Rookie Update - John Tavares

Despite a brilliant start to the NHL season as well as a massive slump, John Tavares has continued to battle every night. His persistance paid off Tuesday night with a career-best 5 points in one game in a surprising New York Islanders win over the Vancouver Canucks.

The blue-chip prospect had an amazing pass to set up a Matt Moulson goal as shown below:



Although it's doubtful that Tavares can finish in the running for the Calder Trophy due to his slump, this 5-point night proved beyond a doubt that he'll be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come. After all, a Calder Trophy doesn't guarantee greatness. Just ask Andrew Raycroft who won the Calder earlier this decade. Collectors will still be excited beyond belief to pull a John Tavares SP Authentic rookie card.



John Tavares has appeared previously in ITG Heroes and Prospects but his first Upper Deck rookie cards are available in most 2009-10 Upper Deck products available at Canada Card World.

2009-10 NHL Calder Trophy Race Revisited

As the Olympic break approached, five players were still in the running as the best rookie of the 2009-10 NHL season. In no specific order, John Tavares, Jimmy Howard, Matt Duchene, James Van Riemsdyk, and Tyler Myers were at the top of the rookie class. Other players were either too old (Antti Niemi) or too hurt (Semyon Varlamov) to be considered. With the Olympic break behind us, two of those players seem to have hit the wall. This does not mean their futures aren't as bright though, as Tavares had a 5-point night last night and Van Riemsdyk continues to play well. In fact, only three strong contenders remain.

Jimmy Howard



Jimmy Howard was supposed to be a good goalie from day one. Detroit knew it too. They just took their time releasing him and his skills to the world. His play after October cemented him as the Red Wings #1 goaltender and this late-bloomer seems to be the real deal.

Matt Duchene



Matt Duchene wasn't even the best rookie on his team in October and November as Ryan O'Reilly drew most of the attention. However, steady play and a super burst in December put this favourite of Don Cherry into the spotlight.

Tyler Myers



Tyler Myers was supposed to be a project defenseman. His splendid early season play was no fluke and this massive Zdeno Chara clone is a franchise player of epic proportions. Not only is he playing big minutes against the NHL's best but he is putting up amazing offensive numbers for a defenseman as well. A big 4 point night in March proved that he can play a full season and continue to make an impact.

Prediction - Barring a late season charge by one of the other two, this award will go to Tyler Myer. As stated earlier... Who dares steal this trophy away from the hulking defenseman?

Duchene and Myers have rookie cards available in most 2009-10 products available at Canada Card World. Jimmy Howard has rookie cards available in many 2005-06 products.

Topps - The Official Card of USA Baseball

As spring training continues to roll on, recent news has brought Topps back to the fore-front of American collectors. For those who missed the exciting news, USA Baseball and the Topps Company announced an exclusive multi-year licensing deal to make Topps the official baseball card of USA Baseball. Topps will have exclusivity on USA Baseball trademarks, logos and other intellectual property, for use on cards featuring USA Baseball players.

“Twenty-five years after collectors were first introduced to USA Baseball, our organization is pleased to have Topps, the industry leader, return as the exclusive home for USA Baseball trading cards,” said Paul Seiler, USA Baseball Executive Director/CEO. “We look forward to working closely with Topps as together we provide collectors with a look at the future of America’s game on trading cards.”



From 1984-1993 Topps was the exclusive card manufacturer for USA Baseball, producing cards for the U.S. Olympic Baseball Team. The new agreement calls for cards, autographs and game-used equipment of USA Baseball’s Collegiate, Under-18 and Under-16 National Team players to be featured in various Topps products each year.

“Now we’re the only trading card licensed by Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and USA Baseball,” said Warren Friss, Vice President – General Manager of Topps Sports and Entertainment. “We are covering the game of baseball at every level.”



Each year USA Baseball selects about 60 of the best young baseball players in the country for its national teams. This gives collectors the first opportunity to see the future stars of baseball on cards. The first release with the new USA Baseball content will be 2010 Bowman Baseball which will be released in May. Bowman Baseball 2010 will feature cards of the 2009 Collegiate National Team and 2009 Under-18 National Team.

In addition to the Topps sets featuring USA Baseball inserts, the annual USA Baseball National Teams Box Set will also be manufactured by Topps and will continue to be the exclusive place to get all members of the USA Baseball National Team in one set. The box set is scheduled for a December release in 2010.

2010 Topps and Bowman baseball cards will be available soon from Canada Card World.

Product Preview - 2009-10 UD Champs

UD Champs has rolled off the production line and is ready to be busted open. With 2009-10 UD Champs, Upper Deck continues their visit to the land of the dinosaurs. Definitely not your typical hockey card product, UD Champs contains hockey players as well as dinosaurs, fossils, artifacts, bones, historical figures, and endangered species on tobacco-style mini cards. You can collect subsets which include Wonders of the World and Museum Pieces as well. Or you can just collect the all-stars and the rookies. It's all up to you!



Typical Box Break Summary:
4 Signature or Jersey cards
1-2 Mini Signatures and 5 Mini Rookie Cards
2 Mini Threads
10 Wonders of the World/Natural History/Historical Figures cards
1 Red Back mini parallel card
8 Regular-Sized Parallels



Projected Key Inserts:
Museum Pieces:
Dinosaur Teeth, Golden Jurassic Amminites, Paradoxides Trilobite, Turtle Claw, Great White Shark Tooth, Giant Armadillo Claw, Woolly Mammoth Molar Tooth, Wild Boar Fossil Teeth and more.



Mini Signatures:
Alexander Ovechkin, LeBron James, Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, Dr. J, Bobby Orr, Steve Yzerman, John Tavares, Gordie Howe, Martin Brodeur and others!

2009-10 UD Champs is being released tomorrow and will be available at Canada Card World.

Sunday Fun-Day Fun-Facts

In 1949 there were many post war shortages in England, including the rationing of sweets. In London four young men, all recently demobilized from their military service, Simon Anysz, Rudy Braun, and brothers Douglas and Tony Coakley decided to form a company with the aim of producing and selling chewing gum. The partners decided on the name A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd. Contrary.

In the early days, there were many difficulties, including fighting establishment who thought chewing gum was disgusting and not worth considering during these times of shortages. Since there was no sugar available without a license, one of the first ever-sugarless chewing gums were produced using an artificial sweetener so that the product did not require sweet rationing coupons.



A&BC remembered the popularity of the children's craze for cards from before the War and thought that cards would improve the sales of their gum. Their first bubble gum was produced and included cards of Film & TV Stars wrapped with a fake dollar bill, hence the name "Dollar Bubble Gum".

In 1952, Topps came to England and visited A&BC Chewing Gum. According to the recollection of the Coakley brothers he advised A&BC that they were getting nowhere and advised them to partner up with Topps. A&BC ignored this advice and declined the Topps offer. In 1959, Topps approached A&BC again and this time, the terms of the deal suited A&BC. The two companies negotiated a license for A&BC to produce Bazooka Bubble Gum and to reproduce some of Topps' card gum series, starting with Elvis Presley.



Over the next 15 years A&BC continued to produce their own series of cards, increasingly focusing on the popular football (soccer) cards, though they also produced the Topps U.S. series range of cards. Regardless of the source, all A&BC cards were printed in England.

A&BC Gum began with an 'All Sports' series in 1954, a set of 120 cards which included 36 footballers. They followed this in 1958 with a set of 92 footballer cards, and thus began a run of 16 unbroken years of football card production. During this 16 year period A&BC produced both English and Scottish sets.

In 1962/63 Douglas Coakley approached Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, and obtained the rights to produce cards of the Beatles. A set of 60 cards were first produced and issued. In the U.S., A&BC gave Topps the photographs and helped to negotiate the rights for Topps to produce these sets in America.



At the time the company folded it had 350 employees and they left behind six card/gum machines which could produce 200 packs per minute and wrap pieces of Bazooka per minute.

Topps Chewing Gum took over for A&BC in 1974. They produced their first set of football cards under the Topps Bazooka Limited name in 1975. They continued each year until 1981, after which they became occasional producers of football cards.

The A&BC cards were 8 cms long by 5.5 cms wide and really set the benchmark that all football cards would subsequently be judged against.

Hobby News - The Saturday Edition

For several months Upper Deck was on a mission to find two Canadian hobby shops that hockey card collectors could call Shangri-La. Upper Deck and its two major Canadian distributors, Grosnor and Universal, created an exciting campaign encouraging hobby shops in Canada to host more events, programs, and promotions to create excitement for new Upper Deck products. The two winning stores would be anointed Upper Deck’s “Hockey Card Heaven” and receive an in-store visit from an NHL player.



Comic Connection in Hamilton, Ontario was chosen as one of the winners of the campaign. With a stroke of ingenuity, they created a window display using 1990-91 Upper Deck hockey cards that spelled out “HOCKEY CARD HEAVEN." The store also ran different specials every day during the entire promotion (more than three months) to thank customers for their support. Every Saturday was designated as “Kids Day” and the store offered a variety of specials. Comic Connection also included charities such as the Canadian National Autism Foundation in their promotions.



Ted Krieg, owner of Comic Connection, was excited about being chosen. “We’re big hockey fans and it's fantastic to have something like this happen for us. We thought it was a great promotion and all of our staff just jumped at the opportunity. We worked really hard for this, but it’s also been a lot of fun, especially for our customers!"

Wayne’s Sports Cards in Edmonton, Alberta was also chosen as “Hockey Card Heaven.” The team at Wayne’s held colouring contests for kids while older collectors were invited to show off their collections during “Open House” events. One of the larger promotions which they created was called “Score with Upper Deck” where customers purchased a box of product, in exchange for an opportunity to shoot on the owner. The owner, who was decked out in Edmonton Oilers gear, handed out a prize if the collector scored.

“Programs like 'Hockey Card Heaven’ really help a retailer get motivated to come up with new and exciting ways to engage our customers,” said Wayne Wagner, owner of Wayne’s Sports Cards. “Anytime you can bring in a professional athlete to the store, it creates a buzz. Getting to meet a player face to face is such a great experience for fans and I know our customers are going to love it.”

Congratulations to Wayne’s Sports Cards and Comic Connection!

Who to Collect - Luca Caputi

Luca Caputi grew up in Maple, Ontario, a suburban community northwest of Toronto. And just before the Trade Deadline, Caputi became property of the nearby Toronto Maple Leafs in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins. As many scouts know, Caputi has all of the physical tools needed to develop into a power forward at the NHL level. At 6-2, 184 pounds, Caputi scores a lot of his goals from in front of the net and is more than willing to muck it up in the corners.



Luca Caputi began his junior career with the Mississauga IceDogs of the OHL in the 2004–05 season. After his 2006–07 season, Caputi was drafted in the fourth round in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. In his final season with the IceDogs, Caputi found his stride with an amazing 51 goals and 111 points in only 66 games. His 111 points were fourth in league scoring and his 51 goals were third in the OHL. Following his breakout season, Caputi signed a three-year contract with the Penguins. He then helped the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League reach the Calder Cup Finals with 8 points in 19 games.



After starting the 2008–09 season with Wilkes-Barre, Caputi made his NHL debut on February 3, 2009, scoring his first NHL goal on his first shift. Now with the Maple Leafs, Caputi is firing on all cylinders as the opportunity to play big minutes on a young team has presented itself. In only 5 games, Caputi has one goal and 3 assists and seems to be clicking with fellow young gun, Viktor Stalberg.

Luca Caputi has cards in some 2008-09 ITG products and rookie cards in most 2009-10 Upper Deck products which are available at Canada Card World.