2008-2009 McDonalds Hockey Cards

One of my favorite hockey card sets is back.

The 2008-2009 version of the McDonalds hockey card set is available at your local “Golden Arches”.

Every year I put together a set of this great little set of hockey cards.

This year’s set is every bit as good as the sets from previous years. However, I do have a couple of small complaints.

First of all, Upper Deck, the manufacturer of this set included Peter Forsberg and Mats Sundin, both of whom are not in the NHL as yet this season. Similarly Jaromir Jagr has a card in one of the insert sets. (I will feature the inserts in my next post.)

Secondly, Markus Naslund appears as a Vancouver Canuck. Surely enough time has passed that Upper Deck has a photo of him in his Rangers’ uniform.

And, thirdly, for the second year in a row Sidney Crosby is nowhere to be found in the set. (I guess they could not give him enough Egg McMuffins to entice him to be in the set.)

But now for the good stuff!

The metallic look is great.

The roster of players, (with the exception of those noted above), is fantastic.

The 50 card set is ordered alphabetically by team name. Consequently, the first card features one of the best young power forwards in the NHL, Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf and ends with one of the league’s best players (who obviously does like Egg McMuffins) Washington Capital superstar, Alexander Ovechkin.



With only 50 cards in the main set there are many players who are left out. So, one of the great debates among collectors is likely to be who is in the current set and who got left out.

But, Upper Deck has done a great job (with the exception of my above-noted complaints) including a nice mix of veteran stars as well as some of the NHL’s rising stars.

One of my favorite things about this year’s McDonalds hockey card set is the number of goalies that are included.

No set of hockey cards would be complete without the best goalie in the world, Martin Brodeur.



Two of the possible successors to Brodeur, as the best goaltender in the NHL, Roberto Luongo and Montreal’s youngster Carey Price are featured.



Among the forwards and defensemen, superstars Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Lightning and Detroit Red Wing Nicklas Lidstrom, lead a cast great veterans and young guns. Lecavalier’s card (#43) has been the most difficult to find to fill my sets. But a close second in scarcity (at least for me) is card #11 which features Black Hawks superstar, and captain, Jonathan Toews.



This is a great set of hockey cards and everyone from serious collector to casual hockey card collector and hockey fan should try to make this set part of their hockey card collection.

Enjoy the set. It is well worth a few visits to your local McDonalds.

Next Post: 2008-2009 Mcdonalds insert cards.