Young Guns cards explained: Upper Deck's hockey rookies
What a Young Guns card is, where it sits in each series of Upper Deck's hockey base set, how many come in a box, and which lookalikes are not the base card.
By the Rip.fan Editorial Team.
Published 7 min read
A Young Guns card is a rookie card that Upper Deck builds into the base set of its main hockey product each season. The Young Guns close out each of the three series that make up that set, carry the rookie flag on the checklist, and have no serial number on the base version. In the 2025-26 season they took card numbers 201 to 250, 451 to 500 and 701 to 740. Several other cards use the Young Guns name without being the base rookie card, so the card number is the first thing to check.
What makes a card a Young Guns card?
Three things: it comes from Upper Deck’s flagship hockey set, it sits in the base set, and it shows a player in his rookie season. The 2025-26 Series One breaks the first 250 cards down as 49 Young Guns, 198 veterans and three checklist cards, and Upper Deck calls the Young Guns in Series 2 the most anticipated rookie cards of the season.
Because Young Guns are base cards, they fit the usual rule that a rookie card is a base card from the player’s first season. Our guide to what counts as a rookie card covers that rule and where makers’ rookie flags go further.
The name is old. Young Guns has existed since 1990, and a December 2011 guest post on Upper Deck’s blog names the 1990-91 Upper Deck hockey set as the first Young Guns set.
Where do Young Guns sit in a season?
Upper Deck splits its base set across three releases, and each one ends with a rookie block. The 2025-26 season ran like this:
| Release | Young Guns numbers | Extra rookie block | Listed card rate in hobby |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series 1 | 201 to 250, card 250 is a checklist | None | 1:2 |
| Series 2 | 451 to 500, card 500 is a checklist | None | 1:2 |
| Extended Series | 701 to 740 | 1st Round Rookies, 741 to 750, listed at 1:10 | 1:3 |
Per box, on average, there are six Young Guns in Series 2, and six in the Extended Series counting both blocks.
The 1st Round Rookies are a separate block at the end of Extended Series. They are 2025-26 rookies who were first-round draft picks, and the checklist flags them as rookies, but they do not carry the Young Guns name.
The 2026-27 Series 1 checklist, posted in September 2026, keeps the same layout: Young Guns at 201 to 250, with card 250 a checklist card, a hobby rate of 1:2 and a hanger rate of 1:1. That release also averages six Young Guns per box.
How do the formats compare?
The same checklists list a rate for each format. A rate is a ratio of packs: 1:2 means one Young Guns card per two packs. A rate does not tell you what one box holds.
| 2025-26 release | Hobby | Blaster | Hanger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Series 1 | 1:2 | 1:2 | 1:1 |
| Series 2 | 1:2 | 1:2 | 1:1 |
| Extended Series | 1:3 | 1:3 | 1:3 |
A rate in a hanger and a rate in a hobby box are not a box-to-box comparison. Our guide to hobby and retail boxes explains how formats differ.
Why do some rookies appear in Series 2 or Extended Series?
Two reasons come from an October 2016 post by Upper Deck. The first is timing: the NHLPA does not let a player appear on a trading card until his NHL debut. A normal release takes about 14 months to make, but that rule left Upper Deck just under five weeks to produce the Young Guns for Series One. It kept room in the set for expected debuts, sent photographers to arenas after each debut, and printed the cards on rushed schedules.
The second is placement: the same post said Upper Deck typically separates some rookies between Series One and Series Two. That year, some players held back for Series Two still had a UD Canvas Young Guns card in Series One. Extended Series then finishes the set: in 2025-26 it held the final 250 cards, 200 veterans plus the 50-card rookie block.
So if a rookie you follow is missing from Series 1, check the Series 2 and Extended Series checklists before you decide he has no Young Guns card. Some players never get one at all. In a December 2014 post, Upper Deck described Young Guns Tribute cards, a promotional set planned at 25 cards. It pictured notable players in their rookie seasons who had never received a Young Guns card, among them a player first called up late in a season.
What changed in 2023-24?
The pack layout. In a March 2023 post, Upper Deck announced the first change to its flagship hobby configuration in more than 20 years, which took effect with 2023-24 Series 1:
- Packs and boxes: 24 packs of 8 cards became 12 packs of 12 cards.
- Young Guns: still six per hobby box, on average, but now listed at 1:2 packs instead of 1:4.
- Inserts: three per pack, on average, up from one.
- New parallels: Outburst Silver, Deluxe (250 copies), Outburst Red (25) and Outburst Gold (1).
Upper Deck billed Outburst Gold as the first 1-of-1 Young Guns card in its flagship product. One practical result: a rate printed before 2023-24 and one printed after describe different packs, so compare per-box averages across those years, not rates.
Which Young Guns cards are not the base card?
Many cards borrow the name. This table sorts the 2025-26 versions by how to spot them:
| Card | How to spot it | Checklist placement | Listed rate in hobby |
|---|---|---|---|
| Young Guns | Plain number in the base range, such as 201 to 250 | Base set, rookie flag | 1:2 in Series 1 and 2, 1:3 in Extended |
| Young Guns parallels | Same number, a different finish or a serial stamp | Parallel, rookie flag | Outburst 1:60 and Clear Cut 1:144 in Series 1 and 2; numbered versions random in hobby and e-Pack |
| UD Canvas Young Guns | Number starts with C, such as C-91 to C-120 in Series 1 | Insert set, rookie flag | 1:24 |
| Outburst Retro Young Guns | Number starts with OR, five cards per release | Insert set; no rookie flag in Series 1 and 2, marked XRC in Extended | 1:2880 |
| Oversized Young Guns | A larger card, 14 each in Series 1 and Series 2 | Parallel, rookie flag | One per oversized Young Guns blaster |
| Acetate Young Guns | Acetate stock, numbers from 201 to 739 | Extended Series insert, 136 cards covering all three releases | Random in hobby and e-Pack |
The table mentions e-Pack, which Upper Deck described in December 2025 as an online platform for buying, opening and trading its products. The parallel rows share the base card’s number, so the finish and any stamp tell them apart. Our guide to sports card parallels lays out the full ladder, and how serial-numbered cards work covers the stamps. The C and OR prefixes mark insert cards, a separate set from the base Young Guns.
How to check a Young Guns card before you buy
- Read the year and the card number on the back, then open that season’s checklist.
- Confirm the number sits in the Young Guns range and the player matches the row. In 2025-26, cards 250 and 500 are checklist cards that name two players.
- Look for a letter prefix. C means UD Canvas and OR means Outburst Retro, both inserts.
- If the card has a stamp or a special finish, match it to that parallel’s run on the checklist.
- Check condition. Our centering checker turns your border measurements into a split and shows which CGC and SGC grades allow it, and our guide to condition grades covers the rest.
- Price it from sales of the exact card and grade, as our guide to valuing a sports card explains. If you plan to grade it, the grading cost calculator shows service levels, prices and estimated waits.
Where do Young Guns fit in Upper Deck’s year?
Series 1, Series 2 and Extended Series are three of many Upper Deck hockey products each season. Our guide to Upper Deck hockey sets sets out the whole lineup, and our guide to The Cup covers the high-end set with its own Rookie Auto Patch rookie cards. The sports cards hub gathers Rip.fan’s sports card coverage.
Frequently asked questions
Are Young Guns serial-numbered?
The base card is not. Its parallels can be: on the 2025-26 checklists, Deluxe carries a run of 250, Exclusives 100, Outburst Red 25, High Gloss 10 and Outburst Gold 1.
Who was in the first Young Guns set?
The 1990-91 Upper Deck hockey Young Guns included the 2 biggest rookies of that era, Sergei Fedorov and Pavel Bure.
Which season made Young Guns famous?
2005-06, when Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin arrived with their Young Guns rookie cards, about 15 years after the first set.
How were the Young Guns Tribute cards released?
In 4 groups: 10 cards at the 2014 Fall Sportscard and Memorabilia Expo, 5 in Canada's National Hockey Card Day packs on February 14, 2015, 5 in the US packs on February 21, 2015, and 5 at the 2015 Spring Expo.