{"id":822946,"date":"2025-01-30T07:11:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T13:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/30\/upper-deck-signs-pwhl-forward-taylor-heise-amid-womens-sports-push\/"},"modified":"2025-01-30T07:11:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T13:11:59","slug":"upper-deck-signs-pwhl-forward-taylor-heise-amid-womens-sports-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/30\/upper-deck-signs-pwhl-forward-taylor-heise-amid-womens-sports-push\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper Deck Signs PWHL Forward Taylor Heise Amid Women’s Sports Push"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>\n

Upper Deck has signed Taylor Heise of the Minnesota Frost to an exclusive collectives deal, … [+]<\/span> coinciding with the release of the inaugural PWHL: First Edition trading card set (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/fbs-accordion>Getty Images<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rookies are big business in the trading card business. So while the number of players featured in the new PWHL: First Edition<\/em> set that was released last week by Upper Deck was limited by the relatively small size of the six-team league, the good news was that every player could be considered a rookie of sorts in the brand new circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 70 unique players featured in the base set,\u201d said Paul Zickler, Upper Deck\u2019s director of sports brands. \u201cI think the first 50 is the base set, and then 20 Young Guns.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Taylor Heise Upper Deck Young Guns<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-accordion>Courtesy: Upper Deck<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So yes, collectors will be able to find Young Guns cards in these packs for longtime stars of the sport like Montreal Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin or Season 1 MVP Natalie Spooner of the Toronto Sceptres.<\/p>\n

The list of true rookie Young Guns in the set is headlined by the PWHL\u2019s first-ever first-overall draft pick and 2024 playoff MVP Taylor Heise<\/a> of the Minnesota Frost.<\/p>\n

When releasing the set, Upper Deck also announced that it has signed Heise to an exclusive collectibles deal, now holding the exclusive right to produce her cards and memorabilia. She\u2019s Upper Deck\u2019s second exclusive PWHL athlete, after 2024 first-overall pick Sarah Fillier<\/a> was signed in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, I never would have thought there would be an opportunity for women playing professional sports to have the spotlight. The fact that this is now a reality and I\u2019m one of these players featured on trading cards is unbelievable,\u201d said Heise in a news release. \u201cWe\u2019re not only making history, but we\u2019re creating a stronger community of fans and collectors who can connect and celebrate with us through our stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they rose to the top of their sport during their college years, Heise and Fillier were ideal choices to join the Upper Deck stable.<\/p>\n

They each represent a side of the storied women\u2019s hockey rivalry between Canada and the United States. Fillier hails from Georgetown, Ont. while Heise was raised in Lake City, Minn. And while NHL rookies usually need several years to reach their full potential on the men\u2019s side of the game, these two have both made instant impacts.<\/p>\n

After leading the PWHL\u2019s first playoffs with five goals in 10 games, Heise\u2019s 14 points through Jan. 28 have her tied with teammates Kendall Coyne Schofield and Claire Thompson at the top of the league\u2019s 2024-25 scoring race. Fillier is right behind, with 13 points in her first 12 PWHL games.<\/p>\n

Stats aren\u2019t everything when choosing athletes to represent a brand, but numbers like those are a welcome bonus.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Upper Deck director of sports brands Paul Zickler<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-accordion>Courtesy: Upper Deck<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both really good people so we\u2019re excited on that level, as well as their performance on the ice,\u201d Zickler said. \u201cWe kind of fluked out, honestly, to see how well they\u2019re performing this early in their careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since everything about the launch of the PWHL has happened at breakneck pace, the PWHL: First Edition <\/em>set features rosters and images from the league\u2019s first year<\/a> in 2024. The cards will forever be distinctive because they feature the original jerseys with just the team cities, before the nicknames and logos were finalized. And since Fillier is leading the rookie class of Season 2, she is not included in the set.<\/p>\n

In the past, female hockey players have been featured on cards as representatives of their national teams. Upper Deck also inked a multi-year licensing agreement with the PHF<\/a> in 2021, but the first year of that deal in 2022-23 was also the league\u2019s last, before it was purchased and folded by the PWHL\u2019s current ownership group.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the our contacts from the PHF did move over to PWHL,\u201d Zickler said. \u201cBut it was never to the scale of the inaugural PWHL set that we launched last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hockey has been an integral part of the Upper Deck brand for more than 30 years. The company has maintained the NHL and NHLPA\u2019s trading card licenses since 1990 and is currently the title partner for the NHL Draft.<\/p>\n

Adding the PWHL to the brand portfolio made good sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a personal mandate of mine, and I think of our leadership team, elevating women\u2019s sports,\u201d Zickler said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just our hockey business where we\u2019re focusing on women\u2019s athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other women in the Upper Deck family include current LPGA golfers Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson as well as legend Annika Sorenstam, and U.S. beach volleyball stars Kerri Walsh Jenning and Misty May-Treanor. An NIL product<\/a> is also in the works, and will feature a large number of female athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to focus on sports that don\u2019t get the same exposure as the core sports,\u201d Zickler said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to see gymnastics, you\u2019re going to see field hockey, you\u2019re going to see volleyball. We really want to elevate women\u2019s sports. We think there\u2019s a huge, huge growth in this market.\u201d<\/p>\n

That being said, hockey remains a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sport of hockey is in a very good place, both on the men\u2019s side and on the women\u2019s side,\u201d Zickler said. \u201cThe game\u2019s never been faster, never been more popular, never been younger. The skill on the ice has never been better. It\u2019s been building for a while, so we\u2019re just excited that the PWHL is able to elevate it even further. I\u2019m excited to build more hockey card collectors, more women fan collectors, and elevate the league.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Carol Schram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upper Deck has signed Taylor Heise of the Minnesota Frost to an exclusive collectives deal, … [+] coinciding with the release of the inaugural PWHL: First Edition trading card set (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis\/Getty Images) Getty Images Rookies are big business in the trading card business. So while the number of players featured in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":822947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[516,32154],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-822946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-signs","8":"category-upper"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}