With the 2025 NHL Draft orbiting near the theatrical release of DC Studios’ new universal beginnings under director and co-studio head James Gunn and his new “Superman” film in July, Upper Deck saw a chance to combine two of its biggest partners (the NHL and DC) into one of its popular and nostalgic trading card formats.

Starting today, alongside tonight’s NHL Draft, Upper Deck is releasing a new set of Fanimation cards, made famous in the early ‘90s with a basketball set that included Michael Jordan’s Agent 23. The new Fanimations feature five of this year’s top NHL prospects and are being released on the company’s e-Pack platform. Each prospect has been turned into a superhero inspired by some of DC’s classic characters, with illustrations by artist Carlo Barberi.

Matthew Schaefer (Superman), Michael Misa (Batman), James Hagens (The Flash), Porter Martone (Green Lantern), and Caleb Desnoyers (Nightwing) were all drawn wearing hockey uniforms influenced by some of DC’s heaviest hitters. Last week, Upper Deck announced an exclusive trading card and memorabilia deal with Schaefer, who is projected to be selected No. 1 overall by the New York Islanders. Upper Deck has similar deals in place with Misa and Hagens, as well as trading card exclusivity with Martone, Desnoyers, Roger McQueen, Kashawn Aitcheson, and Carter Bear.

A design team at Upper Deck assigned the superhero influences for each prospect without collaboration with the players so that the debut of the cards would be a surprise for each new Upper Deck signee as they enter the beginnings of their NHL careers.

“They’re not the (actual DC) characters, but we wanted to blend the world and present the prospects inspired by those characters, so the people who know those characters will really be able to see how their cards are inspired by those various (DC) characters,” said Upper Deck president Jason Masherah.

Upper Deck began a new partnership with DC earlier this year, as Marvel moved to Topps. Upper Deck’s first set under the new agreement was DC Annual, and it says there are more DC projects currently in development.

Masherah sees this new set as a chance for the company to go back to its comic book roots with the Fanimation brand, with a sense of irony attached. The original Fanimation cards were illustrated by one of the biggest artists in the history of the comic book industry, Jim Lee, who happens to now be the chief creative officer and publisher of DC.

One of the original Fanimation cards from 1992 Upper Deck Basketball. (Photo: eBay)

“We’ve been doing Fanimation as an easter egg in our Upper Deck hockey releases for the last few years. We kind of changed the art style year in and year out to kind of keep it fresh,” Masherah said. “This is really the first time we’ve taken it back to where its origin story comes from, which is the early ‘90s with some of the biggest comic book artists in the world when there was kind of this crossover of blending athletes and comic book characters.”

The new set of super hockey prospects being available through e-Pack is a part of Upper Deck’s effort to have a reach to its fandom regardless of where they are. Upper Deck’s e-Pack website allows fans to buy packs online, store their cards digitally and have purchases shipped as a physical card on demand.

“The reality is that not everybody lives near a card or comic book store and especially when you get outside of the country, there aren’t a lot of card stores around the world and there’s a lot of people who want to buy cards, especially cards that have what we call hobby content or the more rich product,” Masherah said. “So this is our way to essentially give anyone with an internet connection the ability to buy packs globally.”

Turning top hockey prospects into superheroes is just the beginning of Upper Deck’s plans for merging sports with DC in its products. In coordination with DC’s “Summer of Superman” — a multi-platform initiative including comics, trading cards and other products aligned with the release of the new “Superman” movie — Masherah says there will be four different crossover sets featuring Superman and the NHL, including the Fanimation release. Another will include Upper Deck’s two hockey spokesmen, Wayne Gretzky and Connor McDavid, in a set influenced by two of the first images of the “Superman” movie that were released by Gunn. That set will be released in July alongside the film.

Gunn’s first Superman image was one of the hero, played by actor David Corenswet, putting on his red boots while Metropolis is being attacked by an alien outside the view of the window. Another image Gunn released was of Superman on the moon looking at Earth with his super-dog, Krypto. A famous image of Gretzky putting on his skates and McDavid’s known love for his dog will be used as influence for those cards. Two other NHL/DC sets will be released in the fall to coincide with the “Superman” film’s streaming and home video release.

There will also be an Upper Deck/Superman collaboration with NASCAR, Tyler Reddick and Jordan’s 23XI racing team. A set of two cards related to that is available now on e-Pack with more available on June 28. Reddick’s No. 45 Toyota Camry XSE will feature Superman and Upper Deck logos when it races in the NASCAR Cup Series at Echo Park Speedway on June 28.

“We’ve had a relationship with Warner Bros. for several years,” Masherah said. “In a couple weeks we’ll have a product called Superman Brilliance coming out, which we’re very excited about. What we’ve seen in the trading card industry in general is prices have escalated dramatically and Superman Brilliance is built to be very accessible, especially around the movie coming out. … And we have our Metal Universe Batman that will come out towards the end of the summer/early fall, as well. We’ve got kind of a full slate. The timing couldn’t have been better … the ability to tie this to the NHL Draft. It’s in LA. It’s in Hollywood. It’s where DC is headquartered here. Everything kind of came together at one time.”

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(Top photo: Dennis Pajot/Getty Images; 2025 DC Fanimation Crossover card images: Upper Deck)