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!
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.
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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
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.
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