2020-21 Topps NHL stickers have been released into the wild, but as of this writing, a checklist is still not available. But stickers have of course already hit eBay, and an awesome subset of 21 “Topps Hockey Classics” featuring current players on card designs from the past caught my eye.
After Upper Deck used the 1979-80 Topps/O-Pee-Chee design for their 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee retros, Topps sued, and a settlement was reached that has prevented Upper Deck from recycling any more Topps/O-Pee-Chee looks from the past. And since Upper Deck has the exclusive license for NHL trading cards, that leaves no room for official cards of current players on classic designs (with the exception of Upper Deck designs, which only go back to 1990-91, and I’m still trying to pretend 1990 wasn’t that long ago).
But—Topps got back into the NHL game in 2019 with a license for NHL stickers, which is technically a different category than trading cards, opening the door for some Topps Heritage-style hockey stickers. Topps opted not to use any old designs in their initial offering, 2019-20 NHL Stickers, nor in any Topps NOW on-demand base stickers so far. But some old designs did pop up as “chase” cards in select 19-20 Topps NOW packs, and they are kind of great.
see all seven here and shop for them on eBay here
Now 21 new-old cards have shown up in 2020-21 Topps NHL Stickers. I’m not clear if these are considered regular base cards, short prints, or an insert set—they are called an insert set on the sell sheets, though all of the “inserts” have numbering that continues on from the base set. It is also not clear to me how tough or easy these are to pull.
But I think I have figured out the full checklist of the Classics included in 2020-21 stickers, and you can see them all for yourself below. You might notice that Topps put some thought into which designs to use for which teams, i.e. Carey Price is used on the design of Ken Dryden’s rookie, Malkin and Crosby get the Mario Lemieux rookie treatment, etc.
click on the text in the captions to shop for the stickers on eBay
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