1995-96 Upper Deck Be a Player Hockey Forum

1. Is this set one of the sets not "approved" by the NHL and just a NHLPA set? All the logos have been removed ala ITG?

2. I thought Upper Deck would have been allowed to use logos since they had an NHL license, why didn't they?

3. Should the subset World Class show NHL team or International team?

4. When the heck did Colorado have a blue and yellow jersey? New one on me!!

Growing up on a farm, my first thought was a bucket full of something else. ;)

World Class: The country listed on the front is just their home nation, not their national team. NHL teams are listed on the back of the card. Take this card as an example Sandis Ozolinsh.  It lists Latvia on the front and Colorado on the back. He is pictured playing for the Soviet Union. If you put Latvia as the team you would be incorrect. He was born in Latvia but never played for the Latvia national team until 1998 (this is a 1995-96 card).  There are other cards showing Soviet Union teams; the Soviet Union ended in 1991.

You're correct that the early Be a Player sets were not licenced by the NHL and that's why they do not feature NHL team names or logos. 

NHL licencing rules at the time restricted each card company to a maximum of four product releases per year (two barnds with two series each, four brands with a single series each, or whatever). For Upper Deck those were Collector's Choice, SP, and Upper Deck Series 1 and 2. Upper Deck found loopholes to put out more product by releasing the unlicenced BAP brand and the "European-exclusive" Parkhurst brand. (In practice, Parkhurst was as easy to find in North America as any other brand that year. I suspect all that really happened was that Upper Deck sold them to a distributer with a European business address, who immediately turned around and sold them to North American retailers.)

Don't know what is going on with the Colorado uniforms but they clearly look airbrushed. Depending on when the BAP set was released it's possible that Upper Deck didn't even have any photos of players wearing Avalanche jerseys yet. (Remember that was the team's first year in the league.)

Thanks fellows, I appreciate the answers, just got a little smRter as they say in the hills. =)  As for Colorado I'll have to agree on that, I thought maybe a third jersey but there are others throughout that look incorrect as well, Ziggy Palffy's looks odd as well.

Mostly airbrushed, I always found these cards to look weird. 

So UD was told that Colorado was going to be these colors? Makes them look like idiots otherwise!! Somebody had to have told them some kind of inside thinking to what the jerseys were "going" to look like. I am glad they got it wrong as they look hidious in blue and yellow!!

These cards had to be produced after the Keane and Roy acquistion on 6 December 1995.  The trade is mentioned on the back of Keane's card.

I looked up Colorado at the hockey jeresy DB and there is no mention of a blue and yellow jersey. A mystery for sure, I shall quit worrying about it tho as it is just the Avs!! LOL Maybe avsbruins will know something, if he even cares!! Bahahaha

Knowing where you live, "in the hills" made me chuckle.