I was speaking with one of my better friends in the industry, Wayne Wagner of Wayne's Sports Cards and Collectibles in Edmonton, Alberta Canada, and he was talking about how well hockey cards are doing again this season. Everyone was worried about the "Sidney Crosby-Alexander Ovechkin hangover," as he called it, but hockey is back and very strong in 2006-07. As we know, Upper Deck is the only manufacturer that produces hockey cards and they had a great year in 2005-06, largely due to the two aforementioned rookies.

Wagner stated that of the roughly 15 products that are out, 7-8 are extremely strong and only a few have been dogs. The "dog" category is primarily made up of early-season releases that didn't include the rookies and therefore didn't offer much to collectors. The products that aren't in the "strong" category, but not in the "dog" category either simply had a mediocre product composition, with either not enough in the packs or too high of price points or a combination.

Rookies that are driving the products this season include: Evgeni Malkin, LW for Pittsburgh, who scored 85 points this season; Paul Stastny, Center for Colorado with 78 points on the season; Anze Kopitar, Center for the Kings, who scored 61 points; Niklas Backstrom, Goalie for Minnesota with 23 wins. Hockey looks like it's got a very healthy future even without getting major exposure.