Categories: Best Cards Ever

Best Hockey Rookie Cards Ever!

Adding the best hockey rookie cards to your sports card collection is like adding ice to your favorite cocktail!

The arrival of Connor Bedard in 2023-24 Upper Deck Series 2 cards signals a new hobby high not seen since Connor McDavid or Sidney Crosby joined the NHL! (Patrick Imhoff details in this article where you can buy different Connor Bedard rookie cards.) But Bedard’s arrival has everyone wanting to go back in time to track down other stellar hockey rookie cards, like Crosby, McDavid, and even Wayne Gretzky!

If this is your first trip to this website, then welcome! We’re all about tracking down the best rookie cards from all sports, and now we’re sharing the best hockey rookie cards!

We went through all the hockey card sets dating all the way back to the 1951 Parkhurst set, including many sets produced by companies like Topps, O-Pee-Chee, Pro Set, Score, and finally Upper Deck. We found all the best hockey rookie cards of Hall-of-Famers and NHL All-Stars that roamed the ice over the past eight decades.

I used PSA’s card values to find many of these, and I used several other sources to track down the best hockey rookie cards. This is obviously a subjective list, but it’s also a living and dynamic list, which means – I can change it! So please contact me with players whose cards you think should be among the best hockey rookie cards, and I’ll check them out!

Best Hockey Rookie Cards – Starting Back in 1951

Most of the sports card links on this page will take you to eBay. That means I will get a commission on the sales from this page. If you end up buying from these links, I personally thank you for supporting my website! Even if you don’t buy anything, thank you for reading my article! Enjoy!

I will update this article frequently, as some players ascend in value and some decline. The most recent seasons will have a higher number of rookies to collect because we’re still waiting to see if they will fulfill their promise. As the seasons wear on, I’ll remove the rookies that have fallen by the wayside.

My website is free to use, so I use affiliate links with companies like eBay to help support it. By clicking on the links below, you can help support this site – and I thank you very much!

Most card images provided by BuySportsCards.com.

1951 Parkhurst

1952 Parkhurst

1953 Parkhurst

1954 Parkhurst

1954 Topps Best Hockey Rookie Cards

Topps produced hockey cards for the first time in 1954, but then they didn’t produce them again until 1957. For several years after that, until 1964, Topps produced NHL cards for U.S. teams, and Parkhurst produced hockey cards for the Canadian teams (except in 1960, when Parkhurst also created cards for Detroit Red Wings players.) In 1964, Topps then began to produce hockey cards for all NHL teams.

1955 Parkhurst

1956 Parkhurst

1957 Parkhurst

1957 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1958 Parkhurst

There were no great hockey rookie cards of note in this set.

1958 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1959 Parkhurst

1959 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

There were no great hockey rookie cards of note in this set.

1960 Parkhurst

There were no great hockey rookie cards of note in this set.

1960 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1961 Parkhurst

1961 Topps Best Hockey Rookie Cards

1962 Parkhurst

There were no great hockey rookie cards of note in this set.

1962 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

There were no great hockey rookie cards of note in this set.

1963 Parkhurst

1963 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

There were no great hockey rookie cards of note in this set.

1964 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

There were no great rookie cards of note from this set.

1965 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1966 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1967 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1968 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1968 O-Pee-Chee

1969 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1970 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1970 O-Pee-Chee Best Hockey Rookie Cards

1971 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1971 O-Pee-Chee

1972 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

There were no great hockey rookie cards of note in this set.

1972 O-Pee-Chee

There were no great hockey rookie cards of note in this set.

1973 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1973 O-Pee-Chee

1974 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1975 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1976 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1976 O-Pee-Chee

1977 Topps, O-Pee-Chee NHL and O-Pee-Chee WHA

There really weren’t any rookie cards worth owning from these three sets.

1978 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1978 O-Pee-Chee

1979 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1979 O-Pee-Chee

1980 O-Pee-Chee

1981 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1981 O-Pee-Chee

1982 O-Pee-Chee

1983 O-Pee-Chee

1984 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1984 O-Pee-Chee

1985 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1985 O-Pee-Chee

1986 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1986 O-Pee-Chee

1987 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1987 O-Pee-Chee

1988 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1988 O-Pee-Chee

1989 Topps Best Hockey Rookie Cards

1989 O-Pee-Chee

1990 Pro Set Hockey

1990 Score Canadian

1990 Score Rookie/Traded

1990 Topps Hockey Rookie Cards

1990 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards

The first hockey card set from Upper Deck brought us the inaugural edition of their Young Guns subset, which has now signaled the best hockey rookie cards most people want to collect year after year, over three decades later. In more recent years, Upper Deck started limiting how many Young Guns are available per box. While they’re still part of the base set, they are not as common as the rest of the set.

1990 O-Pee-Chee Premier

1990 Score Hockey Rookie Cards

1991 Upper Deck

1991 Parkhurst

1992 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards

1993 Parkhurst

1993 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards

1994 Upper Deck SP Hockey Rookie Cards

1995 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards

1996 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards

1997 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards

1998 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards

1999 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards

2000 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2001 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2002 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2003 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2004 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2005 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2006 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2007 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2008 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2009 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2010 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2011 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2012 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2013 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2014 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2015 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2016 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2017 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2018 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2019 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2020 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2021 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2022 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2023 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

2024 Upper Deck Hockey Rookie Cards – Young Guns

If you love rookie cards, here are some more articles tracking great cards from the past and present:

As I mentioned at the start of this article, we’ll be updating this page often. Some rookie cards will be removed as players decline in value, and some rookie cards will be added as they bloom later than expected. Either way, feel free to comment below and share some of the players you think should be among the best hockey rookie cards by year from each hockey card set.

David Gonos

David Gonos spent 5 years as a CBSSports.com Senior Fantasy Writer and three more years writing with SI.com. Over the past 17 years, his work has been published on NFL.com, MLB.com, FanDuel, FoxSports.com and USA Today. Since 2001, he has been tracking down the Top 50-plus Free Fantasy Football Draft Tools online. You can contact David Gonos here.

Recent Posts

6 Cheap LeBron James Rookie Cards For Under $100

Any sports fan would love to have some cheap LeBron James rookie cards in their…

1 day ago

9 Amazing Facts About 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson Rookie Card

The 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson rookie card started off the new decade right, with one…

3 days ago

10 Best Baseball Cards From 1957 Topps Baseball

Two amazing rookie Robinsons lead the 10 best baseball cards from 1957 Topps Baseball! Check…

2 weeks ago

6 Cheap Shohei Ohtani Rookie Cards Under $100

Owning Shohei Ohtani Rookie Cards is a solid start for anyone’s baseball card collection. Finding…

3 weeks ago

10 Best Cards From 1955 Topps Baseball

Picking up the 10 best baseball cards from 1955 Topps Baseball can turn a good…

3 weeks ago

5 Cheap Connor McDavid Rookie Cards Worth Buying

Collecting great Connor McDavid rookie cards is easier said than done because they can be…

3 weeks ago