2015-16 Panini Anthology Hockey Details Share:



Panini America‘s license to produce hockey cards featuring members of the National Hockey League and its Players Association expired at the end of the 2013-14 season, but it appears that the company is not quite done with the sport as early details have surfaced regarding 2015-16 Panini Anthology Hockey.

Over the course of four seasons, Panini accumulated a respectable amount of memorabilia and autographs of the game’s greats, current stars, and prospects – the latter of which were often part of the NHLPA Rookie Showcase event. Instead of sitting on those assets and waiting for another opportunity to make NHL cards, 2015-16 Panini Anthology Hockey is ready to take advantage of this surplus and make some all-new cards. Each pack is expected to contain six cards, of which there are guaranteed to be two autographs and two featuring memorabilia. Suggested retail price will be $125.00, and it was scheduled for release in early May.

All of the cards inside boxes of 2015-16 Panini Anthology Hockey do not feature player photos due to the lack of licensing. The checklist was released, though, and it certainly has an intriguing mix of talent.

Autographs

Anthology Autographs lead off the action and the quantities range between 12 and 299 copies for the 35 subjects. Rookie Showcase participants that Panini never got to utilize in their licensed products are somewhat plentiful here and include Jonathan Drouin and Mark McNeill along with legends like Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, and the late Al Arbour.

Multiple-player autograph cards are quite plentiful in 2015-16 Panini Anthology Hockey and come in Dual and Triple varieties. Most of the combinations are strong and some will be scarce. Also look for Clear Choices Autographs, Clear Cloth Autographs (with an additional Prime version), shadowbox Home and Native Land Signatures. Holo Gold versions exist for all autograph sets and they are one-of-ones. Panini also offers up a few signed memorabilia options with Sizeable Signatures Jersey.

The autograph action concludes with Anthology Cuts. These one-of-one treasures have a couple of Hall of Fame members in Maurice Richard and Jean Beliveau, but the rest of the cast may cause those who pull them to do some research to understand their accomplishments in the game, like one-game wonder Bert Peer, who has never had a major-issue card.

Memorabilia

The selection of memorabilia cards inside of 2015-16 Panini Anthology Hockey is going to make a strong impression with player collectors as the swatches are expected to be large. Double Coverage are dual-sided cards with big pieces and 50 combinations include pairing such as Jamie Benn with Tyler Seguin and John LeClair with Eric Lindros.

Other collections to hunt for include Full Coverage, Massive Materials, Paired Pieces, and the four-piece Tetrad Materials, which has a Holo Gold edition that is not a one-of-one (with the exception of Bobby Clarke).

YEAR PRODUCT SPORT at a glance:

Packs per box: 1

Cards per pack: 6

Release date: Early May, 2016

What to expect in a hobby box:

– at least two autograph cards

– at least two memorabilia cards

Stephen Laroche can be found on Twitter @Stephen_Laroche.