The tournament was canceled, but there will be trading cards for the World Junior Hockey Championships. A couple of months after their annual NHL card set was released, Tim Hortons and Upper Deck are teaming up once again at Canadian Tim Hortons quick service restaurants for another hockey card release.
The Tim Hortons Upper Deck Team Canada hockey card promotion begins January 5. TV commercials began running nationally in Canada to promote the cards in conjunction with the beginning of the 2022 IHHF World Junior Championship tournament, which was postponed four days into action due to COVID-19 outbreaks.
A pack of three cards is available for $1 with the purchase of a qualifying beverage, or for $1.99 without a qualifying beverage. Participating restaurants will also have a Tim Hortons Team Canada Trading Cards collection binder available for $16.99.
The Upper Deck Tim Hortons Team Canada set features 100 cards. The first 70 cards are of current NHL stars who have worn the Canada uniform before. Stars like Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Claude Giroux, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and more.
The next 15 cards features top stars of the Team Canada women’s program. Marie-Philip Poulin, Sarah Nurse, Rebecca Johnston and Natalie Spooner are among the women’s stars in the set. It’s the first time women have been featured on Tim Hortons cards.
The last 15 cards in the set feature retired NHL and Team Canada superstars. The 15 superstars include Steve Yzerman, Mark Messier, Martin Brodeur, Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, Joe Sakic, Eric Lindros, Shayne Corson, Marcel Dionne, Jarome Iginla, Grant Fuhr, Paul Coffey, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky.
Inserts
In addition to the base cards in 2021-22 Team Canada Juniors, collectors will find cards from six different insert sets including:
A five-card Timbits to Team Canada set, featuring five NHL and Team Canada players who began their hockey careers in the national Timbit Youth Hockey Initiation Program for players under seven years of age (1 in every 100 packs).
Team Canada Trios is a 15-card insert set with three players on each card. The cards include trios of current stars, women’s players and retired NHL stars (1 in every 24 packs).
Program of Excellence is a set of 15 current and former NHL players who are graduates of Canada’s Program of Excellence junior development program (1 in every 8 packs).
UD Canvas TC Moments is a 15-card set that has 15 former and current NHL players (1 in every 6 packs).
Canada’s Captains includes 15 NHL players, retired stars and women who have worn the captain’s C on their Team Canada jerseys (1 in every 4 packs).
Championship Medals is a 15-card set of current and former NHLers and Team Canada women who have won international medals wearing the Team Canada jersey (1 in every 2-3 packs).
In-Pack Prizes
There are prizes in the Team Canada program, that includes 24 Signed and Framed Team Canada Jersey and $50 Tim cards. Collect to Win has been fully transitioned to in-pack prizing only. Same number of prizes, but there are no longer digital cards, ballots or random draws. You will instantly know if you have won a prize by unwrapping your physical hockey card pack and finding a golden Collect to Win prize card.
There are also no instant win food prize coupons randomly inserted into packs.
There are also prize cards for autographed cards, Team Canada jersey relic cards, and autographed Team Canada relic cards.
Among the autographed cards randomly inserted in packs are Sidney Crosby, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Grant Fuhr, Wayne Gretzky, Jarome Iginla, Alexis Lafrenière, Mario Lemieux, Nathan MacKinnon, Mitch Marner, McDavid, Mark Messier, Carey Price and Jonathan Toews.
Cards that are autographed and feature pieces of authentic jerseys worn in games include those featuring Quinton Byfield, Jarome Iginla, Alexis Lafrenière, Connor McDavid, Nick Suzuki and Jonathan Toews.
While many Tim Hortons restaurants have hosted trade nights in the past, there will be no trading card nights for this program due to COVID-19. Tim Hortons announced that they are hoping for the return of trade nights when the annual NHL hockey card program returns in the fall.
Packs, boxes and sets are beginning to show up on eBay (see here).
About Jeff Morris
Jeff Morris is a hobby veteran who has been a collector for more than 50 years. Originally a hobby journalist, he became brand manager at Pinnacle, and then was an executive for Collector’s Edge and Shop at Home before joining Pacific Trading Cards as VP of Marketing. He is the former editor and publisher of Canadian Sports Collector magazine, and he was also a columnist for ESPN.com.