The NHLPA and card manufacturer Upper Deck held their annual Rookie Showcase event at Medstar Capitals Iceplexy. Tuesday, 29 of the league’s top rookies gathered for a series of photo and media opportunities, which helps Upper Deck with the creation of this season’s trading cards. They also acquired signatures for those card sets.

Players dressed in full team equipment cycled through different stations throughout the day, striking poses for Upper Deck photographers, doing social media interviews, signing hundreds of autographs, talking to media, and taking phone calls from the NHLPA.

.@Lapierreh29: A natural on the ice and on camera#ALLCAPS | @Enterprise pic.twitter.com/ySuAgymckv

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) September 8, 2022

When approached by reporters, Hendrix Lapierre chatted about gaining weight and muscle over the offseason and how sharing the ice with Alex Ovechkin was “a dream come true literally” last season.

The young stars signed sheets of stickers for Upper Deck to use on future card releases and some carryover rookies from last season including Lapierre, signed boxes of cards.

Other merchandise is used for giveaways and marketing for UD. The jerseys from the event will be cut up and used in event-worn memorabilia cards during this year’s line of card products.

Most notably, two first-overall picks were in attendance at the event. This year’s top selection, Juraj Slafkovsky, represented Montreal and spoke about who he models his game after.

When asked about watching and potentially learning from Ovechkin as a player, Slafkovsky said “I’ve watched his highlights but I don’t think I’m the type of player he is. Of course, he can shoot the puck really really good. I just try to take some things from his shooting, but I used to watch a different type of player.”

While Slafkovsky stands tall at six-foot-four, an inch taller than Ovechkin, he is more of a close-range scorer and excellent forechecker as opposed to a long-range shot. Fellow countrymate Marian Hossa was the first name he shared when asked about his favorite players and who he watched the most growing up.

Last year’s first overall pick, Sabres’ defenseman Owen Power, joined fellow teammate Jack Quinn to represent the Sabres and their bright future.

Power played last year the University Of Michigan and managed to play in eight games for Buffalo before the end of the season. Staying the year at Michigan, “really helped me a lot,” Power said. “Not only as a player but as a person. I think it was the right decision.”

Power led, arguably, the best team in college hockey last year to the NCAA semifinals. The Michigan roster sported Matty Beniers, Brendan Brisson, and Thomas Bordeleau, who were all also in attendance Tuesday. Power, who will spend the full season in Buffalo, leads a tremendous influx of young talent onto the Sabres including 2020 eighth overall pick Jack Quinn; German forward and World Junior Championship standout JJ Peterka; and goaltender Devon Levi who represented Canada at the WJC and the Olympics at age 20.

Shane Wright who was projected to be drafted first overall this year by many, will look to debut this year for the Seattle Kraken. He had a camera film crew following him throughout the day capturing every step of the showcases process.

Wright shared his excitement for getting his own trading cards.

“When I was a kid I used to collect a whole lot of cards,” Wright said. “I was really into that stuff. Kinda like playing against your idols, seeing yourself on a hockey card after you collect them your whole life is pretty cool. It’s almost like bringing out the kid in me again.”

He also revealed to Upper Deck that the player he wanted to collect most was Sidney Crosby. In the video, Lapierre selected Pavel Datsyuk.

Upper Deck’s staff was hard at work taking photos at five different spots throughout the Capitals practice facility, using both rinks, one almost pitch black for a perfectly dark background.

Upper Deck posted samples of the photos on their Instagram page.

Players also choreographed many specific poses needed for certain cards, like Upper Deck’s First Overall Draft Pick redemption card in their MVP product, which releases this week.

At 3 pm, the players took the ice for a four-on-four scrimmage to end the day. It was an informal, shinny-style game with Lukas Dostal and Yaroslav Askarov between the pipes. Hendrix Lapierre netted a goal against Askarov and assisted on an improbable 4-on-0 breakaway for his squad.

The scrimmage was a fun way to end the day for the players and was mostly relaxed while Minnesota Wild top prospect Matt Boldy did throw a light shoulder-check at Seattle’s Shane Wright at center to an audible reaction from the benches before an eventual wrap-up of the day.

This event was also the first time we’ve seen ads on NHL jerseys, as Lapierre debuted the Ceasars Sportsbook ad on the Capitals jersey and other players like Vegas’ Brendan Brisson debuted an ad for Circa Sports, another sports betting provider.

Photos