As in years past, Upper Deck is proud to announce the release of its much-anticipated Black Diamond Hockey set, only this year’s version will include one “Ice Premieres” rookie card in every box. A non-signed, non-memorabilia-based rookie card, the Ice Premieres are considered very valuable RCs in the secondary market. Sporting up-and-coming names like first-year standouts Taylor Hall (Edmonton), Tyler Seguin (Boston) and Nazem Kadri (Toronto), the multi-tiered Ice Premieres rookie cards will no doubt ignite collectors’ fires everywhere.



“Our Black Diamond effort is met every year with great enthusiasm from collectors,” said Josh Zusman, Upper Deck’s Hockey brand manager. “And we’re extremely excited to add something new like the ‘Ice Premieres’ rookie cards to the mix this time around.”



The Ice Premieres rookie card element features 25 youngsters across four different levels and includes other promising players such as Zach Hamill (Boston), Derek Stepan (N.Y. Rangers) and Cam Fowler (Anaheim). In addition, collectors can look forward to discovering three “Triple Diamond” rookie cards and one “Quad Diamond” rookie card per box, on average.



As if the previously mentioned components weren’t enough, the 222-card 2010-11 Black Diamond Hockey base set is complemented by die-cut inserts including “Team Canada” featuring current Canadian stars like Jarome Iginla, Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Roberto Luongo alongside retired greats Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Mark Messier and Steve Yzerman. And the “Hardware Heroes” die-cuts will also resonate with collectors as they showcase perennial, award-winning standouts like Alex Ovechkin, Tyler Myers and Ryan Miller, as well as legendary icons such as Bobby Orr, Stan Mikita, Patrick Roy and Scotty Bowman.



Signature and memorabilia cards are included in Black Diamond Hockey as well. Collectors will discover “Gemography” autographed cards (1:60 packs) from the likes of Grant Fuhr, Luc Robitaille, Jari Kurri, John Tavares and Evander Kane, as well as “Quad Game-Used Jerseys” (two per hobby box); “Ruby Quad Jerseys” (numbered to 50); “Gold Quad Jerseys” (numbered to 25); “Onyx Quad Jerseys” (numbered to 10); and “Onyx Autographed Quad Jerseys” (numbered to 5).



Upper Deck’s 2010-11 Black Diamond Hockey set holds five cards per pack and 24 packs (plus one bonus pack) per box and is currently available on store shelves.



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