News

After a two-decade hiatus from the hockey scene, Topps is making a subtle return—though not in the traditional card format fans might expect.

Topps hasn't produced NHL-licensed hockey trading cards since the 2003-04 season, when Upper Deck secured exclusive rights to the league’s trading card license. Since then, Topps has been absent from the hockey card world... until now—sort of.

On April 3, Fanatics (which owns Topps) is launching Topps Under Wraps: Emanate 2024-25. It’s not technically a trading card product, but it’s close. Each box includes an 8x10 autographed photo designed to look and feel like an oversized trading card—with both front and back artwork mimicking the classic card layout.

“These even have photos and information on the back,” noted longtime collector and dealer Sal Barry in his PuckJunk.com newsletter.

Each Emanate photo is individually hand-signed (no sticker autos here), serial-numbered, and hologrammed for authenticity. Topps is packaging the prints in a magnetic-ready-to-display folio case to highlight the premium presentation.

Collectors can chase six color variants:
– Gold (#/50)
– Orange (#/25)
– Blue (#/10)
– Red (#/5)
– Iridescent (1/1)

The checklist features more than 70 players from all 32 NHL teams, including some of the league’s biggest names both past and present—Connor Bedard, Auston Matthews, Alexander Ovechkin, Nathan MacKinnon, Igor Shesterkin, Macklin Celebrini, and Mark Messier all make appearances.

In addition to single-player prints, Topps has also added rare multi-signed editions, including a show-stopping 1/1 triple-signed and inscribed piece featuring Ovechkin, Bedard, and Matthews.

Each box includes one photo and will retail for $130.

So, is Topps officially back in hockey? Not quite—not in the pack-ripping, rookie-chasing, base-parallel-variant sense. But Emanate shows that they’re at least dipping a skate back onto the ice, and with Fanatics controlling the hobby's biggest licenses, it’s not hard to imagine more to come.