A Box for the Weekend

Most of the times when I do a break of a 13-14 product, it is Rookie Anthology. Let's mix it up with another Panini release from that year. 4 packs, and I'm hitting the highlights of each.

Pack 1:

The etching makes the base scan horribly, and the player's name practically vanishes into the foil, Fortunately, the backs are bright and bold, even if the player is immediately recognizable as Martin Brodeur.

The rookies? Aren't. Much. Better. But I will scan a pretty nice one here with this Barkov.

I believe you're guaranteed one of these rookie/relic autos per box. Here's this one. Schultz is still in the league, so I'm happy enough with this.

Pack 2:

Starting with another base card, and an Al Montoya bound for the mask binder.

This is the first of my two parallels. That's Jamie Oleksiak's name hiding on the bottom of the card. He's with Dallas now, but had a short stint with the Penguins in the meantime. Googling his name auto-completes with 'sister', indicating that his Olympic-medal-winning sister Penny might be more well-known.

Howden has been answering the roll call in the KHL the past few years.

Pack 3:

This is definitely the better of the two numbered parallels, being both a better player, and numbered to 25 copies.

That's a nice thick seam of a swatch, and Rakell remains in the league and remains with the Ducks.

Bonus hit! And it is easily the best of the bunch in the box. On-card, and the Social Signatures, which had appearances in several Panini products in 2013, is a concept that I wish would appear in other sports/releases, especially with social media being even more prevalent in 2020.

Pack 4:

Just a plain one-colour swatch to end it, but he's the 5th rookie in the box that is still in the league, making for a pretty good average.

And there you have it!