbo red, white, and navy patches from their Team USA jerseys.
Hate ‘em or love ‘em, you can’t deny they’re electric players who also bring a little mayhem everywhere they go. Remember when Matthew cheered on his brother, then with the Senators, as he fought against his Panthers teammate, Sam Bennett? Hockey players are just built different.
Big Cards, Big Sales
Some of the top hits from the last time Splendor hit the shelves have come with serious price tags. A bordered, one-of-one McDavid autograph brought in $7,791 in March 2022, while a PSA 10 three-color patch auto of No. 97 sold for $5,000 in September 2024.
The product’s premier dual autograph, not surprisingly, pairs the two best players of their respective eras. A dozen Gretzky-McDavid signed cards have hit the market so far, according to Card Ladder, with raw copies fetching between $2,750 and $3,000, and graded versions topping $4,000.
More recently, a Jaromir Jagr base patch auto sold for $1,112, while a black-and-white Ovechkin parallel, signed with a gold marker, brought in $877 at auction.
With the 2025-26 Splendor set to hit shelves on September 30, the chase for icons and the next wave of stars is about to be officially back on.
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Alex Kramers is a Florida-based sportswriter who has covered the NBA and NFL since 2009. He served as a Sacramento Kings reporter and digital media coordinator from 2012-2014 and has written regular feature stories for the team's website. He has also covered the Miami Dolphins for DolfansNYC, and has produced content for publications including HOOP Magazine and Orangetheory Fitness. An avid sports-card collector since childhood, he has amassed one of the biggest Mitch Richmond collections in the world, and seeks out Florida Panthers cards and memorabilia with his son.