Sports Card Winners and Losers from the 2022-23 NHL Season
The Knights gave Las Vegas the city’s first ever professional sports championship season, and became the fastest team in the modern expansion era to win a Stanley Cup — winning in just their sixth season, breaking the previous mark set by the Philadelphia Flyers who won the Cup in their seventh season.
But as Vegas celebrated, teams like Edmonton, Toronto and the New York Rangers found themselves falling short of expectations, and Anaheim and Chicago are now in full rebuild mode.
Here’s a look at five winners and five losers from this past 2022-2023 NHL season, based on data from Market Movers over the last 180 days.
Winners:
Bennett’s 2015 Upper Deck #231 Young Guns PSA 10 jumping from $13 to $32 doesn’t seem like the most Earth-shattering number, but it proves that winning matters, as Bennett led Florida to an Eastern Conference Championship and its second Stanley Cup appearance in franchise history.
- Roope Hintz, Dallas Stars C
The “Ace of Spades” is a 26-year-old playmaker for Dallas who can also score at an elite level. His 2018 Upper Deck #202 Young Guns – UD Exclusives /100 jumped from $215 in February to $500 (an increase of 133% at the beginning of April). He then went on to lead the Stars to the Western Conference Finals.
Now known for playing through a broken sternum injury in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Tkachuk was the sixth overall pick in 2016, and his grit and tenacity could be recognized in the hobby for years to come. Certainly he’s a winner this season after his 2016 Upper Deck #C218 Young Guns Canvas spiked up to $194 in late May after going for as low as $61 in February.
His 2020 Upper Deck Young Guns jumped 68% based on solid postseason performances. To go from being undrafted to leading the Stars to a Western Conference Finals appearance makes Marchment a solid winner in 2022-23.
Staal’s 2003 Upper Deck Young Guns #206 PSA 10 saw a 59% bump during the Panthers playoff run, making his card holders a solid $100 profit from earlier in the year. At the age of 38, he doesn’t exactly hold much upside, making now a solid time to unload his cards.
Losers:
The second overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft is a 6-foot-5 LW and plays in LA, a nice formula to be a card darling one day. As such, his 2021 Upper Deck #488 Young Guns PSA 10 was going for almost $200 heading into this past season. Now, they go for around $56. His overall market is down 26% in the last 180 days across 10 cards with 181 total sales.
Bearing an uncanny resemblance to actor Kit Harrington (better known in pop culture circles as Jon Snow), McTavish was the third overall pick in 2021 and is the future of the franchise. But the present isn’t that pretty, as the Ducks finished with the fewest points in the NHL in 2022-23. McTavish’s cards took a hit as well, as the value of his 2021 Upper Deck #451 Young Guns – French PSA 10 absolutely tanked in the last 180 days — selling for $450 in March and then for $133 in June. His overall market is down 41% among 209 sales across seven cards over the last 180 days.
The fourth overall pick in 2020 hasn’t quite lived up to his potential in Detroit just yet. With the Wings near the bottom of the Atlantic Division, Raymond’s market is down 43% over the last 180 days across 249 sales spanning five cards. Case in point, his 2021 Upper Deck #C226 Canvas PSA 10 dropped 67% in the last 180 days.
One of the darlings of the 2022 NHL Finals, the fourth overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft and the only defenseman on the list saw his prices drop in 2022-23. His 2019 Upper Deck #C94 Young Guns Canvas PSA 10 plummeted 58% in the last 180 days and his overall market across six cards is down 42%.
The undersized left wing was considered a solid prospect a year ago, but the Canadiens struggled this year and Caufield’s overall market dipped 30% over the last 180 days across 11 cards that generated 267 sales. His 2021 Upper Deck #201 Young Guns PSA 10 is down 44% from a year ago.
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Paul Hickey is a regular contributor to Sports Card Investor, the creator of the Sports Card Investment Report at NoOffseason.com, and the host of the Sports Card Strategy Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. He can be found on Instagram at @sportscardstrategy and on Twitter @nooffseasoncard.
